Members of a San Jose firefighters union said they’re speaking out against former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo — who’s now running for Congress.
The members say his work as mayor made the city less safe.
“We’re down 500 cops. He laid off 49 firefighters. We’re struggling to do our job. And these are the repercussions from his actions and his policy,” said Jerry May, president of San Jose Local Firefighters 230.
Liccardo, who attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new San Jose fire station Thursday, responded to the firefighters’ claims at the event.
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“It’s important for folks to get the facts and not to have this revisionist history created by political players,” Liccardo said.
The former mayor pointed to data indicating that the police force grew by over 200 officers during his tenure and that he left the city with one of the lowest crime rates among major U.S. cities.
“Certainly, yes, we lost more than 500 police officers before I became mayor. When I became mayor, we worked very hard to bring people together at the table to work through differences and to rebuild our public safety departments,” Liccardo said.