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.

Super-Sized Morning News Round-Up -- 5.17.10: Blood-Sport Monday - Hockey and Politics...

The Western Conference Finals started Sunday... Sharks lost... but at the end of the series, we are looking forward to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sending some of Chicago's finest (and fattiest) foods west to San Jose. He and Mayor Reed made a little wager. Chuck may receive a bunch of Vienna Beef soon. Yum.

But hockey was the mild sport over the weekend with politics being a little more dangerous... Especially in San Jose's City Council District 5...

Let's go chronologically:

The Mayor may be sharing some of Chicago's finest foods from Mayor Daley with his new BFF, Magdalena Carrasco. He endorsed her late last week, according to Watch Dog's email...

But that wasn't the only, or the most intriguing, part of that City Council race this weekend. Mailers were mailed out that took a big shot at Xavier Campos' role at MACSA courtesy of the Chamber. (Can you use the phrase "courtesy of" when you are talking about who paid for a hit piece?) Longtime readers of Watch Dog will not be surprised about the MACSA/Campos connection...

But that wasn't even the more intriging news out of that City Council race. It seems someone is (illegally) using Magdalena Carrasco's name to put out a fake mailer that has her standing with a communist Vietnamese flag... welcome to 1950... The Mayor is not pleased with this latest development and is calling on the DA, the Elections Commission, the post office, and the media to all do their job to identify who did this shady work... Watch Dog won't speculate, even though we'd love to...

As if there wasn't enough going on on San Jose's east side, there was an emergency landing at Reid-Hillview over the weekend... and a man was shot and killed in the Tropicana parking lot on Sunday morning.

Expect this story to also have political repurcussions: Dolores Carr's DA's office apparently stopped the forensic testing of some evidence in the De Anza rape case. This according to evidence in an ongoing civil trial... Jeff Rosen's team is no doubt reprinting this story and distributing it widely... Especially now that he has the support of some high-placed friends...

A big, long in-depth story was in Saturday's Mercury News about the new County Executive Jeff Smith. He has some fans, namely the County Board of Supervisors, who extended his contract through 2013. But the more interesting part of the story is the detractors: the County's unions do not like Jeff Smith. But that might be expected... but Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren? Apparently Smith pushed off a meeting with Lofgren for months. Here's what she said:

"His comments so far appear to be precipitous, haphazard and detrimental to the foundation of county government... People are calling to complain to me. I spent 14 years of my life making a good hospital and many of us are thinking, 'What is he doing?'"

Well, we know he isn't making friends with people in high places...

That isn't the only County employee in the news this week... there is a new County Counsel in the mix -- the acting County Counsel Miguel Marquez is getting the acting removed from his name...

The Merc's Internal Affairs shed some light into how the employee negotiations are going at the City of San Jose. It seems that City Manager Deb Figone had her lunch at Flames interupted by some city workers that were having a protest and started banging on Flames' windows yelling "Save our jobs!"... of course, Figone used to eat lunch at Morton's, but since the pay cut, she's now at Flames... We also learn from IA that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency forked over a $62 million check to the State Govenrment t his week. No word yet if the Governor has signed the thank you note...

Also in an attempt to get attention for their union plight, Jim Unland at the San Jose Police Officers' Association wrote a Memo to the Mayor on Friday... we're sorry we missed it then, but the Mayor probably isn't...

Perhaps this will help with the Figone/Employee and Police/Mayor relations: Measure K in San Jose got the deep dive in Sunday's paper as the Merc's Sandra Gonzales goes into the lovely Garden City Casino for some "man/woman on the street/at the table" interviews and looks at the pros and cons of relying on gambling to plug San Jose's budget holes...

The Water District reversed course and approved a new map for districts. Gilroy is no longer with Palo Alto... And that new Gilroy/Morgan Hill district is the one that the fast-food toy-loving Supervisor Don Gage will run for this fall... But the Mayors of Gilroy and Morgan Hill are still not pleased...

Sometimes it is good to have a reporter/columnist that is over 25 years old... such is the case with Scott Herhold. He gives a great perspective on Larry Pegram's first go'round on the San Jose City Council. If you read between the lines, Pegram left the Council with his three buddies on the heals of a bribery scandal... Pegram wasn't indicted or found to have done anything wrong...

File this story under D -- as in "Drive Cindy Chavez Crazy." Local political consultant Jude Barry is a founder of a technology firm that allows folks to register to vote and sign ballot petitions through iPhones, iPads, and other smart phones. It is the same company that landed Barry on the California Labor Federation's Do Not Patronize list... (This story should tell you how important that list is...) The Santa Clara County Registrar is accepting registrations that use Verafirma technology...

File this story under W for Weird... the Merc Editorial Board, generally a pro-education parcel tax bunch is "reserving judgement" on one parcel tax this June -- Measure I in Alum Rock Union Elementary School District because they are not including charter schools in their tax measure. The other parcel taxes in Milpitas, Oak Grove, and Mount Pleasant get the Merc Editorial nod...

Palo Alto may be getting some taller buildings... above 50 feet actually. Expect the NIMBYs to start the rebellion soon...

Ken Yeager and the rest of the Santa Clara County Supervisors (except Don Gage and George Shirakawa) get props from Dorothy Dimitre in the San Mateo Daily Journal for their fast food toy ban...

We didn't write about this last week, but it doesn't mean we missed it. Saratoga City Councilmember Susie Nagpal died last week. Very sad story.

