Is San Jose making a play for the valley’s other large police organization? Already in control of the SJPD, San Jose’s political leadership appears to be aligned with an effort to challenge Sheriff Laurie Smith’s re-election. Mayor Chuck Reed’s campaign strategy chief, Victor Ajlouny, has been working with retired police Capt. Richard Calderon to take on the three-term incumbent. Former Deputy Sheriff’s Association president Jose Salcido, a Smith adversary, SJPOA ally and one-time candidate for sheriff is now Reed’s law enforcement adviser.

Mayors of California’s ten largest cities met with the CEOs of some of the state’s ten largest companies at San Jose’s Morton’s Steakhouse last night for more than just an evening of rare beef and wine. They are all fed up with how the state is operating, and decided to work together to fight for real changes

It’s SJI’s open forum, where comments on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?

Dr. Charles Weis, the county’s superintendent of schools, is shortening the leash on the East Side Union High School District following a damning report that was released last month. Weis attended the board’s meeting last night and grilled the members, demanding that they hire an internal auditor immediately—before he pulls their power over their own $200-million-plus budget.

In a major reversal of a controversial decision, Dan Fenton of Team San Jose, the group that operates the San Jose Convention Center, has backed down from an earlier decision granting Teamsters Local 287 exclusive rights to set up trade shows at the Convention Center.

Past San Jose mayors have used the annual State of the City speech to announce big projects or initiatives.  Commandeering a broke city, however, limits Chuck Reed to talking about already dry cement like the swoopy new airport terminal or trumpeting minor capital spending projects, such as fixing the convention center’s leaky roof or reopening the Happy Hollow Zoo with a renovated Guinea Pig Island.  When it comes to mayoral speeches in San Jose, no detail is too small.

Full text of San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s 2010 State of the City Address, delivered February 18, 2010 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

Reporter Jessica Fromm is at the San Jose 2010 Community Breakfast, covering Mayor Chuck Reed’s State of the City Address. Inside: A live blog form the event.

Last week the Council tackled two agenda items related to parks. One was to apply for a state grant. There is $184 million up for grabs for the entire state of California to be spent on city parks. California has 36 million people and San Jose has one million. If San Jose were to get 1/36th of those state funds, that would be $5 million. The other item was the city postponing the opening of 11 parks city- wide because there is no money to fund operations and maintenance.

On SJI’s weekly open forum, comments on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?

Assembly Member Joe Coto has withdrawn his request for the state legislature to audit the San Jose Police Department for its use-of-force practices.

The news arrived in the form of a dear-colleagues email that was sent out yesterday by Roxanne Miller, the city’s envoy to the state legislature:

GOOD NEWS. .. I’ve just been advised by staff to members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that Assembly Member Coto this morning has withdrawn his request for the JLAC to audit San Jose’s Police Department’s use of force. The item will be removed from the February 17 Agenda of JLAC. Note: A request for audit could be renewed later this year as there will be two other meetings of the JLAC to consider audit requests in May/June or in August.

Mayor Chuck Reed has a big problem ahead of him. San Jose is faced with a $100 million shortfall, which means the city is going to have to eviscerate its budget. To achieve that end, he’s planning a budget study session for next week

Back in 2006, Jorge Trujillo was allegedly beaten up in San Jose by two strangers, Daniel Miller, 19, and Edward Sample, 20, wielding baseball bats. He managed to stumble away from the scene, and got over a mile away, bumping into cars along the way, according to police. Finally, someone called 911 and reported him to the police. When they arrived, Trujillo refused to speak with them or even let them approach, so the officers did what they were trained to do: they tased him. Trujillo died in hospital the next day.

With the murder trial underway in San Jose, the question being asked is to what degree did the tasing contribute to his death? Would he have died from the beating alone, meaning that Miller and Sample are guilty of murder, or was it the tasing that pushed him over the edge.

Embattled former superintendent Bob Nuñez made a surprise appearance in front of the East Side Union High School District’s Board of Trustees last night, publicly announcing that he thinks the district needs to address issues of fraud and intimidation within their own board and administration

In a letter posted yesterday to ProtectSanJose.com, the often entertaining website operated by the San Jose Police Officers Association, Mayor Chuck Reed made the not-so-subtle suggestion that Assembly Members Joe Coto and Paul Fong back off.

The city of San Jose recently completed a scientific poll of 902 residents. This poll cost $50,000. As I mentioned in a prior blog, I took many of the poll questions and posted them on the District 6 website (the district I represent) and here, on San Jose Inside. I entered the questions and three of my own into a web-based survey solution which costs $20 a year. The survey closed yesterday with 839 completing the 15 page survey (973 respondents completed part of the survey). Unlike past surveys where District 6 residents were 90 percent of the respondents, only 43.9 percent of the respondents were from District 6 this time