Question: The recent Gonzales administration scandal is serious because at its root is a felonious desire for:
A) money
B) sex
C) power
Answer: $11.25 million is a lot of money, but we’ve lost more in past scandals. There’s no sex in this story unless the grand jury is keeping mum about amorous garbage men. The correct answer is C. It’s really about power. More precisely, it’s about a serious abuse of the delicate power relationships at San Jose City Hall between the Mayor, the council, and city staff.
I didn’t fully realize this until I read a review of Bob Woodward’s recent Watergate book: The Secret Man. Journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote: “you never get a seriously good scandal unless there is a rift within the political establishment.” (link)
Today, in San Jose, there’s a whole lot of rifting going on.
Rift #1: Mayor and Council. Ron Gonzales has now been publicly chastised by six councilmembers; two have been generally silent; and one has been supportive. (link)
Rift #2: Mayor’s Office and City Staff. According to the grand jury, city staff refused Gonzales staff demands to pay $11.25 million without official council approval. (link)
Rift #3: Mayor and Mayor’s Office. Gonzales and Joe Guerra, his top policy aide, are giving different answers to the same question. On Thursday, Guerra contradicted his previous grand jury testimony and Gonzales’s statements about when he knew the garbage contract would require more money. (link) Intentional or unintentional, this is not what most legal scholars would say is a good thing.
So if the history of political scandals provide any clue to present day circumstances, there’s likely to be more to this story. The political establishment will not rift quietly.
My prediction is that Ron Gonzales will resign from office blaming health reasons and Cindy Chavez will become mayor until she resigns because the investigator discovers she helped her former employer the Teamsters and like her mentor Ron hid the facts.
Thoughts From The Park
“It’s transparent, it’s open, it’s the way government should be.”
~ Richard Meier on his new City Hall edifice
Winner of the irony of the week award.
Had Ron and Joe received good political counsel they wouldn’t be in this mess.
The lack of a Jude Barry at City Hall, a person with an ethical compass who could provide cogent reasoning and deft politically strategy is a major reason for this debacle.
Despite the tone of this board, Ron Gonzales doesn’t wake up in the morning contemplating how best to devise his own demise. Joe, for all of his lack of tact, was not trying to make the front page of the Mercury News. They simply lacked the wisdom and knowledge on how to accomplish their goal, without shortcuts.
The difference between Ron’s administration and how it is viewed ethically, before and after Jude’s departure, is the best evidence one could provide as to the necessity of his counsel.
Ron can only wish for the days when his poll numbers made him, unquestionably, the most powerful political figure in San Jose. Much of that was due to Jude’s efforts.
While Ron and Joe may be loathe to admit it, they need a Jude Barry. Unfortunately, for them, I hear he has moved on to running a Governor’s campaign.
Question: how could anyone occupying the office of mayor or sitting to the right hand of that same official be so stupid as to think they would never be held accountable for this sort of thing? This reflects more than an abuse of power. It is a disgusting example of incredibly poor judgment.
That’s right to the core of the problem. Suggest that the new city hall not, repeat not, have a plaque with the names of the mayor and city council on it but should say “From the People of San Jose”. We do not need to massage any more egos!
While rifts in the city’s in-house power structure have become glaringly apparent in recent weeks, don’t forget that the recent Cisco scandal (an in-house city staff failure with a follow-up cover-up all the way to the top) shares many features with the Norcal scandal (a primarily mayoral level failure).
If you look at these two scandals separately, you will miss important insights.
And they may share another feature in that the most unlikely persons will ride to the rescue at a timely moment.
Remember how the Cisco scandal ended? Somehow a deal was cut with Chuck Reed to persuade him to lead the city council to end the investigation simultaneously with the discovery of several thousands of email copies that tended to show city manager and mayoral level involvement in the cover-up of the Cisco scandal. That final batch of emails, maybe holding the smoking gun, will now molder in a box somewhere in the new city hall, thanks to Reed.
If Chuck Reed, who brags about his “honesty” and “transparency,” can be brought to lead the final cover-up in the Cisco scandal, who cannot be brought to come to the assistance of the mayor and vice-mayor in the Norcal scandal?
Council members may criticize and pick nervously at the mayor’s misdeeds, but when the chips are down, let’s see how this one will be swept under the carpet, too, and by whom.
