Yesterday was the first meeting of the city council in the new chambers on East Santa Clara Street.  It was an historic day. The new building is one that evokes much thought.

This scandal doesn’t involve Ron Gonzales or Joe Guerra.  There’s no IT director or cost overruns or grand jury or even a garbage company in the story.  It’s hard to imagine, but yes it happened in San Jose.

By Guest Blogger Jerry Estruth

In 1978, when I was a candidate running for the San Jose City Council, I supported districting.  At that time, San Jose had 7 councilmembers, including the mayor, all elected at large.  I became the last councilmember to be elected city wide.  Therefore, I think that I am qualified to question whether or not districting has been good for San Jose and whether or not it has outlived its usefulness.  I think the time when the scant support of 2000-3000 people can elect a district councilmember from a district has passed.

Mosquitoes Face Total Annihilation Against “Smart” Swatters

After a 69% vote that overwhelmingly approved an increase in fees to fund the fight against mosquitoes that carry and spread the West Nile disease, Santa Clara County Vector Control launched its War on Itching by vowing to eradicate mosquitoes “cell by cell.”

No, not the City Council, the racers in the first San Jose Grand Prix, as Mark Purdy describes.

There has been a good deal of discussion and debate in the community and on this site concerning the relative powers of the mayor and the meaning of the City Charter in the specific areas of Mayoral power.  Being intimately involved in the Measure J changes that the citizens adopted in 1986, two things are clear: people wanted a strong, effective leader in the mayor and, secondly, imperative in the proper functioning of the city was a strong and independent city manager.

A long, long time ago, the Mayor, City Council, and top city staff spent a day together discussing ethics.  It was January 27, 2005 – the neo Grand Jury Report era.

By Guest Blogger Chuck Reed

Do the Mayor and City Councilmembers have a duty to disclose material facts to each other and to the public when decisions are being made? 

Mayor’s Aide Says NASA Is To Blame

In another startling revelation, Mayor Gonzales’s policy director, Joe Guerra, admitted that sometime during one of the mayor’s early crises, high level staffers in the administration reached out to NASA for help.

The trail of the contract, that the Mercury News so helpfully lays out.

A few weeks ago I wrote that the current people at City Hall could not tell the difference between telling the truth and not getting caught in a lie.  I wonder what was going on in their minds as they savaged the grand jury’s report. Did they not know what they were risking?

Question:  The recent Gonzales administration scandal is serious because at its root is a felonious desire for:

A)  money
B)  sex
C)  power

By Guest Blogger Jerry Estruth

I had the chance to spend a couple of days in the Valley of Hearts delight last week and several things became clear.  I don’t miss the traffic at all.  The Mercury News still does its thing, whatever that is.  It used to be a good paper but something happened to it.  Actually it had a great editorial about the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy and the good work that Don Gralnek, Eric Brandenburg and Pat Sausedo are doing to preserve open space in the Valley of Heart’s Delight, before it is all paved over and painted green.

City Officials Incensed Over “Attention Grabbing Scheme”

San Jose is again knee-deep in controversy, this time not because of a lapse of judgment at the highest levels of municipal government, but because of city officials, who made the bold accusation that San Diego is trying to grab headlines from San Jose by “perpetrating ethics violations that look a lot like ours.”

Everyone seems to be looking at the new City Hall.  Mary Anne Ostrom of the Mercury News took a look at the inspirations for the building, Tom applauded the city government coming back downtown and Jude provided links back to his articles on the design.  Heck, even DeCinzo turned his eyes to the new City Hall.

It’s new! It’s here! It’s ours.  The new City Hall is ready to take its place in the heart of the city.  Credit Frank Taylor first, who envisioned it, and Frank Fiscalini and David Pandori who got it on the ballot when everyone else was afraid.  Joe Guerra was also critical to the effort. Ron Gonzales stayed the course, for better and worse.  Jude Barry also deserves credit along with Rob and Goodie Steinberg, our local architects who gave Richard Meier the level of support a world-class architect demands and deserves. Thank them for the dome.