By Robert Haugh

It was an eventful meeting last Tuesday. This is part two of our coverage.

The 49ers made a pitch to the Santa Clara Stadium Authority (SCSA) to give the team an additional $1.3 million each and every year. It’s to hire new people to do the work that was terminated by the City. Yup you read that right.

In 2020, The City Council voted unanimously to terminate the non-NFL event management of the stadium because of the discovery of wage theft and conflict of interest issues. 

The team has not given the SCSA or City revenue in years. And the  49ers won’t commit that these new positions will help increase revenue. 

So obviously City staff recommended no. And they said to give the team what they wanted would be fiscally irresponsible.

So what did the SCSA authority do? They said yes, 4-2. 

The 49er-friendly majority voted yes: Councilmen Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Suds Jain, and Kevin Park. Councilwomen Karen Hardy who has been team friendly in past votes was absent.

Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe voted no.

Interestingly, the SCSA staff tried to protect the City because they knew the 49er-friendly majority would likely give the team what they wanted. 

Here’s a video clip of City Manager Deanna Santana asking Becker to amend his motion to include safeguards for the city. Becker gives a non answer.

So Gillmor asked Becker directly: “Are you interested in protecting the Stadium Authority and including those or not?”

Becker said, “No.”

Wow. That exchange revealed a lot and tells us a lot about Becker.

Park Offends Again

We wrote about Councilman’s Park’s apology on Wednesday. We didn’t think we’d be writing again so soon about the topic. 

But about two hours after Park apologized, he insulted his colleagues and City staff again. No kidding.

Here’s what Park said during the debate about the $1.3 million expenditure:

“The two council members who are lying with support from City staff seem to enjoy a false narrative that the other five council members are colluding with the 49ers against the city and this is not true.”

Park drew an immediate response from Watanabe:

“I can hear how Councilmember, Boardmember Park learned from his apology earlier this evening where he feels like he can just come out and start calling people liars and have no qualms about it. Councilmember Park, yes I am offended. … You don’t listen to your words. Let’s put it that way. You do not take your words seriously.“

Santana also smacked down Park:

“Councilmember Park, you’ve made a horrible accusation that’s based on no facts or only your wrong opinion — and after you’ve mentioned not making any accusations.

It is factually incorrect, professional insulting for you to stand here and say that I am colluding with her or Councilmember Watanabe. That is not true. That is a significant accusation that you have made after you said not to make accusations. I take particular interest on that because I adhere to my professional duties to the public agencies that I support.”

Park did not respond. 

This is probably not the last time we’ll be writing something about what Park says to offend people.