San Jose Council Whiles Away July Recess Traveling, Reading—and Still Doing Some Work

San Jose Councilman Lan Diep tweeted over the weekend about how he’s spending his Sundays during the month-plus recess from city meetings. “Sundays are my reading days to prepare for Tuesday Council mtgs,” he wrote, “But there aren’t any mtgs in July, so in an attempt to ‘stay in shape,’ I read the last few chapters of @sydfinkelstein’s Superbosses and three issues of @ForeignAffairs. Now on to @TheEconomist. #CityCouncilSummers.”

Fly checked in with his council-mates to see how they’re wiling away their own #CityCouncilSummer, which has left things eerily quiet on the 18th floor of City Hall. A couple councilors took advantage of the free time to jet out of town—and some out of the country altogether.

Councilman Johnny Khamis kicked off his summer by setting up and tearing down the Fourth of July fireworks show at Almaden Lake Park and cutting the ribbon at San Jose’s very own Dunkin’ Donuts before flying off to his native Lebanon and his wife’s birthplace in the West Bank. His South San Jose colleague, Councilman Sergio Jimenez, also left the country for a visit to Tijuana, Mexico, where he and his daughter helped build a home as part of a program through San Jose’s St. Julie Billart Church.

Terming-out Councilman Don Rocha’s summer has been “different than any other,” he says, because of his campaign to succeed Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager in the District 4 seat. But the Cambrian council rep still made time for a family trip to Hawaii and, back home, getting his motorcycle up and running for the first time in a year.

Mayor Sam Liccardo has been working with regional commissions to figure out how to create a new Bay Area-wide funding source for affordable housing, according to his spokesman David Low. The mayor also plans to fly to New York City this weekend, a trip funded by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and took some time off to celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary with his wife.

Council members Sylvia Arenas and Tam Nguyen didn’t return Fly’s query by press time, but they’ve been spotted at various ribbon cuttings and park events around town.

Councilwoman Dev Davis is spending time with her own family. As is Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco, who is still grieving the death of her mother earlier this year.

“The break ... gives us an opportunity to reconnect with our family especially our children who give up so much throughout the year,” she says.

Downtown Councilman Raul Peralez is also staying close to home to stop by some local summer camps, attend some regional policy meetings and to spend time with his pregnant wife and catch up on his non-council-related reading, including, naturally, The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott and Jennifer Ash.

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6 Comments

  1. How much is a pension for San Jose city council members? Is it lifetime? Can it be willed to spouses? What’s their annual income?

    Ok… Now same question for Santa Clara and Sunnyvale… Arguably two of the best run cities in the valley… FYI.. Santa Clara has their own.. better.. cheaper.. electric company

  2. > San Jose City Council Whiles Away July Recess Traveling, Reading—and Still Doing Some Work

    The San Jose City Council is PROOF that the Russians have been meddling in San Jose elections.

    • Well, the guy who is boasting about a Facebook Bot operation is not Russian but former Gonzales bully boy Jude Barry. Yep, Jude now has a electronic voter reg company which makes voter registration totally online. Barry has also completed hacked Santa Clara elections so badly a judge now is running the show. Putin should hire this guy, or maybe has

      • > Yep, Jude now has a electronic voter reg company which makes voter registration totally online.

        So, people in Moscow CAN register to vote in San Jose elections?

        How about people in Mexico City, Caracas, Havana, Tehran, or New York City?

  3. The longer they are gone, the less harm they can do. How about we give them 6 months vacation every year?

  4. > I read the last few chapters of @sydfinkelstein’s Superbosses and three issues of @ForeignAffairs. Now on to @TheEconomist.

    Thanks for sharing, Lan.

    “Foreign Affairs” = The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), i.e. “globalists”.

    “The Economist” = The Rothschilds, i.e. “globalists”.

    Make the New World Order Great Again.

    Explains why we have the stupid United Nations bake lanes in San Jose.

    We have enough problems in San Jose with home-grown kleptocrats. We really don’t need assistance from the UN to help our local politicians to up their game.

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