The November election will either shift the body politic in San Jose toward change or provide a continuation of the status quo. With the problems facing the city, change should be in the air.

South Bay’s last standing roller rink, San Jose Skate, will close by the end of the month, leaving a club of derby girls without a place to skate. The site in question is the same place that Councilmember Johnny Khamis tried to lease before coming under suspicion for conflicts of interest.

Just when this story couldn’t get any stranger, Councilmember Johnny Khamis offered a new timeline of events regarding his decision last week to abstain from voting on his own memo. And some of those new events don't add up.

A bizarre occurrence flew under the radar at last week’s City Council meeting, as Councilmember Johnny Khamis abstained from a vote on his own memo. Why he did so just might make your head spin.

While San Francisco commands more headlines for its exorbitant rental prices, San Jose has struggled to meet affordable housing goals of its own.

Politics can make for strange bedfellows, but there was something surreal about last week’s re-election kickoff party for Sheriff Laurie Smith.

Councilmember Rose Herrera’s plan to ban pot clubs from making political contributions to campaigns comes back to the Rules and Open Government Committee today. Plus, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio wants to make it illegal to declaw cats. And city commentator David Wall says he’s figured out the real story behind the city’s wild pig-shooting ordinance.

Parking prices may double in downtown pretty soon. But a couple city leaders insist there must be a better way to offset the cost of upgraded meters, rather than passing the price-spike down to drivers. Also on the agenda: wild pigs, a construction tax hiatus and a discussion about where to place that long-delayed bond-funded softball complex.

To catch the alleged serial arsonist who plagued downtown San Jose earlier this month, police relied on surveillance footage shared by residents to identify the suspect. Councilman Sam Liccardo is using that incident as a pitch to convince the public to submit their security camera footage to a central database monitored by law enforcement. Other items on the agenda include Councilman Xavier Campos’ half-cent sales tax proposal to restore police positions and Johnny Khamis asking for permission to kill more wild pigs in Almaden.

Pete Constant’s withdrawal from the San Jose mayor’s race sent shockwaves through a desperate California Republican Party. Trying to carve out a niche for itself in the Silicon Valley, Constant was seen as the best hope for the party to make an inroad into San Jose. Now one lucky Democratic candidate could gain considerable support.

San Jose will start looking for ways to pay for body-worn cameras on police officers, which Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell says will lessen citizen complaints and keep officers accountable for the way they conduct themselves in the field. That and more at this week’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting.

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.

An angry Facebook post directed at San Jose Councilman Johnny Khamis has led to three San Jose police officers being investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs division.

Police Chief Larry Esquivel suggests holding off on opening the new-but-empty police substation in south San Jose until later next year. But are there enough officers on the force to staff a second field office? While the city considers the chief’s proposal, there are also a couple plans making their way to Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting to get cadets to foot the bill for their own training if they leave too soon after receiving their training.

An update to the city’s fire and building codes would retain the option for high-rise developers to install oxygen-refilling stations for firefighters. The City Council on Tuesday will talk about reinstating a rule that would that would allow Firefighter Air Replenishment System (FARS), as opposed to reinforced elevators, in every building 75 feet or taller. Also on the council agenda is an urgency ordinance to allow hunters in Almaden to shoot wild pigs and a brewing fight over using leftover Measure P funds to build a massive softball complex.

San Jose City Manager Debra Figone decided last week to end the suspense and remove “acting” from Larry Esquivel’s title as police chief, setting up a dramatic showdown. Not between cops and City Hall, though. An arsenal of memos over how to keep graduates of the police academy from jumping ship were fired off Tuesday. Just last week, it was widely reported that up to 17 cadets are taking their talents to different law enforcement agencies, leaving the city out about $2.9 million in training costs. On one side of the memo melee stands Sam Liccardo, armed with what he calls a “carrot and a stick.” On other other side stand Madison Nguyen and Johnny Khamis, carrying what they call a “first five” initiative. And in the middle, the police union is at the ready to shoot down both ideas.