By Khalida Sarwari
House burglaries, water conservation and speeding drivers were among the topics du jour at the Saratoga City Council’s annual joint meeting with the city’s homeowner and neighborhood associations on June 3.
The meeting at the Saratoga Senior Center drew a few dozen residents who shared concerns about various happenings in their neighborhoods and received the latest information about capital improvement projects and crime trends.
Mayor Howard Miller presented updates on current city projects, including those involving road maintenance, Quarry Park, the Quito Road bridges, the Prospect Road median and the Village.
He touched on the lawsuit that the city filed May 6 against Caltrans for failing to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act and ignoring concerns residents have raised about the project.
He also addressed the city’s unfunded pension liability, saying that Saratoga recently appropriated funding for a $3.3 million payment toward the city’s liability for all employees hired before 2013.
Some residents asked what they should do when they encounter homeless people, while others raised concerns about speeders in their neighborhood. A couple of residents raised questions about the drought and inquired about graywater systems.
Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy Chad Garton told residents how the Neighborhood Watch program started in Saratoga and what they could do to start their own watch group. Neighborhood Watch benefits both the community and law enforcement, he said, because it encourages residents to work together to decrease crime–particularly property crimes and identity theft–and also supplements the work that police do.
Deputy Thomas Bond shared his thoughts about why residential burglaries continue to be a persistent problem in Saratoga and the importance of the Neighborhood Watch program in stopping them.
“You guys live in a very safe city; you also live in a very high income city,” Bond said. “People are coming from out of the area to do this. The eyes and ears that you provide law enforcement goes a very long way to reduce those numbers.”
Garton advised residents to be aware of and report suspicious vehicles and people, door-to-door solicitors without permits, and unknown people entering back yards or side gates. He also encouraged residents to keep an eye out for any front doors, side gates, garage doors, car doors or opened trunks and to get to know their children’s friends, even going as far as to keep names, addresses and phone numbers in their records.
“We are putting a lot of resources right now into residential burglaries,” he said. “It’s one of our top priorities.”
One resident asked if there is a correlation between residential burglaries and Proposition 47, an initiative that reduces the classification of most non-serious and nonviolent property and drug crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. The initiative was approved by voters in November.
Garton answered that any correlation hasn’t yet been analyzed. “I have not seen a great rise in the burglaries to the extent that we can say absolutely Prop. 47 did this,” he said.
Aside from joining or starting a Neighborhood Watch program, Councilman Rishi Kumar encouraged residents to consider taking part in a SafeSaratoga citizens online forum atfacebook.com/groups/safesaratoga, where they can discuss safety-related issues with residents.
Link: Saratoga residents sound off about burglaries, speeders, drought
