It’s not even election time and the arrows of accusation are flying with fury, ragging on the Santa Clara Council. Well, most of the Council.
This “Not So Grand Jury” has been called on again to produce a pro-Gillmor, anti-Council epistle.
This callous core of caustic community comrades is castigating the Santa Clara Council for collaboration, collusion and inconsideration. This includes all of the Council with, of course, the exception of Mayor Lisa Gillmor and her sole supporter Kathy Watanabe, who, according to the report, appear to walk on water.
If you have attended a council meeting or watched on the web and then … read the Grand Jury report, you would not believe they were describing Santa Clara. From their description of the Council majority action and interaction, you would think they recorded their “facts” right out of a list of Grimm’s fairytale villains.
Frankly, you have to do a reality check. Mayor Gillmor is losing her iron-handed grip. In an attempt to regain the leash, she blows the dog whistle for her political friends on the Grand Jury.
But wait! There is a problem. The analysis of what is happening at Santa Clara Council and what the Grand Jury reports is happening don’t match up.
This, folks, is a conundrum. Translated into English that simply means the facts don’t support the Grand Jury report. Which, in turn, makes you want to look a bit deeper.
Fact One: This current Council majority has done more for Santa Clara since the days of Mayor Patty Mahan.
Fact Two: The new City Manager and City Attorney, in cooperation with the Council majority, resolved the 49ers litigation that Gillmor has been using as her election whip for years.
Fact Three: When Gillmor became mayor, she inherited a multi-million-dollar surplus. The years under her leadership saw much of the surplus spent and annual multi-million-dollar deficits.
And just for clarification, some members of the Grand Jury are friends and/or supporters of Gillmor.
So, this “report” is about as factual as Russian disinformation.
Any questions? If so, just watch a Council meeting.
View Comments (7)
Miles, I know this is an "Opinion Piece" and you can write whatever you want and hide behind any free speech or press pass. But this is pretty low, even for you:
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"...she blows the dog whistle for her political friends on the Grand Jury. "
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You sound like the only people that are fair or true are the ones that agree with you and your band of thugs. It is disgraceful that you attack the Grand Jury..twice! Yeah, I guess they are wrong again. They always get it wrong, right Miles? What makes you think Lisa has the kind of influence you are puking all over your web site? Do you have any evidence? The examples you gave are incomplete and factually empty. And it has nothing to do with the Grand Jury. Show some respect.
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Where is your journalistic integrity? Where is your honor? Did the 49ers keep it? How embarrassing you are to the city. You are a Santa Clara paper, and you are an embarrassment.
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What a shame. You are a disgrace to journalists.
You appear to be very angry and upset by this article. Did you personally participate in providing information or writing any portion of the three Civil Grand Reports?
I would like to include my thoughts and opinions on our Civil Grand Jury. Granted I have no facts, no contacts and no insider information. So, my thoughts are really mostly just fiction and just rambling opinions and may be totally incorrect and wrong. So, please forgive my ignorance and my apologies for all errors and mistakes.
I believe the 49ers does not deal directly with our city government but rather through a second agency call the Stadium Authority which is under the control of our City. Our City Manager is the head of this agency.
Sometime back, I recall the 49ers stated that our City had already received several million dollars from the non-NFL events. But then surprisingly, Lisa Gillmor mentions that during the past few years, our City never received any non-NFL funds from the 49ers. HUH? Also, the Mercury News mentions the multiple lawsuits our City has filed against the 49ers. Yet surprisingly again, Lisa Gillmor states very clearly that our City has never filed any lawsuits on the 49ers. HUH?
Ok, to continue on with my thoughts, I believe what may have happened is that the Stadium Authority did receive funds from the 49ers but instead held it back internally in their offices rather than transferring the funds to our City. Also, the Stadium Authority later used these very same funds to filing the lawsuits against the 49ers without any consultation with our Council. It appears for whatever reason; Lisa Gillmor does not consider the Stadium Authority as being a “part” (?) of our City.
This was all going well, until the Six District Election occurred. Five brand new Council Members were elected. They wanted to obtain more information concerning the lawsuits from Santana (as City Manager, she was in-charge of the Stadium Authority) and Doyle, but were “blind-sided” and “stone-walled”. Individually, they decide to make contact directly with the 49ers. Shortly thereafter, they decided to “fire” both Santana and Doyle and settle the lawsuits. Ok, we now have a new City Manager, and he has transferred the Stadium Authority funds back to our City. Great, this is good news.
However, this apparently upset Lisa Gillmor a very great deal. But why? She then enlisted her cohorts in the Civil Grand Jury to file a very negative report on our five brand new Council Members. Afterwards, two more similar reports were filed.
Buchser 3,
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Your comment does not read like it was written by the other person who has been commenting as "Buchser 3."
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But irregardless of that you are right in your disclaimer that what you right may be incorrect or wrong. You do not need inside information but need to learn more about all this by reading more about it.
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The Stadium Authority is the City Council. All councilpeople are board members and the mayor is the chair. The city manager is the executive director and the city attorney is the stadium authority counsel.
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There is much more that you have incorrect information about and I suggest reading more on this topic if you want to understand it.
Well, I like to using the name "Buchser 3". I suppose I could call myself, "Buchser 3 too". Would that make you any happier?
I found an interesting past comment from (W.S.) which clarifies my misunderstanding:
In a City Council priority setting session held much earlier, Mayor Gillmor pressured a city employee about the proceeds from non-NFL events at Levi Stadium that go into the General Fund. She wanted to get the answer on the record that the proceeds were $0. Just prior to her pressing this issue, the employee stated that there has been about $14 million from stadium events put into the Legal Fund to pay for lawsuits the city has initiated against the 49ers. So, it is apparently OK to pursue lawsuits against the 49er’s but not take care of actual projects that affect the citizens of Santa Clara? With the $14million, they could have easily upgraded/repaired/rebuilt any number of city projects instead of wasting money just for Mayor Gillmor to “prove” how bad the 49er organization is. So, apparently there is a policy in place that the Legal Fund gets paid BEFORE the General Fund. Wow! That seems really smart – Right? The mayor needs to stop grandstanding and start spending ALL funds from stadium events on city projects.
Now, this is an ideal topic worthy for our Civil Grand Jury should investigate on. However, don't hold your breath.