By the way, the San Jose Mercury News has yet to discuss just how the Cisco scandal was finally covered up and buried. The shallowness of the paper’s commitment to clean government was never before so exposed as by its silence on Chuck Reed’s shenanigans to silence the last round of email messages in the Cisco scandal and cover-up.
dear citizens:
As of Tuesday (7/26) there’s not been one letter to the editor in the Mercury News raising objections to the latest installment of deceit by the mayor’s political machine or calling for the resignation of “Mayor Corruptus.”
What kind of people live in San Jose? They are an amazing bunch. They only rebel when dissatisfied with the height of the foam on their lattees.
Richard,
Why do Ron and Joe need a Jude Barry to give them ethical counsel? What about an individual’s core values? Since when does ethics come from a source outside one’s own integrity?
Come on, Richard, you’re really stretching this one.
I agree with Aline. A person in public office should have their own moral compass, they should not have to rent morals from a paid staff advisor.
Can Richard be serious:
-Thelling a lie is okay, if it saves money
-The mayor doesn’t need ethics, if he hires someone who does.
Richard’s states “Had Ron and Joe received good political counsel they wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Shouldn’t he, as a political consultant say, “Had Ron and Joe had basic moral and ethical values they wouldn’t be in this mess.” ?
So many stones, so few perfect people.
Joe and Ron were trying to accomplish a policy goal. They cut corners, they made mistakes—if they knew this would be the result would they have acted the same way?
Good political counsel always involves discussions revolving ethics. Yet, few take the time to consider them, simply because ethical considerations are often an obstacle to accomplishment.
People are not born “ethically moral”, it is learned behavior. All policy decisions are easy in hindsight.
Walk a mile in their shoes before you stone them. It is easy to be self-rightious when you have never had to act.
Richard Robinson
You are a wise man (affirmation)
We need more people like you on this panel.
My solute to you
Ito Guerrero
Regarding comment #7:
Rather than evidence of apathy, perhaps the absence of Norcal-related letters to the Mercury has more to do with the pathetic state of that newspaper. Personally, I have no desire to interact with a newspaper obsessed with race and diversity, especially one that caters to distant markets and treats local news as a necessary evil. Plus, the increasingly restrictive feedback policies of the last decade—a decade of unprecedented consumer feedback in other industries—have caused many interested citizens to simply turn to other outlets (like this one).
The Berkeley-brained folks at the Merc are much too busy dictating to us what to think to give a damn about what any of us have to say.
Why is Cindy Chavez getting bashed, but not Pat Dando?
Dando was vice mayor at the time this deal went down. She also voted to approve it.
And let’s not forget the public records that she and her staff destroyed on their way out of office.
It’s a safe bet that other scandals are waiting, given the pattern of deceitful behavior by city officials over the past years.
San Jose politics and Mayor Gonzales administration can best be summarized by the classic movie line from Casablanca with Claude Rains as the French Police Inspector
“I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! … be rewritten to
“I am shocked, shocked to find that questionable ethnical behavior is going on in here! … ——————- Really from Ron and Joe ?
This line was not believed in the movie or in San Jose especially about these two based on many years of their history, style of political operation, and questionable behavior.
So again we , “Round up the usual suspects” and all the politicans will sit around in the new City Hall and ring their hands over “how could this have happened in San Jose, again”
How many times do we have to go through this political ” soap opera ” before San Jose’s residents and our business, neighborhood and community “leaders” and the Mercury News started demanding real reform and open, honest and ethnical government based on real life definitions of these terms not some political consultant’s situational ethics definitions.
It seems that some of our elected officials either have no moral core values or find it politically convenient to ignore questionable moral, political and legal behavior.
By what standards, if any, will be the voters judge the 3 announced candidates before selecting our future Mayor?
What tough questions should be asked to differentiate one Mayoral candidate from another rather than have more of the same bad behavior?
We each have a responsibility to ask the tough questions to each candidate and demand real answers, if not don’t acted surprised to see the “usual political suspects ” again state ” I am shocked, shocked to find …….
Rich,
What rock could Ron & Joe have been under all this time not to know the potential impacts of “cutting corners” as you put it? This was a much bigger deal than cutting corners and they had to know that if it ever went public, they’d have some explaining to do. I mean, didn’t either of them have any second thoughts about what they were doing and how it would be perceived? That strikes me as very unlikely.
Of course I’m pleased that my garbage rates didn’t skyrocket and as an employee of a corporate giant I am all for cutting through red tape and getting the job done, but it can never be that simple when politics is involved and Ron & Joe seem to have disregarded that fact entirely. I don’t know if it’s stupidity or (more likely) arrogance but either way Gonzo clearly doesn’t belong in a leadership role anymore, and apparently never did.
