Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 7.28.09: Political Impact

Today, we have several stories that may have long-term, political impacts...

There is another weird, but fascinating, turn in the DA Dolores Carr story. Remember, she recused herself from a murder prosecution because her husband was on contract with the victim's family for their civil trial. Now, a judge hearing motions in the case, Judge Joyce Allegro, is also backing away from the case as she, the DA, and the DA's husband are buddies. The most immediate implication of these shenanigans are that the DA may actually get the case taken away from her office and kicked to the State Attorney General... Oops.

Feeling the (not so good kind of) love from the Civil Grand Jury, East Side Union High School (unelected/ twice-appointed) Trustee Eddie Garcia has a whole bunch of questions for Superintendent Bob Nunez's vacation time pay (and probably why the Superintendent asks for reimbursements for coffee)... Watch Dog has to ask: Where was the oversight from Garcia (and his boss) during this spending-spree? Could it be for this exact reason that voters did not vote for an "incumbent" in this District.

The Merc's Scott Herhold rips into his least-favorite government agency today -- the Santa Clara Valley Water District. In the process, he provides a political Profile in Courage-scenario for Water District Board Member (Supervisorial wanna-be) Rosemary Kamei.

Palo Alto's College Terrace Centre took an important step forward yesterday when the City Council approved a requested zoning change for the site. Two "public benefits" that the neighbors were looking for were a JJ&F subsidy and affordable housing. The neighbors are likely to get both -- but also get more office space than they probably wanted.

And if neighbors are super-pissed (or super-happy) with the City Council in Palo Alto, they can let them know in November because Palo Alto's ever-growing list of folks that want to serve on the City Council is ever-growing still. Gregory Scharff (lawyer), Nancy Shepherd ("school activist"), and Brian Steen (land-use consultant) are all throwing their hats in the ring. They join Planning Commissioner Karen Holman, Gail Price, realtor Dan Dykwel, realtor Leon Leong, business-dude Tim Gray, and man-about-town Victor Frost. Oh yeah, current Councilmember Larry Klein is also running. They are all vying for five seats.

One issue these Palo Alto Council wanna-be's won't have to deal with is a big-mouth Police Chief. (In case you forgot why this is an issue in Palo Alto...) The three new Police Chief finalists have been announced: Interim Chief Dennis Burns, Fairfield Police Chief Kenton Rainey, and San Carlos Police Chief Gregory Rothaus.

Young folks in Mountain View are advocating on their own behalf to put a youth center into The Rock Church. Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said discussions on how to use the City-owned church should start in the Fall. (The Rock Church: Is that where Black Sabbath plays?)

The Gilroy Dispatch just noticed the Civil Grand Jury report leaping in to discover Gilroy Unified Superintendent Deborah Flores is paid below most other Superintendent and doesn't get the $48,000 housing allowance that Saratoga Union dishes out.

Onto blogs...

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