Happy Fourth of July to all of our readers and partners. We are all in this together and we appreciate your support and participation.
It is a good time to take stock of where we are as a city as the birthday of our country is celebrated. There is a new mayor, a new city manager, four new and interesting council members, and a very new spirit in the management of our city. Reform is now the watchword of all and good planning is the hallmark of this regime. While we are not swimming in the greatest competence in some areas of the administration (when has that been true), there is much to be positive about. It is up to the council and city manager to get the most out of the employees and put the best and most ethical of managers in the correct positions of power. There is every reason to believe that this is occurring.
On Monday, the Mercury editorial got it so right when they commended Mayor Chuck Reed for keeping the triggers in the Coyote Valley and initiating the overdue look at our General Plan with the input of our citizens. The Mercury, in all its current economic difficulties, has been forthright and diligent and has done a tremendous service to the community. May it long be so. As for Reed and the most reliable of the council members, Sam Liccardo and Pierluigi Oliverio, it was quite a triumph.
There are two lessons to be learned here and one surely will be. First, leadership still counts for a lot in our city. To accomplish “reforms” as well as budgetary restraint and planning accountability in the first six months of your term is a monumental achievement. The mayor deserves our thanks and our support. Second, and more elusive, will be the reaction of the development community. If they are sensible, they will try in Coyote Valley, Evergreen, and other places to make their cases with reason and planning skills, and not through chicanery and money. It is their only course of action. They might even be wise enough—a few of them—to take that course.
Enthusiasm? Or Dread?
Before we become too enthusiastic about the six-month old Reed regime, it may be instructive to remember a few small things.
Phony General Plan Review
1) There is no need for a three-year General Plan review to allocate various swaths of land to various purposes. There is so llittle open land for dividing into types of employment lands and residential lands, that this effort shouldn’t take more than 12 months. The reason for a three-year review will be to end the effort at the time of the mayoral primary election in 2010 with all of its related fundraising possibilities.
If the proposed General Plan Review were sincere, today’s media conversations about Coyote Valley and Evergreen would be joined with discussion about the North First Street development. Somehow, no one manages to notice that there are three areas that need short-term (not long-term) study and prudence in San Jose.
Embracing Closed-Door Procedures
2) We need less hype on Reed’s “maturity” by the Mercury News, and more looking at his record of violating his own standards of transparency, openness, and honesty. It is seldom that such a load of Barnum-style hoakum has been promoted and believed by so many people with so little evidence for its sincerity. His secret employment of Victor Ajlouny with temporary consultant contracts, how he chose of Hon Lien to replace himself as council member, his closed meeting with Wolfe in January, his failure to disclose the illegal discussion by the city council a year ago about non-agendized baseball park discussions in closed session, and his leadership on the council in ending the Cisco Procurement Scandal all point to a man much more accustomed to working in the shadows than a man cheerfully toiling in the sunshine.
A much closer look at Reed’s role in ending the Cisco Procurement Scandal is called for. It has been largely forgotten in the wake of the Norcal Garbage Scandal. Having witnessed the Reed effort to close down the Cisco Porcurement Scandal personally, I can tell you that the investigator told the city council directly that several thousand copies of emails had come to him from the higher offices in City Hall only a day or two before the council meeting at which the investigation was ended, and that these copies needed reviewing. Reed paid no attention to this reality and proceeded to make the motion to end the investigation which passed. This completely washed away any pretence that he supports transparency, openness, and honesty—- but everyone just pretends it didn’t happen. Anyone who wonders about this can see this on the video tape in the city clerk’s office at any time.
3) All of Reed’s tendencies were made abundantly clear during the reign of the Reed/Ajlouny operation that commenced in 1987 in North San Jose. His focus on climbing was always clear but never before suffered a rebuff like that administered to him in the Hon Lien defeat. With any luck at all, the June 2007 election to fill Reed’s vacated seat will mark the end of a 20-year rule-or-ruin political operation in North San Jose, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View. We can pray that it will be so.
Gee Dale another predicable how Chuck & Vic ” violating his own standards of transparency, openness, and honesty” and ” 20-year rule-or-ruin political operation ” kicked your sorry a** when 4/5 voters rejected you at polls
If you have some new scandal state it otherwise get over your many past defeats No one can be right all time Chuck on his worst day with dumb political mistakes is way better than Gonzo
Kansen will do right for district
Tom’s commendation of the Murky for doing a “fine job” editorializing and his hope that this totally trivial papernews continue forever, is in there with his opinion that Forrest Williams is a “fine person” and, early in the mayorial campaign, that Cindy Chavez was a “well qualified” candidate. Carl Berg is the only local questionable (or worse) that Tom gets mad about. That’s the trouble with being a really decent guy (and why he is not our Congressperson, refusing to react to Zoe’s character assassination). Happily, the July 4 edition of the Murky offers a hopeful glimpse at it’s short future, when, in typical San Jose and Murky fashion it could only afford ink to print the beginning and end of The Declaration of Independence. And kowtowing to the level of its readership that lacks the patience and vocabulary to read the whole thing, Jefferson at his best.
As for Dale Warner, wow! Chuck Reed at the center of evil in the cosmos? No one else? Like so many bright folks, has lots of info, and great command of detail, but my problem with Chuck is not that he has plans to be king but that, like Tom, he’s such a nice guy that he gives everyone a pass, especially the honchos at City Hall—they get raises instead of evaluations. Backwards. Let’s have at least a hint of how well they’re performing, THEN give the few not hired by Gonzo and Friends a raise, IF they show some decent respect for the taxpayers and citizenry, and actually doing their job. One of the great outrages of all time is the Dumb Dome. I’m sure DW has an opinion on that fiasco that cost upfront, and on and on, while being a big wart right in the middle of the face of downtown SJ. At least Chuck said the Dome was Dumb. George Green
Wow!
“North SJ voter” at #2 is too chicken-hearted to sign his or her name so his or her own credentials can be evaluated. By the way, North SJ voter, Reed’s past is the best way to evaluate his ordinary course of conduct. You’ve already had plenty of evidence that he is simply continuing in the path he carved out for himself 20 years ago with Ajlouny. And there’ll be more, lots more. So many eggs, so many faces.
And George Green at #3 can read my mind and report how I feel about the City Hall dome.
One chicken and one mind-reader. Pretty good.
I agree with GG. When I saw that ridiculous bread-but-no-sandwich version of the DoI in the Merc my jaw dropped. It was then that the impact of the latest round of layoffs at the Merc is going to have hit home, and I was saddened that the paper I used to enjoy reading was quickly being turned into a USA Today clone with fluffy Cliff’s Notes stories instead of anything with substance. Between that ridiculous DoI and Paris Hilton and Joey Chestnut being front page news, I doubt I’ll be renewing my subscription for much longer. A paper this pathetic deserves to die.
Anybody want to join me in wringing the neck of that sole shareholder who forced KR to sell?
Wow, George, am I really that nice? Thanks, I think. And on Carl Berg – he “is” a nice guy and a genuine “original”. But like, a lot of developers, he thought that he could BUY the City by donating to the Labor Pac & hiring lobbyist – they gave hundreds of thousands; millions couldn’t have defeated Reed and Reform. I hope Berg goes back to his independent, cantankerous old self – he is someone that deserves attention for his views, but not his money! TMcE