San Jose Inside

Few classified the pension reform debate in San Jose as partisan. Only one member of the 10-person City Council—Pete Constant—is a registered Republican. But in the lead-up and aftermath of voters decisively passing Measure B, which will cut back public employee retirement benefits if it withstands legal challenges, Mayor Chuck Reed took at least four interviews last week with FOX News and its affiliates, leaving his media calendar a little less than fair and balanced.

The California Teacher’s Association and its parent, the National Education Association, must pay close attention to the will of the voters from last Tuesday’s election. The election results on a local and national level tragically predict that middle-class jobs will continue to erode in America. This is primarily due to the public assault on public employee unions. The teaching profession is one of the strongest and largest categories of public employee unions and middle class jobs in the nation, especially for women. The profession must win back the voters’ sympathy before it is too late.

From 1976 to 1991, I served as police chief of San Jose. I was never a member of, nor represented by, the Police Officers Association and was not included in the Police Retirement Fund. I do not collect a pension from San Jose and have no vested financial interest in whether or not the Pension Reform Ballot Measure passes. I do firmly believe, however, that the issue of pension reform has been unfairly framed for discussion against the legitimate interests of the police and the public.

It is time to announce the awards for best actor and best actress in local government for the “Pension Reform in Name Only” category. Our winners, councilmembers Nancy Pyle and Don Rocha.

The thriving arts scene in San Jose appears to be helping the local economy rebound from the recession. The San Jose nonprofit arts sector provided more than $122 million in economic activity, according to the “Arts and Economic Prosperity IV” study released by the city Friday.

It’s not often a press release from a government official includes quotes with exclamation points and all CAPS. Apparently, Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith either has an overly excited stenographer or he’s mad as hell with the city of San Jose and he’s not gonna take it anymore.

In one of the biggest blunders in recent local politics, city officials admitted this week that they provided false information to organizers of the Save San Jose Libraries initiative regarding the number of signatures needed to place a measure on the November ballot. As a result, the initiative—an effort that has been in the works for more than year—is unlikely to make it to voters.

The legal battle everyone expected over Measure B’s passage began Wednesday, as the city filed for a federal judicial review (a.k.a. “declatory relief”) and attorneys representing police and firefighters unions filed two lawsuits in state court. All of this will take months, if not years, to resolve, so we’ll focus on some of the more interesting commentary surrounding the legal battle.

Lost in the exaggerated numbers of Tuesday’s primary election vote totals is this very frightening reality: Less than 8 percent of the electorate is all it takes to amass political power in our county. And if there is money to push an issue, it’s becoming almost impossible to stop millionaires and multinational corporations from getting what they want.

A slap shot from HP Pavilion, through Guadalupe Park and into the neighboring creek bed, a rooster makes its home. He lives among shopping carts, deflated tire tubes and toilet paper rolls, empty beer cans and coolers, a Negro Modelo sign lodged in the fresh mud and a half-dozen people who spend their nights sleeping in tents. Karen Ellfson is one of these people. She lives here with her husband. At 30 years old, a month shy of her next birthday, the Morgan Hill native knows that in two weeks she’ll need to find a new home. She’s one of several dozen homeless people with targets on their backs.

Matt Mahood has developed somewhat of a rock star reputation in his 11 months since coming over from Sacramento to Silicon Valley. But that didn’t stop the Mercury News from taking the 6-foot-6 Goliath to task for attack ads the ChamberPAC put out against San Jose’s District 10 City Council candidate Edesa Bitbadal.The mailers needled Bitbadal for drumming up support from former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales while making an out-of-context reference to Gonzales’ indictment charges before leaving office. No mention was made of the fact that Gonzales was exonerated. But with Bitbadal running third in the District 10 primary, and likely out of the runoff in November, the questions is: was it worth it?

Robert Braunstein and Johnny Khamis will face off against each other for San Jose’s District 10 council seat in November. Khamis pulled an upset over Edesa Bitbadal and won the second spot to run off against frontrunner Robert Braunstein. Bitbadal was a City Hall insider who had been endorsed by former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and City Councilmember Ash Kalra. Braunstein, a television sports personality, had the support of former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery and has aligned himself with Mayor Chuck Reed’s pension reform programs.

Incumbent Kansen Chu won 54 percent of the vote in District 4. Despite a strong challenger in Tam Truong, Chu’s victory means he won’t have to go to a November runoff.

For some, today will be the end of a campaign. For others, today’s election will merely serve as a prelude to a bigger battle. Five City Council seats—the even numbered districts—are up for grabs. We won’t waste time breaking down each of the candidates; you already know where everyone stands. This is an opportunity to play soothsayer on which candidates will wake up Wednesday morning with a smile, knowing their political future still shines bright.

Flummoxed? Outraged? Ineffective? Embarrassed? These feelings are not necessarily compatible all at once. However, when I got a call two weeks ago from Mercury News Education reporter, Sharon Noguchi, I experienced all four emotions at the same time. I was totally mystified that as president of the county Office of Education Board of Trustees I didn’t know the answers to a series of questions she asked to begin the interview.