By Robert Haugh
We tuned into the Council meeting to listen to how many times the 49ers have sued the City. (The answer is five).
Then, we almost dropped our soda. The meeting started with City Attorney Brian Doyle announcing that the City had voted in closed session to sue the 49ers for the first time. Wow.
The vote was to initiate a lawsuit to take away the management of non-NFL events like Wrestlemania and concerts. The vote was 6-0 with Vice Mayor Patty Mahan absent. Mahan is the 49ers’ closest ally.
The City went through a lengthy presentation. Doyle had some harsh words about the 49ers. He said, “the 49ers’ performance as the management of Levi’s Stadium has fallen off a cliff, resulting in a wipe-out of $2.5 million of anticipated performance rent to be paid to the City.”
We learned that last fiscal year, the City got $18,000 from the non-NFL events. Wow. The 49ers say that this year will be zero. Double wow.
Doyle said a lot of interesting things. His first presentation is worth watching. It’s 7-8 minutes long.
This may have been the most interesting thing that Doyle said:
No doubt that after the Stadium Board’s actions tonight, the 49ers will attack me personally and continue their personal attacks on the City Manager and on the Mayor and Council. Please remember that these attacks are simply a deflection of their own failures and betrayal of the promises that the 49ers made to you the voters in getting you to approve Measure J. No matter what may come from these out of town billionaires who apparently don’t give a darn about the community that gave them their home field, I will not stand down as your City Attorney. I will stand for you as long as it takes to get this straight. You work too hard to keep Santa Clara the wonderful City it is, for me to do anything less.
Wage Theft
City Manager Deanna Santana went into great detail about how the 49ers are violating state prevailing wage laws. She said they were able to document $85,000 of potential wage theft in one contract. Santana could not estimate how big the problem was or how much in wages could have been stolen from workers.
Procurement Change
Because the 49ers have admitted to violating state wage laws, the Stadium Authority decided to take away the team’s ability to issue contracts for any amount. So all contracts must be reviewed and approved by the Stadium Authority board now.
Before, the 49ers could sign for contracts up to $250,000.
Councilman Raj Chahal tried to get the Board to agree to let the 49ers sign contracts for up to $50,000. He was really pushing it as you can see in this video. According to City Hall sources, this was the suggestion that 49ers exec Rahul Chandhok was pushing as a compromise.
But no one on the Board or the staff thought that Chahal’s suggestion was any good.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor shot down Chahal’s idea by saying: “We can’t in good faith to continue to give them money with no accountability, transparency, or compliance with our management agreement.”
Chahal did finally vote with the others to make it unanimous to eliminate the 49ers procurement authority.
Press Conference Today
The City sent out a press release last night that they will hold a press conference today with more information about the lawsuit.
This is clearly a developing story that we’ll cover.
It’s Aldyth Parle for you Santa Clara government followers out there.
ur annoying lol anonymous cowardly person love to hide behind fake names, get over yourself
u ever hear of spelling correction, where it auto corrects a persons name, it even happens to my last name from time to time.
Aldyth Parle there its correct
Definitely not Becker. I’m sure DuhBecker followed Ardith Paryle, NOT!
Thanks for helping him out Mahans.
Ardith Paryle, Judy Nadler, Jamie McCloud, Patty Mahan, even Lisa Gillmor from the 90’s I followed…. and yes I was a young boy aspiring to achieve what they all could. (i dare you to challenge me on city leaders over last 30 years). I even had Jim Ash as a substitute teacher from time to time which in part was responsible for me to be following Santa Clara politics since i was 6 years old…. also at the time, Lisa Gillmor was a young candidate and young elected councilmember (roughly my age now) which made me think its possible for young people to be involved. These were my local heroes and still are despite our differences and being at odds sometimes.
Also, I do not need the Mahan’s help with my writings, I can do it all on my own. I just love how often you are all so crazy over what I write and who you think writes it LOL. Here is the secret, its ALL ME !
And once again, anonymous named comment….cowardly to expose who they are.
Mayor Gillmor quote on the 49ers to Chahal, “We can’t in good faith to continue to give them money with no accountability, transparency or compliance with our management agreement”.
Hearing this quote from the Mayor is hypocritical because myself and others can no longer trust the city to make these tough decisions with so much taxpayer money on the line. These decisions made in the past are costing the city a lot today and one cannot stand by watch these things happen without accountability. Recently the Grand Jury scolded the city for its record keeping, so it’s really hard to believe the Mayor and Co. and take them seriously when the city can’t practice what they preach.
I saw this coming in 2010 after i voted yes for the stadium. I feared the majority of current leaders notably current council members that make appearances in the YES FOR J CAMPAIGN (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnNw2u4z8g) council members would switch sides.
Just 9 years ago I had all of them at my door telling me to support this stadium with no hidden costs and no backlash. How am i supposed to trust their poor judgment today when their actions 9 years ago put our taxpayers on the hook for millions and pitted in the middle of a political battle.
We needed a better deal when we built the stadium. But Lisa Gillmor leader of Santa Clarans for Economic Progress was adamant about it that this would be a success…. plus she was the driving force behind the citizens initiative that went to ballot. No wonder why councilmember Ardith Paryle withdrew her support….she smelled the rotten egg.
Gillmor was there, she knew the ballot language, and signed off with her stamp of approval. Can she admit she was wrong and that she regrets her mistakes to taxpayers? I have deep respect for her thats why i question the authority so often, I would have greater respect her more to answer for those mistakes. Why does herself, council (Davis, Watanabe) and city manager act surprised when things don’t go their way or they get pushback from the 49ers ? We will never know…. we will never know what happen between Gillmor and the Niners way back when.
FACTS !!! You can’t make this stuff up
http://49ers.savesantaclara.org/Santa_Clarans_for_Economic_Progress.php
http://49ers.savesantaclara.org/Lisa_Gillmor.php
So if we put new stadium management there is will be another issue with the Niners in this back and forth war. Current council demands reminds me of the children’s book, “If a mouse wants a cookie” its gonna want a glass of milk.
When will this end, its been a decade of chaos here in Santa Clara, 2009-2019 with the stadium being the thorn of every issue in the city. no wonder why there is a mass exodus of residents.
ABecker, just stop the “let’s expose the Mayor and her minions” tour! This is the 3rd time I’ve seen your rant. I hope the 49ers are paying you by the word. You are entitled to your rants but after awhile they get old which earns you the name GADFLY! Not sure you want to join the illustrious group of gadflys from Santa Clara. If you hope to run again and win and earn some credibility, just.drop.it….
I certainly hope our elected leaders will remember that they represent the people of SantaClara and not the 49ers. I am concerned by comments made by certain council members which seemed to protect the 49ers. The 49ers have clearly demonstrated they are out for themselves. My kids education is impacted now because of the tax appeal and the 49ers wanted tax monies back from KIDS! This all feeds into the promises that are constantly broken by the 49ers. They promised millions to the school district and now taking it away. Please keep fighting Mayor Gilmore. Please stand up for the little people – my kids.
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It’s about time. The niners and manco suck at this business and are costing the city a fortune in lost opportunity. The niners have created a caustic business relationship and should stick to the game.
Thanks for sticking up for us.
I have been pushing for the city to get rid of manco, the 49ers management company, for a long time. Not sure if these contracts are through manco or not, but it makes sense. Letting the 49ers continue to mismanage the stadium would be a mistake.