Miles H Barber, Publisher

Milestones – Bitter Rarely Makes Better – Opinion

If there’s one thing that Santa Clara’s mayor seems to lead in, it’s holding a grudge. Lisa Gillmor once again showed a leopard can’t change its spots when she found fault with anything and everything in the most recent FIFA World Cup contracts guaranteeing that Santa Clara’s costs would be covered.

Gillmor is welcome to be upset with FIFA and the 49ers; that’s her prerogative. But we draw the line at her insulting the legal minds of our great city and demanding that Santa Clara consult outside counsel because she believed the city had negotiated a bad deal.

Never mind that the city’s outside legal counsel was dialed into last week’s meeting. Never mind that City Attorney Glen Googins leads a team of outstanding lawyers. Never mind that collectively, they have decades of legal experience and are paid to use that experience to protect one client – Santa Clara.

SPONSORED

No. Lisa would rather listen to her loyal legal lemming Brian Doyle. The man Googins ultimately replaced.

Lest we forget that Doyle recently lost a court battle with Santa Clara’s esteemed lawyers when he sued for “wrongful termination.”

We believe the words “unsupported and preposterous” were used in court documents by Santa Clara’s lawyers. They also said, “This case has never made any sense” and called it “absurd.” The judge agreed and tossed Doyle’s case out like last year’s Christmas tree.

Does that sound like a lawyer that the city should be listening to?

Doyle, unaware of his own Keystone Cops bumbling performance as city attorney, spoke twice at city council last week, trying to cast doubt on the city’s lawyers and the outside counsel that advised the city.

It appears that on this legal advice, Lisa would have you believe we need to open up the city coffers to get the answer she’s looking for. Lawyers for lawyers’ sake no matter the cost, all so Lisa can feel like she’s right.

Lisa hasn’t met a Santa Clara dollar she wouldn’t like to spend.

Congrats to the city council majority for standing up to Lisa and for the rights of Santa Clarans.

View Comments (2)

CSC says:

February 21, 2025 at 10:55 AM

Unfortunately, as expected, Kelly Cox also showed her lack of preparedness and possibly lack of ability to commit to Council responsibilities. "I feel ill-prepared to discuss this with just three days of being new...my resistance is just going to be the fact that I don't have full knowledge of this [contracts] and wasn't been able to see it. That was sent to me and so I'll be able to look at it if I choose to." https://youtu.be/Y-h_2unXbNg?t=14487
.
Residents should note District 1 Councilmember Gonzalez was sworn in and started the same day Cox did and had no trouble reviewing and responding.
.
Gillmor was also long-winded in her objections. The purpose of redactions in the documents waived by Gillmor is so that private information in contract negotiations is not available to competing entities ahead of contract solidification. Once all Councilmembers sign the NDA, which Cox had yet to do, specific commercial information will be revealed. There was no substance to Gillmor's protest, just more ignorance from her.
.
A big thanks to Brandy Chastain, former women's professional soccer player, Olympian, and co-owner of Bay FC for speaking in support of the FIFA event and also former Councilmember Kevin Moore and Marley Wilson, executive director of California Youth Soccer for also putting their support behind FIFA 20206 in Santa Clara.
Takes 2 to tango says:

February 26, 2025 at 10:32 AM

I agree Lisa Gillmor is not acting like the Mayor we need and is a huge part of the nastiness and disfunction in the council, but YOU CANNOT LEAVE OUT KEVIN PARK...He does the same crap as Gillmor but he does it more often, just about every time he is given the floor/mic.
Honestly, if we got rid of Park and Gillmor I think we would finally have a productive city council.

Milestones – Bitter Rarely Makes Better – Opinion

View Comments (2)

Address

Contact