When under attack…deflect and blame.
Blame the 49ers, blame past City managers, blame opposing Council Members, blame the Mercury News, the Santa Clara Weekly, KPIX or blame outspoken citizens who have a brain.
Folks, whatever you think of the 49ers, they are not the cause of the outrageous actions by the Mayor and her Council majority.
The unmasking of the now known activities of the Mayor is only the tip of what we know, leaving unanswered what we don’t yet know.
Getting public records from the City has become more difficult since the Weekly unveiled the Mayor’s private use of a PR firm, months prior to an approved contract.
In her attempted self-defense at Tuesday night’s Council meeting, the Mayor used the same rhetoric that worked so well during the election.
She tried desperately to deflect her own actions and tie her Council opponents to those desperado villains of Santa Clara, the San Francisco 49ers.
Excuse us, but isn’t this old argument getting a bit tired?
Council Member and former Mayor Pat Mahan corrected Mayor Gillmor stating that in 2006 two 49er employees gave her a total of $1,000 for her election.
Vice Mayor Dominic Caserta added his own correction to the Mayor’s assertion noting that the 49er owners and employees contributed a total of $1,000 to his election.
The only real issue we can think of the past few years is the 49ers have pumped $7.4 million into our general fund. Oh, that’s right. They went one hour past curfew two weeknights to help do that. Shame!
The Mayor went on, once again stating the 49ers haven’t been honest in providing all the financial documents she and her Council have requested.
This was another failed deflection; forgetting to mention the eight-month $180,000 taxpayer-funded audit that couldn’t lend substance to her allegations. She also knew these documents have been sitting in possession of the City for weeks.
Each of the Mayor’s fervent Council supporters also attempted to provide the Mayor a defense. Council Member Debi Davis, Chair of the Ethics Committee, basically suggested they just sweep everything under the carpet and move on. What a noble idea, especially from the Ethics Chair.
If this had been Mahan, Caserta or Kolstad they would be under investigation by the District Attorney.
Council Member Davis has been a perpetrator of Councilmanic Interference from the day she took office. She has spent a lot of time talking to and directing City staff actions as though it were her job.
Of course, she would want all allegations of wrong doing whisked away and ignored.
The nasty emails between Davis and O’Neill, which the Weekly printed last week, really describe the lack of character which Santa Clara does not expect from their elected leaders.
Davis and O’Neill should Step Down For Santa Clara and resign from City Council.
O’Neill stated “Just because its in the newspaper doesn’t mean it’s correct.” Really? It was your email Ms. O’Neill.
Deflect and blame is not an acceptable option.
Send your thoughts by email as a Letter to the Editor: SCWeekly@ix.netcom.com