And because sometimes important things happen outside of our regular sphere: Burlingame and its police department have started the long road toward pension reform. From the San Mateo County Times: "...Police sergeants and captains in Burlingame have agreed to pay freezes through the end of the year and are ready to cut retiree benefits, the first union contract that includes pension reform for a city struggling to deal with escalating employee costs..."

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...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.8.10: When the Saints...

If you didn't check Watch Dog after you read the Morning News Round-Up on Friday, you missed late-breaking stuff about Mayor Ron Dellums being "in the know" about when Major League Baseball would hear back from the Task Force looking into the Oakland A's Bay Area stadium options... We posted it after we read the East Bay Express, then San Jose Inside did.

This is interesting, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Manager Deb Figone are on a different page when it comes to changing the make up of the pension boards in the City of San Jose. It is interesting because Reed and Figone are often on the same page when it comes to such things... Figone wants all the folks on the board to be independent, financial experts appointed by the City Council -- Reed has cut a deal that isn't as strong, but will still get more experts, but fewer Council appointments, on the pension boards. Pension board/ taxpayer watch dogs seem displeased...

Perhaps a winning lotto ticket could help make up some of San Jose's pension losses... a $20 million ticket was sold at 7-11 on Bascom Avenue. Check your numbers: 19, 29, 36, 41, 20...

Dolores Carr in the news... again. This time, the judge that she has instructed her prosecutors to boycott has a key case in front of her right now and isn't letting the case go. Sorry District Attorney Carr...

Also in the news is the SJPD, well, one detective in particular. This will affect Dolores Carr's office too. A detective in the Sexual Assaults Investigations Unit may face charges for allegedly filing false police reports that led to some cases being dismissed, although is seems that no one was falsely charged because the shoddy police work. Of course, after the fact of this coming to light, Police Chief Rob Davis is looking into auditing detectives more closely... sound familiar?

Speaking of internal government controversies, here's another one: Silicon Valley Power, the utility that provides electricity to Santa Clara, was forced by Cal-OSHA to shut down one of the City's three power plants. The story also highlights some other internal issues going on at Silicon Valley Power... No word yet if Mission City Lantern can trace this closure back to the anti-49ers crowd, but we'll wait and see.

In an unrelated story, 5 folks died at a Connecticut power plant after a big explosion.

When we think about the 49ers stadium plans in Santa Clara, we've generally only been talking about Santa Clara. But the Sunnyvale City Council wanted some 49er love as well -- and Lisa Lang of the 49ers gave them some. Perhaps San Jose is interested in the economic/ traffic impact of the 49er's stadium?

Scott Herhold at the Merc is doing some reporting this week, apparently. He fills us in on a story developing in the County Building where Assessor Larry Stone is actively trying to stop former Sunnyvale Councilmember John Howe's appointment to an Assessment Appeals Board at the County. Supervisor George Shirakawa has nominated John Howe and Larry Stone thinks that Howe is not only unqualified, but wrote a nasty letter to tell everyone about it. Herhold got wind of the story and wrote about is as a reporter, not a columnist, this weekend...

Herhold also wrote a column this weekend, continuing a push for openness from the San Jose Police Department, specifically about 911 tapes. Herhold notes that the entire Toyota accelerator recall stems, in large part, from a released 911 tape. Oh, and the Police Chief Rob Davis was out of town when Herhold called for a quote. Perhaps he is looking for a place to retire too, because Herhold also noted that Davis "...is widely believed to be a short-timer..."

Internal Affairs in the Merc let Sheriff Laurie Smith know why she should be careful whom she writes letters of recommendation for... her opponent in her re-election bid is using a Smith-written recommendation as a campaign promotional piece. Oops.

Morning News Round-Up – 10.26.09: No singing in San Jose...

Across California, San Jose has landed in the news…

• San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis put 4 officers on leave after a videotape wound up in the hands of Attorney Duyen Hoang Nguyen.
• (apparently) Showing a brutal beating of San Jose State University math student Phuong Ho, the video is disturbing.
• Former San Francisco Police Chief/Mayor Frank Jordan joined others in asking if the beating was necessary.
• Following a yearlong series of questions about San Jose police (possibly) profiling or behaving badly, this has to sting.
• The Merc’s Editorial Board reminds San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed of his previous statements that it’s not enough to avoid breaking the law, it’s doing the right thing that counts.
• The Merc calls on District Attorney Dolores Carr to open the (inevitable) grand jury hearings on this case.
• San Jose Inside shares Mayor Reed’s comment that he is “troubled” by the contents of the video and notes Chief Rob Davis launched an Internal Affairs investigation after learning from the Merc about the video.

Following two deaths from illegal road races in San Jose, the Merc’s Gary “Mr. Roadshow” Richards did a little digging. Thousands of racers are ticketed in the Bay Area. It’s tough tracking down races. And…. California Highway Patrol Sgt. William Bradshaw says the solution is to give kids their own race track, Sonoma’s Infineon is too far and, well, kids will be kids…

Former Vice Mayor/Labor leader Cindy Chavez says calls by San Jose City Manager Debra Figone for drastic cuts will damage the city and isn’t very creative. Figone, facing a $90 million budget gap is calling for reductions in pay and benefits including elimination of “redundant compensation” to police and firefighters.


