We really should not be disappointed in what our City Council does anymore on the ethics issue. But Ken Yeager does continue to discourage me.
I thought he was getting it. On the ethics front, he chaired a committee that, prodded by Dave Cortese and Chuck Reed, finally did many of the right things. Yeager received much praise—it was but the beginning and perhaps, now the end.
For his upcoming election to succeed perennial climber, Jim Beall, he hired Ed McGovern. This is the same McGovern who was fined by the City Ethics Commission for severe violations of our campaign ethics in District 7. This lobbyists has also been responsible for conflicts and injury to our body politic by representing the behemoth card club, Bay 101, and at the same time running the City Council campaigns of many candidates and incumbents, giving remarkably low rates to many. Then he lobbied them. It smelled then and it smells now.
Bay 101 has funneled money to front groups for the local Democratic Party apparatus and Big Labor (they would give to the Republicans, the Whigs, and the Vegetarian Party too, if any would endorse more card tables) which resulted in laundering into local races and a belated fine for violations by the State’s FPPC.
These are only a few brief highlights of the McGovern record. Perhaps Ken Yeager missed those items. In the old days, before the giant cartel lobbying firms took hold in the city, McGovern was the start of the steady slide into the morass that has been so well chronicled recently in the local press. It was an inexorable progression.
Ken Yeager now hires him – congratulations!
Yeager should know better; he should be more sensitive – appearances, and facts, do matter. Many have felt that he was only a reluctant reformer, going with the flow. He was silent for years on the excesses of City Hall fund raising; silent on the Terry Gregory scandal; silent until labor and others made up their mind. And now this.
Not exactly a profile in courage.
It remains to be seen how this hiring of a hireling will sit with those who think Ken Yeager represented a breathe of fresh air at City Hall. It seems he has only been a whiff of ether smelling of acrid timidity. We will soon see.
It is wonderful that someone is exposing the muck. I don’t think the average citizen has a clue re the insidious relationships that exist between city hall and lobbyists.
Tom, keep up the good work.
I, for one, am glad that someone is the moral compass for san jose. Certainly, no one else stepped up. There were numerous times over the pass few years for some brave politician to step up but no. They’re all to worried about what someone will say about them. Let’s have some guts out there in the political world of san jose. If someone wrote Profiles in Courage for san jose you’d have a very short book.
Right on target, Tom. Ken has been a disappointment ever since he became a Gonzales lackey. It did seem he was starting to “get it” when he became chair of the Ethics Committee, but he showed his true colors when he hired McGovern. No clearer message could be sent to the voters that he was apparently only paying lip service to the need to clean up debris at City Hall. Now, we have to continue to look elsewhere for leadership in cleaning up City Hall and keeping it clean. Hiring one of the leaders in making the mess hardly seems like the place to start. Too bad, Ken seemed to have so much potential years ago.
Tom,
Thanks for exposing stuff like this. I particularly enjoyed your spot-on description of the worthless Mr. Beall who mainly chooses to run for positions where he’s unopposed. That should speak volumes to the electorate.
GREAT Job. Good post.
Tom:
Lets look at this from a different perspective. Getting rid of Jim Beall is what you call a “two-fer.” First San Jose gets rid of Ken. Second, the county is rid of Jim Beall.
I am personally tired of Jim talking about growing up in a family of 3 dozen (“ahhhhh”), having his house burnt down (“ahhhh”), and going to Bellarmine with you (“ahhhhh”). Perhaps the county can pay for its new concert hall by recording Jim Beall’s speeches and selling them as sleeping aides? Can you say Ebay dutch auction?
In regards to Ken, lets not be too tough. I mean he has plenty of important issues to work on like baseball San Jose and the Grand Prix (isn’t that what Race Street used to be?).
Go after the Big Fish Tiger: Gonzales, Chavez, and Reed. Expose them and their misdeeds and ethical conflicts. I dare you.
The thing that seems odd is that Ken Yeager seems to have positioned himself as the “ethical” council person. Why would he undo this by hiring a consultant with McGovern’s bad rep? I can only speculate that McGovern gives really good advice…good enough to overcome the negative association.
There’s a rightwing website called “Discover the Network” http://www.discoverthenetwork.org that defines the players, groups, and the relationships of the left.
The thing I can’t get over is how great it would be to have a San Jose “Discover the Network”.
What could be more invaluable to the voters?
Is the MercuryNews be up to the task?
Or are they part of the network?
Gee, and I thought the people on Spartan Thunder were silly yes people. I have to retract that comment, as they actually have a sincere cause to speak of.
When is the ghost of “Falling Down” Fallon going to write a post of what a great moral tribune Tom is?
Someone must have hid the rocks in Tom’s glass house, or perhaps he simply slid out the back door to fling whatever he can lay his finger-pointing hands on. Can’t believe the cardinals in Rome haven’t called upon this guy to help elect the next Pope. The halo hovering around Tom’s head would certainly add a special ambiance to the grand proceedings.
Tom,
Campaign consultants and lobbyists are still a legal way to make a living so what exactly are you suggesting be changed or is your moral objections about Ed McGovern’s based on his record of successfully electing numerous labor backed candidates supported by his lobbyist client’s campaign contributions when you supported the opponents who lost ?
What prior suggested campaign and lobbying political reforms do you support?
