UPDATED at 6pm.
Councilwoman Nora Campos fired off a letter to Mayor Chuck Reed this morning blaming him for furthering the distrust between the community and the San Jose Police Department. Campos points out that the mayor never disclosed the fact that Chris Constantin, the newly appointed Independent Police Auditor, has a brother who is a homicide detective in the police department.
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Council Selects Insider to Audit Police
POSTED APRIL 14; UPDATED APRIL 17: IPA appointee’s brother is a San Jose Police officer, a fact not revealed at the time of his appointment. More inside.
San Jose City Council unanimously voted to appoint city hall insider Chris Constantin as the city’s new Independent Police Auditor. Constantin currently serves as the Senior Program Performance Auditor in San Jose’s City Auditor’s Office, where he’s overseen recent reviews of police and other public safety programs.
Jude Barry: Back to Blogging
Jude Barry, the ultimate San Jose Insider and longtime statewide political player, posted a cool piece this week on CalBuzz—the new blog hosted by former Merc politics editor Phil Trounstine and former Chron editor Jerry Roberts.
Liccardo’s ‘Dear Friends’ Letter
NOTE: San Jose City Council member Sam Liccardo is circulating this letter in response to allegations that he illegally accepted tickets to a Sharks game.
Dear Friends,
I ran for office on a platform of open government and honest communication with my constituents. That means acknowledging when I am wrong, as well as standing up for what I believe is right. Since taking office in January 2007, I have relied on this newsletter to provide information to neighbors about what is happening at City Hall and how that affects each of you. Today, however, I write to provide background about a story that has been in the media over the past week, regarding my improper acceptance of free admission to two hockey games.
Walking in Cesar Chavez’s Footsteps
Last week, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved an official Cesar E. Chavez walkway, a five-mile route beginning downtown at the park named after the civil rights hero who founded the United Farm Workers of America. The route will continue east all the way down Santa Clara Street, almost to 680, and then south before looping back up and around to the Mexican Heritage Plaza.
End Bullying in Schools
President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama have had an enormous amount of face time on television since the Inaugural on Jan. 20. Just in the last few days we have seen the president ESPN, Jay Leno, and 60 Minutes and Michelle in the White House garden.
Let me softly suggest that the First Couple use their popularity to squelch the insidious and growing problem with schoolyard bullying
Task Force Forces the Issue
When Mayor Chuck Reed and his City Council allies created the Public Intoxication Task Force back in October, they put its members on a tight leash. The Task Force, created in response to community members outraged over the large number of Latinos arrested for being drunk in public, predictably demanded full access to arrest reports, as well as a greater scope and extended timeline so they could get down to the bottom of this issue. Members of the group soon began to feel stonewalled by city leaders—and let them know it.
The Ethnic Media Awards
Last Friday night I went to something that seems almost counterintuitive these days given the decline of their industry—a celebration for journalists. The Northern California Ethnic Media Awards, held in San Francisco, honored the various faces and forms of ethnic media outlets—the Sing Toa Daily’s investigation on SRO’s, Allianza’s photo essay on Oaxacan migrants, the Nichi Bei Times full issue on the concept of “mixed race.”
The SF/SJ MerChronicle
When the Hearst Corp threatened, on Feb. 24, to shutter the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News reported the announcement with hook-line-and-sinker-swallowing gullibility in a story headlined: “S.F. Chronicle may cease operations.” Now, it seems, the Merc‘s owner is prepared to come to the rescue.
Lew Wolff: Bye-Bye Oakland
You read it here first: The A’s are coming to San Jose. “Lew Wolff knows San Jose. He’s made major investments in our downtown and knows that a ballpark at the right site will be a major boon to San Jose’s downtown and citywide economy.” That’s from a column by Jude Barry, written for SJI four years ago—on Jan. 11, 2005.
In recent weeks, our friend Jude’s prediction has come closer and closer to fruition, and today the A’s may have taken one more step toward a move to the South Bay.
Fraternity Life & Death
Junior Johnson’s Sigma Chi brothers are mourning his apparent suicide, while his mother says they killed him
On the afternoon of Nov. 22, 2008, 20-year-old Gregory Marcel Johnson Jr. was discovered dead in the basement of the Sigma Chi fraternity house in downtown San Jose. He was found hanging from a ceiling water pipe, a noose fashioned from 14-gauge heavy-duty electrical cord wrapped around his neck twice.
Maldo’s Conceit
Let’s hope Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) has reconnected with some old high school friends on Facebook. They might be the only people who will talk to him anymore. Two weeks ago the state senator, whose district runs from Santa Barbara County to the Almaden Valley and Los Gatos, alienated pretty much everybody on both sides of the aisle by refusing to vote for the state budget until he’d extracted a concession on open primaries.
On Deck
Now that the City of Fremont has struck out, it’s San Jose’s turn at bat to try and lure the Oakland A’s to town. Or is it? Last week, A’s owner Lew Wolff asked San Jose city officials to essentially calm down, and refrain from contacting Major League Baseball about moving the A’s to San Jose. “Such contacts are not recommended,” Wolff wrote in an e-mail to San Jose’s mayor.
As everyone probably knows, the San Francisco Giants’ territorial rights to Santa Clara County stand in the way of an A’s move to San Jose. But…everyone has their price. How much do you suppose it would take for the Giants to relinquish their claim to Santa Clara County?
Will the Bay Area Become A One-Newspaper–Company Region?
In the wake of Hearst Corp.’s threat to close the San Francisco Chronicle, some analysts are speculating that the Bay Area’s largest and oldest newspaper might join the ranks of Dean Singleton’s MediaNews empire—which includes the San Jose Mercury News and virtually every other newspaper in the region.
On The Corner Music
Aside from Taco Bravo, the Recycling Center on McGlincy Lane and that large bear on top of Campbell Automotive, the other primary attraction in Campbell is a curious little bastion of activity called On the Corner Music. Located—you guessed it—on a corner at 530 E. Campbell Avenue, this little record shop offers an eclectic selection of vinyl LPs, and regularly stages art openings, parties and happenings, the latest of which goes down this Friday.
City of Cowards
Two weeks ago, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder scolded the nation stating that we are a “nation of cowards” when it comes to addressing issues of race. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards…”
I agree. Too few of us have the courage to speak out about the issue of illegal immigration for fear of being branded a racist or a xenophobe. The subject of illegal immigration and/or immigration reform has become the new “third rail” of American politics (touch it, and you die).
