But Poignant Personal Letter Gives Sage Advice
After a landslide victory by the Reed reformist movement over the incumbent machine of Chavez, Gonzales, Labor, the Democratic Party, lobbyists, Coyote Valley land developers, the city council, county supervisors, former mayors Hammer, Mineta, Hayes, former president Clinton, and just about everyone else except for the voters, outgoing mayor Ron Gonzales rose above bitterness, the referendum on his administration, and depositions to write a personal and heartfelt letter to his successor. It is full of advice and exposes a human side of the Mayor that was seldom seen.
The following is an abridged text:
Dear Successive Torch Bearer of the former-Gonzales Golden Era-
There is much still to do since I spent eight years railing against that damn Republican council! So with all due respect, and hopefully a future pardon, I impart the following advice:
The Reed Reforms: Too many. I had my own set of ethical reforms, but I found the more you have, the harder it is to navigate them. My bad. Don’t waste your time. The culture can’t be changed.
Personal expenses: Take a lot. Reimburse yourself. Don’t EVER pay it back! Meals, greens fees, travel, health clubs…
Bodyguards: You’re big-time now. You need a lot of protection. Plus they make great company when you’re on the road in some strange hotel lobby with no one paying attention to you.
Spelling and Grammar: Before any public presentations, be sure and get all audio-visual materials proofread by a professional, not Larry Stone.
Budget: Sell Coyote Valley to the highest bidder and you won’t ever have to struggle with balancing a budget. Unless you build BART.
BART: Are you kidding? Move on. Or maybe get the Laborcratic Superfund to pay for it.
Downtown: It’s done. Did you see all the housing I’ve built?
Safest Big City in America: Don’t try to justify it. Don’t try to understand it. Don’t try to explain it. Just say it like you mean it.
Lastly, I have bequeathed my electronic monitoring anklet. As I understand, its like a covenant that runs with the land. In this case, it runs with the office. It’s yours to deal with now. Just look at it as a way the public can track your every move on the Internet and see how hard you’re working.
Okie, dokie artichokie. That’s about it. With every wish for success, I will tell you that this is a frustrating job, it is a tough job, and it may be the best job you’ll ever have – unless you’re indicted.
The Honorable Ron Gonzales, Mayor of San Jose
I think Cindy also had support from international leaders Putin, Castro, Musharraf, al-Qaddafi and Kim Jong Il.
Desperate Support @ Hillview Park the Sunday before the election when two big Labor-rented trucks, plastered with “Chavez for Mayor” signs showed up towing BIG portable BBQ pits, blowing smoke, ready to
bribe kids soccer teams—and, hopefully, throngs of the easily persuadable—with hot dogs and a soda, IF you took a “vote Cindy”
sticker to glue to your shorts. About 20 hungry 10 year olds took the bait. If we’d
only known this was the portent for Tuesday
we’d have been less anxious about the outcome. George Green
The Metro has a disturbing account of their reporter’s bizarre encounter with Justin Schall, Chavez’s campaign manager, at the Holiday Inn on election night.
From the article:
We even enjoyed getting tossed out of the Holiday Inn’s Mediterranean Room banquet hall by a man who claimed to be Cindy Chavez’s campaign manager, Justin Schall. “This is a private party,” he explained with postal rage. (Was it something we wrote?) When we returned and sidled up to our attractive blonde armed bodyguard, a well-known elected law enforcement official, the hothead relented but threatened, “You and me are going to have a lot of fun in this town for a long time.”
Did somebody make this up? If not, good thing Chavez lost. The last thing San Jose needs is guys like Justin hanging out in the mayor’s office.
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/11.08.06/fly-extra-0645.htmlhttp://www.metroactive.com/metro/11.08.06/fly-extra-0645.html
What, no mention of best city departments for finding replacement wives?
So Justin Schall ( “You and me are going to have a lot of fun in this town for a long time.” ) was Chavez’s enforcer / hatchet man in waiting
Like Joe Guerra did for Gonzales ( Two things I can assure you both,” “First is I am Old World Italian. … and I don’t forget anything. Second, next year [emphasis added] there will be zero tolerance for staff in either the administration or the Agency who do not following [sic] council direction. To be honest, I am not angry about all this,” he concludes, “just keeping my list and checking it twice.” )
Who will Reed for his staff or will Mayor Tom provide one?
Will Reed reach out to entire community for his transition team and Mayor’s staff to bring in a cross section so that everyone can work together to improve San Jose?
Will he follow San Jose’s last 3 Mayor’s ” you are either with me or against me ” political tradition and only bringing in his supporters and punishing his opponents while making a public face of inclusion?
Will Chamber be the only place where he gets ideas and people setting up the future political downfall of his victory and balanced City Council ?
What ever happened to our esteemed blogger Justin Scha…er…Reality Check/Downtown Brown? The guy that was ragging on Chuck’s supporters ceaslessly for sitting on their behinds while he was pounding the pavement in all the precincts across San Jose for Cindy, trying to force down the Kool-Aid…
He was the “confidant man.” Here are a few of his greatest hits:
My candidate made it to the runoff—Did yours?
Dear future Mayor Chavez,
I hear some polling data is coming out and Reedimbursements 28 point lead has shrunk by about 20 points—-ouch
I love that last one. Ouch is right!
I want the unabridged text!
I’m wondering iF Gonzo, in private, passed on to Reed what perks he used to get the alligence of those felloW concil members who blindly followed his and Cindys orders. Whatever the perks, they should be exposed and be denied use by any future mayors or vice mayors from now on. That’s a start for “OPEN GOVERNMENT”.
Maybe we should require lobbyists to wear monitoring devices so that the public can track their visits to city hall.
Total votes for mayor(per Murky News)—172,000; total votes for District 6 council—20,000; total votes for district 3 council, which produces lots of mayors—a paltry 11,000. N.B., the council districts have roughly the same population. Lesson: move to district 3 where very few people care to vote, but somehow manage to produce lots of future winners.
The Mother of All Village Parties.
I’ve been out of town, and have gotten some news via voice mails. Bill Clinton? Wow! The killer was Monica Lowenski endorsing Manny Diaz. I belive this city has been taken over by aliens. No not the good kind , I mean the out of space kind. Some weeks ago I saged that if one was to be in touch with the rithyms of our village, an offering would have to be given to Quetzalcoatl.
This God Of Corn has begun to take it’s offering at will. It is time to place this diety in it’s rightful place. At the Sant Clara Board of Supervisors Offices, or at the MHC Plaza & Gardens.
Tomorrow I am going to build a bronze plaque to forever immorialize this change of direction for our village. Cindy’s, Manny’s, etc supporters, will not be on this plaque. Only the supporters of what has become the most incredible show of solidarity will be forever bronzed to become part of the history of this fantastic Village I love to be called a part of.
While away, I interviewed many people, male , female, young and old, in establishments, one would call Cool. as in John Michael. Ok I think Jmo is cool. so what. at least he got cahones. You go Johnny Boy!
Some of these folks could not speak a word of English! They were new recruits. I have to tell you that this was the case in most places I documented.
The minute man thing, that will be another facet of this false fortilla that we are floating this , our economy, on.
Tomorrow, I expect to hear many folks walk by, with the same ole saw. Retributions, the losers always want to blame others for their stupidity. The winners always want to embrace the losers. Wrong again. Chuck’s a military man. Clear The Decks!
I’ll sleep good tonight knowing that a guy sitting on the city concil gave 100 bucks of my money to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Now do something permanent for these non profits, Mr Mayor. My Navy tour was in the desert with our 7 Astronauts.
My pride runs high, my definitions of commitment is, I stand with you!
The Village Black Smith