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 -- 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 -- 2.5.09: Psst...Pete...grandstanding is hard when you don't show up...

Memo to Councilmember Pete Constant: When you want to get something on the City Council Agenda, you should actually show up to the meeting that puts things on the Agenda. In San Jose, the Agenda-setting committee is the Rules (and Open Government) Committee. Constant is one of four members of the Committee -- but he missed yesterday's meeting, meaning there wasn't a quorum to put his item on the Agenda to take tobacco money from non-profits and give it to crossing guards. Oops...

Watch Dog doubts, however, that Constant will miss an upcoming meeting where he will grandstand about pornography in libraries...perhaps he'll ask to take to take money from crossing guards in order to fund censorship...

San Jose’s beleaguered Employee Pension Board (some of the same folks that are accused of misstating travel requests, losing $1+ billion of pensioner money, squabbling over who will be on the Board, etc.) It only gets worse, two Board members quit abruptly yesterday. Firefighter Mark Skeen said he’s leaving because he faces, “…an arduous period of physical rehabilitation owing to two back surgeries forced upon me by job-incurred injuries." Sgt. Bret Muncy wouldn’t share his reasons for leaving. Expect more shake-ups from this Board...

The tale of Boots Del Biaggio moves from one sad chapter to another. Boots, businessman/philanthropist/fundraiser/hockey fan, pled guilty to one count of securities fraud. Sentencing is June 10, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer (brother of this guy) will order restitution and added, “there’s no question he’s going to jail.” Boots will be trading his palatial estate for a concrete cell for anywhere between 6 and 25 years.

In a surprising twist, a San Jose Grandpa and Grandma stole children from their daughter and raised them as their own. This week, Grandpa got caught, the kind-hearted (but kidnapping) old man is in jail awaiting extradition to Tennessee. San Jose friends are confused, Tom Merritt said “It makes you feel bad. Maybe he was right to take the kids.” Too bad the law doesn't seem to see things the way Mr. Merritt does...

For the next two years, electric car owners can get all the juice they need for free. Yep, just charge up at one of the trial installations in Downtown San Jose and your electric car will barely cost you a thing. Apparently the City (or the company installing the electric stations) are going to pick up the tab. Transportation Director James Helmer said the chargers fit the City’s Green Vision and support local companies. Of course, the really big deal on the electric car front doesn’t appear destined for San Jose.

San Jose Revealed posted an entertaining quick note Wednesday. The highlights:

• According to Revealed, on Sunday, the Merc.'s Scott Herhold identified his friends who are “all old white men,” as the powerbrokers in the Valley. We are guessing Revealed knows Pat's and Zoe's gender and Bobby Lopez's ethnicity...
  
• Former Merc. reporter Josh Molina has resurfaced at the Hispanic Business magazine in Goleta...
• Revealed had a warm/fuzzy feeling about the maturity with which the Little Saigon issue was being handled (seriously?) right up to the Henry Le lawsuit.

San Jose Inside/Metro’s Fly also talks about Little Saigon and says Barry Hung Do met with Mayor Chuck Reed in December to ask the City to save money (assuming Councilmember Madison Nguyen gets blasted by the recall) and use the (undemocratic) appointment process to fill her seat. Oddly, Mayoral staffer Khoa Nguyen is at the top of the list for potential appointees. This story sounds weird to Watch Dog. First we heard a strong accusation from Revealed that Ajlouny may be helping out the Recall Madison folks, now we hear that a possible succession plan to replace Madison is actually someone from the Mayor's office? Mayor Reed should probably dispell both of these things in order to help Madison stay in office...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.2.09: Groundhog Day Edition...

The most interesting story in a while was in the Merc. this weekend about Mayor Reed's friend/advisor/confidant Vic Ajlouny. Tax Assessor Larry Stone calls the relationship odd and says, "Vic's style is kind of slash and burn, and it is very peculiar that Chuck continues to rely on him for political advice." Among Ajlouny's exploits, a failed attempt to fill Reed’s City Council seat with (less-than-qualified) Hon Lien. The real question is, why is this story with a byline from Josh Molina coming out now? Molina has been gone for a long, long time...

The Merc’s Scott Herhold picks his top 10 powerbrokers in San Jose... Herhold’s unsurprising list includes Bob Brownstein, Pat Dando, Chuck Davidson, Carl Guardino, Zoe Lofgren, Bobby Lopez, Tom McEnery, Chuck Reed, Bert Robinson, and Barry Swenson. He also includes the next 15 folks and a group of folks under 40...Watch Dog will revisit this list later today or tomorrow with some additional analysis...

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, not to be left out, is hosting a luncheon for 100 Women of Influence in March and is also seeking your thoughts on the top 40 Under 40...

They may not know how to party, but San Jose’s Drunk Task Force does know how to attack. While sending Councilmember Nora Campos to Sacramento to urge Speaker Karen Bass to change laws about drunk arrests, the Task Force urged a 6 month moratorium on the arrests in San Jose and put a host of options on the table. Latino Forum’s Pete Carrillo, a master of understatement, said "I believe there is a credibility and trust issue between the SJPD, the city administration and the city at large.''