I am shocked,
I think you’re on to something.
I suggest that we set up an arrangement with that ethics consultant so that after we’ve brought him after each of the next 6 or so scandals we get the 7th consultation free.
Kind of like Subway Sandwiches does with their “club cards”.
pete campbell,
This is what is known as Scandal Fatigue Syndrome (SFS).
This garbage-gate thing is just your ordinary, run of the mill, scandal.
Those afflicted with SFS will get excited when the really big scandals start to hit. Think BART, think airport expansion, VTA, MLB team, etc.
I’m sorry, Richard, but I believe by the time someone has reached maturation they have developed a core set of values and beliefs which governs their actions. They no longer are in a learning mode.
The Machiavelian school of government is not one that I espouse.
C. what might you be smoking. Does anyone remember what happen to poor Alvina Gonzales. Once something like cheating on ones wife you pretty much sum up the brains and integrity of the Mayor. Once a cheat always a cheat and not just with ones sex life but life in general. What goes around just might come around here, I say oust Ronny!
B. is my bet!
#13: That’s easy. Pick your answer:
1. Dando hasn’t announced she’s running, Chavez has.
2. Dando isn’t carrying Gonzo’s water. Chavez is.
3. If Dando decides to run you can bet all of this, and a lot more, will be thrown at her. That’s why she may decide to cool her heels up in Sacto and let the others roll around in the slime. It’s not like she doesn’t have other options.
Gonzo and Guerra did what they did because they are so arrogant they never expected to get caught. Plain and simple.
The sad thing about this mess is that in our fair city there was no personal gain that came from all this. it was just the arrogance of Joe and Ron to believe they are not accountable to the electorate and therefore have no obligation to inform the elected leaders and the public.
They are not stupid, they are indifferent. It is their city and we are here by their grace.
In my time in this city I have seen a far better than average standard of leadership exhibited here than most major cities. I can’t see the model that Joe and Ron think they are following. (I place Joe first as by all appearances he sees himself as mayor and Ron as his lacky.) I also think Joe did the ultimate poor job of not protecting his boss. When it was clear the story was going to come out, it was Joe who led the story leaving Ron to backpeddal. As the elected official, Ron is more vulnerable so for Joe to have led the story shows an internal disdain for any form of protocol. In some political circles it is seen as a virtue to fall on the sword for your boss; here it appears that Joe set out a bear trap for his boss. It is so cheesy.
They both need to take the fall and let the city move into its new headquarters fresh. The facts of this issue are not all that serious, but breaking the public trust,one that has historically been higher here than inmost cities is a potentially fatal blow and we need to move beyond it soon.
Leave now before San Diego moves north.
#23 No personal gain. But what about political gain?
That was at the heart of the backroom deal…despite what certain political spinmeisters here are trying to tell us.
I really have mixed feelings towards this “scandal”. I’m not sure if this is an issue or not. Obviously, its my fault, but I really do not understand this issue, and consequently do not see the severity of it.
My understanding is that the garbage company met with the Mayor and said it needed more money than it bid. Okay, I would expect that from a low bidder. So, if my understanding is correct, the Mayor told the garbage company he would support increasing the price of the bid, but he did not tell anyone else that he supported it. So, the item comes up to vote and the city council approves it, without knowing the mayor already gave back room support. So far, in my mind, I do not see anything wrong here. I assume the mayor did not strong arm, coerce, or in any other illegal way get another city council member to support the increase.
Now, fast forward to the present and we have a grand jury that states the mayor told the garbage company, but no one else, he would approve the increase. In my understanding of this “scandal” this is where the problem “lies”. When asked about this the mayor said that he did not give his back room approval before the vote, and then a few weeks later he says he did.
Eureka! We have a politician who lies.
Personally, at this time, I just do not see the issue. If my understanding of this issue is correct there was no attempt to influence other council members to support the deal. It came up to vote and was approved, with a couple of prescience (or lucky) no votes. The increase was approved on its apparent merits, not by the Mayor making other back room deals with council members.
Make no mistake, if the Mayor committed to this deal, then used his influence to get it passed without telling anyone his reason, and if anybody, Mayor or council member profited from it, then heads should role. But, to the best of my knowledge the only thing that happened is that the Mayor told the garbage company he would support the increase and he then supported it.
With all this said, let me state that I am not a fan of Mr. Gonzales, the politician. Granted he has done some good things, but he has done one major unacceptable thing, and has yet to attempt to remedy it, or even apologize for it.
