The January Santa Clara City Council calendars have been posted, again later than the required date of the 10th of each month. The most notable thing coming from the reported meetings is that the calendars have not yet been corrected—per the City’s ordinance—to reflect previous meetings with lobbyists, developers and community members.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor started the year with attendance at the court trial between Santa Clara and the City of San Jose on Jan. 3. Five days later, she provided the welcome speech at an event for the A Slice of New York pizzeria, owned by San Jose resident and friend, Kirk Vartan, before he converted the business into a worker co-op, and two days later met with Gary Filizetti of Devcon Construction to discuss “issues with projects in Santa Clara.” Her calendar remained full with public events and appearances, but at the end of the month she had a meeting with San Jose Council Member and current candidate for Santa Clara County Supervisor Donald Rocha about “current Santa Clara activities and issues.” That same day, Jan. 31, she was the speaker at the Catalyze SV launch event – Vartan’s latest project.
Vice Mayor Kathy Watanabe had a meeting with lobbyist and former Santa Clara Council Member Kevin Moore and Amy Tian of Genzon Investment Group and Hanns Lee of the Irvine Company on the Democracy Way project. Watanabe also met with Rocha regarding his Supervisor campaign and ended the month at the Catalyze SV launch party.
Council Member Teresa O’Neill also attended the Catalyze SV launch and sat in on the meeting Watanabe had with Moore, Genzon and Irvine. O’Neill’s calendar was mostly filled with public meetings and appearances, but she found time to attend the closing statements for the Santa Clara v. San Jose public court trial on Jan. 26 and met with local blogger Robert Haugh on the same date regarding “community affairs.” Finally, two days prior to the Catalyze SV party, she had a meeting with Assemblymember Kansen Chu regarding district issues.
Council Member Pat Kolstad’s calendar mostly listed public meetings and events, but he found time to meet with Related’s lobbyist Jude Barry regarding City Place on Jan. 25 and had a phone call with Dean Stanford, Park advocate and Fremont resident, regarding “Park proposal for Santa Clara/San Jose treatment plant,” a waste water treatment plan project.
The only non-public meetings or events listed on Council Member Debi Davis’ calendar are a Jan. 18 meeting with Katia Kamangar of SummerHilll Homes and its lobbyist Cynthia James and a Jan. 31 interview regarding Silicon Valley Power strategic planning efforts with Laura Vogel and Charles Tooman of Navigant.
Council Member Dominic Caserta’s January calendar was light, with the Council Member reporting a phone call with Steve Eimer of Related about the City Place project on Jan. 3, a phone call with resident Chad Viso regarding parking issues and two phone calls about the union worker policy at the Santa Clara Convention Center—one with Tino Copledo of Teamsters Local 287 on Jan. 12, which was immediately followed by the second call with Lisa Moreno of the convention center.
Council Member Patricia Mahan only recorded a handful of public meetings and events in January.
View Council calendars at http://santaclaraca.gov/government/public-calendars-of-certain-city-officials.