Sunnyvale dentist John Licking bucked the sagging home value trend after the city of San Jose offered to settle a lawsuit and buy up property near a planned BART station for a cool $2 million. San Jose Councilmember Sam Liccardo said, in “technical legal terms” the deal was “twofer” noting the end of the lawsuit and purchase of needed land.

The Merc’s Internal Affairs uncovered a little gloating in District Attorney Dolores Carr’s office. Carr let loose a “final salvo” at (former) Deputy DA/Councilmember Sam Liccardo and (former) defense attorney/Councilmember Ash Kalra for supporting the dangerous promotion of Sunshine. After a Pacific Research Institute report that said Los Altos elementary school, Santa Rita, suspended 81% of their little tykes for “obscene, disruptive, hostile or intimidating behavior” IA went to the source only to find Los Altos is not a hotbed of violent crime.

Thanks to a Watch Dog tipster this blurb from last week. Porn king/Values Advocacy Council president Larry Pegram has officially tossed his hat in the ring to unseat Congressional representative Jerry McNerney. Pegram plans to ditch San Jose for Plesanton. Oddly, the Pegram press release made no mention of Pegrams penchant for censorship.

The Merc’s Patty Fisher was reminded of the importance of friends during the memorial service for former Mountain View Mayor Rosemary Stasek. Email was Stasek’s favored communications tool as she maintained lives, and friendships around the world. Still mourning Stasek, husband Morne du Preez said his wife love parties but always liked leaving while “she was still having fun.”

For your government Watch Dog pleasure…

• San Jose’s City Council talks further cutbacks and critter care.
• The Los Altos School District (not a hotbed of kiddie violence) considers renewal of a parcel tax.
• School closure is on the minds of Trustees for the Alum Rock Union School District with 5 schools facing darkness.
• The Cupertino Union School District considers technology and special education.
• In Palo Alto the Unified School District noodles over plans for student achievement and Gunn and Palo Alto High buildings. The board also considers a pre-kindergarten plan.
• San Jose’s Franklin-McKinley School District hears Rocketship Education's plans to open charter schools.

Following a weekend of bad news for local deputy dawgs, Protect San Jose leads with an invite to the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers dinner.

Morning News Round-Up – 6.19.09: No Video-Gate News, sorry...

Leaders in the San Jose firefighter’s union are blistering in the glare of a Civil Grand Jury report entitled “City of San Jose Hosed by IAFF Local 230 Executives.” The report calls firefighters courageous and dedicated but their union leaders created a “toxic relationship." Union President Randy Sekany says no one from the Grand Jury ever talked to him. There is no truth to the rumor that Police Officers Association President Bobby Lopez was jumping for joy that the heat was off of him for a day...

The Merc’s Editorial Board cheers Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s efforts to turn El Camino Real into Main Street Silicon Valley.

San Jose’s Mayor and City Council are breathing a sigh of relief. Two more unions will pass on raises to save the city $6 million and keep 46 people working. City Manager Debra Figone praised the unions and union leader Yolanda Cruz called the move a community investment.

San Jose saw the third in a string of Silicon Valley pedestrian fatalities. A young man riding a scooter was killed by the lightrail after went under the crossing arm. In another (un)related train incident, a 19 year old was busted for DUI after he tried pushing his car across Caltrain tracks. You can guess the rest. No one was hurt but the kid’s been busted for DUI.

San Jose Unified School District Board President Leslie Reynolds likened their decision to “…holding your nose and taking the least stinking thing on the list,” as Trustees last night increased class sizes. Thank you Sacramento...

Speaking of which...

The Merc’s Patty Fisher lends support to Assemblymember Jim Beall’s push for increased alcohol taxes. Party pooper Beall points to voter support, 17 years without a tax increase, and children with developmental defects due to fetal alcohol syndrome as justification. On the other side, “anti-tax Republicans and the powerful alcohol lobby.”

San Jose Inside/Silicon Valley Newsroom hung out for a discussion with Mayor Chuck Reed who kicked things off with “this is a no-bad-news zone.” Reed, no doubt eager to shake off the budget gloom, talked about sidewalk cafes and baseball.

San Jose and Campbell will be negotiating (or battling) over 68 to 130 acres of land in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood, surrounded by Campbell… Campbell Mayor Jane Kennedy called annexation to Campbell the most sensible course of action. In the mix, talks with the Local Agency Formation Commission and San Jose.

Campbell also has a battle heating up over an all-night gas station. Station representative Jonathan Ramos with Stantec Architecture said the owner pulled his application for late night use because “… there is no legal requirement” for the business to comply with City ordinances. (That sounds vaguely familiar...)

It’s buyer beware according to the Mountain View City Councilmember John Inks who supported taxi deregulation saying “competition – that’s the key to customer satisfaction." Straight from the Libertarian talking points, no doubt.

Gilroy’s City Council (and City Attorney) had a second look at City ordinances and decided maybe they couldn’t let Garlic City Casino run a blackjack game after all. Counciclmember Dion Bracco asked to have the proposal reconsidered saying he didn’t think either the Council or Police understood what they were doing.

Former Olympic wrestler Marco Sanchez steps up as Gilroy High’s new principal. Superintendent Deborah Flores called it a “new era” at Gilroy. Sanchez arrives just as Gilroy hands schools a bill for $1.8 million, School District Trustee Denise Apuzzo called the city’s bill “ridiculous.”

Mountain View Whisman School District Trustees are talking 10 year plans, bond measures, and “guiding principles” as they struggle with current budget problems.

