San Jose Inside

Assemblymember Nora Campos is apparently that rare politician who just knows what the people want without asking. So, when she relinquishes half a million dollars to the state, rather than having a properly staffed office or conducting outreach services to her constituents, she’s bucking her budget allotments out of a noble sense of duty. That’s the message Campos’ communications director, Steve Harmon, trotted out during an interview with local radio station KLIV 1590 in response to a report Metro/San Jose Inside published last week. A closer inspection of Harmon’s comments, however, show that they don’t pass the smell test.

E-books used to focus on niche topics geared toward small, zany readerships, which made for riveting titles such as Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen or The Hidden Power of Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop. Now e-books cover the gamut, and the Santa Clara County Library District announced this week that it has 46,000 digital titles in its collection, including pop culture favorites like Wolf of Wall Street and 50 Shades of Grey—you know, if you’re into corporate barbarism or Penthouse letters.

San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos has proposed a half-cent sales tax measure so the city can hire more police officers. “Ideally, no one would want to increase taxes,” he writes in a memo going before the Rules and Open Government Committee on Wednesday. “However, this council has worked before on making tough fiscal decisions to increase services to our citizens.”

I participated in last week’s 2014 State of the Valley conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center. One speaker referred to FDR’s concept of “bold, persistent experimentation.” It made me consider how we’ve been addressing our county’s education system, and a recent lawsuit that filed against the county Board of Education.

Valley Health Plan has managed to capture about 3 percent of the Santa Clara County market under Covered California, which is slightly below state levels. Though this figure pales in comparison to enrollment figures reported by the top four major healthcare providers, and it’s not as strong a figure as county officials expected two months away from the end-of-March enrollment deadline, it does represent a comparable market share to other small, local health plans, according to county officials.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider a one-year, $650,000 contract with the San Jose Streets Team, an organization that finds work and housing for homeless people who can and want to work.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That is the mentality of most large bureaucratic institutions, and San Jose State University is no different.

A report issued earlier this week cleared San Jose State University of any wrongdoing in the way it reacted to reports of an alleged hate crime against an African American student on campus last semester. But a closer look at the evidence shows that there were red flags the school failed to notice, according to some members of a task force assigned to review the report.

Dave Cortese came away with the official backing of county Democrats after every other San Jose mayoral candidate withdrew their application for the endorsement. The vote by the Santa Clara County Central Democratic Committee (DCC) came before Forrest Williams decided to drop out of the race. Williams then threw his support behind the county supervisor in his bid for mayor.

Backers of Mayor Chuck Reed’s state pension reform initiative filed a lawsuit this morning to change what they call inaccurate ballot language published by the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris. The only recourse to change a ballot summary in California is in court. And since all signature-gathering to place the measure on the 2014 ballot will stop until the case is resolved, it likely won’t make it to voters for another two years.

As if San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos needed any more inquiries into his shoddy past campaign filings—the guy’s already being investigated by the District Attorney’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

The staff churn in Speaker pro Tem Nora Campos’ office is the talk of Sacramento, raising questions about the assemblymember’s ability to advocate for constituents who’ve been shortchanged by ineffective leadership.

Councilmember Rose Herrera’s plan to ban pot clubs from making political contributions to campaigns comes back to the Rules and Open Government Committee today. Plus, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio wants to make it illegal to declaw cats. And city commentator David Wall says he’s figured out the real story behind the city’s wild pig-shooting ordinance.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted $100,000 to Franklin McKinley School District to fund startup costs to promote collaboration between the traditional public school district and all its charter schools. The possibility that this seed money can lead to a much larger piece of the Gates Foundation Collaborative Compact financial pie is real, and predicated on the effort and results of the start-up phase. Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo says that in order to radically impact student achievement and graduation rates in San Jose, especially for students of color and those living in poverty, we must work with all publicly-funded partners to reach new heights of high achievement for all. Too many efforts and public dollars are going into litigation in the old toxic model of competition between districts and charters.

In a press conference that probably wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t running for mayor, county Supervisor Dave Cortese on Monday lambasted San Jose for cutting fire department staff to the point that paramedics can no longer respond to medical emergencies in time.