Today represents the unfortunate five-year anniversary of a very painful situation for the city of San Jose. As reported previously in the San Jose Mercury News, 2008 was the year city officials terminated, or at least tried to terminate, a firefighter on charges of sexual harassment against female co-workers.

The Fair Political Practice Commission (FPPC) confirmed Friday that it has launched an investigation into San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos. Gary Winuk, chief of the FPPC’s enforcement division, says that his office began looking into Campos’ 2010 City Council campaign after San Jose Inside reported that the councilman used the same campaign treasurer, Linda Delgado, as former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District paid nearly $70,000 in membership fees last fiscal year to a long list of chambers of commerce and other networking associations. Not surprising, almost every single chamber of commerce on the list endorsed the Measure B water tax.

Nonprofit law specialist David A. Levitt of the San Francisco-based Adler and Colvin law firm writes on behalf of Working Partnerships USA behalf that “no director financial interest was involved” when Cindy Chavez voted on budgets at the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation that funded contracts to her employers because “Ms. Chavez’s compensation is not contingent on Working Partnerships receiving Foundation funding …Working Partnerships had sufficient resources to cover Ms. Chavez’s compensation, even if it had not received any funds from the Foundation.”

District 2 county supervisor candidate Teresa Alvarado kicked off her campaign Wednesday. Alvarado is the first to announce a government reform agenda which includes a county sunshine ordinance, public posting of officials’ calendars, 10-day public notice on items coming before the Board of Supervisors, evening board meetings and a fully-funded Government Integrity Unit at the District Attorney’s office. There are five other candidates in the race. Three have websites up, but none have posted a platform yet.

Based on numerous interviews and an extensive review of documents, Metro/San Jose Inside has learned that Vinod Sharma, county CFO and director of finance, and his second-in-command, Controller-Treasurer Irene Lui, repeatedly made false statements regarding how George Shirakawa Jr. avoided detection of his misuse of county funds. Sharma and Lui decided on their own to direct resources away from reviewing charge card expenses to focus on larger-scale audits in hopes of pleasing their superiors. And by blaming their subordinates and making confusing—if not cunningly calculated—statements at public hearings, Sharma and Lui seem to be more politically astute than some of the elected and appointed officials who listen to their explanations. The following is an excerpt from the full report, which can be found at Metroactive.com. —Editor

When Teresa Alvarado announced that she was running for George Shirakawa Jr.’s vacated county supervisor seat, County Executive Jeff Smith helpfully forwarded the email to Working Partnership USA’s executive team: Bob Brownstein and Cindy Chavez. The forwarding of memos by Smith highlights the cozy relationship between the County of Santa Clara and Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA), the organization led by longtime labor union executive and current supervisor candidate Cindy Chavez. WPUSA is joined at the hip to the powerful South Bay Labor Council (SBLC), with whom it has historically shared offices, facilities, equipment, political objectives and allocated employees. Last year, SBLC led the effort to raise county sales taxes by $500 million over the next ten years and to increase San Jose’s minimum wage by 25 percent. It also endorsed 70 candidates for political office. Working Partnerships has been the recipient of at least $518,163 from the cash-challenged county in the past two years, performing a grab bag of services. Newly released documents obtained via a San Jose Inside public records request show the county’s contracts represented about 15 percent of Working Partnerships’ revenues for those years.

One of my most tightly held tenets of community activism: When citizens organize to take action on behalf of their neighborhoods or to advance issues of importance, the last thing that should get in their way is paperwork or bureaucratic interference—at any level. It is this belief that is the basis for San Jose Parks Foundation’s program of Fiscal Agency. Being a Fiscal Agent means extending nonprofit status to projects, programs and groups whose purposes, missions, goals, and objectives are compatible with that of San Jose Parks Foundation.

Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) wants to turn an old insane asylum into a north San Jose high school serving up to 2,800 students. Other items going before the Rules and Open Government Committee on Wednesday include an update on banning pesky sidewalk bicyclers and support for state legislation that would free the city to spend housing revenue how it chooses.

San Jose’s 2014 mayoral race will be as crowded as an elevator going down to the parking garage at quitting time. I view this as a good thing, because the issues need to to be discussed in detail more than ever. I am certain there are some announced and unannounced candidates that get “it.” The “it” is the results we get from our educational institutions.

The Santa Clara County Board of Education is moving quickly to find a replacement for the seat lost by the resignation of Area 6 Trustee Darcie Green, who stepped down last month after the District Attorney’s offie called into question the legality of her appointment. The school board on Wednesday will consider a timeline and form an ad hoc oversight committee to fill the vacancy. Other items on the Board agenda include efforts to prevent teen suicide and a master plan for the coming influx of charter schools.

On March 24, Metro/San Jose Inside reported that Santa Clara Family Health Foundation (SCFHF) executive board member and officer Cindy Chavez participated in a board decision to provide $250,000 in funding to the Yes on A committee, on which she and Kathleen King—CEO of SCFHF—constituted a majority of the three-member committee. The committee subsequently turned over a large portion of the funds to the South Bay Labor Council Issues PAC and Democratic Central Committee’s PAC. Because of Chavez’s obvious conflicts of interest—she headed up the SBLC at the time—and the importance of a countywide sales tax increase, which will be paid by all residents, Metro/San Jose Inside felt this was a matter of public interest.

On Friday, nine nonprofit executives wrote a letter to express their thoughts on recent articles. They worry that investigative reporting could make nonprofits “the target of unfounded accusations and public reproach.” Because we feel this is a useful debate to have, and because we want to give differing points of view the proper attention they deserve, we are running below the letter in full, in addition to its appearance in the comments section where it was submitted. —Editor

Former Marin Assemblyman Bill Bagley is a gregarious and genial man. Those who drive highway 101 just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge might recognize the freeway, named for this Republican, that begins just before the Waldo Tunnel on the Marin side of the structure. Yes, a Republican once represented the now liberal enclave that is Marin County. But Bagley wasn’t the kind of Republican we see all too often today.

When it rains it pours, and the month of March has flooded San Jose’s 2014 mayoral race with new candidates. On Thursday, fellow Councilman Pete Constant confirmed with San Jose Inside that he will make a run to become the top elected official in San Jose. That brings the total number of contenders to an unofficial count of five.

Scott Knies hopes the artist renderings of a Hampton Inn planned for a prime slice of land in downtown San Jose are just placeholders until developers come up with a real design. The executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association saw drawings of the six-story hotel proposed for the corner of Highway 87 and Santa Clara Street for the first time earlier this week. His reaction to the design, to paraphrase: Dear, god, no.

Today I write about an extraordinary man and truly remarkable project being created in his honor. Umberto Abronzino, a talented soccer player and barber, was born in 1920 in Sessa Aurunca, Italy. More than 30 years later, he found his way to San Jose and created a soccer movement.