Mayor Chuck Reed is proving that there are limits to his patience. Today, the mayor fired off an unfriendly letter to Councilwoman Nora Campos asking her to publicly apologize for drumming up drama over recent anonymous complaints against former Mayor Tom McEnery.

Community Members on San Jose’s Public Intoxication Task Force were making a point when they got up and walked out of the door of city hall in the middle of the meeting Wednesday night. Skyler Porras, director of the ACLU, read a statement on behalf of other community groups on the task force, including the NAACP and the La Raza Roundtable, stating that they had nothing further to talk about until the city and police department agreed to release at least half of the 4,000-plus arrest records they have requested

San Jose and Santa Clara County officials today rolled out a $60,000 campaign to focus attention on the persistent gang problem in this area.

The religious right may have won the gay marriage debate, but they just lost the war on porn…in the library. After a long meeting Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council put an end to Councilman Pete Constant’s 19-month-long campaign to install porn filters on library computers throughout the city.

Clearly, Councilman Sam Liccardo is trying to make nice with Police Chief Rob Davis after blasting him for his “inflexible” leadership style in a recent Metro article. Today, the councilman made a point to give the chief a few little kudos at the afternoon City Council meeting.

POSTED APRIL 14; UPDATED APRIL 17: IPA appointee’s brother is a San Jose Police officer, a fact not revealed at the time of his appointment. More inside.

San Jose City Council unanimously voted to appoint city hall insider Chris Constantin as the city’s new Independent Police Auditor. Constantin currently serves as the Senior Program Performance Auditor in San Jose’s City Auditor’s Office, where he’s overseen recent reviews of police and other public safety programs.

(POSTED APRIL 7; UPDATED APRIL 8) In the past six months, Rob Davis has lost support, becoming the most controversial San Jose police chief since the department became a modern urban force under Harvard-educated reformer Joseph McNamara three decades ago.

The affable chief is typically comfortable in the public eye, but these days, Davis is discovering that he cannot talk his way out of trouble. His critics include not only traditional police watchdogs like the ACLU, the NAACP and Latino community groups but also city officials, business owners and law enforcement leaders.

Who could blame San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed for wanting to get the ball rolling and lure the A’s to San Jose? Aside from being a economic boon for the city, bringing the A’s to town would certainly be a home run for the mayor.

By 8am, Madison Nguyen had already gotten back into City Councilwoman mode after a long night of celebrating her victory in the historic recall election. She said she was “overwhelmed with joy” last night as the election results came pouring in showing that she had successfully retained her seat as the District 7 council rep.

Can Madison Nguyen’s troubles be explained away as a branding battle between two shopping centers, and the powerful men who own them?

Councilwoman Madison Nguyen didn’t receive an invitation to San Jose’s annual Vietnamese Spring Festival, which was held two weeks ago. It was the second time that Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American elected to the San Jose City Council and one of the highest-ranking Vietnamese elected officials in the nation, was scratched from the list.

The public act of disrespect was not that surprising, given that one of the event’s main organizers was the powerful local landowner Son Nguyen.

San Jose dodged an expensive and lengthy arbitration process after finally striking a tentative deal with the San Jose Police Officers Association, whose union contract has been expired for nearly seven months. The union made some deep concessions, agreeing to smaller wage increases and dropping the enhanced benefits they were going after, which they argued would help retain skilled officers.

Is San Jose’s nonpolitical mayor in a position to attract federal clean-tech dollars?

Silicon Valley business leaders will be keeping an eye on what happens immediately following inauguration day, when, analysts predict, President Barack Obama may address his plan to shift the nation toward clean technology—an emerging local business sector.

San Jose’s Vice Mayor Judy Chirco had to skip this morning’s council session for a doctor’s appointment. Her staff confirmed today that the District 9 councilwoman was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is awaiting surgery.

Mayor Chuck Reed latched onto President-elect Barack Obama’s mantra of Hope as he delivered his State of the City Speech this morning. His Obama-esque message of optimism may have been an effort to cushion the blow of new austerity measures as he outlined the city’s $60 million shortfall and plans for imminent layoffs.