Featured Article: 2/1/2008 Councilman Pete Constant by: Officer Juan Reyes, The Vanguard VANGUARD: My interviewee for today is City of San José Councilman Pete Constant, and as the Vanguard editor I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for inviting me into your home. With all of your kids playing around in here, my gosh, it's like Romper Room. Why don't you tell us about where you were born and raised? CONSTANT: First I want to say thank you for this opportunity to be in the Vanguard. I look forward every month to reading that cover story, and I'm honored that you thought I was worth putting in the paper, so that was very flattering. I was born in Dearborn, Michigan and raised in a small town outside Dearborn called Westland. My mom and dad had four kids, and when I was about 13 years old, my dad took a job transfer to come out to California, and that's how I got out here. It was good timing for me. I was about to be a freshman in high school, and we moved here the day before my freshman year started, so I was lucky to start in school with a bunch of other kids who didn't know anybody, and was able to assimilate in and meet others and make friends real quickly. That was just a mile or so away from here on Strawberry Park Drive right off of Saratoga Avenue. I went to Blackford High School. VANGUARD: Tell us a little about your family. How many children do you have? CONSTANT: My wife's name is Julie, and we've been married 13 years. We have five children. VANGUARD: And they all came after you retired? CONSTANT: Yeah, it's amazing. You know, we have the retirement board hearings on Thursdays and I remember on a Thursday morning I was granted my retirement from the department, and the next morning I found out my wife was pregnant with twins. It was quite a shock. I had my paycheck size shrink 50% and my family size go up 100%. It was quite an interesting 24-hour period in my life. So, we have twin daughters who are six and a half years old, and then 21 months later we had a second set of twins-a little boy and a little girl-and they are now five years old, and then another daughter 20 months ago. So, five children-four girls and one boy-from beginning to end, five years and one month apart. VANGUARD: So that's what everyone has to look forward to in retiring early. CONSTANT: Yes, be careful. You'll find that you have extra time on your hands and you never know what might happen. VANGUARD: (laughing) Oh my goodness, okay. So, four girls and one boy. Little Pete-sorry-he is in trouble. CONSTANT: Well, you would think. His sisters actually treat him like a god. He is definitely the favorite child of the bunch. They all take good care of their brother. VANGUARD: Well, I'll tell you what. He looks just like you- CONSTANT: Poor guy. Well, I guess it's better than the alternative of having the girls look like me. VANGUARD: (laughing) Absolutely. I was going to say, they look like mom, so that's a major plus. Great group of kids here, and it's nice to see them all over the place. So, you retired in what year? CONSTANT: August of 2000. VANGUARD: So, let's talk about your law enforcement career. You've done all your time with SJPD? CONSTANT: Yes. VANGUARD: Okay, and you had no other prior lateral department experience, reserves or anything like that? CONSTANT: I started with San José as a reserve. I was a reserve for three years and a day-on April 2, 1986 I became a reserve, and on April 3, 1989 I became a regular officer. VANGUARD: You retired in 2000, and that was an early retirement. What was that due to? CONSTANT: I had a pretty serious back injury. I had to have lower spinal reconstruction surgery. VANGUARD: And what was that due to? CONSTANT: I was working in street crimes and we were doing a buy bust in the Guadalupe Creek up in the Julian Court area, and I was the outer perimeter guy. I was riding a mountain bike, just hanging out there to make sure the bad guy didn't get away. In this particular case he got out of the inner perimeter. I caught him at the top of the creek embankment; we got into a little tussle while I was trying to take him into custody and what I didn't realize is while we were fighting, I kind of worked my way right to the edge of the creek embankment. As I turned and tried to take him down to the ground, I slipped off the embankment. He and I went down about 12-15 feet down the embankment. Unfortunately, I went first, and he got a nice cushioned landing on me. We tumbled a few times and I ended up blowing out my knee, my lower spine-I damaged three discs-hurt my neck, partially dislocated my shoulder and detached close to 40% of the retina in my right eye. VANGUARD: After that incident, obviously you were off for quite some time. What was the process like back then, getting yourself taken care of? CONSTANT: It was interesting to say the least. It was a frustrating period in my life. I can tell you that I was very disappointed in the way that I was treated as an officer who got hurt in the line of duty. I was out for 20 months; I had seven operations. As you know, the 48-50 time only gives you a year's worth of time off; I was able to extend