The deepening crisis at San Jose’s City Hall goes far beyond the plea bargain and resignation of Terry Gregory. It goes to the heart of ethical conduct by the Mayor, Council and City Manager. It is now time to do what is right.
Let’s examine a bit closer the so-called “reform movement” at City Hall.
It was dragooned into existence by the proliferation of scandals. Then, the appointment of a Council Ethics Committee, chaired by Ken Yeager, became a last resort of the besieged denizens of City Hall. It was done to mollify the editorial pages of the Mercury News, comply with the latest lurches of the Mayor’s office, and cut off a few aggressive council members at the pass.
Belatedly, the Committee did some laudable things, but always a day late and a dollar short. It is an open question whether Chairman Yeager and the others are “reformers” or merely beleaguered politicians.
Their balancing act has been worthy of the Wallendas. But it has not been courageous or refreshing.
The Committee has taken testimony, asked for reports, interviewed consultants, and generally dillydallied and delayed for month after month. They cost the Council something that no Council can afford to squander: trust.
When the Committee said they had clear evidence of one council member’s ethical, perhaps criminal, lapses, they chose to be an
instrument of procrastination.
In the months ahead, we will learn if the good people who compose this committee will care more about trust and restoring it, or fall back into the convenient “Let’s move on and heal” camp.
It will be instructive.
The city manager and his lying sack of incompetent deputies must go. The morale at city hall is in the toilet. Does anyone think the emploees will actually follow this bunch of croonies. San Jose deserves better.
So,
The investigation is closed. How convenient that the Council has circled the wagons and cut off any further penetration of the fog surrounding the Cisco scandal. If I were the suspicious sort, I’d wonder if in fact there were further revalations concerning the Council itself that might be forthcoming. But since I’m not, I must be satified with the simple fact that there is really no accountability at City Hall and the Council is too weak to make the tough decisions that would result in real accountability: the firing of the perpetrators.
These are the issues that have created the cynicism in politics and our political leaders (both elected and appointed). Where concurrently you have serious issues by elected and appointed officials. One resigns and the other apologizes…..case closed lets move on. For those of us (yes a person of color) it reminds me of how much more work needs to be done in our society. Let me remind you all that the “Appearance “ of the “isms” (racism, sexism, etc) is just as damaging to our society as the act. Those who grow up as part of the dominate culture, and with privilege because of that may not realize the potential insidious damage that can be done to the of from communities of color when we witness how a 8 million fiasco is handled as opposed to a few thousands of dollars.
Yes there is a need for ethics, and rules and regulations. But ooh what a society where either our leaders don’t have a clue (WMD or Cisco) or have decided that we are so compliant (stupid) that as long as we can gas-up our cars and watch worthless TV programs we will not question what is done.
I choose to live in San Jose, it is my home, I wan the best for it, because it then becomes the best for me. The best is not kept under the rug, swept there so that we can “move on”……move on to where?
Get all the evidence, collect all the facts or most of them, and then instead of cleaning house or prosicuting the guilty parties, we declare the investigation over. What’s up with that? You can’t tell me that the city manager was the only one knowing of this fiasco with Cisco. I think this Cisco had there own Pancho in the form of our Mayor.
Comment #2 above is right on the money.
It is very strange that Gonzales, Chavez, and Reed formed a troika to cut off further investigation into the Yarnold-driven investigation of the Cisco scandal. The latest email messages were lapping higher and higher around the necks of major city officials.
Yarnold was so upset that, in an editorial on 1/25/05, he denounced the troika’s proposal to end the city hall/Cisco investigation as “ludicrous” and “premature.” Strong words for a man ordinarily so moderate.
For Reed to take a leading role in this effort is strange also because one of the key planks in his campaign for mayor is a commitment to “transparency.” Oops! At least Cortese did the right thing by voting against ending the investigation on 1/25/05.
The lack of transparency was not only apparent in the effort to force closure, it was also a problem in the way the troika’s memo of 1/21/05 was written. The proposal to close down the investigation didn’t disclose itself in the “recommendation” section at all. It was simply presented in the very last paragraph of the “background” section without any substantial reasons or justifications.
The memo appears to be a draft of an old one, dating back to before the November 2004 election, because it is all about Public Records Act requests and neglects to mention the state constitutional amendment adopted at that election, popularly known as Proposition 59 which pretty much supercedes the Public Records Act. Oops!
You may read the two page memo in question by going to the San Jose web site, then to city council agendas, then to the agenda for 1/25/05, and then read the “memo to the council” at Item 3.7.
Poor city hall, its leaders cannot even write a decent justification of its decisions. No joke—“transparency” really took a beating with this city council decision.
Issues of race and disparity of treatment are real and occur every day.
The Mercury News does accurately quote me in commending the City Council for their thorough and much needed investigation of Terry Gregory, however my comments relative to the procurement investigation are taken out of the context in which they were delivered, and ultimately change the meaning.
Terry Gregory did betray the trust of his constituents and the community. Terry Gregory’s admitted transgressions when compared to the procurement lapses of the city administration, is like comparing a mountain to a mole hill.
It appears that the NAACP is placing guilt with the City Manager and that is neither the case nor intent of my comments.
When issues of ethics and illegality are called into question all investigations, such should be allowed to be brought to fruition, and the appropriate actions taken.
Yes, there is a feeling in local communities of color that the ending of the investigation smacks of unequal treatment, yes there are many that suggest and will continue to suggest that race played a factor in one investigation resulting in subpoenas and the other ending before any definitive finding could be made. The only way to curtail these kinds of feelings or appearances is to allow for all investigation to be brought to completion and issue a final finding.
The NAACP isn’t calling for increased scrutiny of the City Manager, what I have pointed out is the community wants to know that all investigations are handled in the same fashion.