As expected, there was much written about San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s gambit to force the Baseball Commissioner’s hand on the A’s move to San Jose. SF Chronicle sportswriter Scott Ostler led with the headline, “Mayor Gives Selig An Old-Time Hotfoot.”

Anybody who has met Aaron Resendez can attest to his aura of sincerity and old-school charm. A longtime community leader who has dedicated his life to the East Side, this is a guy who, during his unsuccessful run for a District 5 council seat in June, visited the ill father of competitor Magdalena Carrasco in the hospital, just to say ‘hi’ and offer support. What a decent dude. That may be why Resendez is so worked up about that public spat he had with Ryan Ford out in front of San Jose City Hall back in May.

It came as a big surprise to almost everyone, including Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig: Mayor Reed’s decision to go forward on the downtown baseball stadium.  Is Reed’s push a smart move that will demonstrate the city’s commitment to host a major league team, or is it a desperate move that will destroy the chances to bring the A’s to San Jose? UPDATED

SJPD Chief Rob Davis announced today that he will retire after 30 years on the San Jose police force. Mayor Chuck Reed released a brief message thanking Davis for his service.

Fly noticed a familiar, comely face in the corner of MercuryNews.com last week but was slightly confused to see a blue and orange PG&E logo where Evan Low’s dimple should be.

The trail-blazing, openly gay mayor of Campbell, shilling for PG&E? It turns out to be an ad for the much-maligned SmartMeter Program, the PG&E initiative to replace all old power meters with digital ones supposedly designed to provide more accurate readouts and give customers a better way to monitor their gas and electricity usage.

Thirty minutes before the San Jose City Council went into closed session to decide whether to impose a 10 percent pay cut on public employees, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio addressed the large group of union members and other citizens gathered for the meeting.

“If you’re angry, it’s ok to be angry,” Oliverio said, “because the system is all screwed up.”

Last Tuesday, the City Council decided to delay its vote on the 10 percent wage cut for city employees, after five unions provided a counter-offer that they claimed would be the equivalent of the proposed cut.

However, after studying the offer, City Manager Debra Figone and City Attorney Richard Doyle determined that it was unacceptable. Figone recommended the city impose the cuts and implement the Mayor’s budget proposal.

The motion passed on an 8 to 3 vote, with council members Pyle, Kalra and Campos opposing. The Council deferred action on wage and benefit concessions with the five labor unions until the Council meeting of Tuesday, June 22.

Fly finds it ironic that many of the local leaders who supported last week’s City Council vote to denounce Arizona’s harsh new illegal-immigration law themselves do business in the Copper State—whether they are aware of it or not.

It turns out that Madison Nguyen, who sponsored the resolution, hosts her re-election website http://www.madisonnguyen.com with the Phoenix-based iPower Inc.

It is the City of San Jose’s process that City Manager Debra Figone puts forth a budget proposal in May. Then, after that is released, councilmembers make their budget proposals to Mayor Chuck Reed.

When the Councilmembers make written suggestions of their “budget wants,” they also need to include what funding source within the city will be affected (some written suggestions from councilmembers are done in collaboration with labor unions).

Then, the Mayor takes into consideration the City Manager’s budget proposal and the Councilmember’s suggestions, and comes up with a final budget. 

Of course, a mayor could put together their own budget without this input, but it is customary that the mayor takes other perspectives into consideration. 

The 2009-2010 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury today released a 33-page report titled Cities Must Rein in Unsustainable Employee Costs that says, “Employee costs are escalating in the cities of Santa Clara County, revenues are not keeping pace with these increases and cities are cutting services.” The Grand Jury looked at rising wages, health insurance, pensions, and vacation, holiday, and sick leave and made recommendations to control costs.

Last Thursday, Fly was intrigued by the “No Parking” signs up and down a three-block stretch of South First Street—right in front of Metro’s office—as they purported to be clearing the area for a movie called Church Girl. That vaguely pornographic contraction turns out to be short for I’m in Love With a Church Girl, a Christian film starring Jeffrey Atkins, better known as Ja Rule. Fly immediately buzzed off hoping to “holla, holla,” (as Ja Rule implored us to do in his big hit).

Last week, Mayor Chuck Reed entered into a very Chamber of Commerce–friendly wager with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley: If the Sharks lose the series against the Blackhawks, a basket of the finest San Jose–made foods and beverages will arrive on Daley’s desk; if the Sharks win, Reed will be elbow deep in Eli’s Cheesecake and Vienna Beef.

And whether or not this currency is anywhere near as interesting as the classics—first-born sons or freshly shaved heads—the list Reed came up with was weak sauce.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed seems to be headed for a showdown with the city’s unions over the way union pay negotiations are settled. In a May 5 San Jose Rotary Club speech, Reed called publicly for a revision of the City Charter in an audacious move to wrest power away from the unions representing the city’s firefighters and police force. Harking back to his days as a labor lawyer, Reed pointed to a clause in the Charter that forces the city into binding arbitration if and when negotiations with the unions break down.

Things seemed pretty rosy back in 2007. Sure, the city was running a deficit, but the economy seemed solid enough for City Councilmembers to vote themselves a 20 percent raise, upping their salary from $75,000 to $90,000. After all, many city employees were earning more than them. Then came the crash. Then came the overwhelming deficit. Then came the pink slips and the pink slips and the pink slips—1,300 of them this month alone.

The Mayor has already asked city employees to take a 10 percent, across the board pay cut, noting that the average salary for city workers is now $88,000 (yes, average), just slightly less than City Councilmembers make.

In a recent letter to the Mercury News, San Jose resident Pirouz Maghsoudnia questioned the wisdom of giving a public subsidy to a baseball franchise in these troubled economic times.  “The City of San Jose…does not have money to fix its streets, cannot provide police and fire protection for its residents or keep its libraries open, but has millions to bring a baseball franchise to downtown.”  Maghsoudnia points out that taxpayers are being asked to prepare for service cuts while the city is selling assets for $20 million to assemble the lot for the stadium.

On the back of the surprising endorsement of Sheriff Laurie Smith’s challenger Richard Calderon, Mayor Chuck Reed made the less shocking decision to back District Attorney Dolores Carr in her bid for re-election. As he did when endorsing Calderon, he cited her work with the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force. “She’s been personally engaged in the issues. She doesn’t just send someone to the meeting who sits there and does nothing,” he says.

Having bewildered city-hall watchers earlier this week with his endorsement of long-shot sheriff candidate Richard Calderon, Mayor Chuck Reed may be getting ready to do it again—by throwing his support to District 9 council candidate Larry Pegram. Though Reed has yet to come out publicly for the former councilmember and conservative Christian activist, Fly hears that political consultant Victor Ajlouny has been strongly hinting to ChamberPAC members that the mayor has Pegram’s back in the race. Not coincidentally, Ajlouny is working for Pegram, as well as Reed and Calderon.