San Jose Revealed’s pneumonia wears on leaving us breathless in anticipation of this week's “thinly veiled hostility and revelations of hypocrisy:” San Jose City Manager Debra Figone as an unquotable toughie, ongoing attacks from Police Officers Association President Bobby Lopez and yesterday’s grand jury report. (Feel better soon…)

Morning News Round-Up -- 6.15.09: Mid-30s and bald...the Hooters' demographic

The Chronicle is encroaching on the Merc's turf, apparently. They have a piece in today's paper about the "Golden Triangle for smart phones..." Cupertino to Mt. View to Sunnyvale.

The DA’s office can’t seem to shake accusations of misconduct. This time, Deputy DA Jaime Stringfield is accused of withholding evidence in a sexual assault case. At risk, letting rapists roam the streets…

A handful of South Bay schools are showing success narrowing the achievement gap between white and Latino students. A big Woof to Mountain View High School, and Bracher, Arbuckle, and Grant Elementary Schools. Now seems like the perfect time for the State to cut millions (billions?) from schools...

The Gilroy Unified School District is back in good financial standing, according to Standard & Poor’s. Superintendent Deborah Flores says she’s “ecstatic about being taken off CreditWatch.” Too bad the same can't be said for this embattled San Mateo County school district (La Honda-Pescadero Unified) on Watch Dog San Mateo's watch list...

San Jose’s City Council may be taking a hit on their pay but the City’s unions aren’t ready to join them. Union leaders are accusing city leaders of asking them to take a “poison pill.” Watch Dog has to guess that the City Council is going to choose between a poison pill and paycheck...

At the heart of San Jose’s labor negotiations stands City Manager Debra Figone. The Merc’s Scott Herhold takes time to offer a portrait of Figone as an unquotable toughie putting reporters to sleep while trying to save money and jobs. (We expect Revealed's response to Herhold's Figone piece as soon as the pnuemonia passes... Get well Revealed.)

Get your telescope ready. NASA wants your help to look for water. Scientists from Mountain View based NASA’s Ames Research Center hope to blow up part of the moon. Scientist Kimberly Ennico anxiously waits for the final decision, looking forward to “making a big splash.”

Speaking of local geek fests… San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation celebrated its 10th birthday. Tech Boardmember/Former Cirrus Logic CEO Michael Hackworth says the Museum is past the survival stage which is good news for San Jose, which covers part of the budget.

Hooters in Campbell was the scene of more than just skin over the weekend. An argument that started in the restaurant turned into a stabbing in the parking lot with a “culprit in his mid-30s and bald” jumping into a silver Mercedes to run. Mid-30s and bald, you say? Isn't that the description of every dude at Hooters?

The Merc’s Internal Affairs had some fun this weekend...

• Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr is kinda-sorta-just-a-little helping pass legislation protecting prosecutors from misconduct charges. (Ben Field says thank you...)
• After a slow start, San Jose’s City Council is now playing “Who Gets the Biggest Paycut.” Councilmember Chu must have (finally) read Watch Dog and Herhold...
• Assemblymember Joe Coto is trading big insurance campaign cash for contributions from gambling, alcohol, and tobacco interests. How warm and fuzzy... (Watch Dog predicts Councilmember/candidate Nora Campos will be the big campaign finance winner in Coto's Sacramento assignments...)
• The ACLU’s Skyler Porras has been trying to get a meeting with the Police Officers Assocation's Bobby Lopez for some time. Turns out all she had to do was write a letter saying the POA had the right to do their YouTube video, even though it was "a desperate and obvious attempt to distract from the serious police accountability issues facing this city." (And, yes, video-gate is still up on YouTube.)

Around the Valley, here’s the dish on your local governance…

• The City Council in Santa Clara will discuss "mixed use" - like an amusement park AND a football stadium...
  
• Mountain View’s City Council studies NASA’s plans for Moffett...
• Milpitas Councilmembers will talk about rezoning 9+ acres of McCarthy Ranch for less industry and more shopping...
  
• San Jose’s City Council conducts a hearing on the budget, considers a wage freeze for the operating engineers union, higher health care costs, increasing affordable housing in North San Jose, and $300 million to renovate and expand the McEnery Convention Center...

Two last things...

On the cover of this weekend's Merc was a story about technology companies asking the Obama Administration to intervene with their beef with the Chinese government. The Chinese government is asking tech companies to pre-install censoring software on computers sold in China. Watch Dog had to chime in to let you all know that there is no truth to the rumor that Councilmember Pete Constant is representing the Chinese government on this issue...

In case you Sharks fans missed it, the hockey season ended on Friday night. The Penguins won. Which brings up the local angle: Remember when Boots Del Biaggio owned part of that team?

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.1.09: "Size does matter..." according to Mayor Reed

Trying to catch up with Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio's use of inappropriate, sexual references in public, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed declared, “Size does matter” discussing San Jose's population (finally) hitting 1 million residents. (Rumors that Mayor Reed blushed and giggled after uttering the double entendre are unconfirmed...)

Swine Flu update: Four more Silicon Valley schools shut their doors for flu days. While Watch Dog is ready to ditch the Swine Flu mania it is nice to see all the kids wandering aimlessly, in public, with school doors shuttered.

San Jose City Manager Debra Figone put the budget axe to the grindstone. The result, no one is going to be happy. San Jose, trying to close a $77.5 million deficit, is losing nearly 150 people, closing libraries half the week, ditching the mounted police, and closing parks on slow days.

