Since an historic flood in February, San Jose and the water district have spent the past nine months bolstering defenses against future disasters.

David Vossbrink, the city of San Jose’s longtime airport and City Hall communications director, called it a career after four decades.

It wasn’t Katrina, but officials failed in every way when it came to notifying San Jose residents of flooding—and it could have been a lot worse.

Santa Clara County plans to sue POTUS over his crackdown on so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that protect immigrants from deportation.

SJPD has a White privilege problem, which starts and ends with officer Phil White. But if not addressed properly it could infect the rest of the force.

San Jose has blocked the release of hundreds of emails sent and received by Eddie Garcia, who will become interim police chief in January. San Jose Inside has appealed this decision and will make arguments to release these messages at this week's Rules and Open Government Committee meeting.

Over the last year, San Jose Police Chief Larry Esquivel and his command staff have sent emails that suggest indifference for rules on accepting gifts while also routinely disparaging civilian oversight.

Residents and businesses fled a two-block area of downtown after construction workers ruptured a gas line.

It's a common practice to use old, gutted patrol cars as mechanical scarecrows, according to San Jose Police Department spokesman Officer Albert Morales. But police are pretty miffed that they weren't notified about a plan to park a defunct cruiser near the San Jose Repertory Theater for about a week.

San Jose’s parking enforcement officers are a notorious bunch. The cash-strapped city, not too proud to strip the couch cushions as it scavenges for revenue, has an army of these ticket punchers at the ready, ruthlessly hunting down the tardy. But a recent Smart Meter malfunction had me questioning what kind of program they're running over there.

City leaders at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting will talk about placing a measure on the November ballot that would give the city's retirement boards full autonomy.

San Jose Inside’s Josh Koehn sat down in late October with City Manager Debra Figone, who will retire at the end of next week, to discuss her 44-year career in public service. The free-flowing discussion, which has been edited for clarity, touches on topics such as the city’s adversarial relationship with the Police Officers Association, the validity of international travel for elected officials, the possibility of another sports franchise coming to San Jose if the Oakland A’s cannot relocate here, and how Figone views the media’s coverage of local politics.

San Jose Councilman Ash Kalra says the city’s got some explaining to do about its police stats gaffe. In a memo to the Rules and Open Government Committee, which meets Wednesday, Kalra calls for a hearing in front of the City Council about why a change was made in calculating gang stats, and why the numbers were misrepresented to the public.

Breaking up is hard to do. Breaking up a fight between the San Jose police union and City Hall could be damn near impossible. In what appeared to be an effort to mend fences and remind people who’s the boss, Acting Police Chief Larry Esquivel recently sent an email this week to his command staff—roughly 50 deputy police chiefs, lieutenants and captains—scolding them for signing on to a letter critical of the city recent actions involving labor negotiations.

Santa Clara County owes the city of San Jose nearly $7 million that was wrongfully diverted to county employee retirement accounts, according to a ruling handed down Friday by a Sacramento Superior Court judge. The ruling found that beleaguered county finance officials ignored “a half century of construction and application of California law governing allocation of tax increment financing.”

The city’s poised to deny for the second time a Public Records Act (PRA) request from a journalist who wants to glimpse the behind-the-scenes workings of Casino M8trix. Other items on the Rules and Open Government Committee agenda fro Wednesday include a dispute within the Vietnamese community and a passionate letter from our favorite city critic.