Morning News Round-Up -- 5.27.10: Five Twenty-Seven

Ah, the Civil Grand Jury, that upstanding tattle-tale. They came out with a report that stated the obvious: Cities Must Rein in Unsustainable Employee Costs. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed was quick on the draw with a response agreeing that cities must rein in unsustainable employee costs...

With all the fun happening in San Jose's City Council District 5 race, it is easy to forget that there is another tight race on the other side of town for the San Jose City Council District 9 (Judy Chirco's seat)... Jim Cogan is very, very upset (apparently) with the way he is being treated by the newspapers in town and wrote about it on Protect San Jose. He even gets a little Sara Palin folksy on us by using the phrase "darn right" three times in one paragraph...

There a few challenges swirling about the baseball stadium EIR approved by the San Jose Planning Commission last week. The naysayers include the San Jose Sharks (jerks), Stand for San Jose a.k.a. the San Francisco Giants (bigger jerks), and a nearby resident (probably not a jerk)...

You may have heard/ read/ seen/ been in traffic yesterday because of a certain head of state that was in Fremont visiting your $535 million investment (loan guarantee) in Solyndra...

Breath a deep sigh of relief San Jose/Evergreen Community College District fans... they have a new chancellor and a new opportunity to right the ship, hopefully... Note to new chancellor: Let's try to keep the expensive oversees travel in check...

The Mercury News isn't done yet with their June 8th recommendations, and today's isn't going to make the local folks (or the close-to-local folks) very pleased. They endorsed State Senator Gloria Romero for State Superintendent over Assemblymember Tom Torlakson and former Franklin-McKinley Superintendent Larry Aceves.

The Santa Clara County Housing Authority seems to have lost much of its electronic data because of a computer glitch. The cost to replace that information = $600,000 and probably a string of bad stories about poor oversight, etc. And perhaps a story or two about what the Housing Authority actually does might be nice...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.24.10: 4 losses/4 games = Shark's tee times

On Friday night the Sharks lost in overtime. Sunday they gave up a two goal lead to lose by two goals. For those of you counting at home, that's 4 losses in 4 games against the Chicago Blackhawks. And 4 losses in 4 games means tee-times all around today...

We finally have all the Mercury News Editorial Board's recommendations for San Jose City Council... Previously they came out in favor of Magdalena Carrasco over Xavier Campos et al and Don Rocha over Jim Cogan, Larry Pegram et al. Today we get the incumbents, Pete Constant, Sam Liccardo, and Madison Nguyen -- Nguyen being the only one with a real race this time.

It took a few days and seven pages, but Deb Figone, the San Jose City Manager, responded to the City's unions' plans to fix the budget... they aren't enough, too many one-timers, leave me alone at Flame's, etc., etc.

Deb Figone's ongoing battle with the City's unions won't (apparently) prevent San Jose's pools from closing for the summer, which was the original plan. The City is going to contract with some private companies to run the pools for the summer, which is great news... if it ever stops raining. Too bad the same deal couldn't be worked out for Family Camp.

Increasing the VLF. Remember when it used to be considered a political hot potato? That seems quaint now, right? Gray Davis did it and it cost him his job. Governor Schwarzenegger undid, and it cost his budget-balancing billions. San Mateo County (SamTrans) is now considering a local VLF and so is Santa Clara County (VTA) to help with their projects. According to polling, 59 percent of County voters support VTA's VLF $10/ car fee.

Well, the long-awaited investigation into the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District's Chancellor's travel, spending, and general sloppiness has concluded... the results: "We are taking responsibility for not seeing that all policies and procedures were enforced. It will help us doing a better job going forward" -- that according to Ron Lind, who serves on the Community College District Board. Of course, unelecting the Board who is supposed to pay attention to such things would also work.

Dude, that is so uncool... a medical marijuana dispensary was robbed at gun point in San Jose on Thursday. The robbers took the weed and the money off the patients who were in the dispensary at the time. Now the Medical Cannabis Collectives Coalition -- the pot club lobby, if you will -- would like the City of San Jose to hurry the hell up to write an ordinance that would set some security guidelines for clubs...

Steve Johnson at the Merc asked the question that nobody was asking last week when Toyota and Tesla announced their plans for NUMMI: Will Tesla and Toyota create as many jobs as hoped? Well, if you ask San Jose, who was promised jobs from Tesla, they'll probably say OHN...

This must hurt Paul Krutko's ego more than the Tesla thing... the Merc had a story over the weekend about how all the (cool, high-paying) Web 2.0 jobs are going to San Francisco...

Vic Ajouny, the Mayor Chuck Reed's campaign guru (?) is in the Merc's Internal Affairs this weekend about a questionable mail piece he put out for Richard Calderon who is running a quixotic campaign to try to unseat Sheriff Laurie Smith... Are you surprised that people would question Ajlouny's mailers?

In other Internal Affairs news... Pete Constant isn't pedaling stories about his challengers' police records (and if you believe that...) and John Weis, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency's number 2 is leaving town... weird, considering he is the one in charge of putting together the MLB plan for downtown San Jose. Apparently Weis couldn't wait for Bud Selig any longer...

Scott Herhold's column on Sunday gives a glimpse into the legal system about the long-forgotten case of Avo Makdessian/City of San Jose versus Dennis Fong (Tropicana) and a silly (libelous) email that Makdessian sent from City Hall...

A woman driving her SUV on early Saturday morning in Palo Alto was kidnapped, driven to Santa Clara, and sexually assaulted... scary.

You may remember last week when the folks at the Gilroy Unified School District were considering finishing the beautiful new Christopher High School with portables as opposed to a new school wing that was promised when the school bond was passed in 2008... well 100+ folks showed up at a special meeting last week to protest the portables...

Finally, if you have any campaign stuff that you would like to share, we're here for you. Especially copies of mailers that may be interesting for folks to see. We have collected some, but we'd like more: email us.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.20.10: (Drug Free?) Post-Peloton Thursday...

Happy post-peloton Thursday to all of you... except Floyd Landis...

More coverage of the District 5 City Council race in San Jose... this time from Scott Herhold, who acknowledges that all the hoopla about the illegal mailings is backfiring on the idiots who did it, because Carrasco is getting all kinds of coverage on the news, on the radio, and everywhere else. Herhold also doesn't think that Shirakawa is the culprit, but does point out how silly/stupid the Grand Pooba's quotes were earlier in the week...