Fire Marshal David Schoonover isn’t a fan of San Jose restaurants’ tents and won’t be a welcome guest for garlic fries and Amber Ale. Visits from Schoonover to the Poor House Bistro, Gordon Biersch, and Smoke Tiki Lounge landed restaurant owners in hot water for their tents. Downtown Councilmember Sam Liccardo is hopeful the businesses and the Fire Marshal will work it out without costing businesses big bucks.

Former Mayor/lobbyist Tom McEnery hoisted a celebratory beer and danced a jig in the tent-free O’Flaherty’s when San Jose Elections Commissioners dismissed the anonymous complaint. Elections Commission Chairman Fred de Funiak was pissed saying the “commission was used,” to go after McEnery. Big guns Supervisor Dave Cortese and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino showed up to tell the Commission not to accept anonymous complaints. Way to use the Rolodex, Tom. Yesterday, San Jose Revealed posted a scathing challenge to the Merc’s Editors to actually read the report...

Speaking of Dave Cortese... Supervisor Cortese hopes to prevent little kids from landing in the pokey and Silicon Valley from having the youngest child ever locked up.

Silicon Valley hookers will be happy to hear the news, Dean Rish from San Ramon was busted for robbing women in the world’s oldest profession. Public safety officials working with the District Attorney’s office used the internet to find hookers with information about the East Bay robber before busting him.

Alum Rock Union School District Trustees have renegotiated outgoing Superintendent Norma Martinez’ severance package. Gone (finally) are the half million in cash and monthly benefits over $1,500. Martinez’ revised deal of less than $200,000 and half the benefits will allow the District to “move forward” according to Board President Gustavo Gonzalez.

Earlier in the week we wrote about a development in Palo Alto that got shot down by the City's Planning and Transportation Committee... well, the developers had this to say: "This project has been in the works for five years, and this is the kind of dysfunctional process that drives business and tax revenue out of Palo Alto..." How do you really feel?

A grumpy Saratoga Planning Commission approved plans to expand the Inn at Saratoga but let owner Kwan Lee know they were pissed about his refusal to roll in improved handicap access. Commissioner Linda Rodgers said she was disappointed while Commissioner Mary-Lynne Bernald symbolically voted ‘no.’

Sunnyvale’s City Council is declaring Sunnyvale will be a safe place for bicycles and pedestrians at the same time and street parking will have to be sacrificed for the bicycle when needed. That’s putting the green vision where it counts…

Also insisting on going green… Saratoga Mayor Chuck Page is visiting each of his restaurants to ask they ditch the Styrofoam voluntarily. We understand that the American Chemistry Council is trying to track down Mayor Page...

Saratoga’s City Council has been working with Civica Software since November to update the website and settled on the new design this week. Mayor Chuck Page asked the background be white for easy reading while Councilmember Howard Miller said simply “it might be good to find out how to simplify this design to have less words and less clutter,” Miller continued with "one of the problems with websites for infrequent users ... is that they can get lost if there's too much going on." Apparently, this conversation about web-design is what constitutes hard-hitting news coverage in Saratoga...

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro can be found tonight ambling through San Jose’s SoFA district celebrating First Friday with music, art, and a little shopping. Pizarro also dishes former Mayor Ron Gonzales pouring a little red at a Silicon Valley Capital Club fundraiser and former Councilmember/Supervisorial wannabe Forrest Williams has declared himself green from his name to his business cards.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.16.09: Police Chief Watch (Dog)...the countdown begins

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis is all over the news these days, and not in a good way. Here’s a rundown on local commentary…

From this story in the Merc. titled "Rumors swirling around San Jose police chief Davis, but job appears secure":

• San Jose councilmember Nora Campos thinks the Chief “...is being looked at a little closer...”
• From Police Officers Association President Bobby Lopez, the Chief’s position is precarious...
• Rev. Jeff Moore II, head of the local NAACP, wants to know if “...a zebra can change his stripes...”
• Perhaps the most telling is this: "City Manager Debra Figone, who has the power to fire Davis, has made no public indication either way." No public comment either way, that's one way to not stand behind your Police Chief...

From Scott Herhold's column titled "San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis's heartburn":

• A Silicon Valley De-Bug round table saw the Chief interrupt a storyteller to tell him “...Spanish is the language of the angels...” That doesn't seem to be gaining the Chief any friends in San Jose's Latino community...
  
• Herhold picks up where the Metro left off last week and describes the troubles facing Chief Davis, and they aren't good.

From the Metro:

• Erin Sherbert digs deeper into the mounting problems facing the Chief.
• Interestingly, Councilmember Madison Nguyen refuses to talk on the record. Rather, she punts until Chief Davis rolls out some "short-term reforms." Those reforms better be good...
  

The latest San Jose Independent Police Auditor Chris Constantin landed in San Jose Inside with a bare bones review. Thanks to Watch Dog tipsters we know Constantin is hitting the bricks and meeting with anyone who slows down long enough to talk to him. The dude doesn’t start work until next month and is showing up at community and stakeholder meetings.

The tanking economy hasn’t hit San Jose’s casinos. The gambling business is good and casinos want to hire. Garden City Casino is filing (another) lawsuit complaining San Jose isn’t helping with hiring. City Attorney Rick Doyle calls it “needless lawyering.” Coming from a lawyer, that is really saying something...

