San Jose Inside

In the interest of making as much information public as possible, here’s the news of the week…

Easter time is always a wonderful season to think about the future and develop new solutions for old problems.  It is also a time to make resolutions and redouble our efforts to do better – a time of rededication and renewal.

When you work at a high level in City Hall you get offered lots of freebies:  game tickets, use of vacation homes, and discounts on expensive birthday gift items.  If you accept something, you have to declare it on an official report.  Then it looks like a bribe, intended or not.  Or you could simply take it and hope that the DA’s office never finds out.  This is a risky move.  (See councilman, former:  Gregory, Terry).  That’s why my personal rule was to politely decline or pay for gifts.  I was good about doing this during my two year’s in the mayor’s office—with one exception.

By Guest Blogger Larry Stone

Regrettably, the San Jose Inside blog is becoming a venue for civic malcontents.  I love downtown San Jose.  In fact, I love cities and vibrant downtowns.  Downtown San Jose is not and will never be a San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Boston, or even a Seattle.  There is a tremendous opportunity for growth and improvement.  Compare downtown San Jose today to when I moved to Santa Clara County 35 years ago; the contrast is simply incredible.  Tom McEnery’s forceful and decisive leadership as Mayor got it started and made it happen.

Calls Vossbrink “Shitty Proofreader” in Staff Meeting Meltdown

The Gonzales era, which in the past few months has been rocked by ethics challenges, scandals, firings, and misspellings and bad grammar, suffered yet another setback after the Mayor threw a major “hissy fit” during a routine staff meeting, reported a source close to city hall.

March is going out like a lion, not like a lamb, with the past week being chilly, rainy and dreary around here.  Let’s see if the news has been the same.

“Every time I try to get out they pull me back in.”  So said Al Pacino playing the aging Michael Corleone while chewing all the scenery he could reach in Godfather Part III.

Move over, Al.

I was excited when I heard that Mayor Ron Gonzales was headed to Spring Training to make his case to Major League Baseball this weekend that San Jose is a major league city.  Then, I went to his website and … gulp … saw the photos.

By Guest Blogger Rick DiNapoli

You will pardon me if I remain seated with hands folded while the city council takes its bows for “resolving” the Cisco-City Hall telecom kerfuffle.

Some Attendees Literally Bored To Death

In an effort to save hundreds of South Bay lives, the County Supervisors voted unanimously to spend $569,000 to install safety padding in the Supervisors’ Chambers.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I just wanted to take this time, as I try to do every week, to point out that not all big stories get broken here at San Jose Inside.  Let’s see what’s been unearthed elsewhere in the last few days.

The 2006 Mayor’s race is shaping up as a strong assault on the current administration of Ron Gonzales by Chuck Reed and the other announced candidate, Dave Cortese. In stark contrast to most of the recent elections for Mayor, it is clear that this race will be a referendum on the Gonzales style and substance, and few punches will be pulled by Reed or Cortese.

Will Los Angeles elect a mayor whose name will be regularly misspelled by school kids, news reporters, and, heaven forbid, bloggers?  Antonio Villaraigosa—yes, correct spelling—could become California’s most notable Latino politician in May.  For a sense of his challenge, let’s jump in our blogospheric time machine and go back to San Jose, 1998.

By Chuck Reed, Guest Blogger

I started trying to make San Jose a great place to live, work and raise a family over 25 years ago but today we face problems that threaten our success.  Some things are broken and must be fixed.  That’s why I am focusing my campaign for Mayor on Honesty, Fiscal Responsibility and Open Government.

“Gesture Necessary to Cover Monthly Nut,” Explains City Manager

In an effort to follow their own “cost-recoupment” policies, the City Manager’s office was forced to direct union workers on the new City Hall project to “stop everything,” and focus all manpower on the installation of 527 state-of-the-art French toll-machines at every office and conference room.