By Burt Field
I hate to admit it but Jed York was a big winner on Election Day.
He won three seats on our City Council. Jed was able to spend big to help three people who had never won a Santa Clara election before.
Kevin Park lost two previous council elections. Anthony Becker lost a previous council election and mayoral election. Suds Jain lost one previous council race. None of these candidates was even close to victory. Then, Jed opened his wallet.
(Editor’s Note: Becker has a 310 vote lead in his race, but Rob Mezzetti is still within striking distance depending on the number of votes left.)
Sure it took $3 million to do it. But as I wrote before the elections, that’s cheap for what Jed wants.
I guess I can’t blame him. He’s a businessman, afterall. Like all businessmen, he’ll expect a return on his investment. So what does Jed want?
We can expect a change in our curfew law. The candidates Jed supported were openly talking about that during the election. It’s a change that will put more money in Jed’s pocket. But it won’t necessarily help the City. Why? Because the team won’t share information about revenue with the City.
Thanks to good reporting by this site, we’ve learned that the 49ers have returned almost no revenue to the City from non-NFL events for the last two fiscal years. And that was before COVID-19 shut everything down.
Also thanks to this site, we’ve learned that there was a lot of revenue that came through the gates. Where did it all go? Santa Clara taxpayers won’t know unless we win a lawsuit forcing the team to give up the information that should rightfully be shared.
It’s unfortunate that the City may have to win a court case to get information or revenue that’s owed to the public. But maybe it’s a good thing because with “Jed’s Team” on the Council we may not be able to prevail any other way.
It’s important for all Santa Clarans to remain vigilant in the coming years. Stand Up for Santa Clara pledges to do so.
We were successful in stopping Jed from taking our Youth Soccer Park in 2014. Now, we have to defend the rest of the City.
We’ll be more active and more vocal and let Santa Clarans regularly know what Jed wants.
Burt Field is the President of Stand Up for Santa Clara. It started in March 2015, when the San Francisco 49ers and the majority of the Santa Clara City Council took action to sell the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park to the NFL Team. It’s a grassroots organization of volunteers.
Thankfully the right person won the district 1. Sadly Suds, Park, and Becker don’t seem to give a shit about district 1 and its residents. They spent more time bashing Watanabe than anything and they have a know it all attitude. Hopefully they do listen to Watanabe because she seems to be the only one doing the job at hand. I will definitely be at every council meeting to help and protect my community. Suds, Park, and Becker don’t live here they shouldn’t be making decisions about the district 1’s curfew.
Heck if they want to change the curfew change it for the whole city! OMG, what would the Old Quad elite say, Sudsy? Hee hee!
Are you kidding?! The Old Quad elite throws a fit if their neighbor rents a room to a SCU college student. And don’t even mention red cup brigade to any of them!
See how the shoe fits on the other foot when it’s in a different district.
Then there’s the picture of Anthony Becker partying it up on the roof of one of the single family homes converted to dorm with all the drunk college kids. It was only 2 years ago when he was campaigning for Mayor but I guess most people forgot about that… But hey, at least he’s consistent!
This is the downside of district voting, I believe – candidates who may cater to their pay-to-play sponsors, to their district voters and and district issues only, without thought for the good of every single district and resident in the entire city. Candidates, Becker, Jain and Park – please allay my fears and prove my apprehensions about this wrong. Represent ALL of us in Santa Clara – even those in the districts who are not your direct constituents.
I think Suds and Becker had a great chance to win without Jed’s help. So he basically spent $3M to flip O’Neill’s seat to Park. I don’t think that was money well spent. O’Neill was a great council member. Thanks to her for all her years of service.
Hopefully, since the stadium is physically in District 1, where incumbent Council Member Kathy Wantanabe won, other Council Members will listen closely to what she has to say about stadium and noise issues. Also note that, a standard political method for handling potential conflicts between political areas, such as between districts, involves trading votes, for example, Wantanabe might trade continued curfews for Park’s desire to protect residential neighborhoods. Get ready for more dickering among council members.
Thanks Burt, Very well said. I appreciate your understanding an activism.
Dana, Sadly some of the candidates supported by the niners will embrace the stink for their own gain.
Burt, I agree with you that we must remain vigilant in order to get the City back on track. As I stated before we must use Levi’s stadium to our advantage. I propose an independent commission be formed of SantaClara Citizens in order to game plan a way for the Stadium to be financially successful. The City of Santa Clara makes money on non NFL games. Once Covid 19 is controlled, there is going to be a lot of musical acts that are going to go on tour. We should welcome them to Levi’s and we should work on an as needed basis to extend the curfew. That should not mean that a concert is held every night at the stadium but as I told you if the Eagles want to use Levi’s for three nights and the city is going to receive 3 to 5 million we need to do that. I urge the 49ers to hit the re-set button on their dealing with the City. If Jed York is listenIng winners don’t gloat they listen to the voices of those who didn’t vote for them in order to affect positive change.
Thank You
George Guerra
50 year Resident of Santa Clara
Hi George,
You can’t deal with a group that will not provide the information nessacery to make financial sense of anything. I believe we.need to continue on with getting a new management company in place. I e that will look out for the City’s best interests. Then maybe we can hit the re-set button once we have all the data needed to make informed decisions.
Frank Giacomelli
53 year resident of Santa Clara
Even though these candidates all claim that they did not want Jeds support and are not beholden to the 49ers, they now have the stink of Jeds money and are under a microscope to see how they will act in the council roles towards the 49ers. Time will tell