The weather in Santa Clara has a different outlook these days. The catastrophic cumulous clouds of doom and gloom hovering over the city have begun to shift. This is not by chance. It is due to the dedicated energy inspired by the winds of wisdom and hard work blowing away the clouds of despair.
Sensible, sincere and sane council members were elected to clear away the towering cumulous columns of corrupting cronyism and seriously begin their mission of restoring responsible governance.
The reign of Mayor Lisa Gillmor and her minions, which ruled Santa Clara for six years, exchanged opportunity for growth and prosperity for control and power. This direction has changed.
Gillmor’s “My way or the highway” philosophy has famously flopped.
However, the new era City Council has faced challenges cleaning up her carnage and is due a compliment for courage.
Patiently and thoughtfully, change began with the election of Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal in 2018. These two council members alone could not reverse the direction of Gillmor’s Council majority. However, they did slow the further incineration of policy, personnel and procedures.
It was in 2020 when Anthony Becker, Kevin Park and Suds Jain were elected, stunning
Mayor Gillmor and her handpicked candidates. They joined Hardy and Chahal forming a coalition and a new majority slowing, if not stopping, the Gillmor guillotine.
However, the damage that Gillmor had done was deeply detrimental to City operations. She had ousted two city managers, an expert and talented city attorney, a brilliant financial manager, a widely honored city clerk, and a host of employees who knew “The Santa Clara Way.”
Gillmor’s cherry-picked replacements were recruited from Grimm’s Fairy Tales of Failures. They proved to be overbearing, overpaid and over here in Santa Clara.
The courage of the current Council is a credit to the City and to the citizens who carefully and courageously cast out Gillmor’s Council in favor of consistency and continuity.
Your new Council has taken determined, decisive action, including pink slips for City Attorney Brian Doyle and City Manager Deanna Santana, which opens the door for restoration, renewal and budget recovery.
These two Gillmor appointees alone cost Santa Clara taxpayers over SEVEN million dollars in just the last two years. Their bad decisions and inflated compensations were an embarrassment to Santa Clara, falling fatefully at the feet of Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
There is nothing that changes the climate of costs, carelessness, and corruption better than an informed constituency and a concerned conscientious Council making collective, common-sense choices.
Thank you to the Santa Clara Council!
There is no question.
Santa Clara’s cloudy climate is clearing.
View Comments (4)
While I agree that there was corruption with Gilmore, I would not celebrate the 49ers hand picked council members (who live no where near the stadium)... Traffic is bad, and given the chance, 49ers will make it even worse...
Hi. Sorry to disagree with you. But none of our current council members were “hand picked” by the 49ers. Each one of them made their own minds and independent decision to run for office long before the 49ers ever got involved. These are just more phony stories and fake news spread by Gilmore’s puppets. In fact, it might be of interest to inform you that one or more of their losing opponents were specifically “hand picked” and recruited personally by Lisa Gilmore. By the way, I also have friends and relatives who live near the stadium, and they all inform me that the overhead planes make 10 times the noise they ever hear from Levi.
As for your traffic concerns: Please note that the parking lot at Great America is many, many times larger than the parking lot at Levi. Also, the amusement park operates at 20 times the number of dates as does the 49ers. From my experience, leaving Levi after a game is much quicker, less traffic, less hassle than leaving Great America at closing time.
I can see Levi's Stadium from my residence. As long as non-NFL event make money for the city, let them have their event. Great America makes more noise and it's further away.