that a little bit because I'd had a prior knee surgery, so they treated my knee under an old injury and treated my back, but I still ran out of 48-50 time. I had to burn all my comp time, all my vacation time, all my sick time; had to go in lost time. There's nothing like getting hurt on the job and trying your best to get better, but having to go to the City and write a check every two weeks to keep your benefits going. On top of that, I received a letter stating that I was going to be terminated for running my balances to zero after I was denied retirement. It was very frustrating. I didn't feel the process was very open or very fair. I don't think that they did a lot to help me get better or help me get through the system at all. VANGUARD: It appears that things may have gotten a little bit better. I myself, being an exempt officer, have had the same type of issues that you've been through, although not as severe as you. My process has been pretty streamlined-it seems to go along pretty easy-but if you talk to other officers, it's like pulling teeth. There's no consistency. CONSTANT: You're right. A lot of it, quite frankly, depends on if there's a supervisor or two who is pulling for you. I'll tell you that in my particular case, had it not been for a couple of supervisors that intervened, I don't know if I would have gotten to where I was. It's people like Jack Farmer who took the time to check on me and advocate for me. It was just very difficult working the process and there is no consistency. What works for Officer A doesn't apply when it comes to Officer B. You call and nobody seems to have an answer; one person tells you this, and the next person tells you that. I just remember when I was trying to get back to work and trying to integrate back in, I had been allowed to go back to work six hours a day, 4-5 days a week depending on how I was doing. I was in Vice when I went out, and when I came back, even though I was the admin officer in Vice, they don't let you go back to your old job, even if it's a modified able-type job. Instead they sent me over to Robbery across the hall, and Robbery had nothing for me to do because they already had two Article 39 bodies there that were doing all the work. I remember being given a desk in a corner, facing the glass wall that separates Robbery and D.C.'s office. There was no computer, no telephone, nothing on the desk. I was told to go sit there, and somebody would give me an assignment. For weeks I sat there with nothing to do when there were stacks of work on the desk across the hall in Vice admin that I could have been doing. It was frustrating, and it didn't make any sense to me. VANGUARD: Like we said, you know, there are people that get things done. My Workman's Comp person has been awesome with me, but it's like anything else-people that have things take forever for knee injuries, shoulder injuries or being hurt in the line of duty-sometimes you have to wait weeks just to have permission to go have your shoulder checked, and it's fractured or dislocated or whatever, but you have to wait for Workman's Comp to kick in. We're at the mercy of W.C., and there are a lot of officers that are waiting to get permission to be worked on, you know. CONSTANT: I'll tell you, that's something that I'm critically aware of, and the whole Fair Isaac process-the utilization review process-can be very frustrating. I've been very outspoken about it on the council, in open meetings. I just think it's terrible that we try and save $1,000 on an MRI and in the meantime someone's off work with pay, with $2,000 - $3,000 worth of time to save $1,000. It doesn't make sense, and what I've said repeatedly in open Council sessions is, just because the law says we can do this doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. I think that there has to be a better way for us to get through the process, and there is always going to be the 1% or 2% of people that try to game the system, and get through something where they're not really hurt or they're milking something for all it's worth, but you can't put everyone through as if they're doing that. I think it's something that I'm committed to working on. In fact, I've asked the City auditors to do an audit of our risk management processes to see if our utilization review processes actually cost us more than it saves us. We haven't looked at that yet as a City, and that's something that we really need to look at. What good is it for us to save $1 here only to spend $3 over there, and it doesn't even take into account how much work it is for the employee. If you put off your treatment for 2-3 weeks, it's likely to take you five times longer to recover from it…that is, if you can fully recover from it. So, it's an area that I feel like I have enough experience on the other side of the issue to hopefully bring some change to the process. I can tell you I'm committed to doing that. VANGUARD: As an Article 39 or an exempt employee amongst the others, I think that is a breath of fresh air. There are guys that I've spoken to recently that are still waiting for an approval to go get an x-ray to get things