Rachel Davis, Chief Communications Officer, Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo, rachel.davis@sanjoseca.gov

SAN JOSÉ, CA - Today, San José Mayor Sam Liccardo will convene community members for his final State of the City address. Mayor Liccardo report on the progress of key initiatives over past 8 years, but with a focus on how we’re preparing San Jose for success in the future.

In the speech, Mayor Liccardo will focus on six key dimensions of the future of San Jose, and how specific initiatives are preparing San Jose to become “America’s Next Great City,” in his words.   Those six areas of “future focus” include: homelessness and affordable housing, water supply, the budget and our basic services, public safety, and environmental sustainability, and as he puts it, “most importantly, our children.”

Several new developments and initiatives will be highlighted in the speech, with a focus on the work ahead of the Mayor and Council in his remaining four months in office.  They include:

A strategy to future-proof San Jose’s water supply through investments in conservation, such as through “smart meters,” and in expanding recycling, particularly with advanced water purification, to increase the daily supply of drinking water by tens of millions of gallons.

This December, the Council will decide whether to launch San José’s own public utility, which will enable the development of “microgrids” that provide more reliable and resilient electricity supply through local energy generation and storage. 

For the first time in two decades, the City’s budget office projects modest surpluses for the next half-decade thanks to the success in reducing retirement costs, the result of the pension reform settlement approved by voters in 2016 Measure B.

The success of San José Clean Energy, which now provides 95% GhG-free electricity to San Jose residents and business, setting San Jose the path decarbonising the grid 20 years ahead of Governor Newsom’s recently-announced goal of 2045 for the State of California.

In a few weeks, Council will have the opportunity to move investigations of police misconduct out of the Police Department and into the Independent Police Auditor’s office, as first proposed by the Mayor in 2020, making San Jose among the very first U.S. cities to do so.

This year and last, the City is investing more in expanding educational and career opportunities for children and young adults from low-income neighborhoods than at any time in San José’s history.  One program, San José Aspires has now raised $10 million in private contributions to help 1,700 first-generation students in East San Jose pave a path to college and postsecondary success. 

In the weeks ahead, the City will announce an innovative partnership with a local lender to help modest-income homeowners finance backyard homes, with rentrestrictions to ensure affordability for new tenants.

During today’s program, Mayor Liccardo will also celebrate the hard work of our dedicated City employees and local heroes who have showcased exemplary service in their District during the Community Honoree and Mayor’s Community Champion program.   For the Community Champion award, the Mayor will honor Gardner Healthcare CEO Reymundo Espinoza for his commitment and service to thousands of low-income and unhoused residents in San Jose.  Mr. Espinoza recently announced his retirement after several decades of leading that non-profit. 

The event will also be livestreamed on the Mayor’s Facebook page.

Read the Mayor’s full speech here. 

About the City of San José

With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.

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