The Merc.’s Action Line guy, Dennis Rockstroh, reports San Jose City’s budget cutting has hit landscaping. The Cty’s Greg Schultz says high maintenance shrubs and ground cover are the targets of this landscaping scale-back.

Bigots imported from Washington, D.C. to fight a Day Worker center in Mountain View are making claims of “soft racism” accusing Americans’ desire for cheap labor of creating the problem. Mountain View Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said the immigration issue that brought Judicial Watch to Mountain View is a federal issue she’s not sure what they expect from the Council.

The Merc’s Editorial Board supports school district parcel tax measures A & B, with their “well thought out” spending plans and protection of the elderly and disabled. Moreland and Cupertino School Districts have a challenging race ahead, but they have to be happy to have the Merc’s support.

Super Soakers and nametags are the latest tools for gang members looking to leave their intimidating mark on San Jose. Tagging is on the rise and San Jose’s increasing deficit isn’t helping. Mayor Chuck Reed says “we’re losing ground” and the City needs to “be more stubborn than the taggers.” If you’re interested in being one of the stubborn, call 408-277-3208 or e-mail: antigraffiti@sanjoseca.gov.

Sal Pizzaro, the Merc’s Man About Town, dishes gubernatorial wanna be/former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will be at tonight’s San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Women in Leadership dinner. Pizzaro adds Whitman should provide insight on the State’s financial woes.

Palo Alto’s Midtown parents will see big changes (hint: Big parental beefs are brewing) as school boundaries are redrawn and the old/new Garland School is re-opened.

A former Reporter/Editor of several (Peninsula and Palo Alto) local papers was arrested (again) on drug charges. Brian Bothun was picked up on April 5th in Palo Alto. This just proves that Reporters/Editors love writing about Reporters/Editors. Hell hath no fury like former newspaper rivals...

San Jose Revealed made Watch Dog’s head spin using complicated baseball statistics to figure out how San Jose’s Councilmembers stack up in terms of gathering team support. The big losers, Councilmembers Pierluigi Oliverio and Pete Constant. As Revealed points out, it reflects badly on the Councilmember if they can’t garner support from their colleagues…

Peter Lawrence might be the happiest guy in Silicon Valley, he retired at 44 from a great job at HP, authored a book, and contemplates quiet mornings with a view of redwoods. While Lawrence doesn’t consider himself frugal the rest of us might, he has no furniture (or bed), two pairs of pants, and watches TV on his laptop. In these tough times it could pay to emulate at least some of Lawrence’s lifestyle, just don’t take Watch Dog's bed away.

Trading a Task Force for a Consortium...

For those of you who haven't been paying attention...

There is an apparent problem in San Jose with the San Jose Police Department arresting Latinos for allegedly being drunk. In December, 2+ months after the issue became public, Councilmember Nora Campos and Mayor Chuck Reed called for a Task Force to be put together to look at the issue and make recommended solutions. At the time, Councilmember Liccardo wanted swifter action and called for reforms to be implemented immediately and called Task Forces, "...the places where good ideas go to die..."

Well...it looks like Liccardo was right. Some folks in the City, including San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and City Manager Deb Figone, don't actually want the Task Force to finish its work and are doing their best to see it die.

A story just posted on the Merc.'s website that says the City is engaging the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity to look into the issue. Not with the help of the aforementioned Task Force. Not with the input of the aforementioned Task Force. Rather, it seems, instead of the aforementioned Task Force.

This doesn't really pass Watch Dog's smell test. Trading a Task Force for a Consortium to look at the same issue that we all knew about in October, seems to push off potential solutions even longer...Watch Dog complained when the issue was going to take 6 months to address. Now we are looking at a year, maybe longer...Really? A year? For what?

Rightfully pissed, and apparently taken by surprise, local ACLU head Skyler Porras unleashed a harsh and focused response. Not mincing words, here is the piece of the story about Porras, in all its glory:

Task force member Skyler Porras, who heads the San Jose Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the city's enlistment of the social scientists "an end run" around the task force, and "a bumbling way to appease a scandal-plagued but politically powerful police department." She said the move "only serves to further engender that same distrust" that the task force was appointed to address.

Watch Dog predicts that this issue is about to blow up...stay tuned...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.6.09: City, can you spare $600K?

The San Jose City Council will be hosting a bake sale any day now. City Manager Debra Figone said the worsening economy is leading to a budget deficit of $62.5 million for the next fiscal year. Ironically, Mayor Chuck Reed will release a scary budget message Friday the 13th...

Speaking of the City of San Jose spending money...

San Jose's (four-letter-word) developers ROEM and CORE are putting their hands out for more than $600,000 for a project not due to break ground until 2013. The developers need an advance on money the City's Housing Department has promised. This (semi)bailout would usually sail through the City Council no problem as the money had been promised and the developers just want an advance. Given the economy, that seems to make sense. But, this bailout isn't sitting too well with some of the neighbors of the Fiesta Lanes project on San Carlos Avenue. That's probably because ROEM/CORE have been seen as neighborhood bullies since the project started. Backyard neighbors to the project were told a year ago that part of their yards were actually on the project's property. These neighbors got a nasty note from ROEM/CORE telling them that their fences were to be removed...which was not very neighborly. One such neighbor, Terri Belandra of the Fiesta Lanes Action Group, is fighting back and seems to have the ear of the City Council because she got the bailout package delayed a week and got Councilmember Oliverio all riled up too. Another pissed-off neighbor is Rod Sayfie, the owner of Meineke Muffler, whose lease on the property slated to be part of the development isn't up until 2013. Sayfie doesn't want to leave early and doesn't like the way ROEM and CORE have treated him up to now either.