The Mercury News thinks that story is so important that for a period of time yesterday they posted it twice...

And the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce is putting out a reward for any information about who done it... $5,000 to anyone of the stamp-licking interns who want to turn in their co-conspirators...

Manuel Herrera, another candidate in District 5, chimed in via a Letter to the Editor...

While everyone is focused on fake campaign mailers... there was a murder in the Tropicana parking lot earlier in the week and two folks were found dead due to gun shot wounds in Alum Rock... hopefully the candidates can keep their collective eyes on the ball...

As discussed yesterday, the Planning Commission in San Jose approved an EIR for Major League Baseball in downtown San Jose. There are some interesting things to be concluded by reading between the lines of last night's Planning Commission meeting where the EIR was approved 4-1:

• Thing 1 - Planning Commissioner Chris Platten voted against the EIR,
• Thing 2 - Planning Commissioner Hope Cahan was absent from the proceedings, and
• Thing 3 - Planning Commissioner and City Council candidate Xavier Campos was absent from the proceedings.

According to spies, all three Things are related as all three Planning Commissioners are Labor-allies on the Planning Commission. Perhaps the folks at the Labor Temple are using their support (or opposition) to MLB as leverage in their contract negotiations? That may be, but missing votes (Cahan and especially Campos) is a pretty lame way to go... we wonder where these folks learned the technique of "taking a walk"...

Speaking of EIRs, Stanford's massive development project around the hospital released their draft EIR yesterday... expect lots and lots and lots of community concern, tweaking of the project, and finally the eventual development of the project... welcome to Palo Alto...

It is unlikely that anyone who sees the new plans at Stanford will be underwhelmed, but that was the reaction down the road a bit by the Mountain View City Council who caught a glimpse of the plans for a new San Antonio Center there... that's probably not the reaction the developer Merlone Geier was looking for... On the bright side, it can only get better, right?

The County Superintendent Chuck Weis gets in on the political action in today's Letters to the Editor in the Merc, chiming in on behalf of Larry Aceves for State Superintendent for Public Instruction...

Cupertino is taking a step to make Silicon Valley air a little, (perhaps a lot) cleaner by monitoring more closely the air quality around the Lehigh Cement plant... or is it Lehigh Cement plan, as it read online yesterday...

A pension reform initiative is heading to the ballot in Menlo Park. Could this be a Silicon Valley trend among cash-strapped cities? Chuck Reed has been talking about asking voters in San Jose to vote to do away with the often-expensive binding arbitration...

Silicon Valley has some serious interest in the upcoming Republican primaries for US Senate and Governor. New polls are out together. The first one actually confirms what Steve Poizner said a few weeks back -- that his race against Whitman is tightening... The second has Carly Fiorina leading (slightly) over Tom Campbell, but within the margin of error... (Joey Lucas will explain everything later...)

Finally, the Merc Editorial Board also hands Tom Campbell some bad news... they don't like his less-than-thoughtful stance on Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. "We expected more of Campbell..."

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.3.10: Grade the Mayor!

Sharks win again. Now they are up 2-0 against the Hockey Town Red Wings... As Sharks history proves, this is when it gets exciting.

The Merc's John Woolfolk talked to "friends, foes" about San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's grade for his first year... Woolfolk talked to Chavez (who apparently IS still talking to the paper) who said bad things, Terry Christensen who said pretty good things, Raj Jayadev who said bad things, some average voter-types who said pretty good things, and Supervisor (and loser to Reed in 2006) Dave Cortese who said, "What he promised is what he delivered..." which reads to Watch Dog like a back-handed compliment, considering Cindy Chavez has often criticized Reed for promising very little...

The story about the SJPD beating of Phuong Ho took another turn we learned on Friday. Mr. Ho, the Vietnamese national San Jose State student filed a federal lawsuit against the San Jose Police officers, alleging that the Police violated his civil rights by using excessive force... $6 million is being sought. Mr. Webby's importance to the Mercury News continues...

Say it ain't so... the head of the San Jose Police Officers Association thinks that cuts and layoffs to the SJPD would hurt morale and public safety... Right, because having officers sued in federal court and on the front page of the paper is good for morale...

2,600 undeveloped acres near the water treatment (sewage) plant would be perfect for... sports! According to a lengthy, and no doubt boring, public meeting this weekend...

If it's Sunday (and it was yesterday) it is Internal Affairs day in the Mercury News. And in the midst of a campaign season, the "tips" must be flying fast and furious to the Merc reporters who contribute to IA... this week's stuff:

• Steve Poizner was on the New York Times Best Seller list with his anti-Mount Pleasant book... or was he,
• Carly Fiorina has some ex-husbands,
• Facebook or not to (mention) Facebook, that is the question for Chris Kelly, and Kamala Harris, and
• The Golden Spiggot gets criticized again... again... again...

Speaking of politics...

The Merc gives a run-down of the Supervisorial candidates running in District 1 to replace one of the two pro-fast food County Supervisors...

Speaking of speaking of politics...

The Merc has an editorial that actually questions a parcel tax at a local school district (Alum Rock) for their exclusion of charter school in their parcel tax... This is not the Ed Board's normal reaction to parcel taxes, as we've mentioned before, from April 16th's Watch Dog

Shocking! The Mercury News says vote "yes" on the school district parcel tax elections on the (mail-in) ballot this May...

Continuing on politics...

Scott Herhold and the Merc Editorial Board agree on Proposition 16. More importantly for sports fans, Herhold gets the Rosie Ruiz analogy wrong. If memory serves from Watch Dog's marathoning, Rosie "ran" and "won" the Boston Marathon, not New York... "How can we trust anything he writes when he get such simple things wrong," Cindy Chavez (probably) said as she read the paper yesterday...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.28.10: This stuff writes itself sometimes...

Where to even begin on a day like today. Contentious budget cuts at San Jose City Hall? No. Banning fatty toys at the County Building? No. Sacramento shenanigans that have impacts in Silicon Valley... perfect...

