Morning News Round-Up -- 3.26.10: Can you name the 1992 San Jose City Council?

A couple of days ago in the Palo Alto Daily News, there was a story about a Palo Alto City janitor who cashing out sick leave ($100k+) and retiring with a pension and benefits for life... well, the Merc must have seen that story and asked around San Jose City Hall if the same thing happens there. Guess what? It does. The total amount of sick leave cash outs in 2009 was $11.3 million, up from previous years. It is mostly to police officers and firefighters, who have unlimited (?) sick leave and vacation payouts when they are donPublish Poste with their stint with the City. The leader of the pack was a retiring deputy police chief who cashed in $305,447 of unpaid sick leave and vacation. Today's story also has a little history: "...But the presidents of the police and firefighters unions noted that city officials in 1992 gave them the unlimited sick-leave cash out benefit..." Ok all you old timers... We'll start the 1992 City Council list with Mayor Susan Hammer, David Pandori, Shirley Lewis, Pat Sausedo... can anyone out there name the rest?

(Not to be out-reported, the Palo Alto Weekly dives deep into how much 'cash outs' have cost Palo Alto... $5.3 million last year. We have no clue who was on the Palo Alto Council when those cash out decisions were made...)

The finalists for the now-high profile Independent Police Auditor's job in San Jose have been announced, even though the Merc caught wind of LaDoris Cordell's name prevoiusly. The other three:

• Jeff Schwartz, the head of Letra, a consulting firm that trains and researches law enforcement stuff,
• Marcos Soler, a director with the Research and Strategic Initiatives for the Civilian Complaint Review Board in NYC, and
• Victoria Urbi, a police review commission officer with Berkeley's civilian Police Review Commission.

Well, let's hope whomever gets the gig that they are not neutered like the last several IPAs have been... Because there's nothing a Watch Dog likes less than being neutered...

There is some closure to the sex with a student story in Santa Clara Unified. The Wilcox High School "special" education teacher Ed Slate will spend 2 years and 8 months for "...oral copulation with a minor, sexual penetration, and sodomy with a person younger than 18..."

While we are talking about schools, sort of... the County Office of Education is under the gun from "Alternative School" teachers and staff. The teachers are worried that by taking their concerns to the Board of Trustees, rather than the Superintendent Chuck Weis, that they may face retaliation...

No more classes, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks... at least for summer school. Morgan Hill closed summer school for the coming summer...

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 -- 11.23.09: San Jose = Agrestic?

It seems someone at the Chronicle is finally paying attention to what happens south of SFO. Last week it was this story, this week it is Matier & Ross getting into the action talking about how a 2-team option is included in the 49er's Environmental Impact Report that was passed unanimously by the Santa Clara Planning Commission. (Thank you very friendly Mr./Ms. Anonymous...)

San Jose usually loves being unique, but this is not be one of those times. Sunday’s headline on the Merc “S.J. Strategy in mental disturbances questioned.” Those pesky paper-sellers chatted up police in New York and Memphis to learn how officers with mental health training are sent when mental illness is a factor in dispatch calls. San Jose Police Sgt. Teresa Jeglum says SJPD doesn’t “have the staffing for an automatic trigger.” Probably not the best choice of words Sgt. Jeglum when responding to a story about a Police shooting...

Keeping up with San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis, the Merc’s Scott Herhold suggests there’s a growing rift between Mayor Reed and Davis due to “pratfalls” (the shooting of Daniel Pham), “personnel” and “politics.” Herhold pokes at Davis for keeping even his SJPD start date a state secret. With a little sleuthing, Herhold learns Davis can officially ditch San Jose with a pension over $200,000 October 24, 2010. For those of you who like to keep count, October 24th is 11 months from tomorrow... and from what our folks on the 18th floor tell us, that is going to be a loooooong 11 months for the Chief.

Let the mud fly. Silicon Valley’s GOP gubernatorial wannabe’s are getting their YouTube experience early as they slap each other around in an early war of the words. According to the Merc’s Internal Affairs a recent Merc story drew claws from the teams of Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman. At least these two will be prepared for the childish games in Sacramento should either of them beat Jerry Brown...

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed hopes to freeze Redevelopment Agency spending, slicing Redevelopment chief Harry Mavrogenes budget of $132 million. Reed also supports alternatives to dishing the $58 million owed to the County, like handing over the keys to the former City Hall, saying “their obligations are subordinate…” County Executive Jeff Smith is unlikely to go along “the fact they are overleveraged… is a problem we didn’t create.”

While Gilroy tries to shut down their defiant pot shop, San Jose gears up to write the rules to set out the “Open 4(20) Business” sign. Despite Mayor Chuck Reed’s reminder, pot shops are not (yet) legal in San Jose -- even if San Jose sometimes looks like Agrestic.

The Merc’s Joe Rodriguez visited an East San Jose neighborhood in search of answers. Why were trick-or-treating children attacked by Sureno gang members who were barely old enough to drive?

Judge Edward Lee loves his new “Soviet-bloc-style” courthouse in Morgan Hill, in spite of the smell of sewage, a flooded parking lot, a messed up sound system, an unusable jury room, and a door that won’t close. Lee admits there are “minor quirks” staff “has put up with” but is confident the County can fix problems not covered under warranty. This is the story that keeps on giving...

The week kicks off with the obligatory Carr/Rosen moment-by-moment campaign reporting. This week's update: the two work on different floors in the County building... Thank you Internal Affairs for that critical bit of information. Internal Affairs could also barely contain themselves after learning Palo Alto marketing firm Global Fluency wasn’t as fluent on the local media. It seems the Merc received a pitch to cover the (apparently) unknown berg of San Jose. Mayor Reed’s spokesperson Michelle McGurk sniffed “a pitch like this to the local paper is not something I consider a priority.” Unless it is part of her own job...

Local government buffs will want to know…

• San Jose’s Envision 2040 Task Force meets to work out San Jose’s master plan.
• The Mountain View – Los Altos High School District talks employee contracts.
• Santa Clara Unified School District considers class-size reduction and converting the old Agnews Hospital to school grounds.
• Sunnyvale’s City Council talks parkland.

This is funny...

A Watch Dog friend who reads pbump.net religiously sent us this update from Phillip Bump (via Twitter):

In a cab, headed to JFK, for a flight to San Jose. Probably for secret plots to undermine the old guard! Who knows!

Expect well-written, funny, and effective political steps to be taken soon from Canoas Garden... watch out Mayor Reed...