(Watch Dog readers should know that ROEM/CORE are likely to get the bailout they want from the City Council. RObert EMami (get it? ROEM) is perhaps the most generous political contributor to causes close to some City Councilmembers. Watch Dog bets that the Councilmembers who speak up loudest for the bailout are also the folks that are the beneficiaries of ROEM's largess.)

Speaking of active neighbors...Los Gatans pissed about a proposed cul-de-sac and development were successful in delaying project decisions too. Resident Stephanie Lynatt is concerned the orchards are disappearing and Planning Commission Vice Chair John Bourgeois complained the architect didn’t implement the level of changes the Commission asked for.

Santa Clara County is offering a Pharmaceutical Drop-Off Program for folks to go dump their unused med’s in a plastic box and not down the toilet. Pill-snatching, pharm-partying teenagers are not big fans of this new County program...

Three Silicon Valley blackmailers are heading to the County brig. Superior Court Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett generously gave them less than a year in County lock-up for luring men into a sex tryst – with cameras turned on. James Spader did not speak on behalf of the accused...

In a much different kind of scam (we hope) -- a group of scam artists pretending to be with the City of San Jose Senior Centers is hoping to separate older folks from their hard earned cash. Watch out...

Perhaps the number of desperate scammers is about to increase...the unemployment rate in the Silicon Valley jumped to 9.4% in January. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Carl Guardino is predicting a worse news in February and March...and he is usually such an upbeat guy...

Hao D. Lam was murdered outside a home in San Jose’s Alum Rock neighborhood Tuesday night. The Police are reticent to share details and are hoping you’ll call with information: (408) 808-4500.

Some Mountain View pre-school parents are pissed off and the Mountain View-Whisman School Board heard all about it. The pre-school currently rents unused District facilities. Now, the District needs that facility back as Mountain View-Whisman School District expands. The District and parents agreed to meet again and the District (and the City) are trying to help the pre-school relocate.

San Jose Revealed lets loose with more Quick Notes – or as Revealed calls them – notes for the temporally frugal…they hit Mayor Reed’s junket to D.C. to dine with SJSU officials. They also get a shot in on a GOP boss' salary...(which Watch Dog San Mateo wrote about yesterday)...

(very late) Morning News Round-Up – 1.13.09: What's a billion dollars between friends?

Pensioner/Pension Board Overseer/City Councilmember Pete Constant saw costs increase for the police/firefighter pensions 167% since he started his own retirement in 2000 -- a little over 7 times the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area. When Constant joined the pension board 2 years ago he might have tried to figure out why, but he didn’t. Now that the Merc. is doing its Watch Dog best to investigate, Constant has decided, "We cannot as a council lose sight of the overall fiscal health of the city." Too bad Constant wasn’t this interested 2 years ago, or during the 6 years he received his own benefits. The Merc’s Editorial board jumps into the act pointing out the bonus checks to retirees is a problem -- um, yeah...especially when the funds lost a billion dollars recently. The Council is discussing this today...to be continued...

The Mayor Reed Drunk Task Force meets for the first time Thursday, 4 months after the racial profiling question was splattered across the pages of the Merc. Task Force member Bea Mendez, Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum, was concerned upon seeing this note in the staff report seeking “an expert on alcohol issues in the Latino community.” Mendez apparently thought the Task Force was all about racial profiling and San Jose’s arrest record which far outpaced the rest of the State. Why did she think that? Just because that was what the Task Force was supposed to be...but then the City's professional staff got involved. Task Force Chair/City Manager Debra Figone was quick to backtrack from the alcohol expert issue. Now, she says, "Our focus is police practices and developing noncriminal and alternative approaches to arrests (for public intoxication). It is not the issue of the use of alcohol among the Latino community." Figone’s second in command, Norberto Duenas provides proof that he has an outstanding command of the obvious: "I think we could have written it a different way.” You think? Task Force member and local ACLU head, Skyler Porras, responded, "I don't think the police department or the city ever does anything by mistake. My real concern is that the city may be moving to avoid the underlying issue." (You go girl!) All of this gives credence to what Councilmember Liccardo said the day the Task Force was set up..."[Task Forces] are where good ideas go to die..." From the looks of things, death has already started...

The Merc.’s Sal Pizzaro talks about the buzz around the South Bay about who is going to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. Tamara Alvarado, director of 1stACT, and her husband, Julian Peeples, optimistically booked their trip in June. Also in the news, Congressmember Mike Honda’s ticket recipients included Stanford freshman Amani Green who made her own rap video to ask for a ticket.

San Jose has suffered its first murder of 2009, a young man was found shot to death in an East Side driveway. Police spokesman, Jermaine Thomas, said it’s unclear if it was a gang related shooting.

Los Gatos celebrated Police Officers Joe Romeo and Bryan Paul for rescuing residents whose car slid off the driveway and nearly 700 feet down a hillside embankment last October. Mayor Mike Wasserman, Vice Mayor Diane McNutt, Councilmember Joe Pirzynski, and Town Manager Greg Larson attended the officers' celebration. After officers freed the man, the car dragged Officer Romeo before he was able to escape, the car then slide down the hill, crashing into a tree.

