As the quote goes, “When people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” Although often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, the quote’s origin is debated. Regardless of who, if anyone, spoke these words, the sentiment resonates.
The essence of the quote is that the government thrives on power. When power lies in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, citizens live in fear. When the people are empowered to hold their rulers accountable, it checks that power, allowing those who live under the yoke of government to forge the society they want.
As a reporter, I have covered the government for more than 20 years. I have done so in Michigan, in Iowa and here in California. In this state alone, I have covered government affairs in a plethora of cities. Just to name a few locally, I have written stories about the governments of Palo Alto, of Burlingame, of San Mateo, of Sunnyvale, of San Jose and, of course, of Santa Clara.
I have seen many engaged citizens address local governments, be they city councils, boards of supervisors, library boards, or school boards. When you do this as long as I have, you get to know the key players. You see the same faces repeatedly. Of all the dozens — perhaps hundreds — of people I have come to recognize as filling this role, one stands alone as my template for such a citizen.
If I had to design a citizen to take up this mantle, they would look a lot like an old Santa Clara City Council gadfly. Her name is Deborah Bress.
In short, Deborah Bress was like a bulldog — vicious, unrelenting and impossible to contend with. Her appetite for conflict was insatiable. She was terrifying enough to strike fear in the heart of the most steely politician. No one was safe from her vitriol.
Toward the end of 2022, she phoned in to tell Mayor Lisa Gillmor she should be “ashamed of herself,” calling her a “hypocrite,” more crooked than “a barrel full of fishhooks,” asking her who she “paid off” to get the grand jury report published and calling political ally Council Member Kathy Watanabe her “handmaiden.”
Bress dropped these bombshells during public comments — in less than two minutes.
Every time she spoke, listeners got the impression nothing had ever pissed off someone so badly in the history of government affairs. She was unwavering. She knew what she believed, and she was unafraid to give an earful to anyone who would listen.
And it wasn’t just her penchant for colorful, no-nonsense language that set her apart. She would regularly do the hard work of looking over lengthy government reports. She would point out flawed logic, errors in judgment and minutiae most people would miss. Then she would slash through it all with her biting wit and Herculean verbal IQ, decoding the bureaucratese and explaining it in a way that made you care.
When she lived in Santa Clara, she terrorized the city council. She had something to say about everything. If you could please Debroah Bress, you knew you did something right, because you knew — in your bones, in your marrow — that she would tell you in no uncertain terms if you screwed up.
It didn’t matter if anyone was in her corner. She carried herself as if she knew she spoke for a silent majority. And, even if she didn’t, that was just because they didn’t know she was right. She would make them see. Her opinion was enough for her. She didn’t need it validated by anyone, let alone those who worked for her.
With every razor-sharp word she hurled at targets like a harpoon, her conviction seeped from her mouth, weaving a rich tapestry that made listeners realize that having principles is more important than being liked. I could see her holding her own in an argument with an entire room of her detractors. If you had Deborah Bress in one corner and an army of bureaucrats and politicians in the other, my money is on Bress.
Nothing against the current rogue’s gallery of Santa Clara gadflies, but the city needs more of her firebrand spirit. Call her a contrarian. Call her an iconoclast. Call her a pest, but the vacuum left by her absence is vast.
Come back Deborah Bress. Santa Clara needs you.
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This reads like an obituary. Did Ms Bress recently pass?
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I live in the same neighborhood that Ms Bress lived in before she moved away. Yes, she was quite the firebrand. Worked with her on advocating successfully on neighborhood issues. I still remember the time she told me about her time at Apple and working on the original Macintosh after a community meeting. Unfortunately her public persona carried over into her interaction with neighbors that were on the same side of an issue, and became toxic. She would have been more effective at creating the change she wanted to see, had she found a way to work with neighbors.