healed so they can get back to work. Unfortunately, they're being told that it's going to be three weeks to a month for reviews, processing the paperwork, etc. So now either they can't work or they're out burning time or they're answering phones, still with an injury, waiting for permission to go get treated. They can decide to go on their own to get things checked, but still…it's a process that's been going on for a long time, and with you seeing that as an issue and being on the city council, hopefully we'll get some change. CONSTANT: I think one of the issues is the people who make the rules and set up the processes haven't been through it themselves, and I'll tell you, having been in closed session-even though I can't discuss what happens there-I can tell you that we've had conversations where I've had to stop and say, "Wait a minute, do you realize what that means? Let me tell you from an employee's point-of-view how this would have affected me during my injury if the things that you're talking about were in effect." And I would lay it out, and see the recognition in my colleagues' faces, not realizing that they hadn't considered the issue from that viewpoint. I think that's an invaluable asset that I'm bringing-that perspective to the City Council. Hopefully things will get better. VANGUARD: With you being there I'm sure it will. Were there any other units you worked while with the PD? CONSTANT: In addition to patrol I worked traffic investigations, Street Crimes, Vice, I did TDY stints in system development and the photo lab; I was also an RTO for a period, and during that time when they had the satellite FTO's, I was one of those as well. VANGUARD: Out of all those assignments, which did you enjoy working in the most? CONSTANT: It was all fun, and I'll tell you, of all the things I've done in my life, this is the most fun job I've ever had. I think that I had some incredible times in street crimes, working with the group of people I worked with there, and doing the fun things like riding the mountain bikes and doing all the things that Street Crimes does. I really started to have fun in vice, but then I wasn't there very long, so I didn't get to experience all of it. I say that Street Crimes and the transition to Vice was the most fun part of my career. VANGUARD: Whom did you enjoy working for? Who stands out the most? CONSTANT: As a supervisor, the best one was Mike Schembri. I think it was for a lot of reasons. He was an incredible officer when he was an officer. The man is super intelligent, bright, and can solve any crime anywhere in any department, any time. There was also a very human side to him. He was my supervisor when I was going through some medical issues with a member of my family, and he was a very compassionate and caring sergeant who went the extra mile to make sure everything was right for his officers. VANGUARD: Mike is really well known and is, I think, one of the best investigators San José ever had, and he's now with the county-at the D.A. That's a great plus for that office, and Mike is an awesome individual. Let's talk a little bit about what you did prior to the City Council. I do recall you having a photo business, and I also remember getting a magazine from you called The Silicon Valley Magazine. It was a beautiful magazine-I couldn't believe the graphics in it. That was incredible work back then, Pete. So, what brought you from being retired into owning a photo business, then landing into a magazine? CONSTANT: Originally, I was into photography before I became a cop. It was what I started doing. I got my first photo job in high school, and I've been doing photography off and on from 1979 through today. When I retired, there was no way I could afford to live on 50% income, and I had hoped that I would be able to get back into my photography business, and do what I had done pretty well and very profitably before. The problem was my back just couldn't stand up to the demands of running a photo business, lugging the equipment, etc. I ended up paying so many people to do the things I couldn't do that there was no way to make it profitable. I ended up getting into magazine photography, and I worked for San José Magazine for a number of years and did a lot of their covers and features and really found that that was a great little niche. I enjoyed the magazine life. It was pretty exciting; I was hired by someone to help them design and conceptualize the magazine from cover to cover. At the time, they were going to call it Santa Clara Valley Life Magazine, and one of the first things I did was convince them that it needed to have a better name, and Silicon Valley Magazine was the direction they should be going. I ended up just loving what I was doing-the publisher part was really challenging and rewarding, so I ended up buying the company from the person that was starting it so I could take it to the vision I had for it. Starting a magazine is very expensive-you need multi-millions of dollars to get started-so I had a partner, and we decided that we were going to fund a trial pilot set of three issues to go out and shop on the market. We had