“This guy is the King Kong of lobbyists,” says Jerry Strangis

After several months of negotiations, San Jose lobbyist Jerry Strangis of Strangis Properties has pledged his influence and power, as well as his access and client list, to recently convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff in order to form San Jose’s first lobbying “superfirm.”

As many know, the number one spectator sport in America is not a sport at all—it’s politics.  The year ahead should prove most interesting for such aficionados. There has been so much focus on Ron Gonzales that it is time to take a break and comment on the general, instead of any specific problems in this area; the others are now with the grand jury, the DA, and the most important court of all, the court of public opinion.

I celebrated the New Year with a wedding.  No, I didn’t fly off to Vegas on a whim, or watch “Wedding Story” on the TLC network. But I attended the wedding of a good friend to ring in 2006.

This is a week-long year-end discussion.
Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher/ emperor, said late in life that
no matter how old he got, the people that he greeted along the Appian
Way always remained the same, about twenty-five and seemly.  Well,
unlike his subjects, we all “do” change, and at Christmas and the dawn
of new year, we all have hopes and dreams for ourselves and our City. 
Let’s share our best Christmas memories and thoughts for San Jose.

San Jose Positioning Itself For New Draft Pick

In an eerie coincidence with 49er quarterback Alex Smith, City Manager Del Borgsdorf has cited “small hands” as the reason for his resignation as the city’s top executive.

It is often said that with people, their true measure is not so much how they deal with success, but how they deal with failure and adversity.  Most of us have had plenty of both in our lives and had to learn to absorb and work through it by trying to make failure, either meaningful or productive.  So it is with our city. 

As I read the Mercury News last week about the plans to adopt some of Hollywood’s ideas to curb the problems downtown, my first reaction was that if the current system isn’t working, why not try something else?

Last Minute Vote Saves Nativity Scene

Shortly after voting to censure the mayor, the city council was faced with another controversial vote in order to save the much-embattled Nativity scene at the city’s Christmas in the Park display.

For inspiration today, let’s turn to our valley’s best cartoonist http://www.community-newspapers.com/archives/wgresident/20051214/wg-op-decinzo.shtml.  With DeCinzo oiling the creative machinery within, here is a chance to be whimsical and exercise your imagination by adding your quotes, slogans, mottos or jingles describing the current crises in San Jose government…

They just fired “Archibald Cox.”

I thought that headline would never be seen anywhere again, let alone in San Jose.  It happened yesterday when Chris Scott Graham was “fired.” The independent investigator was basically told that it was time to move on from the Norcal scandal and the crises in confidence with the mayor.  Healing was the mantra of a solid majority of the council.

As the news keeps rolling in about Ron Gonzales, his censure and moves to possibly oust him from office, I am struck by the lack of knowledge most young people in San Jose have about their own city’s politics.  As I have been talking to friends, there are few of them who follow what is happening in the news, or even have a vague knowledge of Ron Gonzales and his scandal-plagued term as mayor. Is it apathy at its finest?  Or has our city government been so appalling and crooked that it causes people to lose interest?

With the mayor fighting for his political life, three candidates separating themselves over what the next steps should be for the City, and the Mercury News releasing a poll that shows 85% of the participants favor the mayor stepping down, we thought we would take our own, primitive poll…

Says Mercury News Editorial Board Next

Mayor Gonzales took time out of his busy schedule in Charlotte, North Carolina this week, where he delivered the keynote address on “good government” at the annual National League of Cities (NLC) conference, to respond to the latest round of Scud missiles launched at him with intent to inflict bodily harm.

The report of the Special Investigator is now complete for its initial phase.  It is very, very damning in its conclusions regarding Mayor Ron Gonzales and others. The Grand Jury and our own worse fears have been confirmed.  Our Council is now faced with another moment of truth.  I do not know what the majority of this group will do. It is a time for sober reflection and candor; it is a time for courage and leadership.  Silence will not do at such a critical time in our city’s history.  We are providing a link to the editorial in today’s San Jose Mercury News.  Please read and comment…Ultimately, the citizens of San Jose will be heard on this issue.  Their judgment is the most important.

I do like give and take; it’s healthy, it’s in my nature, and I believe that is the tradition of San Jose—a hallowed one. But if our next mayor’s race becomes the traditional American election, one full of personalities but short of vision, replete with attacks, more thunder than light, then we all lose.  Our city needs the next campaign to be about ideas and issues rather than platitudes and endorsements and who is the “nicest.” With that goal in mind, I’d like to speak about issues and an idea or two—those things that we need to be the focal points of the next mayoral election, namely growth, a big park, safety and ethics.

So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Would more people want to live downtown if there were more to do?  Or will people wait to see what happens downtown before they invest their money into apartments and lofts? I believe that if there were masses of families, young people and baby-boomers living downtown, that the retail and entertainment would have to come to feed the demand.