San Jose Inside

It looks like the lines between the city’s visitors bureau and the labor-business coalition that runs city-owned facilities is being further blurred, if they exist at all. Until very recently, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, a quasi-public, hotel tax–funded organization, and one of the three entities that make up Team San Jose, operated the SanJose.org website.

The site made mention of Team San Jose as an “innovative public-private” partnership between the CVB, South Bay Labor Council and a group of local hoteliers, who joined forces to streamline the process by which out-of-towners can spend their cash.

Sgt. Bobby Lopez, the former San Jose police union president, ignited a firestorm last month when reports surfaced that he boasted of having a spy in the Independent Police Auditor’s (IPA) Office. Now he has hired an attorney and won’t talk.

Two weeks ago, the usually loquacious Lopez announced that he would run for his old job as president of the San José Police Officers Association (POA). Lopez said he believes George Beattie, his media-shy predecessor, is a weak leader.

In an article published by the Mercury News, San Jose State Professor Larry Gerston advanced the argument that huge costs savings could be realized if the county’s many school districts were consolidated.  Great gains could also be achieved if police and fire services were re-aligned countywide.

By Joseph DiSalvo and Pierluigi Oliverio

We are asking San Jose Inside’s readers and bloggers for your generosity.

The devastating fire on July 5 at Trace Elementary School in the San Jose Unified School District has created an extraordinary outpouring of support and giving from across the City of San Jose. According to Karen Fuqua, Director of Public Relations for the district, the citizens of San Jose should be very proud of their contributions to Trace. It is, she says, overwhelming and heartening at the same time.

From time to time I have talked about outsourcing certain city services to save money—so the city can use the money saved on core services we provide to the community. When I first introduced a pilot program for outsourcing park maintenance at the Rose Garden Park in 2007, the council (except for Mayor Reed) shrugged off my idea.  Now, the topic of how to provide services to San Jose residents with limited revenue is being discussed. For example, the city was able to open some of the pools that were due to be closed because the city outsourced to private organizations which are less costly.

The robust Vietnamese press in Silicon Valley has always played by its own rules, and a post on the blog Little Saigon Inside provided a particularly salacious example recently.

The author, Vinh Nguyen, points out that the Vietnam Daily Newspaper went after District 7 City Council candidate Minh Duong before the June primary with articles that accused him of being pro-Communist while boosting long-shot candidate Patrick Phu Le with headlines like “Phu Le Has a Very Great Chance of Being in the Run-off” (Le captured 17.11 percent of the vote to Duong’s 24.07 percent).

Judy Glickman, wife of former Los Gatos Councilman Steve Glickman, may be mounting a run of her own this November.  She has been hitting up local political consultants, shopping for somebody to help her in a race for her husband’s old seat on the clubby Los Gatos Town Council.

Her hubby was often a lone-wolf on the council, battling an otherwise unanimous body on topics ranging from a skatepark (which he favored) to a new public library (which he opposed). After deciding to step down rather than seek a third term last summer, Glickman circulated two 11th-hour initiatives—one to halt the new library project and another to institute term limits on his former colleagues. Both failed

The grand reopening of WET on June 26 turned into a wash after owner Mike Hamod had to shut the party down little more than 24 hours before the fete for the club’s remodeling was to begin. According to Hamod, fixtures being sent from Florida and Chicago did not arrive until Friday afternoon and were unable to get proper city inspection.

Thanks to the miracle of social networking, the 3,000-plus people expected to swarm the corner of South First Street and East San Salvador were alerted that the party was off before a bottle-service-starved riot broke out

Hard to believe that the Mercury News would provide space on its front page (let alone any page) to cover the annual spectacle that is the Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest.  Why would anyone have even the slightest interest in such an exhibition of gluttony?  Unfortunately for us, San Jose gets its name attached to the madness, as the “winner” of the event, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, lives in San Jose.  Why would anyone celebrate this guy?  Is there any way that we can distance ourselves from Mr. Chestnut?

Many times in this weekly post I have opined that the education of all our children is our most important nationally priority. I frequently get chastised on SJI for supporting a system of public education that is perceived as weak and inadequate. There is no doubt in my mind that our public education system is our best path to the ideals that our Founding Fathers dreamed and that we commemorated on Sunday.

Hope your Fourth of July holiday was fantastic. On June 29, prior to the holiday the Council made the final vote for a balanced budget. More than 20 people spoke at the Council meeting and all but one advocated that the Council not outsource janitorial services but rather keep the janitorial staff employed, since they provide an incredibly valuable service. You would have thought janitorial was listed in the city charter by the speakers’ comments.

LaDoris Cordell, San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor, says a study has concluded that there is no spy inside her office.

“I am greatly relieved that the investigation has determined that there are no leaks of confidential information by any member of my staff,” Cordell said at a press conference outside her downtown office this afternoon.

Cordell announced her conclusions in response to a June 9, 2010 article in the San Jose Mercury News. The newspaper claimed that confidential information from inside the IPA’s office had been leaked to SJPD Sgt. Bobby Lopez, the former president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, during his tenure.

By the time this article hits the streets, there likely won’t be a place in the valley to buy a bottle of kombucha tea. Nob Hill on Santa Teresa Boulevard had a few last Friday; Cosentino’s Market on Bascom Avenue had a couple more. Even over the hill in Santa Cruz, grocers expected to run out by the end of the weekend.

It started quietly, about two weeks ago. First, megastore Whole Foods announced it would join roughly a dozen suppliers in stopping sales of all unpasteurized kombucha tea products. The issue: concerns that the fizzy, fermented elixirs may contain more alcohol than the “trace amounts” listed on the label.

Fly noticed a familiar, comely face in the corner of MercuryNews.com last week but was slightly confused to see a blue and orange PG&E logo where Evan Low’s dimple should be.

The trail-blazing, openly gay mayor of Campbell, shilling for PG&E? It turns out to be an ad for the much-maligned SmartMeter Program, the PG&E initiative to replace all old power meters with digital ones supposedly designed to provide more accurate readouts and give customers a better way to monitor their gas and electricity usage.

Fresh off the heels of Spy-PA Gate 2010, Bobby Lopez is throwing his hat in for another run at San Jose Police Officers’ Association president next fall.

Apparently, there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the cop union’s current leadership—and Police Sgt. Lopez’s media-shy predecessor, George Beattie, in particular. There’s been a sense among the POA’s rank and file for awhile now that everything has gone to pot since the never-afraid-to-speak-his-mind Lopez stepped down.