Will school board and council loser Patricia Martinez-Roach, shown at left with unsuccessful council candidates Brian O’Neill and Steve Klein and labor leader Cindy Chavez in June, get appointed to Alum Rock as a consolation prize?

Alum Rock Union School District trustees are making moves to fill a vacancy left by Darcie Green’s departure. School board watchers believe the existing majority has settled on one of two candidates: Patricia Martinez-Roach, who lost two elections this year; and Javier Gonzalez, who was passed over for a county education post. The apparent fast-tracking of the process has created a firestorm in the community.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed took a trip to Iowa this past weekend to speak with the state’s conservative governor and a taxpayer group about pensions.

Jim Unland looked exhausted on election night. But that fatigue didn’t last long after the Mercury News reported over the weekend that an upstart member of the police union named Jon Baker was questioning Unland’s leadership of the Police Officers Association.

An attorney with the county counsel’s office has provided San Jose Inside with a third, previously unreported audit of Supervisor George Shirakawa’s county charge card, also known as a P-Card. The audit shows that county officials were aware of Shirakawa’s free spending and disregard for county rules related to P-Cards as early as November 2009 — yet did nothing to stop the violations.

Everyone who had a stake in one of the local races on Election Night was asking the same question: For the love of god, what is taking so long for the results? OK, maybe that’s not exactly what everyone said, but it’s close.

The Mercury News reported over the weekend that Andrea Flores Shelton, county Supervisor George Shirakawa’s deputy chief of staff, is changing positions to become a coordinator for the county Public Health Department. The newspaper said that Shelton insisted her “departure has nothing to do with Shirakawa’s more recently publicized troubles,” which we can only assume is a euphemism for the fraudulent expense reports Shirakawa has filed, wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars on lavish dinners, alcohol for friends, golf trips, casinos, and … the list continues.

The day you’ve all been waiting for is almost here. No, not Election Day. We’re talking about the day after tomorrow, when people can put partisan politics to bed and go back to calling each other $%&#! at the dinner table based solely on the content of one’s character. For now, here’s en election night preview of the two City Council races.

Metro reported this week that Supervisor George Shirakawa—the top elected official in the county—has been submitting fraudulent expense reports. He has spent thousands of dollars on lavish dinners, alcohol and luxury hotel rooms and rental cars with a county credit card. Amazingly, he avoided detection despite two audits of his county credit card purchases. Many of the people Shirakawa treated to meals were unaware that taxpayers were picking up the tab, and have since sent checks reimbursing the county. This group includes San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore.

And to think there’s still six more days of crazy before District 8 voters go to the polls. The expensive race between Rose Herrera, Evergreen’s City Council incumbent, and Jimmy Nguyen has had it share of distractions, but now come conflicting allegations over Herrera’s husband attempting to put Nguyen’s campaign signs in a park trash can late Monday night.

Thursday marked the last filing deadline for campaign disclosure forms and independent committee expenditures before the Nov. 6 election. This means the next 11 days will feature a flurry of campaign spending, the details of which won’t be known until after people go to the polls. One thing that can be said for certain, though, is that the District 8 City Council race between Rose Herrera and Jimmy Nguyen is costing major money. How much? More than $700,000 so far, and it could approach $1 million by the time the election is held.

Remember when Mayor Chuck Reed received a traffic ticket for not using his turn signal? It seems that story refuses to die a timely news cycle death, as the mayor said in a radio interview this week that he’s concerned police officers are selectively enforcing the law.

The San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want voters to pass Measure D, an increase in the city’s minimum wage. Mayor Chuck Reed doesn’t want it to pass. Even Silicon Valley’s Goodwill Industries doesn’t want it to pass. Or does it?

The San Jose City Council race between Rose Herrera and Jimmy Nguyen just got a little crazier. The Police Officers Association announced late Friday that a political action committee (PAC) supporting Herrera will need to return $100,000 to a PAC controlled by Mayor Chuck Reed. But the mayor says that has yet to be decided.

The District Attorney’s Office could soon be joining the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) in investigating County Supervisor George Shirakawa for his failure to file campaign disclosure forms the last four years. This week the DA requested all correspondence between Shirakawa’s office and the county Registrar of Voters,  the Mercury News reports. The Merc has been following up on the story Metro broke last month, which found that Shirakawa chose not to file forms the last four years disclosing how he has raised money to pay off a $110,000 debt he incurred during his 2008 supervisor campaign.

When the music stopped and a vote was taken to add a new trustee to the Santa Clara County Office of Education board Wednesday night, two elected officials must have realized they lost this round of political musical chairs.

Oktoberfest traditionally serves as Campbell’s annual reminder that people love an excuse to get wasted. But this year, Campbell Vice Mayor Evan Low experienced a whole new level of belligerence, and it’s not clear if alcohol had anything to with an incident that borders on being a hate crime.