The Tesla news keeps coming, Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said the company couldn’t raise $100 million in venture funding to make the move to San Jose and that, "It's not exactly clear when, if ever, the headquarters will leave San Carlos." So, it’ll be interesting to see what sites the Mayor’s spokeswoman, Michelle McGurk, means when she says "Our team is working aggressively to find a site that meets these new priorities here in San Jose."

Santa Clara County’s head lawyer Ann Ravel is gunning for the County’s top dog seat... Acting County Executive Gary Graves was hoping to get “acting” removed from the title and may have been surprised to hear who the competition was to replace Pete Kutras. This will be an interesting play with the new Board of Supervisors...perhaps Supervisor Shirakawa would like the job to go to Eddie Garcia?

The Merc’s Editorial Board weighs in on the recent negotiations between San Jose City Council and the Police Officers Association. Lots of numbers get tossed around but the bottom line is, don’t hand out any raises for the next contract negotiation.

Last year, San Jose’s Councilmember Nancy Pyle wanted to make it easier to bring on volunteer crossing guards, her colleagues didn’t share her spirit of volunteerism. This year, colleagues Pete Constant, Pierluigi Oliverio, and Rose Herrera want to take funds supporting dozens of non-profits to hire more crossing guards. Pyle said, "I just really think we need to do a fair process here." What’s really surprising here is the switch by Herrera, last week supporting her labor-backed friends when discussing the competition policy and this week supporting Council contrarians Constant and Oliverio.

Los Gatos Mayor Mike Wasserman will give his State of the Town speech at tonight’s City Council meeting. On deck, a look back to his previous Mayoral incarnations and a look forward at belt tightening.

In Cupertino, Mayor Orrin Mahoney will give his State of the City at a lunch meeting Wednesday. Mahoney is proud of the City’s low crime rate and says, "Basically, things are stable or have decreased. The only area that has increased is auto burglary." Mahoney will be arguing a refrain heard around the Valley -- people and employers choose places that have something to offer...

Morning News Round-Up – 1.27.09: Recall Vic?

San Jose Revealed makes a pretty serious accusation today against Mayor Chuck Reed's chief political strategist. Revealed says Vic Ajlouny is doing campaign work for the Recall Madison Nguyen team while Reed (strongly?) opposes the recall effort. If this is true, Ajlouny is as big a jerk as (most/all) people say he is...Revealed's evidence is the (obvious) similarities of direct mail used by the Recall people and past Ajlouny clients. Perhaps Reed is quietly trying to help out both sides? He does need to get to six votes after all...

The Morgan Hill City Council really knows how to party. They met all weekend in a community center to address the pressing economic issues facing them and to figure out how to collaborate with other elected bodies during the rough times. Councilmember Larry Carr is ready to move forward with downtown redevelopment saying, "In the past, we've always been more than willing to wait for other people to catch up. I'm willing to tolerate the flack we will get from not waiting for others." There will be little flack about downtown Morgan Hill on Watch Dog...after all, we've never been there...

The always entertaining Gilroy City Council also met over the weekend. They spent half of Saturday “chatting” with Morgan Hill Councilmembers about collaboration and still managed to wrap their retreat in half the time they did last year. Special guest Santa Clara City Clerk Rod Diridon, Jr. talked to the Gilroy Council about a voter outreach program enacted in Santa Clara that made for more ethical candidates. Nobody said, "Thanks RDJ2, if you only put as much effort into your own campaigns as you do into the ethics of others, you might be a State Assemblymember..."

The Gilroy Dispatch wants to know if you think Gilroy police should be paid significantly more than Gilroy firefighters. So far, the firefighters are winning.

In these difficult economic times everyone is scouring their budget to see where they can cut costs and generate additional revenue. Imagine the surprise then when Santa Cruz County officials learned that they were paying for roughly 16 fire emergencies each month – in Santa Clara County! County Supervisor Gage says Santa Clara County officials are looking at the problem but is dismissive of the financial burden to Santa Cruz County.

The idea of a joint stadium moving both the Niners and the Raiders to the South Bay received mixed reviews yesterday. Santa Clara Councilmembers Jamie McLeod and Will Kennedy said the project with both teams is more attractive. Along with the added/needed revenue, the Councilmembers and nearby residents worry famously rowdy Raider fans will bring more traffic, noise, and crime. Apparently boring, wine sipping Niner fans are better behaved.

The Merc’s Editorial board had some fun writing about a serious subject. Books, safety, and Winnie-the-Pooh – oh, yeah and a Tigger quote. Congress may have made the unintended consequences blunder of the century with a law that could force children's books off library and bookstore shelves.

