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 -- 1.29.10: Coto vs Reed?

For a Friday, there is some pretty big news...

Good morning San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis (and the SJPOA)... Assemblymembers Joe Coto and Paul Fong have something to tell you... they are asking the Joint Legislative Audit Committee launch an investigation into the SJPD to see if officers are trained properly and look into citizen complaints about use of force properly. But the intrigue doesn't end there... Mayor Reed criticized Coto and Fong, saying: "I see Joe Coto and Paul Fong all the time, and I'm surprised they haven't asked me about this." Stay tuned... Remember when there was talk of Coto running against Mayor Reed this June? Hmmmm...

The Merc's sport columnist Mark Purdy gives us an update about what the heck is happening with MLB in San Jose. The bottomline? MLB (and Bud Selig) are dragging their feet and San Jose needs to get on with it...

The City of San Jose, sensing a public sentiment shift under their own feet, is considering a new tax or fee to pay for tree maintenance... Which will make folks in the City who are uber-protective of their salary, benefits, and pensions pretty happy. You see, if there is a tax (or fee) for trees, then that money doesn't have to come from the general fund -- which means everyone's salary, benefits, and pensions are safe... for now.

You probably remember Broom Closet Modelling at Wilcox High in Santa Clara... the janitor who was running at teen modelling agency. But before there was the broom closet, there was a teacher arrested at Wilcox High School on the first day of school for allegedly having sex with a student... and that may have been a pattern that perhaps the principal knew about. Well, we have some more information today, thanks to the Merc: the Principal at the school will not face criminal "failure to report" charges... Not that it means anything, but... the principal's attorney is Steve Manchester, who seemingly endorsed the District Attorney when she ran the first time...

While we are talking about the DA's office, there is an Op Ed in the Merc by former Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell who calls for a mutany in the DA's office. She urges prosecutors to ignore their boss's decree to boycott one judge... and she calls out Jeff Rosen on the issue too...

High-Speed Rail could be moving faster than planned (pun intended) with a new influx of Federal cash... $2.25 billion, with a "b"... NIMBYs with an "n" better get their act together...

The backyard hockey rink in Palo Alto at the home of Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy needs to go through Palo Alto's planning process if he wants to keep it... What is weirder: Having a backyard hockey rink or Palo Alto's planning process?

Morning News Round-Up – 10.12.09:

Senator Joe Simitian breathed a sigh of relief, the Governor took time to sign his SB19 bill that puts California in line for as much as $4.5 Billion in federal Race to the Top dollars. Also a winner in the Schwarzenegger signing frenzy was San Jose State Senator Elaine Alquist (digital textbooks/health information/instructional materials). Not faring as well were Assemblymembers Joe Coto (pawnbrokers), Paul Fong (community colleges), and Jim Beall (aging). There's a joke in here somewhere about aging pawnbrokers....

(soon to be retired) San Jose Police Officer Association president Bobby Lopez is pissed Dr. Rajiv Das wants injured retirees to have doctors sign a 2 page form. The Merc dug deep to uncover statistics : San Jose has the highest rate of retired police and firefighters on disability in the state and saying “No” isn’t part of the Trustees game plan. (un)Surprisingly, Lopez is calling for Das’ ouster…

The Merc’s Internal Affairs was sniffing around the San Jose Police Officers Association website and found president Bobby Lopez talking retirement, and encouraging his colleagues to do the same. Suggestions that Lopez may be trying to strip San Jose of experienced officers as a bargaining ploy caused Lopez to respond “am I being disingenuous?” Also in IA blogger/former South Bay Labor Council political director Philip Bump landed in his hometown paper as juror #3 causing a stir at a San Jose Downtown Association confab according to San Jose Inside, and IA boredom and annoyance at the NASA Ames LCROSS lunar bashing.

Sports loving San Jose is adding the Sacramento Kings to the list of San Jose hopefuls.

“It’s so much cheaper… to give somebody a flu shot than to let a child make a whole classroom sick,” according to Health Trust spokesperson Nicole Kohleriter at Saturdays free Flea Market health clinic. With 400 volunteers the Health Trust poked and prodded the thousands showing up for free medical care this weekend.

Also thinking healthcare… The Merc’s Scott Herhold took pity on Congressman Mike Honda for never having tasted the delights of a Gilroy Garlic Milkshake. Herhold, without claiming culinary expertise, mailed a shake to D.C. for the Congressman’s enjoyment – or not. All Watch Dog can say is we’re glad Herhold doesn’t experiment in the kitchen on our behalf…

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro offers an invitation to “golf with a shotgun” benefitting the San Jose Police Foundation, rent a shotgun for $175, or bring your own, to shoot clay pigeons out of the sky. Also in Pizarro news… A Bert George wine tasting treat, boot camp for event organizers and Santa Clara University’s Professor Francisco Jimenez is honored by the Governor of Jalisco.