1) disclosure by a candidate of all paid political consultants with all the consultants disclosing their client lists especially if they are a registered lobbyists so that the voters know what special interest group money is behind the candidates they are voting for
2) substantially increased the current campaign fines to be a deterrent rather than a “cost of a successful election “ and have strong immediate compliance enforcement not months after a campaign to include disqualification from future lobbying or political campaigns
3) disqualify a political consultant for 1 -2 years from acting as a lobbyist to any elected official’s whose campaign they worked on
4) Have campaign consultants and lobbyists sign a code of political campaign / lobbying ethics backed by strong enforcement actions
Or do you have other recommendations to make San Jose politics and political campaigns honest, open and with full disclosure to the residents and voters?
It is wonderful, Tom, that you have made the decision to be the moral judge for everyone in San Jose.
I think we all know that we all can’t say the same. So we are sorry that we all exist in the same valley as you, and frustrate you so much.
Please give us pardon, Tom. No one will hire anyone anymore without your assent.
Going to be sort of busy for you at EDD. But just nod a lot.
We have an ethics pledge with the American Association of Political Consultants. I have to think that Tom i8s trying to put the citizen back into citizen council members. Perhaps I need to read his postings with that in mind. Tom is a decent guy, and I will continue to slam and bam him when I think he is wrong. However, I do believe when Tom held a sign in his hand, he did use a dictionary, and he did a fairly good job put the message forward.
By the way, did anyone see my good friend, Phil Trounstine, on Fox? He got a raw deal out of that report, but I have to admit, the dancers an hour later were sure a lot prettier.
Maybe Ray Silva needs to shout out the polling as well as the dancing.
ox·y·mo·ron Audio pronunciation of “oxymoron” ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ks-m�rn, -mr-)
n : conjoining contradictory terms (as in `Ethics pledges by members of the American Association of Political Consultants’)
I do support ethics workshops to be attended by consultants. We have not seen the Lobbyist Anaylst for a while. There are lots of other ways, complete transperancy for one, Ed, is the best. It seems funny that I remember a deal in Santa Clara where someone actually pledged to another consultant some funds to help bridge a meeting with a council member that favored a project, with one that had been undecided. It did come off well, and the project was made more resident friendly. Indeed, the opposition to the project really was comfortable with the modifications, as was the developer. The consultant? Well, he decided never to honor his bargain with us, and well, as he says, it has a thousand fathers.
Ethics on the other hand is orphan, but she has you, Mr. Rast, Tom McEnery, and Jude as the three Godfathers,
Great Wayne film.
The consultant who cannot honor things, well there is a new group of Kennedys he can imitate.
Having seen what happens within government in the absence of pointing-fingers, I say, point away and let me filter out the chaff. If Tom is sitting too high on his moral steed, I’ll catch it, and so too will the public. We bottom-dwellers are better equipped at sniffing-out agendas than we are at sniffing-out the inner workings of our government. We can smell a rat when it’s within range, but we can’t smell through closed doors.
Remove scrutiny from the political power equation and you will wind-up with a silence thick enough to serve even the clumsiest thief.
Keep up the good work, and keep up the volume.
Thank you James for directing us to the American Association of Political Consultants Code of Ethics.
http://www.theaapc.org/content/aboutus/codeofethics.asp
It seems to be a very good ethics guideline.
There is a directory of AAPC members but a quick review indicates that many local political consulants do not seem to be members and therefore may not subscribe to the Code of Ethics and the AAPC mission statement ” To establish and maintain a high standard of ethical conduct through membership education and the establishment and promotion of a workable Code of Professional Ethics for members. ”
What is the best way for this Code of Ethics to be adapted by local political consultants ?
Should San Jose adapt it as part of a honest and open government policy ?
Suggestions, ideas or proposed actions from San Jose’s local elected officals, former elected officals, political candidates especially for Mayor / City Council or local political consultants on how we should proceed to meet the ideal of ” raise the standards of practice in political consultation, thereby enhancing the political process and improving public confidence in the American political system. ” which is also part of AAPC mission statement and seems to be needed in San Jose.
Tom,
Thanks for keeping us all informed on the insiders’ game here in San Jose. What about adding to San Jose Inside a “Watch the money” wiki (see wikipedia.org to see the power of a wiki) where we can all work to track the flow of money and influence in San Jose. When I read comments by you and others like David Yarnold, I realize how little I and most San Jose residents know about what really goes on in San Jose.
Shouldn’t doing the right thing be abundantly clear to those who possess ethics and morals? So I guess those who we need to “educate” are devoid of these qualities? Come on, it is not that difficult to know what is the right thing to do. We are not talking about educating a bunch of 2nd graders on what is right or wrong…. Anyone else tired of talking about lobbyists like we need to “help” them?
Ed McGovern is an honest and ethical person and he has done a fine job of raising a great family. Ed is not the problem. Like every other consultant still in business, one helps those low-end city council-type aspirants who can’t pay (this is called building client base). They can’t pay, because they aren’t incumbents and have not sold out. If you don’t work for free, you will believe me when I say that if they could have paid Ed, Ed would have let them. The author knows this, but has his petty and hamfisted attack to make (I know teenagers-in public school-that can write better). So, who pays the consultants? Those who can. That is why this is the practice all across our great nation. If Ed McGovern could pack the city council of San Jose with his minions and become master of the city why would he be wasting his extraordinary power on mastering only San Jose? And how could he have been disciplined? That’s rich. McEnery ought to be ashamed of himself. This practice of libeling people rather than being responsible and addressing the system in which they work (for us all) is childish and shameful. Or, he should do us all a big favor and leave it.