On Tuesday, March 18, at 4:00pm, the San José City Council will consider Mayor Mahan’s March Budget Message. This is the first step in the budget process, when the Mayor provides direction to the City Manager for how to structure the City’s budget for the coming fiscal year. You can read the full message here....

A Special Election has been called to fill a vacancy on the San José City Council for District 3, which includes Downtown, Japantown, SoFA, and other neighborhoods that play critical roles in our creative community. This is an opportunity for advocates to have an impact on who makes the decisions on arts and culture policy...

ICYMI: We’re hosting a District 3 Candidate Forum for the creative community at 7pm on March 3, and you’re invited! You can learn more and register to receive a Zoom link here. Want to do a deeper dive on the folks vying for this important seat on the City Council? A number of community organizations...

Earlier this month, due to circumstances beyond our control and the compacted campaign calendar, SJAA was forced to postpone and then cancel our planned Virtual Candidate Forum for San José City Council District 6. In lieu of a live forum, we presented our prepared questions to the candidates and asked that they submit written responses...

On Thursday, October 10th, SJAA hosted a virtual forum with candidates for San José City Council District 10 in the November 5th runoff election.

In 2024, San José’s Mayor and five City Council seats (in even-numbered districts) are up for election, and there are competitive races for two Santa Clara County supervisor seats. This is our chance to have an impact on who makes the decisions on arts and culture policy at the city and county level. With that...

Today, the San José City Council will be considering Mayor Mahan's March Budget Message, which includes directions to the City Manager for how to structure the City's budget for the coming fiscal year beginning in July. We just sent a letter to the City Council letting them know where we stand!

As avid readers of our newsletter know, the San José City Council is holding a study session on Arts, Destination Marketing, and Destination Events tomorrow, February 16, beginning at 9:00am. In advance of this special meeting more than a year in the making, SJAA’s Core Team has been educating the Mayor, Councilmembers, and their staffs about...

The City budget process for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 more or less wrapped up on June 13, when the Council approved the Mayor’s June Budget Message — with a few modifications. While the debate mostly centered around housing issues, there were some big wins for the creative community, as well as a few disappointments. Here’s a quick breakdown for arts advocates.

The Mayor has released his June Budget Message, and the time has come for final City Council deliberations on how the City will spend its money in the year ahead. But first, they want to hear from you. So we're asking you to READ UP, SPEAK UP, and SHOW UP for the creative industry.