Morning News Round-Up -- 9.23.09: City Managers in the News... (and plastic bags too)

San Jose’s Mayor Chuck Reed offered to “step out and take the lead in the South Bay to eliminate the scourge of plastic bags” at a press conference before the San Jose City Council officially said no to plastics. Councilmember Sam Liccardo offered San Jose could be the tipping point as nearby Mayors were waiting for San Jose to ban the bag. Tim Shestek of the American Chemistry Council complained San Jose simply hadn’t tried hard enough to recycle the millions of bags that find their way to the Bay. Watch Dog spies have sent numerous tips as to the lobbying effort that the Chemists (unsuccessfully) put up on the 18th floor... A tongue-and-cheek snippet from the funniest tip: "It took a team of lobbyists to get Pete Constant to vote NO."

The press from (former/fired) San Jose Independent Police Auditor Barbara Attard’s loan for a San Jose pied-à-terre was on the minds of San Jose’s City Council as they said they want to approve all home loans in the future. They might want to ask if the person they are providing the loan to is actually going to live in the home for which the loan was made...

(Former) eBay CEO Meg Whitman held her “official” candidate coming out party far from home. Whitman hit the trail in Orange County to promise an immediate RIF (reduction in force) of state employees. It sounds an awful lot like "blowing up boxes"...

This may be the busiest press week in Palo Alto City Manager James Keene's life...

• Union employees in Palo Alto are taking the Guvernators lead -- they’ve given themselves a furlough day to save the City money. City manager James Keene is pissed saying employees don’t get to just say “we’re not coming to work today” and called the employee-generated furlough a strike. You say furlough, I say strike... you say tomAto, I say tomato... tomAto tomato, furlough, strike... let's call the whole thing off...
• Meanwhile, other Palo Alto employees aren’t talking to each other. Public Works employees “ignored” Planning Department directions and chopped down 63 trees along California Avenue. An embarrassed City Manager James Keene apologized and promised to do better while Public Works Director Glenn Roberts called it “unacceptable.”

From Palo Alto to Morgan Hill, the City Managers in the News theme continues...

• Morgan Hill attorney Ben Tichinin’s lawyer Steven Fink said “the First Amendment doesn’t just protect acts of chivalry, it protects the weirdos and the loonies…” Yep, he was talking about his client's predilection for spying on Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes.
• Ed Tewes landed in the news a second time as Morgan Hill struggles to balance the budget, deal with (likely) layoffs, and unhappy unions.

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro celebrates San Jose’s roots as part of the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. Pizarro (hopes to) rub elbows with Benjamin Bratt, Joan Baez, Los Lobos, Mariachi Cobre, Carlos Santana, and Linda Ronstadt while tapping his toes.

Mountain View Whisman Trustee Fiona Walter said her “wish and planning would be is we keep class sizes as small as we can…” as the District faces $1 million cuts from the State (and more to come) and new school boundaries. From your mouth to Sacramento's ears Trustee Walter...

San Jose Insider/Metro columnist Gary Singh rehashed his Saturday visit to Soccer Silicon Valley’s honoring of Earthquakes/A’s owner Lew Wolff. Singh wasn’t moved by Silicon Valley Leadership Group Carl Guardino’s “sappy” introductory speech. We were...

Assemblymember Paul Fong must be quaking in his boots. Mission City Lantern broke the news that anti-49ers fans at Santa Clara Plays Fair have accused Fong of voting for State Senator Elaine Alquist's bill because of “moneyed interests."