The Newtown tragedy is more about the resources we need as a nation to care for our fellow citizens who are mentally ill than gun control. And yet, we will not advance the cause of decreasing violent incidents until we discuss both issues openly and honestly with a subsequent call to action.

A housing report revealed last week at the oversight board meeting for the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency (SARA) shows that the city has $10 million in funds that have yet to be allocated. While some people would like to direct these funds to affordable housing, which isn’t taxable and doesn’t create revenue, a better plan would be to direct the $10 million toward RDA debt. If this occurs, the exact same amount can then go toward the general fund, which pays for police, libraries and other community services.

In its last meeting of 2012, the City Council on Tuesday will discuss issues varying from lease agreements and property sales to pay increases for the independent police auditor and council/board appointments for 2013.

The facts are still coming in from the terrible tragedy today in Newtown, Connecticut, where more than two dozen children and adults at an elementary school were shot and killed. If now is not the time to have an honest discussion about gun control, then what should we talk about?

The 2012 election is barely over and already people are opining on who will contend for the Presidency in 2016 or who will be the next Mayor in 2014. Who will replace Supervisor George Shirakawa if he resigns? Which brings us to the mental gymnastics some local pundits are making regarding recent changes at the South Bay Labor Council. Is Cindy Chavez running for Mayor? Is she positioning herself for Supervisor?

On the same day the county released a second audit critical of P-Card purchases made by Supervisor George Shirakawa’s office, County Executive Jeff Smith provided his first extended comments regarding Shirakawa’s misuse of taxpayer funds.

In a state of more than 18 million registered voters and a city of nearly one million people, it’s easy for any one person to feel insignificant. That’s why it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together; that our collective opinions add up to something greater than ourselves; that this grand experiment called “democracy” works best when we all stand up to be counted.

Fly isn’t the only one captivated by the professional diaries of Mercury News opinion editor Barbara Marshman. Two weeks after Metro revealed that Marshman made a quid pro quo offer of “lavish praise” to Water District candidate Barbara Keegan in exchange for her removal from the race, a shadow group called Political Record Strategies (PRS) made a request for all electronic communications between city of San Jose officials and Marshman, as well as the rest of the paper’s editorial board.

Cindy Chavez is out as CEO of the South Bay Labor Council. End of an era? Not quite. Chavez, who joined the SBLC in 2009 after an unsuccessful mayoral run and two terms on the San Jose City Council, will continue in the role of executive director of Working Partnerships, the think tank that helped organize the successful Measure D campaign and shares a building with SBLC.

If I had one request for Santa this holiday season, I would want him to work with each of our 31 school districts—too many, for sure—and make certain they have plans to expand STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricular planning to include the Arts.

The City Council discussed shooting birds at the airport and the city’s $5.2 billion debt at last week’s meeting. How much time and attention did each topic receive?

Leave it to Larry Stone, the county assessor, to call it like he sees it when the vast majority of his fellow elected officials have danced around the issue of Supervisor George Shirakawa’s flagrant misuse of taxpayer money.

It is high time San Jose joined the big leagues and moved to a strong-mayor form of government. The recent response by City Manager Debra Figone to Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio’s public suggestion on who should be the police chief is simply another example of the bush-league government system that regulates elected officials to second-class status.

The list of people to reimburse the county for meals Supervisor George Shirakawa expensed to taxpayers has now grown to eight. Included in the updated list are Shirakawa’s lobbyist friends Tom Saggau, Dustin DeRollo and Joe Guerra, as well as San Jose Councilmember Xavier Campos.

The day after a county audit demanded George Shirakawa reimburse $12,772 in improper charges with his county-issued credit card, the president of the Board of Supervisors threw out a checklist of reasons why the media would make up “straight-up untrue” reports about his fraudulent expense reports, misuse of taxpayer money and missing campaign disclosure forms.

A culture war is being waged between some San Jose police officers and Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell. Judge Cordell has taken issue with a T-shirt that was designed for officers in an elite tactical unit that is equipped with assault rifles. Cordell, who called the shirt’s design “a thug logo,” features the acronym SJPD, a human skull with two assault rifles crossed in the background and the motto “Usus Ferocitas,” which in Latin can translate to several meanings.