Dr. Xavier De La Torre provides guidance and oversees the work of 31 school districts, 17,000 teachers and 280,000 students under the umbrella of the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). In his role as county superintendent of education, he also leads an office of about 1,800 employees. But in just a little more than a year and a half on the job, De La Torre is facing the very real prospect of being fired or asked to resign.

Elected officials in San Jose may soon be able to raise money for their own legal defense fund, if the City Council eventually approves a plan up for review at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting. Mayor Chuck Reed decided earlier this year at his biennial ethics review meeting that he wants to enact the law in San Jose.

Former San Jose Councilmember Forrest Williams plans to run for mayor of San Jose, leaving a little less elbow room in an already crowded field. In a bid to succeed Mayor Chuck Reed, Williams will face off against Santa Clara County Supervisor David Cortese, Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen and councilmembers Pete Constant, Sam Liccardo and Pierluigi Oliverio, amongst others.

Last fiscal year, the city completed 101 construction projects valued at $110 million, according to a capital improvement review going before the City Council on Tuesday. Completed projects included the San Jose McEnery Convention Center expansion, a $130 million effort that wrapped up in September.

TV sportscaster and former San Jose City Council candidate Robert Braunstein penned a heartwarming editorial in his newsletter about the reconciliation of two political rivals: the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and Democratic Central Committee. The business backers and the labor supporters, Braunstein wrote, have let bygones be bygones. Except they haven’t.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved $4 million in housing for non-violent convicts released under the state’s Three Strikes reform. Some of the money will pay for rental subsidies, case management for those living on the streets and shelter for their children. Cash comes from a one-time reserve funded in part by the state sales tax and car licensing fee set aside for housing released convicts after the state passed AB 109, a law that allowed those locked up on a third-strike offense to appeal their case as long as the third strike wasn’t a violent crime.

John Dowling and other residents of the Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park could be forced out of their homes if developer Pulte Homes buys the park property, which is adjacent to Santana Row and the Valley Fair mall in San Jose. Cali-Arioto Properties owns the land, and like a lot of mobile home park owners in the region, the family proprietor is exploring the option of selling the lot, which houses more than 145 mostly low-income seniors and disabled residents. Real estate prices are going up and the park lies in a part of the city pegged for future mixed-use development under the city’s General Plan.

Nearly half the class that graduated from the San Jose Police Academy a few weeks ago plans to leave for other departments, according to union leaders. And until the city offers a better disability pension plan to new police recruits, the Police Officers Association will keep encouraging cadets to find work elsewhere. On the opposite side of the experience spectrum, the POA is also telling retired officers to turn down jobs that would involve doing background checks on prospective officers.

Police want to use a $900,000 Department of Justice grant to better investigate domestic violence strangulations. A memo from acting Police Chief Larry Esquivel and city budget director Jennifer Maguire proposes a plan that will go before the City Council on Tuesday. Other items on the agenda include a request for a public hearing on the controversial Rocketship school in the Tamien neighborhood and a review of the city’s general plan.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will decide how to allocate a third of this year’s Measure A revenue, or $15.3 million. They’re expected to spend the bulk of it on affordable housing and healthcare for the uninsured. Other items on the include guidelines for a 55-acre civic center in downtown San Jose, rapid re-housing for the homeless and downsizing a tobacco prevention and control program.

There’s a petition going around that aims to transform St. James Park from an open-air drug den to a destination for free live music. The San Jose Rock Shop, a music store near the downtown park, posted the petition directed at Councilman Sam Liccardo on Change.org to let a national nonprofit called the Levitt Pavilion build an outdoor stage. So far, it’s gathered more than 100 signatures from residents of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Liccardo seems all for the idea–he posted a link to the petition on Facebook Wednesday encouraging others to sign their support.

The government shutdown may be over, but the Republican-fueled hits keep on coming—especially for Silicon Valley’s most vulnerable citizens. Starting Nov. 1, extra funding provided by the American Recovery Act, President Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package, expire. As a result, people who rely on rely on food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or CalFresh in California, will see their benefits decrease. In addition, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill last month that would cut $40 billion from the program over the next decade—resulting in 3.8 million people getting kicked off the program next year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

San Jose Inside takes a quick look at what some of the candidates for the 2014 mayor’s race in San Jose have been up to and what political insiders are saying.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed on Tuesday filed to put a polarizing state constitutional amendment on the November 2014 ballot that would allow government agencies to dial down public pension benefits. If voters OK the Pension Reform Act of 2014, it would change the state constitution to empower government agencies to negotiate existing employees’ pension and retiree healthcare going forward.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed most of San Jose’s lawsuit against Major League Baseball, which accused the league of flouting antitrust laws by delaying a proposed move of the Oakland A’s to the South Bay. U.S District Judge Ronald M. Whyte said San Jose could go ahead with claims that MLB got in the way of an option agreement between the city and the A’s over property for a new stadium. That means the city could still pursue billions of dollars in damages, but has to back down on a court order to allow the A’s to move to San Jose.

Rocketship Education, a private charter school chain, stands to lose a legal fight to open another campus on 3.5 acres by the Tamien light-rail station. A Santa Clara County last week issued a tentative ruling that nullifies a Santa Clara County Office of Education decision to grant a zoning exemption to build a third campus in the eight-block community around Washington Elementary School.