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Park in the Sky or Pie in the Sky?

Planning departments across the USA commonly create “specific plans” and/or “master plans” for certain streets and neighborhoods within a city. San Jose, not unlike other cities, has many of these same plans. Most of the time these plans are put together with the best of intentions, but they end up sitting on a shelf due to their inherent lack of practicality or feasibility.

‘Embarrassed’ Shirakawa Admits Mistakes, Disputes Portions of Media Reports

County Supervisor George Shirakawa issued his first public comments regarding his reported misuse of taxpayer money in an email Wednesday to constituents. In the letter, Shirakawa uses a myth/fact juxtaposition to clear up “a complicated issue that can’t be explained with sensationalized headlines and scandalous printed ‘sound bites.’”

Friends Should Tell Friends When to Resign

A recent Mercury News editorial called on Supervisor George Shirakawa to resign based on the revelations reported by Josh Koehn in the Metro. Shirakawa’s actions included misappropriating taxpayer money, fraudulent reporting of expenses, misuse of campaign donations and failure to file the appropriate financial documents after repeated warnings. It is right and proper the Mercury News came to its conclusion based on the overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. Supervisor Shirakawa should resign. But it is a painful conclusion, because I support George’s political agenda.

Unland Still the Police Union President

Jim Unland had his leadership of San Jose’s police union questioned internally as well as in the press the last couple weeks. But when the Police Officers Association’s election—held over the course of several days—came to a close Tuesday morning, Unland easily retained his position as president of the POA, defeating officer Jon Baker by a wide margin, according to a POA source.

Affordable Housing Study Session

The City Council had a study session last week devoted to affordable housing. The session covered how San Jose could build more affordable housing, even though it has already publicly funded and completed roughly 21,000 such units in years past and has 1,500 additional units currently in the pipeline. As a point of comparison, other cities have done little during the same time period.

POA President Fires Back at Critics

Jim Unland looked exhausted on election night. But that fatigue didn’t last long after the Mercury News reported over the weekend that an upstart member of the police union named Jon Baker was questioning Unland’s leadership of the Police Officers Association.

Takeaways from the 2012 Election

Billions spent nationally, two years of nonstop campaigning and essentially nothing changed. But the outcome of Tuesday’s election will help the economy. Gov. Jerry Brown reigns supreme. People voted to tax themselves and Democrats have super majorities in the legislature. Happy days are here again!

Development Rekindles Small Town Feel

The new, privately developed Willow Glen Town Square held its grand opening party Saturday. The event was well attended by happy residents, eager business owners, loyal patrons, and other local well-wishers who came to celebrate this wonderful new addition to our community. It’s just one example of how mindful, well-planned and executed development has the potential to increase property tax, sales tax and utility tax revenues, as well as the number of jobs available to those seeking employment.

Story of the Week: Police Chief, Others Reimburse County for Shirakawa’s Spending

Metro reported this week that Supervisor George Shirakawa—the top elected official in the county—has been submitting fraudulent expense reports. He has spent thousands of dollars on lavish dinners, alcohol and luxury hotel rooms and rental cars with a county credit card. Amazingly, he avoided detection despite two audits of his county credit card purchases. Many of the people Shirakawa treated to meals were unaware that taxpayers were picking up the tab, and have since sent checks reimbursing the county. This group includes San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore.

Hey, Big Spender: The Shirakawa Receipts

While many Santa Clara County homeowners sweated to pay their semiannual property tax payments in the recession that followed 2008’s economic collapse, and businesses cut back on expenses, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors president George Shirakawa Jr. spent $36,830 of their money on plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, dining and other items—like a television and a $627 glass door mini-fridge that he claims were related to county business—since January 2009. The county’s top elected official broke the $30 dinner spending limit with steaks that cost as much as $102 each (including tax and tip), violated the ban on alcohol purchases and claimed that his meetings with lobbyists, political consultants and friends were official county business. A regular at taquerias, Chinese restaurants, Italian bistros and rib joints, the board’s runaway frequent diner avoided detection by filing a “missing receipt” declaration more than 180 times. Amazingly, Shirakawa never lost the top copy of the receipt—the one with the tip and total—only the slip that details the number of guests and the items consumed.

Mayor Concerned Police Profiling Drivers

Remember when Mayor Chuck Reed received a traffic ticket for not using his turn signal? It seems that story refuses to die a timely news cycle death, as the mayor said in a radio interview this week that he’s concerned police officers are selectively enforcing the law.

Youth Employment and Life Lessons

I remember making minimum wage, $3.35 per hour, when I worked at Burger King during high school. Most of my coworkers were high school students, college students and very few were adults. Prior to my job at Burger King, I had a paper route that, according to my memory, netted out to less than minimum wage. Many of these jobs no longer employ young people in the same numbers, but that does’t mean the city should raise the minimum wage.

Evan Low Accosted for Sexual Orientation

Oktoberfest traditionally serves as Campbell’s annual reminder that people love an excuse to get wasted. But this year, Campbell Vice Mayor Evan Low experienced a whole new level of belligerence, and it’s not clear if alcohol had anything to with an incident that borders on being a hate crime.