Council Meeting Preview

By Robert Haugh

With extremely long evening meetings and a number of contentious issues – with more coming soon, the City Council/Stadium Authority decided to have a special meeting on April 11 to address a few issues.

Levi’s Stadium Contract Issues

A contract for security staffing will be reviewed. This was pushed back from last week’s marathon meeting, because the council was split on the issue of “labor peace,” and wanted more information from the City Attorney and City staff.  Local labor unions want Landmark Security to agree to allow workers to organize. This is shaping up to be a main event attraction between labor and the 49ers with Vice Mayor Dominic Caserta appearing to be the swing vote. We may need a steel cage to contain this one.

Another stadium matter will be approving up to $80,000 for an annual audit of Stadium Authority finances. Let’s hope this will yield more information with or without the 49ers cooperation. We wonder how much the city can really learn if the team won’t turn over documents.

A nine-member Charter Review Committee will be initiated. The committee will feature seven members appointed directly by the Mayor and Council, and two at-large members voted on the by the Council.

The selections of the Mayor and Council members are:

• Mayor Lisa Gillmor – Parks & Rec Commissioner Tino Silva;
• Vice Mayor Caserta – Santa Clara Chamber  CEO Chris Horton;
• Council member Debi Davis – Beverly Silva;
• Council member Pat Kolstad – retired Santa Clara Police Chief Steve Lodge;
• Council member Patty Mahan – Markus Bracamonte;
• Council member Teresa O’Neill – former Planning Commissioner Keith Stattenfield;
• Council member Kathy Watanabe – Hazel Alabado.

Seven candidates for the two at-large positions are: Robin Burdick, Saskia Feain, Hosam Hoggag, Mary Elizabeth Hanna-Weir, Rex McIntosh, Jodi Muirhead and Teresa Sulcer.

The Charter Review Committee provides a platform for public participation and engagement in reviewing and making advisory recommendations to the Council in potential changes to the City Charter. Among the notable items to be reviewed include current election manners and the possibility of moving toward district based elections, especially with the threat of legal action.

Other Items of Interest Not on the Council Agenda

Development Project Comes Back to Life

Prometheus Real Estate Group formally withdrew their previous application to construct a 158-unit, five-story, multi-family residential apartment development at the former Moonlite Lanes site.  A new proposal to construct 58 for-sale town homes is being prepared and the developer is hosting a community meeting on April 19 from 6 to 8 p.m.

VTA and Affordable Housing

We reported last week on how VTA staff recommended building the lowest amount of affordable units at the Tamien Station to get a higher fee for itself.

We’re happy to report that the VTA  board increased the affordable housing percentage after our report. But it’s interesting that the VTA still wants a high fee for its property. This suggests to us that VTA is having money problems despite that fact that they just passed a multi-billion dollar sales tax.  We’ll be reporting more about this in the future no doubt.