Morning News Round-Up – 10.16.09: The Biggest Little City in the World is NOT San Jose...

The Merc’s Editorial Board calls moves by San Jose (retired) Police Officer David Bacigalupi and the Police Officers' Association “tone deaf” and filled with “chutzpah” about wanting to get rid of the doctor that makes disability recommendations to the City's pension boards. Following stories in the Merc. that “Dr. No’s” own job was in danger Police Officer Association President/Protect San Jose blogger Bobby Lopez writes he’s not interested in firing Dr. Das, he wants to clone him… We wonder where Councilmember Constant comes down on this issue...

Mayor Chuck Reed wasn’t in Reno for the roulette. San Jose’s “green mayor” went to take home an award from the International Economic Development Council for his Green Vision. San Jose Inside found Reed hopes to inspire “other cities around the world…” Isn't Reno a weird place for this type of award to be given out? It is the definition of suburban sprawl with big, energy-guzzling casinos with indoor smoking... but it is the Biggest Little City in the World... funny, we thought that was San Jose.

“Mayor Green” will be happy to hear San Jose is on its way towards 100 miles of trails with a little over 50 miles ready for action. Save Our Trails President/Willow Glen resident Taisia McMahon hopes to keep Willow Glen trailheads in the mix…

The debate over the tree-free California Avenue roared on during Palo Alto’s Architectural Review Committee. Committee members (strangely) prefer an architectural aesthetic to tree selection. Board member David Solnick complained “there’s really no design guidance here…” Only-in-Palo Alto...

Los Altans have an election on their hands… 4 candidates are competing for 3 Trustee seats on the Los Altos School District Board. Mark Goines (incumbent), Doug Smith, Tamara Logan and Rowene Hood agreed financial solvency tops the list of concerns, but not without taking shots at the Charter school in town.

Mountain View’s Rengstorff Park will become a “safe and enjoyable” place if Councilmembers have their way. Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said summer use of the Community Center was unbearable and colleague Mike Kasperzak hopes to rebuild the Community Center as tall as possible, maybe even 4 stories… 4 stories in Mountain View passes for tall, we guess.

Hoping to see City employees pedaling more, Cupertino looks at the purchase of as many as 5 EZip bikes. City spokesperson Rick Kitson hopes employees will ride/pedal their way to cross town meetings.

Mani-pedi with that hip surgery? Seems to be the question for Los Gatos businessman Bobby Sarnevesht hoping to open a physician owned hospital in Campbell. What looked like a simple business proposition got heated when the opposition started coming from Congressional representative Mike Honda, nurses, and the South Bay Labor Council.

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.25.09: #5 (plastic) #6 (water)

"Number 5: Divert 100 percent of the waste from our landfill and convert waste to energy." Does that sound familiar to you? It is from the San Jose Green Vision, which was passed unanimously by the City Council. Now, San Jose is moving forward on Number 5 as it inches closer to eliminating its share of the 19,000,000,000 plastic bags floating through your yard, down the creek, or across the street. Councilmember Sam Liccardo takes a bold stance in the face of a (possible) lawsuit from the American Chemistry Council, “We can’t be afraid of what the plastics industry and its lawyers might do.” Predictably, Councilmember Constant takes the other view. This story is getting some wide coverage, including our friends to the north and the Associated Press.

To Number 6...

San Jose resident Gene Kohara is confused, and a little pissed. Kohara questions those funky water misters at City Hall while he’s being asked to cut water usage... in the 3rd year of a drought. San Jose’s public art misters help to cool visitors to the (giant concrete) plaza. Others wonder if trees might do the trick. Number 6 in the Green Vision does say, "Number 6: Recycle or beneficially reuse 100 percent of our wastewater (100 million gallons per day)"...

We missed this from the weekend because you'd need to be a detective to find it on the Merc.'s website... from Internal Affairs: Council candidate Jim Cogan says he wasn’t offended, really, when opponent Pam Foley offered her district needed an “ethical” representative. Perhaps he should have been...

The Merc’s Editorial Board wants to see you at City Hall this week as pension reform is under discussion. (If you have second, check out the first comment on the Merc's website following this Editorial...)

Gilroy Councilmembers are pissed off. Someone is dishing the secret details from behind closed doors. Threats of Grand Jury investigations could be heard from Mayor Al Pinheiro and Councilmember Craig Gartman after tales were told about proposed employee raises. We understand why Pinheiro and Gartman are mad... but are the also politically tone-deaf? Employee raises?

Gilroy Unified Schools transportation supervisor ditched his gig over the weekend. Emil Frates was accused of contract violations and Superintendent Deborah Flores said they’d been trying to “fix” the mess but they continued “to be in turmoil.” Perhaps Mr. Frates learned that City employees in Gilroy were getting raises and scooted across town...

Psychiatrist David Arredondo is calling for “…less blame and more understanding of what's really going on in the culture of these high schools...” as he looks into why teens are killing themselves.

The Merc’s Mr. Roadshow dishes Top Secret details from the California Highway Patrol High Command, smuggled out by daring men on horseback. Not really, but Watch Dog bets today’s dish from the Highway Patrol gets a few readers pissed off about the warning: Put Your Cellphone Down.

Dude, the skate park’s “...not a magnet for bad behavior...” really. The Morgan Hill skate park has had its share of naughtiness, but parents and police hope that’s a thing of the past as bad behavior (seems) to be going away. (Don't tell Los Gatos about this...)

San Jose Councilmember/Insider Pierluigi Oliverio notes he’s meeting with City Planners to help a constituent who didn’t “take responsibility” for figuring out what he could do with land he wanted to buy before he bought it. We thought the folks in Willow Glen were the smartest folks in town...

Speaking of Jim Cogan, or at least we were near the beginning of today's Round-Up... Cogan chimes in on today's Protect San Jose site and tries to be funny, but sneaks in a litte (ok, a lot) of self-promotion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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