There might be an election in some parts of Silicon Valley in May, June (x2), August, and November... that's because the Governor would like to fast-pitch the special election to replace Senator/Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado... (we wonder who this helps... hmmm...) "Hello Pat, It's Arnold. What are you doing between now and August?..."

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to ban toy giveaways at fast food joints within unincorporated areas of the County. The two that voted against the measure: Don Gage and George Shirakawa... seriously, this stuff writes itself...

Big day at San Jose City Hall yesterday... they were voting to cut the fat a little bit further, including their own paychecks. The tension at City Hall is apparently at an all-time high... or so they say. Unions are pissed at the City. The City would (ahem) like more cooperation from the unions... and never the twain shall meet, apparently. So the City Council needs to do something, and the only thing they can really do is cut -- and without willing unions, they have to cut non-willing unions..

That is on the cut side of things, but on the revenue side of things in San Jose, there are tons of folks looking at Measure K as one way to help stem the tide. Measure K would allow the City's two card rooms to expand in return for a higher rake for the City's coffers. (New slogan: What happens in San Jose, stays in San Jose...) The San Jose Police Officers' Association is opposed to the Measure (so are a few Council members)... but the San Jose Firefighters have thrown their support on the other side of things. Firefighters and Police Officers usually don't break ranks with each other on such things... perhaps this is a sign of things to come?

Earmarks are the bane of every good-government stalwart... of course, the disapproval is for other people's earmarks, not our own. Our folks requested $612 million in earmarks in next year's budget, which does not include the cool billion that Congresswoman Jackie Speier is proposing for Bay clean-up projects...

Minton's in Mountain View is about to get 203 units of housing. Of course, the new development isn't without detractors or NIMBYs... Mayor Ronit Bryant said it pretty well, in Watch Dog's estimation: "Will it bring more people into the neighborhood?... Yes, and I want more people downtown. We can't be proud of having a vibrant downtown and then say we don't want any more people in it..." You said it! Perhaps they could share the love with downtown San Jose?

You remember the story about the consultants that the City of Palo Alto hired to look into how to save money within their fire department... and how the consultants had never ever, not even once, recommended staffing reductions? Well, the consulting firm has been sacked...

Here is a heartwarming story from South County: A mother was arrested (and her kids were taken from her) because she left her kids alone at a motel. The four year old was wandering around the parking lot and the two year old was in a room alone. A special place in hell awaits...

We'll end with this, in case you don't read the East Bay Express... (pregnant pause) ... Some fans have been kicked out of A's games in Oakland for having anti-Lew Wolff banners. No wonder Lew Wolff wants to get out of there as soon as possible...

Reed: "Lew, you have my word: no banners in Cisco Field..."

Wolff: "That's the guarantee I've been looking for. Thank you Chuck... When can we move in?"

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.21.10: 420 hangover...

The Sharks' series is tied at 2 games a piece...

In case you missed it, you should probably check out yesterday's post about what the San Jose City Council could have looked like... the way we (almost) were...

The Merc Editorial Board sets the stage for the next budget battle in San Jose. Calling the voluntary pay cut from the Mayor (and Constant and Liccardo and Oliverio and Kalra and Chirco) good stuff, they say more is needed from the unionized workforce... oh, and 1,300 employees in the City of San Jose got pink slips yesterday, including police officers and firefighters. Watch Dog guesses this is serious now... and it is going to get very ugly. Of course, the Police union and the Firefighters union are saying that the City is going to go to hell in a hand-basket. But more interestingly, Cindy Chavez did comment in the story in the Merc, but she did it by issuing a statement... we guess she must be sick of talking to folks at the local paper of record, given the goings on of the past few weeks. Note to Cindy Chavez: You are welcome to speak here anytime you like -- shoot us an email...

Speaking of firefighters... the Merc Editorial Board also chimes in on a bill making its way through Sacramento that would require municipalities to get state approval before filing for bankruptcy... ironic, since the state would probably have a big role in causing the bankruptcy in the first place... the bill is being pushed by the state firefighters union, which is also ironic for obvious reasons...

More on firefighters (in Palo Alto) below...

And the City of San Jose taketh (away jobs) and giveth (away land). Selleth, actually. The final deal for the two downtown parking lots to be sold to the Sobrato Organization went through yesterday, with a $20 million pricetag. Next up for the $20 million... baseball.

The San Jose Police Officer that was on trial for fondling a young girl while on duty was found not guilty yesterday.

A new fire chief will take over in Mountain View... and he is coming from Utah to do it. Welcome Scott Vermeer. We love your paintings...

The battle between Sunnyvale City Councilmember/ Palo Alto firefighters union boss and the Palo Alto City Council continues... the Council officially is asking voters to not sign the Spitaleri petition for a ballot measure... and he is pissed.

Earlier in the week, we learned of a group of band members from Los Gatos who were trapped in Munich. Which Watch Dog didn't think was such a bad place to be trapped... but there is a group of high school singers from Mountain View that are trapped in Paris. Perhaps the Mountain Viewers and the Los Gatans could get together on the German/ French boarder and put on a show?

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.16.10: All Tea Partied Out...

Tea Party on Cesar Chavez Plaza (ironic?) happened yesterday. Were you there? Was Pete Constant?

Here's something that perhaps the Tea Party folks might like, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmembers Pete Constant and Sam Liccardo are taking a further big pay cut and asking key City staff leaders to take a 10 percent cut as well. What's good for the goose is good for the gander and all that shit.

Speaking of people that want to be Mayor... Cindy Chavez is in the news again (again, again). First it was her blacklisting political consultant Jude Barry. Then it was threatening Assemblymembers who gave money to Magdalena Carrasco. Now we learn that she thinks that there is some evil cabal trying to screw up her world. So pervasive is this thought that she apparently gave an impassioned plea to labor folks to endorse (Republican) Dolores Carr for District Attorney because Jeff Rosen "...is endorsed by Sam Liccardo, who is linked to former Mayor Tom McEnery and Deputy District Attorney David Pandori..."

Last week we read in a Merc OpEd why the 49ers' stadium was bad dead for Santa Clara, today we read why that was BS and how the football stadium "makes sense for Santa Clara"... or makes lots and lots and lots of cents... take your pick. It is penned by Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan and Councilmember Jamie Matthews.

