Santa Clara County’s District Attorney has accused the Mexican American Community Services Agency’s former chief executive officer and former chief financial officer of cleaning out their employees’ retirement accounts to the tune of $1 million. The third C-level MACSA employee at the time, former MACSA chief operating officer and current San Jose City Councilmember Xavier Campos, was not charged with felony grand theft, as the others were. The arrest warrant and complaint notes that while “Campos was almost certainly aware that MACSA had failed to make at least some pension payments,” there was a lack of evidence that he had a direct role in stopping retirement payments.

The Secret Service agents implicated in the prostitution scandal last week in Columbia probably never saw Mike Wallace’s 60 minutes interview with agent Clint Hill. If the agents had, there wouldn’t be a scandal.

UPDATE: The District Attorney’s Office is charging former MACSA CEO Olivia Soza-Mendiola and CFO Benjamin Tan with grand theft for illegally diverting more than $1 million that should have gone to employee retirement accounts. Check back later in the day for a story about the charges.—Editor

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office plans to hold a press conference at 11am Thursday unveiling its findings from the investigation into the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA). The announcement will come 28 months after former DA Dolores Carr was notified that MACSA, a nonprofit organization, stole $400,000 from employee pension funds from two of the schools it operated.

The California Public Utilities Commission predicts Santa Clara County’s 52-year-old area code, 408, will run out of numbers at the end of this year. Last October, the CPUC voted to add area code 669 to the same geographic region as the existing 408 area code in what is called an area code overlay. Starting Saturday, customers may dial ten digits for any number within the 408. On Oct. 21, a sure-to-be maddening voice recording will remind callers to dial a 10-digit number.

Recently, I was asked to take part in a community stakeholder interview for Cristo Rey High School in San Jose, which is currently going through a feasibility study. The landscape of public and private schools in Silicon Valley looks the same to many as it did in 1980. However, in reality, the new scene is vastly different and rapid change is occurring. One of these changes is a focus on corporate work-study programs.

Norm Mineta, Janet Gray Hayes, Susan Hammer, Ron Gonzales and Reed all took part in Monday night’s installment of the Don Edwards Lecture Series at San Jose State University, and each of the current mayor’s predecessors voiced relief that never in their tenures were they forced to deal with the current mayor’s challenges. A full decade of budget shortfalls, a workforce depleted and demoralized, the loss of the Redevelopment Agency and no certain economic rebound in the future was a tall order in every mayor’s eyes. The never-ending pummeling a mayor experiences—from the press, constituents and colleagues—was reiterated consistently in the talk, which retiring SJSU political science professor Terry Christensen moderated.

In a sign that the city of San Jose has no immediate plans to aggressively add to its workforce, an item on Tuesday’s City Council agenda suggests permanently eliminating 12 positions and adding a new job: Risk manager. Also on Tuesday, the city plans to accept an audit of the police department that says urgent reform is needed regarding the secondary employment of officers. Discussion on the city’s top five priorities in its Economic Strategy Workplan has been deferred to next week.

The “victory” claimed by certain union members by suing the city over the word “reform”—as in “pension reform,” known as Measure B for the June ballot measure—may have actually jeopardized a future tax increase to fund their own jobs. The removal of the wording, “essential city services including neighborhood police patrols, fire stations, libraries, community centers, streets and parks,” was included in the ruling and cannot be used as a way for the city to lure residents into supporting higher taxation.

The office of the Independent Police Auditor, led by retired judge LaDoris Cordell, conducted “unprecedented outreach” in 2011, according to its annual report released this week. As a result, the office received a 26 percent increase in the amount of complaints filed against the San Jose Police Department compared to a year prior. The IPA provided 30 recommendations, some of which were as small as prohibiting tobacco chewing to as large as overhauling Internal Affairs.

The long-awaited work to extend BART from Fremont to Berryessa begins today with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent political officials. The event has been a long time coming, and shovels should enter the ground this afternoon.

The much anticipated San Jose Rotary Club debate between Councilmembers Pete Constant and Ash Kalra did not disappoint. Both Constant and Kalra were spirited advocates for their positions: Constant defending Measure B, the pension “modification” measure; Kalra, a lawyer, presenting the views in opposition. By the end of the debate, to the disappointment of many, it was Kalra who gained the most.

The Sixth District Appeals Court sided in favor of labor unions Tuesday, ruling that Measure B must change the term “pension reform” to “pension modification,” and also alter the way the ballot question is worded. Unless the city appeals the ruling to the California Supreme Court, the ballot measure is set to go before voters June 5.

Starting May 25, it could be against the law in San Jose to smoke a cigarette while sitting in a bar’s outdoor patio, standing outside of one’s apartment door or waiting in line. On Tuesday, the City Council plans to vote on expanding restrictions on where people can smoke, and many at City Hall believe the item will pass with little resistance. According to Joseph Okpaku, Councilmember Ash Kalra’s chief of staff, the new ban would go into effect 45 days after the vote.

As we know, health care costs are escalating at double-digit rates. The continuous high costs are a burden to the self-insured, businesses and government. In San Jose, we have an unfunded health care liability of approximately $1.5 billion. The City of Stockton has been in the news for starting the process of bankruptcy under AB506, and much of their plight is due to the cost of health care benefits. San Jose should implement a incentive/mandatory wellness program in 2012 to reduce the cost of health care.

Santa Clara County’s Democratic Central Committee held a meeting Thursday to sign off on its endorsements for this June’s election, and things got weird. Factions formed when it came time voice support for candidates in each district of the San Jose City Council, and the choices showed a surprising split in the house of labor.

The spillover from Milpitas’ toxic political landscape has finally seeped over to San Jose. On Tuesday, Milpitas councilmember Debbie Giordano requested the city’s attorney investigate council colleague Armando Gomez’s fundraising activities for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. The direction by Giordano seems to be a direct response to Gomez—a senior budget advisor to Reed—targeting a lobbying loophole that he says Giordano and political consultant Vic Ajlouny have taken advantage of.