three issues come out every other month for a period of six months, and it was called Silicon Valley Magazine. In addition to having a lot of feature-rich content, it was designed from the ground up to be graphically stunning. The first two issues won several awards nationally; in fact, in the Maggie Awards, which is the magazine industry's version of the Oscars, we placed in the top five in five different categories. It was quite an achievement to be sitting alongside magazines like Sunset and Muscle and Fitness and those types of magazines that are nationally known, and here was this little start-up trial that we did, and we placed very well. The hard part, though, was taking that out and shopping for investments. In 2004, the economy wasn't doing well, discretionary spending was down, traditional print media was going down, Internet advertising was going up, and the investor markets as a whole in Silicon Valley were unsteady; we came close to putting a couple of deals together, but it was just not the right time. We couldn't quite make the sale to make the couple million dollars to get this off the ground. My partner and I talked about it; we could have shoe-stringed it together issue to issue to try to make a go of it, but I really couldn't see doing it if we couldn't do it right, so we decided to put it on ice. We still own all the trademarks and the design and all the editorial rights and everything. If the time comes again to do it, we may jump back on it, but right now it's on ice. VANGUARD: I have one of your magazines that you gave me and you're right-the graphics on it are wonderful and eye-catching. I've never thumbed through another magazine. I'm a Home & Garden type of person, not a Muscle & Fitness type of person, but all these others are no comparison to yours. It's a wonderful piece of art that you put out there. CONSTANT: Thanks. It got a lot of attention, and people still ask me about it all the time. The reader interest is there; it's just a matter of getting the right funding to make it happen. VANGUARD: It's a beauty and I hope to see it again. I'm sure that once you get it going, it will be very successful. I was really impressed with it. So, why City Council? CONSTANT: Well, I had never been interested in politics as far as being a politician, but I was always an interested observer of politics. Whether it's national primary presidential elections like we're going through now, or the local City Council race, I have always been an interested observer, and quite frankly, one of the things that had always stuck with me is that many of the negative experiences I had dealing with our local government as either an employee, a business owner, or as a resident. As many of the people reading this know, I am a person that if I see something I don't like, I express myself. Sometimes-especially at the P.D.-that would get me in trouble for being too outspoken, but I made it no secret that I wasn't happy with a lot of things that were going on, and how difficult things in government had become. My wife and I were sitting around one day, and I was complaining and she says, "Well, why don't you do something about it?" and I thought, you know, maybe I should look into running for some sort of elected office and see what I can do. I started floating the idea around, and a lot of people told me I was crazy. I started getting involved in different things to see if I'd like it. I got on a City commission, and got involved with some neighborhood organizations, some business organizations, and it's kind of like a bad virus-you get public service in you and it keeps grabbing you and sucking you in. I became more and more interested, and with term limits and the way elections go, the windows of opportunity only open once every eight years, and it happened that the window of opportunity for District 1 was opening with Linda LeZotte being termed out, so I threw my name in the hat. People told me I was crazy. I had more people come up and try to talk me out of running for office than I had encouraging me to do it. I'm glad I didn't listen to them. I was told there was no way I could win since I'm too conservative and a cop. I was told nobody would elect a cop to City Council and nobody knew who I was. I hadn't been political enough and I hadn't been chosen to run. Being the typical cop, the more people tell you you can't do something, the more you want to do it. So, I became more and more committed to doing it, and I put together a small group of close friends to help me run my campaign. I did things my own way-I didn't hire a consultant or do any of the things that they tell you to do. I ran a grass-roots campaign on what I thought needed to be done in the City. I went out to all the people in District 1 and said, "Are you happy with the way things are being run?" I said, "I'm not. I think San José is going in the wrong direction, and I think the last several years have been very troubling. We need an honest and open government and to reexamine the fiscal direction of the City, and if we don't make a change now, we're going to have a very sorry City." I ran very firmly and