Emile's. Home of fine French dining in downtown San Jose and child pornography? Well, Emile Mooser, the restaurant's namesake was picked up on child pornography felony charges... and he has never even been a priest...

San Jose State is facing big budget cuts... 76 staff folks are losing their jobs. We are sure Mission City Lantern has some ideas who could be included in the 76...

Speaking of bad news for workers and institutions...

Stanford Hospitals final final offer to nurses was final. Of course, that's if you ask management. If you ask nurses, they think there is still room to move... room to move to picket line maybe.

And this, the Gilroy Unified School District has reached a "stalemate" with the teachers union: how many times can you split $0?

And remember that the Palo Alto Firefighters' Union (led by a Sunnyvale City Councilmember) was circulating a petition to get a ballot measure in November that limited (stopped) cuts to the Palo Alto Fire Department? Well, three (brave) Councilmembers are asking voters not to sign the petition: Karen Holman, Larry Klein, and Greg Scharff.

Hell hath no fury like neighbors facing school field lights...

Shocking! The Mercury News says vote "yes" on the school district parcel tax elections on the (mail-in) ballot this May...

We've seen it in San Mateo County for some time, as Watch Dog San Mateo can attest, but now some Santa Clara County cities and agencies are thinking about consolidating their police and fire departments... like Morgan Hill contracting with the Sheriff's office.

Sharpen your skates for game two tonight...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.8.10: Let's make a (Redevelopment) deal like it's 1999...

A development deal has been struck for two parking lots in downtown San Jose and it isn't even 1999 anymore... two prime development lots that are currently underutilized for parking, across from the St. Claire Hotel and across from Gordon Biersch are being sold to the Sobrato Organization for a cool $20 million. That should keep some folks at the Redevelopment Agency employed for a few more months...

San Jose Inside has a take on yesterday's news that Mayor Chuck Reed is endorsing Sheriff Laurie Smith's challenger... their post's title: Mayor Goes Nuts... Oh, and the countdown to the Ajlouny-inspired Reed endorsement of Larry Pegram should happen any day now... Also on the endorsement front in District 9, a commenter set us straight, the good folks at Labor "dual" endorsed Don Rocha and Jim Cogan, which is somehow different than "open" endorsement. To round out this issue, Labor's "dual" endorsement also pushes the Mayor even closer to Pegram... Welcome to San Jose politics.

Scott Herhold at the Merc (two 'h' sounds, remember) gives a little history and detail about how and why Caltrain is so (budgetarily) screwed... and it isn't because they don't serve beer on the train, as Watch Dog previously thought.

And even though Caltrain is screwed, High-Speed Rail is going forward with or without its slower, antiquated Caltrain cousin...

If you thought you'd take care of all your business that you have with the City of Gilroy on a Friday... forgetaboutit... they are closing City Hall to close their budget gap.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.7.10: San Jose A's won in extra innings...

Big news on the San Jose baseball front... Bob DuPuy, a senior executive of Major League Baseball had lunch with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed on Monday. That has to be a good sign. No word on what they ate... but the fact that Mr. DuPuy had lunch in San Jose rather than Oakland on Opening Day is probably more important...

Big news on the 49ers in Santa Clara front too... Cedar Fair will not be sold to a private equity firm after all, which means Great America will still be owned by Cedar Fair, and Cedar Fair doesn't like the 49ers one bit. Perhaps the EJR (Enemies of James Rowen) will get some political cash behind their cause... Less newsworthy on the 49ers front is that Councilmembers Will Kennedy and Jamie McLeod are opposing it... and wrote about their opposition in a Merc Op-Ed today. It isn't easy being on the wrong side of history... This hints to Watch Dog that a glowing, pro-49ers Editorial is in the works, perhaps for Sunday's paper.

Big (and head-scratching) news on the political front having to do with Mayor Chuck Reed. He is endorsing Richard Calderon for Sheriff over incumbent Laurie Smith. This just proves that the Mayor will listen to any advice Vic Ajlouny gives him, even if it makes absolutely no sense. Watch Dog predicts Reed will soon endorse Vic's other client, San Jose City Council District 9 candidate Larry Pegram... (Even though Pegram raised virtually no money up to now.) More on Richard Calderon is forthcoming on this blog... stay tuned.

In other endorsement/announcement news, the South Bay Labor Council's Committee on Political Education (COPE) made their endorsements for the June ballot. They endorsed Forrest Williams, Madison Nguyen, Xavier Campos -- also known as the "brain trust"... They made an "open endorsement" of Don Rocha and Jim Cogan in District 9, which means individual unions can choose who they like as long as they stay are far away from Larry Pegram as everyone else is, except the Mayor. They made no endorsement in the re-election campaigns of Pete Constant, Sam Liccardo, or Mayor Reed... Here's the full list, not a lot of surprises.

Attention San Jose: Los Angeles could go broke by June 30. That should send fiscal shock waves through the state...

In an effort to not go broke by June 30, the San Jose City Council will make kids and families suffer this summer without (most) City-run pools...

Gilroy is also trying not to go broke, and how they are doing it is going to make public safety officials throughout the County nervous... Gilroy is putting a ballot measure to voters that would repeal binding arbitration for their firefighters...

More strict rules on alcohol in restaurants in downtown Morgan Hill are on the horizon. As if you needed another reason not to go to downtown Morgan Hill. (Just kidding Councilmember Carr...)

Until tomorrow loyal readers...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.25.10: Dolores Carr defends the Merc's rights? Weird

We mentioned it yesterday, lawyers running against lawyers can be fun... but it can also be litigious and boring. But we have to write about it anyway (especially when everyone else is writing about it...) Dolores Carr is now mad that Jeff Rosen is using Mercury News reprinted articles on his website -- which may violate copyright laws. We don't really blame Carr, all of the articles call her unethical, politically stupid, and other really nice things. Ironically, this puts Dolores Carr in the position of defending the rights of the newspaper that has absolutely crushed her over the past year. So, while Dolores Carr is spending time looking for reprint criminals, she should turn her attention to one of her own endorsers, Pete Constant, who uses reprints of the Mercury News all over his official City Hall website...