Although the Morgan Hill School Board has cut $3 million from its budget, they may have to cut an additional $5.2 million. Board President Don Moody said closing a school is one of many options on the table and added, "It's premature for families to start getting emotional about it." Board Member Peter Mandel said that since enrollment is up the District may actually need another school and, "That is completely opposite to another scenario - we can't afford that, the general fund wouldn't support it, and we'll have to find ways to contract and not to expand." Britton Home and School Club President Lydie Jones has started a letter writing campaign attacking Sacramento legislators saying, "I hope (the State Legislators) understand the ramifications of their inaction." Ms. Jones, State Legislators understand the ramifications of their actions...they just don't care...

Watch Dog has followed Ante Bilic’s hopeful attempts to bring ta-ta’s to the garlic capital of the world with a club near Gilroy’s outlet mall. (Garlic Ta-Ta's would be a pretty good name for the club actually...) It looks like Home Depot lawyers have been following this issue as closely as we have. Home Depot's (well-funded) Watch Dogs have sniffed out dusty documents on file at Gilroy City Hall which prevents adult entertainment facilities in the mall. Watch Dog apology, a previous article should have said Gilroy Planners (i.e. Planning Department) not the Planning Commission, recommended approval of plans. The Planning Commission actually meets Thursday to make a recommendation. Gilroy Councilmembers meet later that night to review the mess. According to the Gilroy Dispatch poll, opinion runs 64% against Garlic Ta-Ta's. Perhaps Ante Bilic should show up with some of the future employees -- that might make things go a bit smoother...

Also on tap at Thursday's Gilroy Planning Commission meeting is a lively debate about cell phone towers and a report written by a T-Mobile engineer saying towers pose no health problems. (That's like tabacco companies testifying before Congress, no?) Also at issue is whether T-Mobile and Gilroy's City staff goofed by not looking at alternative sites for the proposed tower. Planning Commissioner Ben Anderson said, "We need an independent review at the applicant's expense," and described T-Mobile's alternative analysis as armchair engineering. "That was some guy pulling out a picture file and saying, 'Yeah, that'll work.'"

Dogs of all sizes (including us?) have a new place to play in Gilroy, the Las Animas Veterans (dog) Park. The big christening party is Saturday January 31. "I've been to dog parks in New York City to San Francisco, so it will be used. We just need to get the word out," said Donna Pray, Executive Director of the Gilroy Foundation and owner of Reggie, a yellow Labrador retriever.

Six Months?!

Well, well, well...the data on drunk arrests don’t support San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis' version of events as to why San Jose Police Officers arrest so many drunk folks and why so many of those folks are Latino.

First, let's see how our leaders are responding to the new news...

• Chief Davis, at a loss to explain the data which contradicts everything he's said thus far, says, “the simple answer is that the more we look at all of the data, the more obvious it is there are no simple answers.” Which is what some folks have been saying for some time. Ironically, Chief Davis is actually shielding more information than he is sharing...
• (Even as he stabs them in the back) Councilmember Pete Constant continues to defend the Chief and Police Officers saying that the police are trying to do the right thing and statistics don’t paint a complete picture...what is the complete picture then Pete? Perhaps you should have shown up to the Council meeting when this issue was being discussed to help paint that picture...
• Mayor Chuck Reed, well known to be a fan of data and analysis, is seeing the light, apparently. Now saying, "It's pretty clear to me that we have some problems that need to be fixed." Which is (close to) the exact opposite from what he said in a KCBS story two months ago: "...Mayor Chuck Reed says it's a socioeconomic problem..."
  

Now let's review a bit about how we got here...

The issue of drunk arrests first came up in mid-October...which led to accusations of racial profiling...which led to the City Council deciding to take a look at the issue in mid-November.

Prior to that mid-November meeting, Councilmember Sam Liccardo put forth a set of changes that would track, monitor, and implement how drunk arrests are done in San Jose. At the actual (long, long) City Council meeting, Mayor Reed and Councilmember Campos thought it would be best to study the issue further and called for a Task Force. Liccardo responded by saying Task Forces are “…the place where good ideas go to die...” Nonetheless, the Council moved forward on the Task Force idea...

Since the City Council meeting, three weeks went by and nothing happened until...a flurry of activity this week when...

• ...we learned that Officers are now offering Breathalyzer tests to those folks who want them...(one of Liccardo's ideas that the Mayor/Campos want to study for three months)
  
• ...City Manager Debra Figone finally submitted a Memo with a timeline for Task Force meetings along with groups who should participate. (It only took three weeks to write a 6 page Memo...2 pages a week ain't, bad I guess...)
• ...we all got some data about the actual drunk arrests and they don't support anything the Police Department has been saying...(surprise, surprise)
  

So what have we learned?

• It takes three months for the City Council to set out a three month strategy to address a pressing problem...which seems to be ok with the Mayor, the Police Chief, Councilmember Campos, and Councilmember Constant...
  
• Chief Davis didn't give the City Council a clear picture of what was going on in his Department, either because he didn't know or didn't want to say...either way, that's a problem...
• Councilmember Liccardo was right -- Task Forces are a place where good ideas go to die...if the Task Force ever gets off the ground...
  

So let's hear it for the Council -- who else can take a pressing issue in October and stretch out not finding a solution until April?

A question that the Mayor, or Campos, or Constant, or Chief Davis, or the City Manager should answer before they leave town:

What will we know about the problem and possible solutions in April that we don't know today...or that we didn't know in October?