San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos says he cast the wrong vote for a planning commissioner appointment and wants a do-over. He also says he's not the one to blame.
“I feel that my ballot was mislabeled at the [City] Council meeting last Tuesday and does not reflect how I actually voted during the Planning Commission Appointments,” he wrote in a request for reconsideration.
Nick Pham, a real estate agent, beat five-year planning commissioner Hope Cahan by a single vote, 6-4 (the 11th vote, by Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, went to attorney Cameron Day). Cahan, a policy aide to Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, has been a strong advocate for labor interests in her role on the commission. It appears Campos, who a week prior to the council meeting lost his re-election race to Magdalena Carrasco, realized he voted out of line with the will of his backers and is scrambling to get a second chance.
Campos’ request for a re-take is not only awkwardly written—he "feels" rather than thinks the ballot was mislabeled, and he also says the vote doesn’t reflect how he "actually voted" rather than intended to vote—it also attempts to throw City Clerk Toni Taber under the bus, blaming the ballot's labeling for the way he voted.
Taber diplomatically deflected the implied criticism of her office's drafting of the planning commission ballots.
“In my opinion the ballots were marked correctly, but the councilman is entitled to his opinions,” she told San Jose Inside. “If that’s the way he feels, that’s fine. I’m not offended.”
Requesting a re-vote isn’t entirely unheard of either, Taber added, although this is the first time it's occurred during her two-year tenure as clerk.
“Sometimes motions to reconsider might come up because [council members] feel they were misled,” Taber said. “I don’t get into the ‘whys,’ I work with the fact that they’re allowed this option.”
Come Tuesday, the council will decide whether to grant Campos’ request to vote—again—how he feels best.
Look’s like Cortese’s felled pick for District 5 Councilman is up to his old tricks again…I would really love to hear Dave’s rationale for endorsing him in the first place.
Enough of Campos. The reason this city is a mess and I do mean a mess because the only people we talk about are Campos and Chavez. My neighborhood Spartan Keyes just had a murder last week. The previous week we had a shooting. Many of the street lights in my area are out because of copper theft. Our small pocket park has a water fountain that the city won’t fix even though I have notified council member Sam and parks. Crime is out of control in our city and the Mayor and the majority of council do nothing. Spartan Keyes has four huge affordable housing projects and a fifth on the way. These developments pay no property taxes for 50 years and Mayor Reed and his council buddies give us no funding because “they don’t like poor people”. Lets talk about real problems and quit covering up for a lousy Mayor and council.
If they “don’t like poor people” how is it that there will soon be FIVE affordable housing projects in your small area? “Poor people” need to finish school, don’t have kids until they do and they can afford to raise them properly.
Aurelia, you need to acknowledge that crooks endorse Cortese….and more importantly, CORTESE ENDORSED CAMPOS! It seems like you are ignoring Dave’s endorsement of corrupt politicians. You are, who you hang out with… and Dave likes to hang out with and publicly endorse criminals. Maybe Cortese’s way of reducing crime is to have a police presence on the 18th floor, so once he squeezes as many favors out of his union cronies as possible, then said cronies will be arrested and Dave can claim to have reduced crime!
You talk about how the poor our mistreated, and I sympathize with your plight, however while those with limited means are struggling to get by Cortese Chavez Campos Corruption Coalition is lining the pockets of union leadership. Liccardo, Oliverio and Nguyen campaigned on a mission to improve San Jose, while being able to pay for the suggested improvements. As Sam is only one of these fine public servants to make the runoff, he has my support over Corrupt Cortese.
The best thing for the County is for Dave to get elected mayor of San Jose. Please elect him San Jose so the County no longer has to deal with him.
Vote Dave, so Sam can go open more wasted bike lanes in another city.
Terry Gregory
Cindy Chavez
Ron Gonzales
George Shirakawa Jr
Xavier Campos
Ben Field
And (anonymously, of course) you have a problem with BIKE LANES ???
Hey Retired, you haven’t answered me on other blog posts, so I am going to ask you on this one – especially since it has to do with Campos…..Why do you think Dave endorsed Xavier Campos? Rationalize that one for me.
Because he is a friend maybe and not an enemy like yourself……the only way Liccardo wins is if the voter turnout is low, Cortese had strong showings in almost every district where as Liccardo err uhh well haha
i think ms sanchez should run for a political office ….she seems to have all the answers