And to think there’s still six more days of crazy before District 8 voters go to the polls. The expensive race between Rose Herrera, Evergreen’s City Council incumbent, and Jimmy Nguyen has had it share of distractions, but now come conflicting allegations over Herrera’s husband attempting to put Nguyen’s campaign signs in a park trash can late Monday night.
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City Council Meetings at Night Would Allow Greater Civic Participation
If you are like the majority of San Jose residents, you probably work during the day and/or are involved in a child’s education at school/home. Your ability to attend a daytime San Jose City Council meeting is limited. For this reason, holding council meetings in the evenings for all issues, not just land use items, would increase public awareness and involvement.
Story of the Week: District 8 City Council Race Approaches $1 Million in Spending
Thursday marked the last filing deadline for campaign disclosure forms and independent committee expenditures before the Nov. 6 election. This means the next 11 days will feature a flurry of campaign spending, the details of which won’t be known until after people go to the polls. One thing that can be said for certain, though, is that the District 8 City Council race between Rose Herrera and Jimmy Nguyen is costing major money. How much? More than $700,000 so far, and it could approach $1 million by the time the election is held.
PTSD Forum at City Hall Wednesday Night
A free community forum on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley and Councilmember Kansen Chu, will take place at 6:30pm Wednesday at City Hall.
How the Council Set Its Priorities
The San Jose City Council met last week to discuss and prioritize certain ordinances the city should pursue in the coming year. Creating an ordinance requires staff time from the department that the ordinance will affect and, as always, time from the City Attorney’s office. In many cases, outreach for ordinances must be done to garner resident and stakeholder input which takes time and staff facilitating the public meetings.
Story of the Week: Milpitas Councilmember Steals Ex-Husband’s Mailbox?
Gadflynoun ˈgad-ˌflī1: any of various flies (as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock2: a person who stimulates or annoys especially by persistent criticism
This story involves definition No. 2, but we’re not here to make fun of a strident citizen in the snarky manner you might expect. No, this Story of the Week focuses on a gadfly getting the best of an elected official. The whole deal is pretty absurd, so, of course, it happened in Milpitas.
San Jose Can Win Battle Against Graffiti
For every big city, graffiti too often presents a Sisyphean challenge. Volunteers and abatement crews diligently work to clean it up—particularly the gang-related tags that most demoralize and threaten residents—only to see the same markings return a couple of days later. Happily, community engagement and innovation have combined to lighten our burden in recent months—with positive results to prove it.
Council to Decide IPA’s Job Status
In closed session Tuesday morning, the City Council will discuss the work of Judge LaDoris Cordell, San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor since April 2010. The discussion between the mayor and 10-member council will focus on whether or not to grant Cordell a 4-year term.
Council Talks Pawn Shops, Ballot Measures
Tuesday’s City Council meeting will feature a fight over the city’s pawn shop ordinance, unforeseen expenses for the Environmental Innovation Center and some political gamesmanship on upcoming ballot measures for the November election.
Council to Talk Corporate Taxes, Graffiti
One of the first actions of Tuesday’s City Council meeting will be a commendation honoring Santana Row’s 10th anniversary. Another will note the heroism of Robert Sotelo, who saved a woman from a burning house. From there, the topics touch on a host of city issues, from deferring a tax break for San Jose’s biggest companies and an updated report on graffiti to a government program to retrain people laid off from Solyndra.
Q&A: City Manager Debra Figone
San Jose Inside’s Josh Koehn sat down with City Manager Debra Figone for a rare extended interview in late August. The following is an excerpted transcript of their discussion, which touched on Measure B, Figone’s relationship with the mayor and council, her thoughts on the performance of Police Chief Chris Moore, crime in San Jose and when she plans to retire. It should be noted that this interview took place before Moore’s announcement that he will retire from his position at the end of January 2013—Editor
All Quiet in East San Jose?
Schools are in sessions, the last days of summer are finally upon San Jose, and all is seemingly quiet after what was one of the most heated few months that the city has known for some time. It seems that the gang violence this summer touched far too many people. Blame is a powerful emotion, but it is not what San Jose needs right now.
Council to End Some Sick Leave Payouts
The city begins its trimming of sick leave payouts at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, when three unions and Unit 99, which consists of the city’s top administrators, agree to end sick leave payouts for any employees hired on or after Sept. 30. This will be a negotiated battle that continues into next year with other labor unions, especially fire and police. Other items on the agenda include some good and bad news for Team San Jose, a pivotal vote on a taxi contract and a councilmember having his status changed for a missed meeting.
Council Talks City Hall Grand Jury Report
The City Council meeting Tuesday will open with a commendation ceremony for local Olympian Martilou “Marti” Malloy, who took bronze in Judo in London, and the Association of Former Vietnamese Political Prisoners for their 25 years of support of Vietnamese political prisoners. But once the council gets down to business Tuesday, the mayor and councilmembers will discuss a Grand Jury report that questions the city’s funding structure and transparency in building City Hall.
Endorsement: Braunstein, Herrera for Council
In the June primary we endorsed Rose Herrera and Robert Braunstein for San Jose City Council seats because they stood out from a field of candidates. As both races moved to runoffs, two surprise second-place finishers emerged: Johnny Khamis in District 10 and Jimmy Nguyen in District 8. We wanted to take a closer look at the second-place finishers before issuing our general election endorsements, and that opportunity came last month at the San Jose Downtown Association’s debate.
Constant Skipped Council Meeting for RNC
The City Clerk plans to retroactively mark Councilmember Pete Constant down as an unexcused absence for last week’s City Council meeting. Unbeknownst to almost anyone, Constant, who was out of the office almost all of August after back surgery, was attending the Repubican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