went door-to-door. I knocked on almost 8,000 doors myself and told people why we needed change. I think at the time in our history where we were at with the indictments of the mayor, the budget director, and the Terry Gregory fiasco and corruption, I think people were ready for a "Law & Order" type person to come in and lay down the law, and I was willing to be that person. The results of the election showed that that's what the people wanted. I ran against someone who was kind of the person insiders thought would be the next Council person, who had done all the things that Council members generally do in advance of becoming a Council member and yet I was able to win and win big in a primary election. VANGUARD: When was it that you were elected to the San José City Council? CONSTANT: I was elected in June of 2006, in the primary election. It was a three-way race, so we were all pretty much expecting to go to a runoff in November. Fortunately I got 65% of the vote in June, which made it interesting because I won in June but didn't take office until January, so I had six months with nothing to do. It doesn't make sense to go start a business or get a job when you only have six months open. So it was like being all dressed up and having nowhere to go. VANGUARD: You represent District 1. What does that encompass? CONSTANT: District 1 pretty much is all of District Nora, and a teeny bit of Frank. Right now we're in Frank, but Nora starts right across the street here. Winchester Boulevard is my only border of the City of San José-that's about 1.75 miles long-and it follows the City limits of Santa Clara, Cupertino, Saratoga and Campbell and comes back to Winchester. VANGUARD: What are some of your goals now that you're on the City Council? Everyone has a project that they want to control or take over-what are your goals you plan to fulfill or attempt to fulfill? CONSTANT: When I talk about goals, I usually talk about them on two different levels, because I have goals for my district, which are pretty specific and local, and I have goals for the City. Starting with my district, my goal is to get District 1 organized into neighborhood organizations to bring back that sense of community-people who know each other, socialize with each other, help each other-I've been very successful in starting neighborhood organizations and getting the leadership started and getting different parts of the district to work together so that they are not reinventing the wheel. District 1 now has the largest number of neighborhood organizations of any of the districts in the City. I believe that by the end of this year, we'll probably have every neighborhood in the district in some sort of association, so that's been very good, and it's paying huge results for the people in District 1. On the City-wide level, my number one priority is the budget. I know that all of the officers and members of the POA are very aware of the budget issues, and I think that when you look at the City, you can't say that the City of San José doesn't have any money, because we have a lot of money. We just spend more than we take in, and every year we bring in more money than we did the year before. The problem is, every year we spend more money than we did the year before. The mayor refers to it as a "structural budget deficit," because it's going in the direction and it's such that it increases instead of decreases each year. I think that if you look at it, the way the City has always operated is that in good times, we start all these new programs. We hire people, we start programs, we come up with all these little pet projects, and in bad times, instead of getting rid of those or scaling them back, we cut across the board. What you end up doing is you end up having-especially now when we've gone years and years with cuts-all these dysfunctional departments and units and programs because they've all taken the hits equally, regardless of what their value is to the residents. I think that we as a City have to turn around and look at everything we're supposed to be doing. We have two primary goals and objectives in the City: to provide infrastructure, and to provide for the health and welfare of our residents. Infrastructure is the simple stuff. You drive down the street, it should be paved. You stop at a red light, it should turn green at some point. You should have curbs and gutters and when you flush the toilet, everything should go the right direction and not the wrong direction. Unfortunately, those are not things that the City has been doing. We have unfunded maintenance in our infrastructure that is just incredible. It depends on whose accounting you look at, but it's in the billions of dollars. $700m of roadway maintenance has been deferred, and every year that number gets exponentially higher. A billion dollars in maintenance to our water treatment plant has been deferred. Do we really want to play games with our water treatment plant? That is probably one of the biggest health and safety issues around. And then when you get away from the infrastructure, you begin looking at the health and welfare areas of the City. You