Scott Herhold compares Chicago Mayor (for Life) Daley and San Jose Mayor (for Now) Reed... His conclusion?: "...if he [Reed] had more of Richie Daley in him, he would enjoy more results..." Especially stinging for Reed and his crew will be this line: "...We are more open, more transparent, more ethical. As Reed's opponent, Cindy Chavez, said in the 2006 campaign, to what end?..." Cindy the Prognosticator.

The Merc Editorial Board defends the County's "Plan to Ban" (toys from Happy Meals...)

Budget woes are hitting everyone... the Santa Clara Unified School District is reminiscing about what it used to be like to have money as they hand out 100 pink slips...

Here's a Merc headline for you: Confusion, criticism follow Santa Clara Valley Water District groundwater fee... but then again, when doesn't confusion and criticism follow the Water District?

280 is getting a facelift?

Scott Herhold touched on it this week: schools, neighbors, and traffic do not mix in Los Altos... the Los Altos City Council agrees and is asking the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District to get its traffic shit together...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.24.10: I heart lawyers... especially ones running against each other

Who doesn't love a great political fight? But the fight gets a little boring sometimes if it is between two lawyers, like Dolores Carr and Jeff Rosen. Dolores Carr is taking Jeff Rosen to court over his ballot statement. (Because voters love frivolous litigation?) Carr is claiming Rosen is using quotes from others and comparing himself to her in his ballot statement -- both apparent no-nos. Of course, the best part of this is the Carr has given quotes to others to use in their ballot statements in the past and has compared herself to her opponent in the past. Um, lawyers, everyone finds the law boring... no offense.

So it has come to this: paycuts for City of San Jose workers. Sort of. That was the discussion at yesterday's City Council meeting. The story in the Merc has some colorful language to describe what is happening in the City: "[The budget discussion] ...comes amid the heightened politics of an election year as the city careens toward a fiscal crisis that could force dramatic service reductions..." Careens? It looks like the City Council will eventually take smaller concessions from unions (maybe) and do a series of one-time, short-term fixes to get through next year. That sounds familiar, like every year for the past decade. Watch Dog isn't sure that pushing these big salary cuts off another year until the Mayor wins reelection and won't have to worry about anything politically is a great idea for the labor-majority on the Council, but whatever...

To figure out part of the budgetary problems that municipalities face with pay, benefits, and pensions, check out this story about a Palo Alto janitor that took home $156k in 2009 and will receive a full pension and lifelong healthcare coverage... if only we had a national healthcare policy.

For those NIMBYs that want High-Speed Rail to (inexplicably) end in San Jose to avoid big impacts to the Peninsula got some troubling news yesterday... even if that were the case, the impact to Caltrain would be as impactful as the impact of High-Speed Rail. That's because the transfer to a new train to make it the final 50 miles up the Peninsula would hurt Caltrain and would require new tracks, new construction, and new trains... Face it Peninsula, your just train-screwed.

And if the previous story doesn't give you your NIMBY fix, perhaps this will: a public comment session on the "Minton Project" last night in Mountain View. Let's just say that not everyone supports 203 new housing units...

In the midst of the Great Recession, garbage rates are going up in Morgan Hill.

Ending with some blog stuff...

Jessica Fromm at San Jose Inside looks through some fundraising reports in the San Jose City Council District 5 race and finds that Magdalena Carrasco outraised (Nora's brother) Xavier Campos this quarter and that Campos spent more money that he took in during the same period. One candidate is raising money, and one is spending it... hmmm. Perhaps the Supervisor Shirakawa needs to call an emergency staff meeting to straigten things out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.23.10: Candidate Barragan in the Merc?

In extremely concise (harsh?) Editorial, the Merc says this about Mayor Reed's 10 percent pay cut plan: the plan "...must be ratified by the full council. Otherwise, union members -- particularly police and fire -- will not take it seriously..." Too bad the "union members" don't have the local blogosphere support they used to... But the Police Officers Association has a blog, but their post (as of 8 a.m.) was from Chris Block and Michele Lew -- neither of which are speaking for the POA...

Let the cries of "Nanny State" begin now: County Supervisors want to ban restaurants from offering toys to kids as an incentive to eat a double quarter pounder with triple cheese and a extra large fry with a big ass Coke.

There is a very weird part of the toy-free County story, the "woman on the street" interviewed as part of the story, and the one buying her kid disgusting food, is named Susan Barragan. Which is the name of the woman running against Mayor Chuck Reed. What are the odds? Is Merc columnist Joe Rodriguez trying to give Susan Barragan some press?

Speaking of campaigns... Campaign reports were due yesterday representing fundraising and expenses from the beginning of the year through March 17th. The 49ers put in $1.4 million in money and personnel to their campaign.

Speaking of the 49ers, the move to Santa Clara isn't the only really smart thing they are doing. They got rid of their General Manager yesterday.

Scott Herhold at the Merc has taken a few days off on the Dolores Carr/Jeff Rosen front, and has taken on an even more controversial issue -- neighbors versus schools versus traffic in Los Altos.

On a sad note, the church on Delmas near Park Avenue burned down this morning.

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.15.10: Beware the ides of March, San Jose incumbents...

The Merc's City Hall reporter does his best to untangle where the political powers that be in San Jose come down on the gambling expansion intitiative headed for the June 2010 ballot in San Jose. Reed and Chavez/Labor - for the measure. Chavez/Labor-backed folks on the City Council - against. Police Chief and the Police Officers' Association - against (but at least they agree on something). Former Police Officer/ Councilmember Pete Constant for it. Former Police Office/Council Candidate Larry Pegram against it -- but we learn his so-called Values Advocacy Council must not think that gambling is that bad because they won't make a big issue out of it (more on this below). Pat Dando now neutral as is David Pandori... although in Pat's case, it is hard to tell if this is her position, or just the Chamber not playing a role in City Hall... Desparate times call for desparate measures apparently...

Everyone is filed for office... Larry Pegram is in for District 9, which means that Watch Dog will have something to write/ rant about for the next several months... Some folks up for re-election in San Jose have some challengers -- obviously Madison Nguyen has a few folks running against her, the Mayor has two (including Bill Chew), Pete Constant has one, Sam Liccardo has one... of all the challengers, it seems only one has a web site up... well, sort of!!:

It is a crappy time to be making budget decisions in San Jose, but perhaps it wouldn't be so crappy if City Councils-past hadn't built the Mexican Heritage Plaza and/or taken over the Hayes Mansion? The Merc's Scott Herhold dives even deeper about the dire shape of San Jose's budget... and goes a bit into the why as well...

