To Whom It May Concern:
I watched the City Council meeting tonight (1/12) and saw that JLL/Dan Fenton was being discussed. The council members who spoke on this issue are right to not renew his contract.
He gave false numbers and promises in San Jose, and he’s doing in again in Santa Clara. Mayor Gillmor’s comment was that he did that in San Jose, but “this is Santa Clara.” Does that mean you just ignore his previous record of mismanagement.
Furthermore, shouldn’t the city’s new destination marketing organization (DMO) be responsible for “tourism promotion” – not a City hired consultant. It’s more than wasteful spending to keep giving this consultant hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be used to market and promote the city after Covid-19.
In fact, the only one in the hospitality community whose made money since 2018 (over $500k) is JLL and Mr. Fenton. In my opinion, council members Becker, Chahal, and Park are doing the right thing – they were right on point last night.
Thank you,
Mark W.
