San Jose’s Transportation and Environmental Committee approved a proposal Monday to have the City Council consider banning expanded polystyrene (EPS) takeout boxes in all restaurants. This is, more or less, the same proposal the city considered last year before turning down a $100,000 offer to study the issue more.

Planning departments across the USA commonly create “specific plans” and/or “master plans” for certain streets and neighborhoods within a city. San Jose, not unlike other cities, has many of these same plans. Most of the time these plans are put together with the best of intentions, but they end up sitting on a shelf due to their inherent lack of practicality or feasibility.

Folks at the North Pole have been inundated with holiday wish lists from local politicos. Following are some of the requests they have received.

County Supervisor George Shirakawa issued his first public comments regarding his reported misuse of taxpayer money in an email Wednesday to constituents. In the letter, Shirakawa uses a myth/fact juxtaposition to clear up “a complicated issue that can’t be explained with sensationalized headlines and scandalous printed ‘sound bites.’”

There’s blood in the water, and the number of political sharks circling Supervisor George Shirakawa’s not yet vacant seems to be growing.

City Clerk Dennis Hawkins bids San Jose adieu in less than three weeks. According to a press release sent out by Mayor Chuck Reed’s office, Hawkins informed the City Council on Tuesday that his final day will be Dec. 15, after which he will take a position with Santa Clara County. Hawkins will join the county as as administrative services manager for the county counsel, the release states.

I fear we are entering a new cycle of benign neglect of school reform, where the status quo continues and student achievement results do not match the urgency of the time. Yet there are some true reformers that should be mentioned.

Tonight marks the start of another series of community meetings designed to garner input about a prospective Police Chief. But what if the best choice is already right here at home?

A recent Mercury News editorial called on Supervisor George Shirakawa to resign based on the revelations reported by Josh Koehn in the Metro. Shirakawa’s actions included misappropriating taxpayer money, fraudulent reporting of expenses, misuse of campaign donations and failure to file the appropriate financial documents after repeated warnings. It is right and proper the Mercury News came to its conclusion based on the overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. Supervisor Shirakawa should resign. But it is a painful conclusion, because I support George’s political agenda.

Jim Unland had his leadership of San Jose’s police union questioned internally as well as in the press the last couple weeks. But when the Police Officers Association’s election—held over the course of several days—came to a close Tuesday morning, Unland easily retained his position as president of the POA, defeating officer Jon Baker by a wide margin, according to a POA source.

Supervisor George Shirakawa says he doesn’t want his board colleagues, county staff or the community to be distracted by the “political lynching” taking place in regards to media coverage of his fraudulent expense reports. At its bi-monthly county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Shirakawa tackled the issue head on by saying he would release a formal statement sometime in the future.

A tip came in Monday afternoon that Andrea Flores Shelton, formerly a deputy chief of staff for Supervisor George Shirakawa, would get the nod as Alum Rock school district’s new trustee. In the end, that’s exactly what happened. Now the question is whether or not opponents of the process will gather signatures for a special election to challenge her appointment.

Thanksgiving holidays have always been a time for self-reflection. This year is no different. My look in the mirror this week will reflect on my role as a member of the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s Board.

Parents of Alum Rock Union School District students, community members and Somos Mayfair plan to protest in advance of tonight’s school board meeting and the potential appointment of a new board member. The protest, which is scheduled to start 30 minutes before the 6pm board meeting, hopes to sway trustees Esau Herrera, Dolores Marquez and Andres Quintero from appointing a new board member before Karen Martinez joins the board in December. Martinez won a trustee seat in this month’s election and the county does not certify results until Dec. 4.

The City Council had a study session last week devoted to affordable housing. The session covered how San Jose could build more affordable housing, even though it has already publicly funded and completed roughly 21,000 such units in years past and has 1,500 additional units currently in the pipeline. As a point of comparison, other cities have done little during the same time period.

STORY OF THE WEEK: The Mercury News provided a brief statement to San Jose Inside regarding an inappropriate email the newspaper’s opinion editor sent to a political candidate. The statement not only reflects on how the paper views its mission, but the state of media in the South Bay.