obviously need to have public safety. You need to have a cop or firefighter respond when you call 9-1-1, but you also need to have libraries and parks. There are a lot of things that the City should do, and there are other things that are optional, but we need to concentrate on those things that we should be doing; those core services and bringing our focus back to those. I think if we started looking more at a program level and said, "This is nice in good times but today, we don't have the money for it," and got back to the basics, that's going to be how we surmount our problems. Take the police substation. To me, moving forward and reducing the scope of the substation so that a piece of art can be put out front would have been a travesty. You need to get the basics of having that substation function as best as it can with the money we can give it before we worry about the art. I'm not saying that art is not important-as a photographer, I am an artist-but it's not as important as core City services, and we need to look at every single budget expense like that. We need to be really pointed and get into that budget, and say, "Do we want 10 programs to take a 10% cut and none of them operate, or do we want to get rid of three of them and have seven of them operate very well?" which is what I think we should do. It's hard, because it's very politically charged to say, "I'm going to get rid of Programs X, Y and Z." It's easier to say that everyone's going to share the pain, but pretty soon everyone is sharing the pain with no gain because nothing's getting done. I think we really need to rethink how we're doing things. I'm pushing to get the whole budget process looked at differently. Instead of starting at the top and saying, "Chief Davis, you have X amount of money to spend. Spend it wisely," we need to say, "Chief Davis, we want you to provide these core services. What is it going to take for you to provide them? Optionally we'd love for you to provide these ancillary services; how much will each of these cost? And if everything were perfect, we'd love for you to provide these services too. How much would that cost?" And we do that with every department in the City and then we, the elected officials, make the hard decisions as to what's most important to the residents and the community. Once we review the Chief's menu, we opt to fund 10 things that we want the department to do well. You can't expect someone to successfully do the job you want them to do without giving them the proper amount of money to do it. I think we owe it to the citizens of San José and our employees to do that. VANGUARD: I understand there's something always in the paper, and there are a lot of issues as to what the City Manager says in regards to retiree medical benefits and the restructuring of funds. I don't want to get into that, so I'll leave that to you and the unions and the city manager, but it's interesting to read and view the direction it's going. I was not a big fan of the new City Hall. That was a lot of money. The old City Hall is sitting there and we're off site, and a lot of units are going off site from the main P.D. It's nice to be off site because we always have parking. As a growing department, we just swore in 44 new recruits today, but also got a list of 23 retirees. You hire and retire. There are 500 years of experience in those retirees-that's a lot. Like anything else, things are going to change. Money and budgets are going to be tough, and I think that dealing with all the entities in the city, everyone wants to maintain their benefits and see their wages increase. CONSTANT: A lot of people say money is tight. I disagree. I think spending is loose. We have money; we're just spending too much in too many areas that we shouldn't be. I know we don't want to dive into the retiree stuff.,But let me say that as a young retiree, and you to soon be a fairly young retiree, my hope is that we come up with a solution now, and we look at it early. The measures that we take can be small and measured to accomplish the end goal in 30 years, so that when I need it most, it's still there for me. I don't think that this big-picture solution is going to come easily, but I don't think it requires Draconian measures to get there. I think a little bit of prevention can go a long way. VANGUARD: I agree. Everybody is looking at that, and we'll leave it for you guys to handle. So tell me, how do you get through your day with a bad back, an uncomfortable chair and a lot of BS that goes on in the City Council meetings? CONSTANT: It's like being on the PD. Some days are great, and some are really frustrating. The hardest part is the physical aspect of sitting through meetings. We recently had one that started at 9a.m. and after a lunch and dinner break, we finished after midnight. That's a long time to sit, even if you have a good back. I did get a special chair, and I'd get up and walk around and sometimes I have to go in the back and get some ice for my back and I do what I need to do to get through the day. Quite frankly, the bigger challenge is getting through the day mentally because of all