Maybe this will help the City of San Jose budget woes... an "innovation center" was opened downtown by Ireland. At least someone is investing in downtown O'San Jose.

A brewing controversy over at the County Building where an citizens election oversight committee was formed in 2008 and met exactly zero times since then. One member who was appointed to the committee said this: "...The Supervisors need to get off their duffs..." Yup.

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.23.10: How to fix California? Eat lots of steak...

Fresh off his State of the City, Mayor Reed welcome some CEOs and other "Big City" Mayors to the San Jose to talk about how to fix California... Sending strong messages about frugality, being in touch with Everyman, and open government, they met behind closed-doors at Morton's in downtown San Jose...

Over at Protect San Jose, Jim Unland, the VP of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, seems to be hedging the organization's political bets. While they have endorsed incumbent District Attorney Dolores Carr in this year's race, they are also saying really, really, nice things about challenger Jeff Rosen. The only thing they say about Rosen that is negative is this: "...within the DA's office, he has limited supervisorial experience..." But Unland also has this to say about Rosen: "...Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen has also earned broad support and respect as a prosecutor from within the law enforcement community. Many of our officers speak highly of him. He has successfully prosecuted some very difficult and high-profile cases..." So they win if Carr wins, but don't really lose if Rosen wins. With "friends" like the POA, Dolores Carr is in for a long campaign season...

More recycled water could be finding its way to your tap... if the Santa Clara Valley Water District has anything to say about it. And they do. (Remember Mayor Reed drank some recycled water?)

How many preschools one street are too many preschools on one street? That is the question folks in Mountain View will be considering. The real question, obviously, is how many SUVs can fit on one street during drop-off/pick-up times?

At one time, Palo Alto had grand visions of a City-run fiber optic high-speed Internet network. That was a while ago and the vision has gone away... but then Google came calling, and now Palo Alto's high-speed Internet eggs are in the Google basket. This probably puts Councilmember Sid Espinosa in a weird spot. Espinosa works for Google's arch enemy: Microsoft...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.22.10: What if you built an airport, and no airlines showed up?

You remember the controversy whereby the folks that run the Convention Center in San Jose -- Team San Jose -- signed an exclusive contract with Teamsters that made convention promoters head for the hills? Well, Team San Jose rescinded the deal with the Teamsters and perhaps some folks will think about coming back to the Convention Center. Perhaps...

Of course, if conventioners do come back, they won't be coming here on Frontier Airlines... that's because Frontier Airlines is leaving SJC. Last week we wrote about how sad it was that a storm blanketed most of the country, crippling air traffic everywhere... except SJC. Perhaps a new road and new parking coming online at SJC will convince other airlines not to jump ship...

Just when you thought you would never see the word "Little" and "Saigon" right next to each other in the Mercury News, a story came out late on Friday that noted that the group that sued the City of San Jose about Little Saigon and open government violations lost in court... good thing, because Madison Nguyen is up for re-election...

Another "little" story from this weekend: San Jose is getting closer to having a Little Italy... of course, Little Italy hasn't yet started a recall effort, so it isn't nearly as interesting. But in San Jose, anything new and cool might run into some bureaucracy at City Hall, and the banners for Little Italy are no different, we learned in Internal Affairs on Sunday...

San Jose Inside is the only publication covering the continuing story over in the East Side Union High School District. Inside was there when fired Superintendent scolded the Board after the County Office of Education audit cleared his name... and Inside was there last Thursday night when County Superintendent said this, “The district now has two studies and one extraordinary audit, over a nearly 10 year period, and all three have reveled a weakness in your internal control structure. I just want to pause on that. Same problem, for over a decade.” Thank youInside for covering this issue... and let us now forget that the President of the Board at East Side Union High School District has never, ever been elected to the Board, but appointed twice. Maybe voters have a pretty good intuition on these things...

While covering a story that no one else is covering is great, San Jose Inside is still apparently in love with really dry content (Oliverio, DiSilva...) because they reprinted Mayor Reed's State of the City speech. As we noted last week, a quick span of the speech will not turn up the famous words, "The State of the City is..." But we remember when that sentence garnered great attention and a blog post on San Jose Inside...

Another thing not mentioned in the speech...

Expect some disappointed San Jose kids and parents this summer because San Jose Family Camp will not open this year. They need to repair a roof and figure out what to do about getting clean water to the Yosemite resort. The State of San Jose Family Camp is sad...

Also sad...

The San Jose City Council will discuss the San Jose Redevelopment Agency budget this week. Trimmed-down would be an understatement. Major projects are still on the books, but scaled back a bit... or a lot.

San Jose is getting a Children's Zone modeled after a Harlem Children's Zone around the troubled Santee Elementary School, "from cradle to college to community-building..." Amen.

Everyone is writing about San Jose parks these days...

• Scott Herhold let's us all know that there is really no such thing as a 'closed park'...
• At the same time that Herhold was writing his park piece, Councilmember Sam Liccardo was writing his own park piece, that appeared on San Jose Inside's website on Sunday... (San Jose Inside seems to be publishing all week now... Watch out Merc...)
• And Tracy Seipel at the Merc covered a story in today's paper about San Jose parks, off-leash dogs, and angry neighbors... always a fun combination.

Internal Affairs fills us in on the news that running for office in San Jose is still inexpensive, unless of course you want voters to know what you stand for... and if you want your 200 word ballot statement to appear in the ballot guide voters get in the mail, then that will cost you nearly $10,000 if you are running for Mayor, or $2,000 if you are running for City Council... Bill Chew, the White Skating Knight of San Jose, is not pleased.

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.19:10: The State of the City is... like canned brocolli

You may have read or heard that the Mayor of San Jose gave his annual State of the City address yesterday morning. It isn't good. The speech included big cuts to the City budget and a big ask for employee concessions. Most disappointing, however, is that the Mayor never actually said, "The State of the City is ____..." But Lew Wolff introduced the Mayor... which was the highlight, according to Watch Dogs who were there...

