The public officials arguing against High Speed Rail was disappointing. They utilized the false premises of opponents, yet they knew the real consequences of not approving the first phase of the project. Their pandering to curry political favor with the NIMBY crowd was unseemly.  Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and the project is moving forward.

The legal battle everyone expected over Measure B’s passage began Wednesday, as the city filed for a federal judicial review (a.k.a. “declatory relief”) and attorneys representing police and firefighters unions filed two lawsuits in state court. All of this will take months, if not years, to resolve, so we’ll focus on some of the more interesting commentary surrounding the legal battle.

A lot of people in charge will say—whether they believe it or not—that they are only as good as their staff. It’s difficult to tell for State Assemblymember Nora Campos (D-San Jose), because almost all of her staff has been replaced. In fact, no elected official in the entire state Legislature has experienced a higher turnover of staff since the beginning of 2011 than Campos.

Mayor Susan Hammer is among the best leaders San Jose has ever produced, and I have tremendous empathy for her and those who are frustrated with the decisionsCity Hall has made to shortchange our libraries. But the answer is a change of personnel at City Hall, not a charter amendment which, admittedly, will be popular with voters—especially with her leadership. But the policy puts the city on a slippery slope of percentage-based spending. It may sound good, but it is this same type of policy that got us into trouble on the state level.

One of Governor Brown’s budget trigger cuts for California is the $72 million spent on the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ, formerly the California Youth Authority). The governor is proposing to shut down the state juvenile justice detention system and send the youth back to the counties for rehabilitation. On the surface, this seems like a good move—DJJ has a horrible reputation for punishing wards and providing little rehabilitative services.

With the passage of Senate Bill 654 (SB654), authored by Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg, cities in California would retain Redevelopment Agency’s (RDA) tax increment financing to build more affordable housing. The entire Legislature is set to vote on the bill.

A ruling Thursday by the California Supreme Court is more or less the nail in the coffin for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. It’s also a critical victory for Gov. Jerry Brown, whose budget has been under scrutiny for major shortfalls compared to rosy projections regarding revenue. The state’s high court decided $1.7 billion can be legally taken from RDAs across the state, and the ruling also denies agencies the ability to “pay to play” by giving money over to the state to remain in existence.

Every major project has Citizens Against Virtually Everything (CAVE) people fighting against it. They hold up every good project, they hurt our economy, our progress and cost us money. But how many times can these people be wrong before they simply go away?

Editor’s Note: Sparky Harlan, Executive Director/CEO at Bill Wilson Center, is a new columnist for San Jose Inside. She is a nationally recognized advocate for youth in foster care and in the juvenile justice system, as well as homeless and runaway youth.

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown signed a flurry of bills. One that missed the media’s attention was AB 194, authored by our own assemblyman, Jim Beall. As legislation goes, this was a simple bill—youth aging out of foster care (ages 18-24) will now have priority to register for classes in state community colleges and universities. There was no opposition to the bill. 

The Bay Area’s public school system sustained another groin kick of aggressive generosity Tuesday when politically ambitious billionaire Meg Whitman bestowed $2.5 million on South Bay and Peninsula charter school programs. Apparently, the maid-firing former eBay exec didn’t spend all her money losing last year’s race for governor to Jerry Brown.

Redevelopment agencies in California will have their day in court, and a decision on whether or not the 398 active entities will be allowed to continue operations will reportedly be made by January.

Polling done in July indicates voters aren’t especially interested in raising taxes until the city negotiates true pension reform, which is why the City Council decided on Tuesday to delay any action on revenue ballot measures.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom made an appearance Friday at an event hosted here in San Jose by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. At the event, he proposed several plans to boost the state’s economy while also eliminating agencies that he says are redundant.

Since being elected in November, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for a special election to extend several taxes, including a motor vehicle tax, to help balance the state budget. He received little to no support from Republicans, and the result was a budget compromise that many panned for including gimmicks. On Wednesday, the city of San Jose announced that Brown’s inability to get motor vehicle taxes extended will cost the city $2.8 million, which will have to be accounted for next budget season.

More than a few eyebrows lifted last week when Councilmember Sam Liccardo proposed raising the city’s sales tax to help fund police and firefighter jobs. With 73 officers expected to lose their jobs on July 1, according to police union VP Jim Unland, Liccardo showed the kind of political savvy that was conspicuously absent this spring, when he voted against approving union concessions because he said they didn’t go far enough

Harry Mavrogenes made the surprising announcement Thursday that he will relinquish his role as Executive Director of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency as of June 24. Mavrogenes has held the title since late 2004.