Thursday, May 7, 2009

Morning News Round-Up – 5.7.09: The Guvernator is on the line...

Calling MACSA one of “San Jose’s oldest, largest and most politically powerful Latino” institutions the Merc’s Joe Rodriguez investigates the embezzlement of teacher retirement funds. MACSA board president, Louis Rocha, Jr., this week said he was “outraged” and vowed commitment to a “full investigation” and making the teachers whole. The Santa Clara County District Attorney and the Office of Education have asked a state investigative team to dig into "fraud, misappropriation of funds or other illegal fiscal practices.” Meanwhile, this week’s initial meeting between MACSA and investigators was postponed without rescheduling.

The State of California wants to “borrow” $1 Million from Gilroy? The Guvernator wants to take from Gilroy, and other cities, more than $2 Billion in local property taxes. Ouch.

Gilroy’s unions could be facing a public vote on binding arbitration if the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce has its way. Chamber president Susan Valenta said it was a “very innocent request, so there wasn't anything that would or should cause any problems.”

The Gilroy Union School District is under the watchful eye of Standard & Poor’s all because of the clerical screwup that left payment of Measure J off this years property tax bill.

Mountain View’s city council will be adding fees and cutting services in an attempt to fix the $6 million deficit. Councilmember Laura Macias argued against raising fees for preschool. Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga disputed Macias position that it was low income families using the preschool services and said the fee increase was ok. Cat fight?

The Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition showed off a little this week with the grand opening of senior housing in Mountain View. The dreaded words “affordable housing” didn’t seem to correlate with the $31 million remodel.

Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino has teamed up with Jim Wunderman of the Bay Area Council to encourage CEO’s (and others) to ditch their cars and bike to work. May 14 is the date for the annual CEO/Celebrity Cycle-To-Work-Day Challenge – watch out for local celebrities as they navigate to work next week.

Palo Alto’s College Terrace neighborhood wishes Stanford students and employees would bike to campus. Neighbors are sick of non-resident cars clogging the streets and have demanded permit parking.

Santa Clara County firefighters rolled to Apple Computer this week to when a white powdery substance was left in the cafeteria. Sorry, kids, looks like your motivation has left the building… Oh, Apple wants to buy Twitter, (apparently) so does Google.

Gilroy’s rapist/teacher Alberto Vicuna, Jr. gets a slap on the wrist for his nine sex crimes. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Ray Mendoza said he did not charge Vicuna with rape because he didn’t think the jury would believe the girl was forced.

As if it’s not bad enough just going to the dentist… San Jose dentist Benva Lazar pled guilty to groping patients, claiming he needed to do a breast exam to ensure their health.

Metro/San Jose Insider Erin Sherbert reports the Santa Clara Valley Water District has, at long last, selected a CEO. Beau Goldie fills the 18 month vacancy created when former CEO Stan Williams was forced out for his own hiring screwup.

San Jose Revealed lets loose with a few Quick Notes
  • The Merc puts a personal face on low wage earners being dumped by San Jose.
  • Accusations that Mayor Chuck Reed is trying to keep councilmember Nora Campos out of next years mayoral race. Yawn.
  • Following up on the Earthquakes, declaring Revealed is right.

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