On to the week in government…

• San Jose’s Elections Commission looks at changing city campaign finance and lobbying laws as well as forbidding anonymous complaints.
• The Los Altos School District considers parcel-tax renewal and talks about funding retiree health benefits.
• In Mountain View the Mountain View – Los Altos School District talks tests with SAT/ACT results.
• Fiscal manager reclassification is on tap for the Los Gatos Union School District.
• The tiny, one school district, Luther Burbank, considers a response to grand jury reports spanking the district and approving a contract with preschool teachers.
• Budget reductions and pre-school programs are on the minds of the Palo Alto Unified School District Trustees.
• Mountain View – Whisman considers approving site plans for Crittenden Middle and Bubb Elementary schools.
• Trustees in San Jose’s East Side Union High School District listen to the public on proposed audit committee guidelines.

Protect San Jose’s Open Forum Friday is on tap with complaints of speeders in Willow Glen and PAL salaries…

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.9.09: A quarter, a dime, and four pennies...

San Jose is gearing up for a contentious battle with downtown nightclub owners. The City wants club owners to help pay for Police services in downtown, at roughly 39 cents/patron. Club owners, unsurprisingly, are complaining the request is “nonsensical” in the words of Dave Powell, owner of three downtown establishments. Councilmember Sam Liccardo believes a compromise is achievable and says, "We'd like to see a model which is more consistent with community Policing as it's understood: an officer walking the street engaging people in a friendly manner."

The Merc’s Editorial Board also weighs in and lets us know that part of the problem is a stubborn Police Chief Rob Davis and says the current proposal doesn’t address the problem – pointing to Austin, Texas as a good model and calling for smaller clubs. You can see the proposed charges to your favorite drinking hole on page 17 here.

Watch Dog will get back to this story, but the City of San Jose is considering a ban on plastic bags. That is mildly interesting. Plastic's lobbyist is wildly interesting. It seems Manny Diaz (finally) saw The Graduate:



The Merc's Internal Affairs has been prowling through local Legislator compliance and fundraising filings… Among the news:

• New Assemblymember Paul Fong has started to campaign for re-election – less than 3 months in office. (Is he scared this guy is going to run against him again?)
  
• Assemblymember Ira Ruskin is running to replace termed out Senator Joe Simitian. (Watch Dog San Mateo has some insights into who wants to replace Ruskin...)
  
• Assemblymember Joe Coto wants termed out Senator Elaine Alquist's seat. (Perhaps this guy can give Coto some (bad) advice...)

Alum Rock Board of Trustees is back in the news…They yanked the golden parachute away from resigned/fired Superintendent Norma Martinez, with an entertaining side effect – the former Super is now Super again. Board President Gustavo Gonzalez said the golden parachute was worth more than a half-million dollars, but facing pissed off teachers and community members the Board decided to reverse themselves. Is this the most disfunctional School District in the City, the State, or the World? Your call...

The Merc’s Editorial Board echoes support for the preservation of regional open space – adding that the smartest green initiative is open land. In a report from the Bay Area Open Space Council, Association of Bay Area Governments, and The Greenbelt Alliance, the recommendation is for parks to be available within 10 minutes of every home in the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

Calling it a “win-win-win” San Jose’s Department of Transportation head Jim Helmer, is excited San Jose is getting rid of the yellow streetlights and replacing them with LED lights that cut energy costs, are easily programmed, and won’t alter colors or confuse drivers. If the Mayor gets the Federal dollars he hopes for the project, it will be completed sooner – if not, look for 2022 as the date when the last of the lights are converted.

Bruce Davis, head of Arts Council Silicon Valley, is happy with the new President and says, "The President is a smart guy. He gets it. …he sees [the arts] as part of the whole economy and the whole cultural aspect of the United States' identity in the world. It's important to him." Although the proposed arts funding is less than one-tenth of 1% of the stimulus package, Lisa Mallette with San Jose’s City Lights Company says “There’s no way to go but up.” With an estimated 700% return for every dollar invested in the arts it sounds like everyone should be buying their own puppies playing poker painting.

On tap around the Valley this week…

• The Board of Supervisors will hear from Acting County Executive Gary Graves on the budget (looks grim) and year-end projections for the general fund (looks grimmer).
• In addition to having someone else pay for Police, the San Jose City Council will look at changing funding to the arts and letting parking scofflaws pay more for the privilege of breaking the rules.
• In Sunnyvale they’re talking about signs.
• Mountain View’s City Council reviews a youth program.
• The Santa Clara Water District will hear from staff about the water supply (looks grim) and what to do if the drought continues (looks grimmer).
• Alum Rock is back in session still talking lawyers – will they hire Trustee Esau Herrera’s old firm?
• The Los Altos School District will review proposed reductions and hear about a parent survey.
• Campbell is talking employee contracts.
• Cupertino’s School District will consider a parcel tax, good luck with that. During the Great Recession?

