San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
Fresh off what may have been the biggest victory of his political career, Mayor Chuck Reed last week decided to immediately blow some of his hard-earned political capital, endorsing the conservative Christian council candidate Larry Pegram.
Unless Fly is missing something, the timing of the mayor’s announcement couldn’t have been worse. In recent years, Pegram has been San Jose’s most high-profile anti-gay activist. He campaigned locally for the ban on gay marriage, without success.
Mayor Chuck Reed officially endorsed District 9 candidate Larry Pegram today. “Larry does not shy away from standing up for the residents of the district over special interests,” Reed is quoted as saying in a campaign press release that came out this morning. “I need his help at City Hall in the difficult budget years ahead.”
In the endorsement, Reed made a point to mention that he believes Pegram’s history as Christian conservative leader and head of the Values Advocacy Council would not be a factor if he is elected to San Jose City Hall.
One of the shockers to come out of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ budget hearings last week was the decision to return control of the county jails to the Sheriff’s Department. The two were separated like bad children back in 1987, after then-Sheriff Robert E. Winter was brought to court by inmates and accused of overcrowding in the jails while the jails hemorrhaged money. In a deal orchestrated by the then-Supes’ chairwoman, now-Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, the county wrested control from the sheriff and created the Department of Corrections.
In an unannounced but unsurprising appearance before the Hall of Justice in San Jose today, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen stood with Lauren Chief Elk to denounce what they said was a bad decision by the DA’s office not to test evidence recovered in the 2007 De Anza rape case.
Chief Elk was one of three female soccer players who reportedly pulled an intoxicated 17-year-old “Jane Doe” from a room at a party attended by members of the De Anza College baseball team, where she was allegedly being gang raped. They were joined today by other rape victims.
With all the problems he’s had with Rob Davis, police auditors and police-community relations during his term, the last thing San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed would seem to be equipped to do is weigh in on the management of another law enforcement agency. But that’s exactly what he did this week. Reed has endorsed long-shot Sheriff candidate Richard Calderon, becoming the first mayor anyone can remember to endorse the challenger to a sitting sheriff. Which has left everyone scratching their heads.
Lt. Jose Salcido will be leaving the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office after more than three decades to become a senior policy advisor to San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Salcido is currently the sheriff’s liaison to the county Department of Corrections and has taken out papers to run for sheriff. The mayor, who has known Salcido for 12 years, says the new appointee will be doing “community outreach’ on “community issues” and will advise him on law enforcement policy issues.
Speculation has run thick that San Jose will one day see a political showdown between Council rivals Sam Liccardo and Pete Constant in a race for mayor. Perhaps that’s just wishful thinking among people who can’t wait to watch the two pols go at it. But here’s a new twist. Fly just caught wind that Constant is entertaining the idea of running for Santa Clara County Sheriff instead.
City Hall Diary
Open space is a very important quality-of-life issue. With so much development happening everywhere, we need to remember to include open space in our plans. I attended two outdoor events this week that reminded me about how important open space is, especially where there are trees. Both of the events were located in pristine areas.
When we launched this site on January 9th, we did so because we wanted to create a space for people to come to and discuss what’s really going on in this city. We opened our doors to the public (so to speak) and hoped to get a response.
One month later, I’m proud to report that… the state of San Jose Inside is strong!
Full-service satellite locations are open Monday, but closed on Election Day while 50 drop-off sites are available.
Just as we predicted in March 2012, a Sicilian American, Bellarmine-educated attorney was elected mayor of San Jose this week. As of 2am, Sam Liccardo held a 2-percent lead over Dave Cortese.