The Merc Editorial Board said it was "...a plate of canned broccoli..." among other things... Dan Pulcrano (actually) wrote something about it too on San Jose Inside...

But in bigger political news than a bad City of San Jose budget has been announced: The San Jose Police Officers' Association is endorsing District Attorney Dolores Carr over challenger Jeff Rosen. That said, Rosen has lots of other public safety-types, like other police department unions and the Deputy Sheriffs, on his side...

That wasn't the only POA endorsement announced... but it was the only one in the Merc. Here are the rest, courtesy of Protect San Jose: Incumbents Mayor Chuck Reed, Councilmember Pete Constant, and Councilmember Madison Nguyen. For open seats, the POA is getting into bed with Xavier Campos for District 5, Jim Cogan for District 9, and JoAnne McCracken for Judge. If you don't see your favorite candidate in your favorite race, here's why: "In city or county races not listed here, the POA chose not to endorse a candidate." Which probably pisses off Forrest Williams to no end...

Either Rosen or Carr may get to bring charges in the 4th homocide of the year in San Jose which took place last night/ this morning at a restaurant on Berryessa Road and Capitol Avenue...

Our sister blog, Watch Dog San Mateo, has been pointing out what a big deal a "two-tier" retirement system for municipal employees is, as South San Francisco considers the idea... well, Gilroy has taken some preliminary (and ceremonial) action on the idea too... Guess what? Municipal employees don't like it...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.18.10: Guess who is coming to breakfast?

There was a bad plane crash in East Palo Alto yesterday. Unless you were under a rock, you know that three Tesla Motors employees were killed in the tragic crash. It also caused major damage to Palo Alto Utilities.

Guess who is coming to the Mayor's breakfast this morning? Lew Wolff, the Oakland A's owner. Not only is he coming, but he is introducing the Mayor, so at least one part of the speak won't be Ambien-like. Perhaps an MLB announcement will be forthcoming? Or perhaps Lew Wolff likes runny eggs... and the Mayor.

We joked that the Mardi Gras in San Jose was planned to have a "normal police presense," whatever that means... So it stands to reason that Police categorized Mardi Gras as like 'a calm weekend night'... as if that exists...

Hate the card clubs, love the card club money. That's what San Jose is all about. Here's what to look forward to in the coming weeks/ months: San Jose will put a ballot measure on a ballot to increase taxes on card clubs, then card clubs threaten to fight the ballot measure, then the City will allow more tables to allow card clubs to make more money so the card clubs don't oppose the ballot measure. Sort of like political racketeering by the card clubs... Too bad San Jose Revealed's coverage of the issues isn't linkable right now...

Do Not Cross, Park Closed... apparently San Jose Park Rangers mean it. Really, really mean it.

Does someone really have plan to redo Hangar One? Eddie Orton thinks he's got a plan and the money to do it. Eddie Orton is an Emeryville developer... Emeryville? Perhaps a Mountain View Ikea inside an enormous hangar?

In other Mountain View-area development news... Google doesn't want Mountain View to do evil in the North Bayshore neighborhood. In Google's view, evil = development...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.16.10: Lobbying Sacramento finally pays off for San Jose...

It has been a very long weekend... but we'll try to remember what the news was on Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Here we go. Let us know what we missed -- which you usually do anyway...

Well, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmembers Pete Constant, Ash Kalra, Nancy Pyle, and Judy Chirco's lobbying Assemblymembers Paul Fong and Joe Coto paid off... Fong and Coto are pulling their request for a State audit into the San Jose Police Department. With that success rate, we wonder if Reed/ Constant/ Kalra/ Chirco/ Pyle should head back to lobby for school funding. (San Jose Inside had the scoop first, then the Merc... for those of you keeping score at home.)

Speaking of folks who don't like others looking over their shoulders...

Diversity in Silicon Valley companies was all over the news this weekend. Some folks (Google, Yahoo, Apple, Oracle, and Applied Materials) don't really like to share their diversity data with folks... folks like the Mercury News. Don't be evil... ahem...

The San Jose Police Officers Association has been working overtime... with the Mayor's very public and very strongly worded letter to Assemblymembers Fong and Coto to call off the audit dogs in Sacramento. Followed by the aforementioned lobbying trip to Sacramento by the Mayor and four Councilmembers. Then, in Sunday's paper, the POA got former Mayor Tom McEnery to chime in against the newspaper and activists. But Watch Dog's favorite line was this:

But questions long avoided by the media must be asked. How do a few politically connected mega-nightclubs, with their hand-picked lobbyists, put thousands of alcohol-infused young men on a collision course with our police? And why let clubs that generate hundreds of calls for service each year, stripping the city's neighborhoods of cops, be subsidized by everyone else?

Watch Dog has asked those questions Mayor McEnery, we really, really, really have...

The Merc chimes in on the City of San Jose budget -- and they think employees need to step it up, cut their salaries, or expect to lose their jobs... There is a study session today in San Jose to talk about the budget. That should be fun...

There was a revised report about baseball in downtown San Jose that re-did the numbers on noise and traffic. If you start from no noise and no traffic, like in downtown San Jose, of course there will be more if you add something fun to do... No doubt NIMBYs are meeting at the Peet's on the Alameda today to discuss what to do next...

And while San Jose looks for a MLB stadium and Santa Clara looks for an NFL stadium, the good folks in Morgan Hill are just hoping for a proper football stadium at Sobrato High School... but unlike in San Jose and Santa Clara, the charge is being led by high school seniors in Morgan Hill... One small problem, the stadium would actually be in San Jose's 'greenbelt' and Councilmember Ash Kalra isn't having any of it.

Tom Campbell switched races... and raised some money too!

The good folks at Internal Affairs in the Merc must be getting inundated with campaign stuff... because their column was very, very full this weekend:

• Larry Pegram of censorship fame is considering a run for San Jose City Council District 9... didn't Watch Dog hint at that recently?
• Madison Nguyen's re-election campaign is full of challengers... and one of them is Andy Diaz. Are you surprised?
• The San Jose Police Officers' Association gets an airing and IA runs down their questionnaire and the "correct" (or pandering) answers.
• Whitman didn't push Tom Campbell out of the Governor's race... money did
• And it became very clear that IA reads our sister blog, Watch Dog San Mateo, because they go into Watch Dog-esque detail about San Mateo County's big name departures from the political scene, including Warren Slocum...

