Councilman Wanders Aimlessly Around City Hall Plaza Encouraging Visitors to Kick His Ass
In a rare show of solidarity, and just moments after a heated debate over the mayor’s official grand jury response regarding Garbagegate, the council voted overwhelmingly to place a “Kick Me” sign on Councilman Forrest Williams for his refusal to abandon the Titanic of local government that is Mayor Gonzales’ administration.
“Councilman Williams is a lot like Edward John Smith,” explained SJSU political scientist Terry Christensen. “He just refuses to see the iceberg clearly in the path of the Gonzales cruise ship. The grand jury report was just the tip; the real danger is below, the breadth of which will only be known with the independent investigator’s report.”
In the midst of this giant gash in the hull of San Jose’s political reputation, we find the surreal sight of Councilman Williams wandering around City Hall Plaza inviting visitors to kick him in the ass.
“I deserve it,” said the councilman. “OUCH. I was the only one to stand up for the mayor; heck, OUCH, he didn’t even support himself.”
“This is a great experiment in civics,” said a passing ass-kicker. It is very therapeutic after leaving Dante’s rings of hell inside. I have forgotten my frustrations and I like myself again.”
Most city hall insiders remain dumbfounded by Councilman Williams’ lack of common sense and grasp for the pulse of San Jose’s citizenry, especially with all of the evidence in plain sight. “He saw most of his colleagues take their shots, then climb overboard into their inflatable rubber rafts to safety,” said an observer. “I guess at this point, going down with the ship might be a more palatable choice than serving out your term.”
Forrest may have a kick me sign on his ass, but the remainder of the councilmembers have great big “L’s” tattooed on their foreheads.
True, they are all losers, but some are more loser than others.
Taking the Titanic reference a bit further…
…who is City Hall’s “Jack”?
…what about City Hall’s “Rose”?
Ron Gonzales School of Politics and Government Policy:
How to be a “Strong Mayor” –
You can fool some of the people and many of your fellow politicians all of the time,
all of the people many times,
and while you can not fool all of the people all of the time,
if you and your staffers threaten and bully many people and your fellow politicans, few will say anything and you can do what you want most of the time.
Today’s Mercury News has an article about a study released by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group that shows Silicon Valley in last place when ranked with other areas on quality of life issues.
Next Wednesday SVLG will host a discussion on the study. The Mercury News editorial board says the leadership group “hopes to attract a cross section of the community, from teachers to techies, business people to non-profit workers. Add your voice.”
Unfortunately to add your voice will cost most $50.00 if you read the fine print. Why such a hefty admission charge just to listen to a discussion about a study? If SVLG really wants to attract a cross section of the community, they would open the event to everyone. The Mercury News and the rest of the sponsors should work a bit harder to make this a free event.
Let’s take a look at the proposed Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s ” Daring to Compete: A Region to Region Reality Check “
Will the 1/2 day public forum next Wedneday 8 am – noon be attended by a cross section of the public since:
a) most of us have to work on Wednesday mornings 8 am – noon,
b) the forum was publically announced only 5 days prior to the event which is too late for many of us to take the morning off work and attend
c) the fee is too high for many neighborhood and community leaders to participate thus effectively excluding knowledgable public participation
d) if they wanted true public participation by a wide section of the public the report would have been published and widely available 1-2 weeksor more prior to the forum so the study, it’s assumptions and conclusions could be reviewed and the public could formulate rebuttal or comments prior to the forum.
The practical steps to encourage true public debate and discussion were not done.
Would you agree that a rational person’s could come to the conclusion –
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group really doesn’t want wide spread public discussion of their study and predetermined viewpoints but a publicity event to push their viewpoint and a new transportation tax for BART.
Right on target, Ed.
Out of my way, John. We have more pressing issue to talk about:downtown. The agency nearly screwed up the CIM block 3 deal because the agency wants to reduce subsidy and wants CIM to shoulder more cost to the project, effectively reneging on the deal they had. It’s just pure stupidity on the agency’s part: just plain control and greed! They go, “If the other developers are willing to higher price for the land, then we should go back on our agreement” which would surely kill this project. They would go back to square one and have this plot of land vacant for 20 years. Just pure stupidity! Right now, this condo/mixed use project is still on track to beaking ground on October, but the agency could screw up for real anytime between now and then. Give credits to CIM’s perseverence, not agency, for this project moving forward. It’s a 23 story project that would finally cement redevelopment’s effort to make downtown a destination’s spot, so don’t blow it!
Ed Rast:
The $50.00 fee is to discourage the gadflies who would attend a freebie. Is that us? HHmm.
In reality a $15.00 fee would discourage the gadflies. Hell, Safeway and others struck impotently for months last year because the new contract proposal would have required them to pay a $15.00 co-pay for the mostly useless doctors office visists they scheduled because it was free. No-one wants to pay for their own health care any more out of their own pocket, so why would they pay any fee just to mouth off?
But they really didn’t have to charge a fee at all, because the workday hours would automatically exclude most, since many of us actually have to show up at work to make money, unlike Carl G. and the CEO types he may want to lure to this event. At the end of the day a slick press release will announce the findings of this “diverse???” group who attended during the workday @ $50.00 per. RIGHT!
Get a clue on this Carl—if you want across the board participation, scheduling during work hours just ain’t right. Its like Gonzo scheduling a hugely important issue for “public comment” during the day on Tuesday. If you want a big circle jerk of like-minded people to pat each other on the back collectively, schedule it as you did, and charge a hefty fee. If you want a true cross-section (including a few pesky gadflies) then reschedule and drop the fee. Just charge a nominal amount for the coffee and snacks.
And ya know, Carl, the new name is really lame—just a lot of self-aggrandizement. True leaders don’t have to self-proclaim. You and the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group have done a lot of forward thinking work. Rethink the name change.
Paul, given the RDA’s track record there is definitely reason to be concerned about the CIM project. I hope CIM perseveres a little more because this seems like a project that could be just the catalyst downtown needs to get back on its feet. Let’s hope it gets done in spite of the ineptitude of the RDA.
Ed,
Obviously this get-together by the self-appointed “Leadership Group” is intended to exclude rather than include all but a select few. We already know that the usual power players will be on the stage following their usual script. Why spend $50 when you already know what’s going to be said? (BART to SJ, tax credits for corporations, offshoring jobs is good for the local economy, etc.)
If they really want a worthwhile forum they might include a few other articulate voices like Mountain View Councilman and BART critic Greg Perry, housing advocate Barry Del Buono or anyone else who might color outside the lines. (Toss in JMC, finfan and Mark T and I might pay $51 to get in!)
It won’t happen though. These “leaders” don’t give a rat’s patootie what Silicon Valley thinks. We weren’t really invited to their party, were we?
John, they’re all bunch of losers so why stop with Mr. Williams? Why not go for broke and line ‘em all up out there in front of a paintball firing squad?
Those that side with Ronny G on any issue probably don’t have KICK ME signs, look for the money falling outta their pockets!
Where is the Downtown Association or any other groups of influence on any of these issues? Music in the Park & the Guadalupe Gardens are certainly great but can anyone tackle some of the problems that we are facing?