the demands. It's amazing how many things a Council member does that people have no idea about. At the P.D., a lot of jobs contain collateral assignments. Well, I as a Council member have 12-13 collateral assignments besides being a Council member, including being on a retirement board, and being on committees and regional boards. They all take all this planning and time and reading. I read more now than I've ever read before-a couple thousand pages a week to get ready for these meetings. The biggest challenge is the mental challenge of staying ahead of things, and the time challenge of fitting in work, family, and sanity. I never have a problem fitting in meals. VANGUARD: Being a prior school board member myself, those 2-3 hour meetings sometimes went into the early morning and not everyone was happy. Are you looked at or treated differently on the Council because you're a retired police officer? CONSTANT: I think the media treats me a little differently. Whenever there's anything in the news about public safety, they call to get my opinion. My colleagues on the Council come to me for advice on police-related issues, and I think I provide a different perspective. So yes, I'm looked at a little differently. VANGUARD: A few weeks ago I read about a memorial that you're interested in implementing for the police officers and firefighters in the rotunda of the City Hall. Can you tell us about that? CONSTANT: It's something that the City lacks. We're one of the only large cities in the nation that has no memorial to our police or firefighters. Many cities have some very large, very beautiful tributes to their fallen public safety officers. I think it's something that we owe, not only to the families of the fallen, but to the public to remind them of the sacrifices that are made on a daily basis to keep them safe and make our City what it is. There is also an appropriate place in our City for that to stand, and I think it's on the grounds of City Hall. I know you were on the department when Gene and Gordy were killed. I was a reserve at the time but I was working a pay job and heard it all unfold over the radio. I was also working as a reserve for part of the relief for the investigation and the hospital watch and the funeral relief and everything that was related to it, and that was just a few months before I became a regular officer. It left an indelible mark on me to see the events as they unfolded. Unfortunately, during the time I was a reserve, a few others were killed in the line of duty, one of whom was in my academy class, Desmond Casey. The memorial that we have every year has gotten better, and it's something that is important, but that ceremony for the officers and the families of the fallen. We need something for the public to remember the sacrifices we make. I think it's fitting, and I think City Hall is the right place to do it. Some people have wondered why I would tackle an expensive project like this when we're in the midst of these financial difficulties. I think it's clear to people that I'm not saying the City should spend a lot of money on this. I'm saying the City should provide a location, and that police officers, firefighters, our families and concerned residents will pay for it. I've talked to a number of people that are more than willing to put money forward. With the number of police officers and firefighters we have, if everyone gave $2 every two weeks for two years, we'd have more than enough money to build something. I think it's something we can and should do. There's a commitment from the Council to get this going. We are in the middle of selecting a visioning group that will decide what the memorial should be or portray, and what message it should send. We're going to have representatives from PD, FD and their unions, citizens, artists, and representatives from survivors families to determine the best way and the best place for this memorial. From there, we'll take the blueprint out for a national artistic bid to get the best piece of art we can. I hope that it will come together fairly quickly-nothing's quick in government-but I'm sure we can raise the money quickly. I'll be coming to you shortly for you and the officers to open their checkbooks. We've all been touched in one way or another by the selflessness of these individuals, and I think it's a small price to pay to make sure they're not forgotten. VANGUARD: Whenever something needs fundraising or attention, you're always going to get assistance from my end. When do we start? I think this is something that's long overdue I'm honored that you're taking this on, and if you talk to officers, we've always wondered why we don't have something there in City Hall where people can visit and view it. CONSTANT: I agree. Someone had brought it up to me that it should go in the police substation in place of the artwork, and I said, "We're not looking for an obscure place to put it. It needs to be in a high-profile area where it will be seen and where people will be reminded of the ultimate sacrifice made by 25 employees of this city this far." Hopefully, there won't be any more than that, but City