Op-Ed: Dear Mayor and Council

Last night, I spoke at the Santa Clara City Council meeting. I was not able to give my full speech. I had to cut out the first story because of the time constraints, but this is what I prepared:

My name is Vickie Fairchild. I am the President of the Board for Santa Clara Unified School District. I share this for context. I am speaking for myself. I have permission from my daughter to share this first story.

In February of this year, I received a text from the Mayor asking to talk about the swimming situation in Santa Clara. I replied that I would be willing but could not talk about the Santa Clara Swim Club because it had already been a closed-session item at a school board meeting. We set up a time. As happens when parenting teenagers, my schedule had changed slightly by the time the talk was to occur, so when the Mayor called, I was not alone. I was with my daughter. I reiterated that I could not talk about the swim club when I answered the phone. Before I could also say that I was not alone, I was cut off and subjected to a verbal tirade where I was insulted and belittled. My daughter’s eyes got bigger and bigger as she listened to the disparagement and barbs.

After the phone call ended, my daughter sat in shock. She heard every word the Mayor said. The next week, she described my job to her friend, “She listens to people yell on the phone.”

Fast forward to July. Albert Gonzalez, a revered and respected school board trustee, put his hat in the ring to run for city council. Wow. I was so excited about possibly having someone with his experience and temperament on our council. What a massive asset to Santa Clara! However, during the candidate filing time in July, the Mayor’s blogger was sent a tip (he always seems to get these anonymous tips) and wrote a hit piece against Albert Gonzalez.*

Albert!?! The current President of the California School Boards Association!?!

And the attacks have not stopped.

Talk about ethics? Really? This blog article was published before the candidate filing deadline and before any money was spent by the various PACs. It became crystal clear to me that the only way to be sainted as a candidate is to be chosen by the Mayor.

Anyone else is the enemy.

These are my questions for the Mayor: Have you considered that the way you are doing politics is not working? That it’s harming the city’s reputation? Driving away good candidates? Have you noticed how few endorsements your candidates get from people outside the city? If you get a majority in two weeks, what will you do? Try to fight the CVRA again? When is the fight with the 49ers going to be over? Is it ever going to be over? What needs to happen for you to finally win and focus on Santa Clara?

Mayor, you brought the 49ers to Santa Clara. You were part of the council that negotiated the agreement in which we were “outplayed,” at least according to the grand jury report. That is NOT the 49ers’ fault. That’s the fault of the Santa Clara City Council attorneys, and city manager who negotiated that agreement. The problems we have in Santa Clara with infrastructure and budget are NOT the fault of the 49ers. These problems result from years and years of poor management of resources and facilities.

Could you please focus on that? Please. Maybe start with a few positive posts and videos about Measure I. Show that you really care about Santa Clara.

*Side note – Anne Kepner (college board trustee and school volunteer extraordinaire), who lives in the same district as another of the Mayor’s preferred candidates, was also attacked in the same July article that attacked Albert. It seemed to be a warning not to run.