Last year Rita Campos hit cyclist Bruce Finch and he was killed after being ejected from his bike. Campos said she didn’t know if Finch was still alive as she waited with him before the paramedics arrived. The CHP investigation has landed at the DA’s office, they recommend charging Campos with manslaughter.

Mr. Roadshow, Watch Dog is interested in knowing, is this year different with respect to crappy drivers or is it normal in the first three weeks for five people in the County to get hit? Is this how we kick off the Year of the Pedestrian? Yesterday it was a 9-year-old, with his Dad, on the way to Alum Rock’s Goss Elementary. Yesterday’s accident happened while the child and his father crossed, with the green and in a crosswalk. If you saw anything at Story/Adrian call SJPD at 408.277.4654.

Valley Medical Center, led by a committee of staff and consultants, want to do away with security glass separating patients from emergency room registration staff. The consultants said the move will make it more customer-friendly. Some hospitals have floor to ceiling protection and metal detectors patients must clear before entering the emergency room. VMC sees roughly double the number of patients it did before HCA shutdown the San Jose Medical Center. Arthur Slauer a healthcare security expert and former Kaiser Permanente security guru says, "All it takes is one incident, and I guarantee there's going to be a problem." The safety glass was installed 5 years ago.

Young love run amok caused two (barely) teenagers to steal grandpa’s car and wallet. At least, that’s the assumption for now. Roslyn Marshall, 13 of Saratoga, and James Palmerson, 14 of Los Altos, fell madly in love three weeks ago and Sunday morning made like Romeo & Juliet and have high-tailed it to the place where underage marriages are all the rage – (Verona?) Utah or Vegas. They’re in a grey Honda Civic, plates 5NLM445. If you see them call the tip line 408.808.4431. But don't forget to the tell the youngsters that you know where they can see a Jonas Brothers' concert for free -- that ought to stop them in their tracks...

Morning News Round-Up –- 11.27.08: "Final" Semi-Official Results...

The election is over...really. The Santa Clara Registrar of Voters has posted the “Final – Semi-Official Results.” Only the Registrar could use the phrase "Final" and "Semi-Official" right next to each other...Automatic re-counts happened in 3 races West Valley/Mission Community College District, Gilroy Unified School District, and Berryessa Union. So what happened in these ‘recount’ seats?:

• …West Valley/Mission will see incumbent Chris Constantin and newcomer Adrienne Grey taking seats.
• …the Berryessa drama concluded with Richard Claspill and Khoa Nguyen taking seats, incumbent Rudy Nasol lost his.
• ...in Gilroy, Fred Tovar, Rhoda Bress, and Mark Good held on. Jaime Rosso lost his seat by a mere 6 votes…if only Rosso had walked/called 7 more voters...

And in everyone’s favorite ballot fight, Measure B…after what looked like a heartbreakingly close defeat on election night, the yes folks pulled it out after all the provisional ballots were counted with 66.78%. But this may drag on for a bit…

Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Don Bordenave hung on to his seat by just 29 votes, while newcomer Albert Gonzalez came in nearly 6,000 votes ahead of Bordenave. What happened there? Incumbents don’t usually get smoked.

Did all the election silliness get your juices flowing? Well, it ain’t over yet. The election of George Shirakawa, Jr. to the Board of Supervisors has left a vacancy in San Jose’s East Side Union High School District, applications will be accepted through December 10. If Eddie Garcia didn’t burn bridges perhaps he can get back on, after all, Eddie is one of the Bay Areas Most Inspirational Latino Leaders.

The Mission City Lantern offers gift suggestions for everyone from Mayor Reed's bud Vic Ajlouny to Erlinda Estrada – all this was all posted a minute after wishing everyone a peaceful and joyous 2009...ironic.

Letterman would be proud... Scott Herhold wrote the Ten Reasons to be Thankful. Among them the end (for now) of the mania for Coyote Valley development and Little Saigon. Wait until March, however, when the Little Saigon issue will be all over the place in the recall election of San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen.

The Thanksgiving free-for-all dates back to 1991 when Los Gatos residents Matt Ober, Brock Baxter, Kevin Sweatt, Ted Sweatt, Joey Alvarado, Wes Coy, Craig Evansa, Mike Ortega, Jeff Frederick, Huy-Lin Nguyen, and Jeremy Harms headed out to play pad-free football at LGHS. It has since grown to be the National Turkey Bowl League, "Where Athletes Are Reborn Once A Year — Thanksgiving Day."

Saratoga Councilwoman Jill Hunter learned the Village Post Office would be leaving town for the first time at a hastily called community meeting.

Facing a $3.3 million shortfall Morgan Hill will be adding to its financial woes. After more than 3 years of negotiations, the City Council unanimously approved purchase of Associated Concrete’s property for $3.9 million.

The Gilroy Dispatch wants to know your thoughts on which local governmental agency is the worst run. Your choices are the Water District, VTA, Gilroy Unified School District, or the City of Gilroy. So far, Gilroy itself is running away with the vote. Perhaps Watch Dog should run the “Which local newspaper is the worst run”…