The people in charge of providing financial and protective services for Santa Clara County residents run a department lacking structure and accountability, according to a just-released Civil Grand Jury audit that goes before the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Other items on the board agenda include grand jury reviews for health inspections of food trucks and farmers markets, and a review of Juvenile Hall.

Starting in September, as a result of federal budget sequestration earlier this year, rent will rise significantly for Santa Clara County’s Section 8 tenants, close to 60 percent of whom are elderly or disabled.

The concept of stewardship is one that has become much more prominent in our environmental discussions in recent years, especially as it pertains to our parks, trails and urban open spaces. Webster defines stewardship as: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.

Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen and Councilmember Don Rocha want the city to offer some measure of paid parental leave to make it more enticing for new hires and more accommodating of existing workers. That and other items will be discussed at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee.

A little more than a week ago my wife and I attended Outside Lands, the three-day concert at Golden Gate Park headlined by Sir Paul McCartney. Even though we were at the upper age bracket of those assembled, we felt no discrimination. The 65,000 attendees each day were exceedingly respectful and well-behaved. Like Outside Lands does for music, I thought, Silicon Valley’s diverse voices come together on common goals relating to education.

Once a beacon of America’s promise, the city of Detroit is burning out. And if San Jose refuses to innovate in ways Detroit could have, it might face a similar future. To understand how, we must first uncover overlooked similarities between San Jose’s present and Detroit’s past.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed worries about the unlimited spending by independent expenditure committees during elections, saying it gives outside interests more sway than individual candidates. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Reed and his colleagues will consider a motion to lift voluntary spending limits on candidates to even the playing field with committees during campaigns. Other tiems on the agenda include updates on contracts related to the Environmental Innovation Center and the San Jose/Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility.

A South Bay adoption agency and nonprofit advocacy group plan to reach out to same-sex couples at San Jose Pride this weekend to encourage more of them to adopt. As part of a national effort to promote foster youth adoptions throughout the country, Raise A Child, Inc. will staff a booth with Campbell adoption agency EMQ Families First to get out the message.

News slows down in the summertime, so San Jose Inside columnist Rich Robinson takes note of some of the bigger and more under the radar stories of August.

My journey through the new paradigm of San Jose’s parks and trails received another boost in the last month. Part of it came from a vacation to Montana, which always opens my eyes a bit and makes me reflect. But the biggest boost I received was from a tour of Los Angeles and Orange County parks.

Big-time Bay Area developers Tom Armstrong and Chop Keenan have joined forces with former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery to push the city to change its zoning classification of a piece of property on South King Road. The land is currently home to Asian/Indian radio station KLOK 1170 and a sprawling field that would be better off as a massive lot of single-family detached homes, according to the power brokers. But in an effort to create jobs, the city’s general plan forbids the conversion of light industrial property to residential, and current Mayor Chuck Reed and city planning director Joseph Horwedel are trying to quash the proposal. That might not make a difference, though, as some men can’t be denied.

The nation spends more than $60 billion a year to keep more than 2.5 million people incarcerated. If we continue to spend our money on locking people up instead of investing in early childhood education, nothing will change.

Since most of San Jose’s housing stock is a half-century or older, maybe the city should cut the cost of remodel and renovation permits. District 10 Councilman Johnny Khamis proposed the idea, and he’s bringing it to the Rules and Open Government Committee when it meets Wednesday. Other items on the agenda include a potential tax measure on the ballot next summer, Councilman Ash Kalra trying to tighten smoking laws and a gadfly/mayoral candidate demanding city staff repent for a particular project.

Santa Clara County inmates will continue receiving mail after jail officials abandoned a contentious plan to limit correspondence to just postcards. Jail chief John Hirokawa originally brought up the idea earlier this summer in hopes of limiting the amount of drugs smuggled in through envelopes or postage stamps. But the community put up a fight, saying the mail restriction could dry up prisoners’ ties with friends, family and life outside their cell. The county jail and Elmwood Correctional Facility receive about 200,000 pieces of mail a year. If the postcard-only policy passed, the county would have become the first in Northern California to enact such a ban and one of a few-dozen in the nation.

Since slashing construction fees for high-rise development in downtown, two towers have broken ground, including the $135 million 23-story project at One South Market. Hoping to spur more nearby development, the City Council on Tuesday will consider whether to vote in a similar half-off discount for buildings of any size as long as they create jobs. Other items on the agenda for the first council meeting of the 2013-114 fiscal year include another look at building restriction height around the airport, a potential study of the city’s sewer system and an update on the city’s graffiti abatement contract.

A funny thing happened after Willie McDonald announced in a June 10 email to San Jose Fire Department staff that he was staying on as fire chief. He decided to send another email, only in this message, dated June 13, McDonald thanked everyone for their hard work and abruptly informed them he was leaving for Las Vegas, where he would oversee Clark County’s fire and ambulance services. So, why would a fire chief leave for a job expected to pay him less and demand more? And what would make him change his mind?