When he was a Santa Clara County Supervisor his vote in 1996 is what kept the Reid-Hillview airport open. In my mind this was a terribly wrong and shortsighted vote. I have looked at the data and I cannot find any overwhelming, or legitimate, logical, rational, valid reason for this airport to remain open. It is an economic, social, and environmental disaster for East San Jose, San Jose, and Santa Clara county, both then and now. If the grand jury needs something to investigate then perhaps they should be investigating this travesty.
See http://www.reidhillview.com for the facts regarding Reid-Hillview.
Pete –
There have been no editorials to the Merc because anyone with anything to say just comes to San Jose Inside! They know where the power is now!
With an elected official like Gonzo, the personal gain was in political clout and ongoing campaign contributions. The flaw in his plan was his arrogance and that has become his undoing. Whatever political and financial gain he received from this is dwindling away because of his grab for power, his arrogance, and his lack of respect for his colleagues and the citizens of SJ. He has a pattern of difficulty with the truth, in his personal life and in his public life. The fact that he has lied about public policy issues finishes off his political future—we can only hope it ends before he causes more damage to San Jose.
Has a SJ mayor ever been impeached or forced to resign?
Richie # 10:
Whoah! “If they knew this would be the result would they have acted in the same way?” Ya mean, if they knew they would get caught would they have done it? Watergate ehtics there, Richie.
The people RIGHTFULLY expect their leaders to have superior ethics. We have Gonzo & Guerra III denying and denying and denying until they are caught. We still have Vossbrink parsing the question by saying Ron & Joe didn’t know the EXACT amount it would cost, and so they had no obligation to inform the council or the electorate until they knew to the penny. An ethically challanged lot, to be sure.
Jude was the last guy in City Hall to tell the emperor he had no clothes. So we end up with a Nixonian city hall made up of Democrats. Wow!
If we’re lucky, we won’t ever have them to kick around anymore. But history repeats, and morally bankrupt paranoid politicians resurrect themselves. And amazingly, we re-elect them.
JohnMichael O’Connor
Yo, shocked # 14, wake up…there’s a whole lot of apathy out there (District 7), but who cares? Precious few who aren’t in this blog.
John Michael O’Connor
Beachem # 24 states the facts fairly accurately and then says he doesn’t get what the problem might be. Can we start a fund to get him a scholarship to the Markulla School of Ethics @ Santa Clara—he needs the help badly.
JohnMichael O’Connor
Sorry, it was Beachem # 21, not 24. I am numerically challenged.
John Michael O’Connor
SJ Grunt—Thanks for telling it like it is!
Welcome back J MO !
Where to start?
In response to Comment number 10. What did they do wrong?
They tried to bully city staff to illegally pay more money than the contract called for.
This is a crime…staffers could have lost their jobs! You cannot give away public funds.
After reading today’s Mercury News article (which unfairly tarnished Carl Mosher—probably the only ethical person involved with this affair) I wondered why the City Manager’s Office emerged unscathed.
At least one Deputy City Manager had intimate knowledge of California Waste Solutions, the problematic sub-contractor. Check out this link to a 1998 article:
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/dec98bacon.htm
Terry Roberts (the grand pooh-bah overseeing the San Jose City Hall construction with all it’s hidden costs) let California Waste Solutions coast for 6 years without complying with the contact requirements of their agreement with the City of Oakland for wages and benefits. Like most of the City Manager’s deputies, Roberts is both ncompetent and corrupt.
Del Borgsdorf and his minions facilitated the flawed Garbage deal and they continue to evade responsibility just as Ron and Joe do.
Cheers for SJGrunt!!
While the Council naps and the newspaper snores, the few and the brave at City Hall continue to experience the slide into corruption by the Mayor and his enforcer. Quiet, or you will awaken the City Manager and City Attorney!!
Thanks for the kind words!
More thoughts on this scandal and a reflection on a prior post.
“The lack of a Jude Barry at City Hall, a person with an ethical compass who could provide cogent reasoning and deft politically strategy is a major reason for this debacle.”
I’m sorry to be a critic of those on the side of good, but Jude himself may have been part of the problem. As he mentioned once on this blog, he was part of the City Manager selection committee that picked Del Borgsdorf.
A standup City Manager would not have tolerated the ethical lapses that have been part of this administration. Borgsdorf not only put up with this type of behavior, he has been a facilitator.
Sorry Jude. Those of you who helped select the City Manager, as well as those who have tolerated or ignored Borgsdorf’s (mis)behavior, have contributed to the present horrific state of affairs.