Not only was IA on their political game... the Merc's Scott Herhold was also on the political beat and wrote an incredibly long breakdown of local races. He touched the big ones (Governor, US Senate), the medium ones (Sheriff, DA, Supervisor District 1), and the little ones (San Jose City Council Districts 5, 7, and 9).

Finally...

Raj at DeBug, this headline is made for your snickering: Normal police presence planned for Mardi Gras... We guess that is open to interpreting the word "normal"...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.11.10: Reed, Constant, Kalra, Chirco, and Pyle agree on something...

Earlier this week, Protect San Jose posted a letter Mayor Reed wrote to Assemblymembers Paul Fong and Joe Coto essentially telling them to back off their request for a State audit of the San Jose Police Department... yesterday, Mayor Reed (and the POA?) convinced some of his colleagues to make the trek to Sacramento to do the same thing. Pete Constant, Ash Kalra, Judy Chirco, and Nancy Pyle all met with Fong and Coto and asked them to hold off on their State audit. (Watch Dog is impressed that Constant, Kalra, Chirco, and Pyle all agree on anything... We would bet they didn't carpool up there.) All of this prompted the local ACLU chief Skyler Porras to respond with this witty alliteration, calling Mayor Reed's actions: "...petulant political posturing..."

We don't know the saddest part of this story and delays, or lack thereof, at SJC... so we'll just lay out the sad parts.

• Sad Point 1: There is a massive storm blanketing much of the Midwest and a separate, week-long storm from the Mid-Atlantic northward... and those storms have virtually no impact on San Jose Airport travel.
• Sad Point 2: There is only one, daily, non-stop flight to the East Coast.
• Sad Point 3: This quote from the airport guy, "Most of our flights from San Jose are in the western United States."

For those of you out there who can stay awake long enough to sit through all the States of the (Fill in the Blank) that happen this time of year probably already heard everything that Supervisor Ken Yeager said in his speech a while back... the Merc Editorial pages were nice enough to run an excerpt today...

Santa Clara Unified hasn't been in the paper lately -- mostly because the Broom Closet Modeling Agency flap has died down... and the news about the Principal who once dated a recent graduate at a previous job has died down... but the story about the teacher who had sex with a student is back on the front burner. That's because the former Wilcox High School teacher pleaded guilty yesterday and has already begun to serve his sentence of 2 years and 8 months...

High Speed Rail NIMBYs might have to take a chill pill after Jeff Barker of the High Speed Rail Authority announced that there was a typo in a report they issued about ridership numbers. NIMBYs were hanging on to that typo as proof that the High Speed Rail Authority was full of shit...

Mission City Lantern explains his thoughts a little bit better today about why he thinks Watch Dog was wrong on who wrote the new ballot language for the 49er's measure... thank you James. We heart you too... all the way from Hawaii...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.9.10: It depends what your definition of "all" is...

Dolores Carr just can't help herself. She has some sort of addiction to bad decisions that inevitably lead to bad press... Her addiction and the bad press lead directly into more ammunition for Jeff Rosen's campaign. Remember the Memo she issued to her entire staff that said something like -- don't take any cases to a specific judge, you know, the boycott Memo. Well, she has been taking some serious heat for that decision... so she has back-tracked. Apparently Dolores Carr didn't mean it when she wrote: "I have decided to exercise a challenge to Judge Bryan pursuant to CCP 170.6 in all criminal cases." She is disputing the definition of the word "all" -- very Clintonesque Ms. Carr, very Clintonesque...

Speaking of interesting June 2010 ballot battles... the Santa Clara City Council will decide about what the actual ballot language will be on the ballot related to the 49ers stadium election. One small problem, the City Staff in Santa Clara seem to have a different idea of what voters should read and vote on in June versus what the stadium backers feel voters should read and vote on. Watch Dog's guess is that the 49er's language will take the day... This is such big news (apparently), even the Chronicle has a story...

Speaking of politics...

Mayor Reed did a big favor for the SJPD (and the POA) when he penned a very critical letter back to Assemblymembers Joe Coto and Paul Fong. Remember, Coto and Fong have asked a State Assembly Audit Committee to look into the San Jose Police Department training and practices in light of all the news stories and community complaints. By the way, the letter appears nowhere on the Mayor's website... only on Protect San Jose.

And more politics... and sports...

Matt Artz in the Tri-City Beat in the Contra Costa Times (you know you read it too) has a great piece about an imaginary conversation between Bug Selig and Lew Wolff about baseball and the Bay Area... Watch Dog's favorite line is from Imaginary Lew Wolff to Imaginary Bud Selig:

Bud, please, it doesn’t make sense to have two teams in one metropolitan area, and have both of them 40 miles from the area’s largest city.

That pretty much sums it up... unless of course your pitching ace is in arbitration...

Yesterday the Merc delved into the disagreement between San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Manager Deb Figone over how to revamp the City's pension boards. Figone had one way to do it, the Mayor had another way that was developed as a compromise. The Merc gives props for the Mayor for trying and encourages the reform, but ends with this: "But it's a shame taxpayers will still fall short of majority representation."

There was a huge fire in an East San Jose warehouse yesterday. You probably saw the smoke.

Soccer fields, soccer fields, everywhere there are going to be soccer fields near the new Earthquakes field.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board is about to get a new member soon to replace retired old-timer Sig Sanchez, who retired at the beginning of the year. The South County folks would like his replacement to be South County-centric. There are 14 folks whom the Board of the Water District interviewed and they will get resumes back soon... check out the list of folks who applied.

Scott Herhold gives some perspective on MediLeaf in Gilroy in his column today. Herhold thinks Gilroy is wasting money on a lawsuit against an establishment that isn't that dangerous because Gilroy thinks pot is the boogey-man...

This is fun: A Palo Alto public meeting on High Speed Rail design options. Expect a lot of angry folks yelling and screaming... And their neighbors to the north (Atherton and Menlo Park) are threatening to re-open lawsuits against the High-Speed Rail Authority...

More fun in Palo Alto... the City Council is getting out of the Palo Alto promotion business and letting the hotels in town spend the money it collects from a new "Tourism Business Improvement District" to promote themselves...