Apple’s Other Steve (Wozniak) will show off his twinkle toes in this season’s Dancing with the Stars.

Morning News Round-Up – 12.10.08: 20 years, 18 months, 5 hours...

20 years of waiting + 18 months of study + 5 hours of debate = a major push forward toward more affordable housing in San Jose...not to mention a win San Jose Councilmember Sam Liccardo. Inclusionary zoning comes to San Jose, beyond Redevelopment areas, that is. Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Shiloh Ballard told the City Council that employers have listed a lack of affordable housing as a serious problem in recruitment. Tax Assessor Larry Stone helped to bring inclusionary zoning to Sunnyvale and says, “It works and it’s been working for years.” The Ballard/Stone attack put the issue over the edge...that and 9 votes...

The “Peralta Action Plan” a.k.a. McEnery's Plan sailed through the San Jose City Council on Tuesday with Councilmembers trying to separate the business decision from concerns over (alleged) violations of the City’s Sunshine guidelines. Outgoing (soon to be Supervisor) Vice Mayor Dave Cortese says of the McEnery family, "As business people, they have been good neighbors and friends for three generations. We owe them enough trust on this deal to keep it moving forward." Mayor Reed, feeling a little snippy at the criticism, complained other downtown projects have not received the scrutiny of San Jose’s “Pike Place Market.” The Merc’s Scott Herhold summed it up best saying that while aspects of the “Peralta Action Plan” were about business, in the end it was all about Tom McEnery and the decision was personal.

Meanwhile on San Jose Inside Tom McEnery says the decline in San Jose’s safety rating means little and the objective is to build the city – an oblique reference to his success?

The County Board of Supervisors wants to join the Campos/Reed Drunk Task Force to study the San Jose problem. Lioness (Supervisor) Blanca Alvarado roared at San Jose Police for, "attempting to regain its status as the safest city at the expense of our people. If the police department is arresting people without proof of inebriation — if for no other reason than justice — we ought to stand up." Will Shirakawa be able to fill Alvarado's shoes...not literally, of course.

Assemblymember Paul “see the light” Fong’s seat on the Foothill-De Anza Community College Board has been given to Pearl Cheng, President of the Cupertino School board. Cheng needs to update her website as she’s now got “More Pearl News.”

Mission City Lantern opened with “This is a cranky blog, no question…” Rowen then launched salvos at one of his favorite targets, Santa Clara Councilmember Jamie McLeod. Thanks to Santa Clara’s efficiency you can judge for yourself here, the discussion begins about 4 minutes in. Councilmember Dominic Caserta recused himself and stepped off the dais, if Santa Clara retained old videos or keep specific votes this wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. On the upside, Rowen gave a nod to Watch Dog yesterday calling the Dog’s writing crisp.

San Jose State Journalism professors Michael Cheers and Bob Rucker hope to lead a team of multi-media savvy students on the road trip of a lifetime. They plan to explore the historic locations of the civil rights movement on their way to be part of the Obama inauguration. They need your help to make it so, contact Amy Freitag at (408) 924-3241.

Sal Pizzaro reports Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a little Oprah magic going on when he handed the keys to the 100th roadster to Oprah’s election night “shoulder to cry on” Sam Perry. Perry had been on the list for years but his recent publicity is likely the reason his car showed up.

Judge Steve Sanders dismissed DUI charges for Hollister police sergeant James Egan when it was revealed Egan had called the accident in himself and was at a hospital with a medication filled drip line in his arm. Defense attorney Greg LaForge called the attempt to figure out the blood alcohol level at the time of the accident “Voodoo science.”

Threats from a highly invasive mussel has local water officials ordering boat inspections. The quagga has shut down fishing lakes, wreaked havoc on water supplies, and caused millions of dollars of harm throughout the state. Water District Director Rosemary Kamei says of the inspections, “This is something we’re going to have to live with a very long time.” Not a boating friend, District Director Joe Judge would like to see a complete boat ban. Before you ban that boat, Watch Dog suggests a call to Brenna Callero for her “Quagga Goo.”

WWDD...

The reviews of new State Legislators' first week is in...and Paul Fong had a tough one according to Sacramento standards based on a silly quote...In referring to what he wanted to do first -- Fong said:

"...to make friends with Republicans and get them to see the light..."

But as a consolation, Fong is now entered into the Quote of the Month contest on Watch Dog.

Yes Assemblymember Fong, that is exactly what Republicans have been waiting for, to be shown the light by a freshman legislator. Let us know how that goes.

Which leads to the natural question, WWDD? (What would Dominic do?)

At least Fong's website is up and running...