Don Gagliardi is a longtime neighborhood organizer and champion of parks and soccer fields. He reflects downtown’s idiosyncratic nature just fine and knows the city blocks well. He’s been around City Hall enough to understand the levers of power and brings the perspective of an urban homeowner and small businessman to the council.
Kathy Sutherland has been a neighborhood organizer as well and served on a number of regional committees. She’s the former chief of staff to Almaden Valley councilmember Nancy Pyle and well-liked by just about everyone. Sutherland's passion for community makes her a strong candidate, but it seems like her work would be best done behind the scenes.
Raul Peralez has a great story—he’s a San Jose policeman who stuck it out after Measure B and serves as president of his neighborhood association. But Peralez is far too green for the job, having just waded into politics a few years ago. He cites county Supervisor and labor machine leader Cindy Chavez as his mentor, which leaves little question who he’ll take marching orders from as he gets up to speed.
Gagliardi’s our choice to re-energize downtown’s business district while championing neighborhood quality and tackling tough issues, like the much-needed cleanup of St. James Park.
Councilmember Liccardo could not “clean-up” St. James Park (a.k.a. Vagrant and Criminal Element Park) during his tenure and it is extremely unlikely Mr. Gagliardi has the intestinal stamina to do so either.
I reject and ridicule San Jose Inside’s endorsement of Mr. Gagliardi.
In my opinion, “Mr. Gagliardi does not know his rump from a hole in the ground.”
As to the statement, “He’s been around City Hall enough to understand the levers of power …” I have yet to see Mr. Gagliardi at any Council committee meetings, especially the Rules and Open Government Committee.
I thank Mr. Gagliardi for his participation in the democratic process.
David S. Wall
Funny how you “reject and ridicule San Jose Inside’s endorsement of Mr. Gagliardi,” yet offer no alternative, and otherwise make an ass of yourself with this little brainfart. But that’s OK: Your silly tirade only bolsters his campaign, revealing to all the level of the opposition’s backers. Well done!
Well someone just made an ass of themself, but it wasn’t mr. Wall.
Pretty deep, incisive stuff there, chief.
on point though…..
I am disappointed that San Jose Inside has endorsed Mr. Gagliardi.I would have hoped that they would do a little more research on him, before giving him their blessing. I totally agree with you. Mr. Gagliardi is a Slime ball lawyer. He has no moral compass. He is a pompous Ass and has no business being in City hall..
I disagree that Kathy’s work ” would be best done behind the scenes.” She is very much educated in how things work at City Hall and her district. She has my 100% support!
I also disagree and it verges on being a tad sexist don’t you think. The little lady is nice so let’s keep her in the backroom.
Also Don can be very angry and vindictive. Do we really want another council member like that? As far as I can see Gagliardi has the same qualifications as Sutherland except she is a consensus builder. So why choose him?
I concur with Shelly. As a City employee who has had to deal with Gagliardi, he is a pompous ass!
“Pompous ass” may actually be the nicest thing that could be said about Mr. Gagliardi.
I meet and spoke with him briefly, and I would agree with your statement and Wall’s as well.
Don Gagliardi – community organizer
Kathy Sutherland – community organizer
Don Gagliardi – “been around City Hall enough to understand power”
Kathy Sutherland – former chief of staff of a city council member
Don Gagliardi – “idiosyncratic” (I’m obviously paraphrasing)
Kathy Sutherland “well-liked by just about everyone”
Don Gagliardi – “our choice”
Kathy Sutherland – “her work would be best done behind the scenes.”
In other words, Kathy, get in the background where you belong. Why is Kathy being held to a higher standard than Don for endorsement by San Jose Inside?
Very well said Amy! Keeping educated, professional women like Kathy in the back room reeks of sexism, and is far from acceptable in this day and age~
Thank you for seeing though and speaking up about Don Gagliardi. I have personal experience with him as well. His character has no morals. He is a pompous Ass… He is a liar, who will say any thing that people pay for. He is a slime ball lawyer with no scruples…. We don’t need any more politicians like him…
So now the main criterion for even a local politician is a history as a neighborhood
organizer? GREAT! We know how well neighborhood organizers perform after their election. We’ve had six awful years with a community organizer in the White House. BOHICA!
You know who else was a neighborhood organizer? Hitler!
So a personal beef with the current president (a most prolific sport these days) as a former neighborhood organizer negates any others who would emphasize such activities in their campaign. Obama is also ______, so shall we negate any others who are_______ for that office? Correlation is fun, yes?
Wait a minute, how does this beef always get injected into every conversation…about anything? Are we not talking about San Jose City Council issues here? Or just once again sliding ever so gently into generalized right-wing yelling points just to satisfy an itch?
Seems one who is known to take a lead role in local neighborhood projects would be one who can be trusted to have reasonable boots-on-the-ground knowledge of said neighborhood. The results of those efforts ought to be analyzed and discussed when deciding whether that organizer could make for a good representative for that area’s citizens, not just “Neighborhood Organizer bad! Him like Evil President! Beware!”
How dare you use logical reasoning!
In my opinion, “Are you a “political pig?”
Question: “Do you enjoy intimate relations” ( if any or not), with Mr.. Gahliardi or are you just relegated to be t one of his “Oficial Mayoral payroll “pigs?”
David S. Wall
Not sure why he is being labeled as a community organizer…being part of the neighborhood association or sitting on a board for organizations is not a community organizer. Please tell me how you will work towards stopping rent increases in downtown SJ for poor & working class families, end police brutatiliy towards brown bodies, bridge the gap between SJSU and it’s surrounding community…I can go on and on about the living conditions in downtown SJ that clearly you (Don) are unaware of.
I’m a resident in District 3 and we had multiple meetings with Sam Liccardo over the last 7 years in our HOA meetings. All we got were promises and nothing was done. Our downtown area crime rate skyrock and community development was nothing. Criminal activities from neighborhood was ridiculously high and no police patrol around the area. Stadium project on S. 22nd street/William was supposed to be done 6 years ago and Sam diverted the fund to other project to benefit his mapping for mayoral election.
We need more law enforcement to patrol high profile area and Sam failed to do that as a councilman. We hope Paul, as an ex-poiice will understand the issue better. We’ll give him a try by voting for him.
Here we are a decade later. Should have voted for Don like I told you. It’s hell in D3 now.