Hall is sacred ground. It's a public ground where two officers were killed, and it's the appropriate place. VANGUARD: I agree. Getting back to the Gene and Gordy incident, I was right behind Gordy when he went down. I was in the hole working that day, and that always is in my mind. When I'm down at City Hall, I always remember that day. You're right, what better place than on that sacred ground where Gordy and Gene went down to erect this memorial, not only to honor them, but also for all of the police and firefighters. I think it's a great goal that's achievable. CONSTANT: As soon as we have the process and group nailed down and decide where the money point will be, I'm hoping that between the POA and Local 230 we'll isolate those places for funds to go, and I'll be hitting the streets asking for money. VANGUARD: I'll be there, and whatever I can do, I will. I'm sure the POA and others will support it. What are your hobbies? CONSTANT: I don't have time for hobbies anymore. My hobbies are my kids. I spend as much time with them as I can. I actually block time into my schedule to sometimes just come home to have lunch or go to the park. I spend almost all my spare time with my family and my kids. I've given up photography because something has to give if you want to keep your sanity. VANGUARD: Do you dine out? What's your favorite food? CONSTANT: My kids love Maggiano's and up until last year it was the best deal you could get for a big family because everyone five and under ate for free, so all my kids at free. That's one of their favorite places. My kids would be happy if I dropped them off at Santana Row and we ate at a different restaurant every day. That's our home away from home. Pizza Aantica, Chili's and Maggiano's, we're pretty happy. VANGUARD: Don't they have a poster of your family at Maggiano's saying, "Do not serve?" CONSTANT: I wouldn't be surprised if they do. VANGUARD: Watching your wife leave with your kids right now was like watching a hen with all her little chicks in tow. Is there anything you'd like to say or put out there? I appreciate the opportunity and thank you for inviting me into your lovely home and allowing me to meet your family. I know we've talked numerous times in the past, whether we're photographing PAL kids or whatnot. And now I think Len Weiss took over your spot, and he does PAL stuff and soccer stuff…is there anything you'd like to say? CONSTANT: I have a lot of contact with members of the department, and I think it's great that so many call me directly to talk about issues, City-wide, department-specific or personal matters, and I just want them to know that they can always call me directly and they are welcome to drop by City Hall to chat. I know there are some people who feel I don't always pull 100% police line on every vote, and I told the POA early on I could never promise that. I may be a cop at heart, but I still need to view through the City lens. If you look at everything I've done this year, I've made some great progress for the P.D. I was very instrumental in rolling back the IPA powers to what it should be, or what she should be doing, and I was the driving force on the Council to really push to get those powers back in line. I don't think that would have happened if I wasn't there. I don't know if you know this, but just a couple of weeks ago I was the Council member that was able to take the supplemental military pay program and make it permanent. It no longer has to go through an annual evaluation-it's a permanent program and I was able to get unanimous support from my colleagues, and that was a big win for our public safety family. That's huge. I think I'm doing a good job of representing the average officer on the line and trying to do what's right to make their jobs easier, better and more productive, and I'm fighting to get more staffing. I just want people to know that I can't vote every single time in favor of the POA because there are so many different interests to balance, and I don't want anyone to take it personally. If they have questions about my votes, call me up. I've been working hard to make sure that the viewpoints are represented. I can't be a rubber stamp, but I'm trying and doing my best. If I make a mistake, I'll work to fix it. Call or email me, and help me fix these problems. I still think we're lucky to have one of the best cities in the world, but we can make it a whole lot better. VANGUARD: It's a great City and a great department. Any other goals in your mind? Will you run for any other seat? Mayor? CONSTANT: The only thing I'll commit to is a second term of Council. You need to be there two terms to make things happen. I'll go for re-election in three years, and after that, we'll see. VANGUARD: Again, thank you for the invitation. I'm sure you'll get some calls from this, but I personally want to tell you that you're doing a great job. It's an honor to know you, and thank you for the interview. CONSTANT: Thanks for having me. You're doing a great job on the Vanguard, and I appreciate the opportunity. If you wish to contribute an Article to The Vanguard, Contact the Editor at (408) 298-1133