In response to the July 15 letter by Darlene Brennan stating that I cheerfully gutted the San Jose Police Department (“Oliverio reaped what he sowed in election”), I offer the following information.

During my 10 years on the San Jose City Council, I served during both the Great Recession, and at a time when annual pension payments substantially surpassed all property tax revenue remittances. The City requires a balanced budget, and tough decisions must be made by the 11-member City Council. No elected official finds joy in being faced with massive budget shortfalls, year after year, and being unable to satisfy both unions and taxpayers.

I am accustomed to being blamed for housing woes, traffic gridlock, homelessness, immigration, barking dogs, income inequality, etc. — it just comes with the territory.

However, in the interest of transparency, ideally the letter writer should have disclosed that she is a longstanding member of a county public employee union that opposed my candidacy.

Pierluigi Oliverio
Former San Jose City Councilmember

(published in the Mercury News August 1, 2018