San Jose Inside

Like just about everyone else, I am glad that we have a new regime at City Hall in the mayor’s office and on the council. However, in the euphoria of the demise of the old and arrival of the new, we shouldn’t forget one of the biggest accomplishments of the past few years: the Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library joint venture between the city and San Jose State University and the process that is creating the new and vastly improved San Jose library system. This is a legacy worth celebrating.

Members Pair Up To Tackle Ambitious Timeline

Immediately after putting his mayoral transition team together, Mayor-elect Chuck Reed paired up the 67 participants into two-member teams on Thursday night, with the express understanding that they would each accomplish one Reed Reform before the end of January.

“This was genius, one of the reasons the voters chose to put Mr. Reed in office,” said Reed Chief of Staff Pete Furman.  “There are 34 of these damn things and we can use the help.”

As much as I wanted to write this week about Thanksgiving, the Notre Dame–USC game, or the new James Bond movie, Monday’s article in the Mercury News, concerning the Reed transition, contained one set of comments that I could not ignore.  They came from the mouth, if not the mind, of Ms. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, leader of the South Bay Labor Council.  In them, she decried the “divisiveness” that could creep into the Transition Committee of Mayor-elect Chuck Reed, and her fear that “old families” would return to hegemony in our city.  It would be easy to let this set of vacuous comments go unanswered but, somehow, the lecturing of a person who just had her agenda, her candidates and her attempts to control the city repudiated in a historic rout, called out for a response. (It was almost as if Rummy began to lecture us now on military tactics for our future success in Iraq, or Kissinger—ah, but that’s another blog.) Such advice from Ellis-Lamkins falls not from weight but from absurdity. 

But Poignant Personal Letter Gives Sage Advice

After a landslide victory by the Reed reformist movement over the incumbent machine of Chavez, Gonzales, Labor, the Democratic Party, lobbyists, Coyote Valley land developers, the city council, county supervisors, former mayors Hammer, Mineta, Hayes, former president Clinton, and just about everyone else except for the voters, outgoing mayor Ron Gonzales rose above bitterness, the referendum on his administration, and depositions to write a personal and heartfelt letter to his successor.  It is full of advice and exposes a human side of the Mayor that was seldom seen.

There was a time when a small clique of special interest developers trying to buy the mayor’s office would elicit outrage and indignation.  Perhaps that time has passed because it is happening right now and nothing is being said about it.  In recent days, we have seen the few interests who own properties in the Coyote Valley make one of the most brazen attempts at a land grab since the Oklahoma land rush. They—billionaires, Republicans, and out-of-town companies and law firms—have poured donations in $25,000 increments and higher into the local Democratic Party political apparatus.  Some of these individuals still write in Herbert Hoover for President, so ardent are their conservative leanings, but here they stand shoulder to shoulder with the most aggressive proponents of a very ambitious labor agenda. It is obvious that this “unholy alliance” of greed and hubris is trying to buy the office of mayor.  If Cindy Chavez disagrees with such tactics, she has not shown it and her silence speaks very loudly.

Well, it looks like a clean sweep for Chuck Reed in his quest to become mayor of San Jose. Yesterday, the Mercury News endorsed Reed and commented that his back-to-basics emphasis and antipathy to insider politics will strengthen the city. No doubt. What was a bit surprising is their additional opinion of both Cindy Chavez and Reed “that either could be a good mayor.” 

In a day when the city council spent over $200 million (including the recently “discovered” $34.1 million surplus) on airport construction, cleaning up Watson Park and other items, they also threw the Rep Theater a lifeline that may save it from certain death, just in the nick of time. Because of the way the deal is structured, it remains to be seen whether the theater will be financially fit enough to survive, but I believe that it is a good start.

A lead story in the Mercury News this week stated the obvious in its headline that pointed to the axiom that growth will be crucial in the San Jose mayor’s race.  That was fine, as far as it went, but not far enough in charting some of the nuances in this election.  It is more instructive in what it did not say. A few years ago, a race for the presidency was won by the simple rejoinder “it’s the economy stupid.” Well, here in San Jose, we can just as easily say, “it’s the General Plan dummy!” 

Mark Twain once said that when people start talking about religion, he always grabbed a firm hold on his wallet. So, too, it is with some discussions of “constitutionality.” I was very sorry to see that a federal judge threw out San Jose’s law concerning limits on independent expenditures. It can only mean more money and more sleaze in local campaigns. The Chamber of Commerce should feel more than a hint of shame at its disingenuous primary assault on Cindy Chavez and the subsequent censure by the Ethics Board, San Jose Mercury, just about every other politician running for office, and many of the Democratic establishment lemmings who are so fearful of Chuck Reed and any other independent voice that might crack their hold on power. Why didn’t the chamber just fall back on the truth and call it what it was? For the time being, the chamber avoided being indicted by the Hague War Crimes Tribunal. Of such small victories, are our municipal values formed.

Have you ever heard the expression that someone “looks good on paper?”  When it comes to our current, soon-to-be-official lame-duck mayor, Ron Gonzales, he looked quite good on paper when he first started his career as a politician.  He served in the private sector working with schools; he was a smart businessman, a devoted husband, well-educated and the first Hispanic mayor in San Jose since 1850.  But, after years in office, his career and life have taken a turn and he is now one of those politicians that look very bad on paper. Hmmm, let’s see—censured by the city council, arrested and charged with felonies, an affair with his 25-year-old intern and, now, a laughing stock.  Need I kick the guy more while he’s down?

The news this weekend, that the San Jose Repertory Theatre is looking for a $1 million bailout, brings up a lot of issues for debate and questions that need to be answered.  Is the city constantly putting money into things that they don’t monitor?  Why the shock and surprise of the city council on the financial problems of the theatre, one of the premier performing companies in the country? Has there really not been any improvement in communications with and within City Hall? Norcal redux, anyone?

You know that the situation is a bad one when your choice is to give a contract to an indicted and decidedly unscrupulous garbage company, who has a reputation that smells to high heaven, or take the chance of garbage piling up in the driveways of San Jose’s residents. There is no good alternative.

How did we get here? There has to be some answers.

SanJoseInside.com has acquired a previously sealed mayoral grand jury testimony and posted a partial transcript below.

The testimony begins with Deputy District Attorney Julius Finkelstein questioning Mayor Ron Gonzales about his role in the Norcal deal.  WARNING: it is shocking, sometimes offensive but mostly sounds like Aaron Sorkin’s movie A Few Good Men.

One of the greatest and most memorable pleasures of my youth was learning to swim and dive and spending each summer immersed in the local public pool in my small southern California hometown where the temperature often exceeded 90 degrees. This is probably a very common memory of baby-boomers who grew up in our state. For me, this love of swimming has followed me through life into near-decrepitude and I can’t imagine my life without it. Unfortunately, the youth of our city do not currently have the same opportunity.

Launches Verbal Tirade at City Staff

During a quick trip to San Jose to promote his next movie “The Passion of the Buzz,” actor Mel Gibson stopped off at City Hall to make his feelings known about what he called a “bogus” San Jose city staff recommendation to renew the Norcal contract.

As I wrote last week, in an enjoyable foray into Civil War analogies (politics is a bit like war, you know), Chuck Reed has the high ground, forging a campaign of principles and clarity and fiscal responsibility. Yet, the ground can shift treacherously, increasing uncertainty from a primary to a general election. The bones of many contenders and future winners lie bleaching in the suns of an expanded electorate’s changing views between June and November.