By Robert Haugh
On Tuesday night, the Santa Clara City Council took action on two items related to the FIFA World Cup Bid for 2026.
First, they rejected former City Attorney Brian Doyle’s request to agendize a discussion of the legality of the bid.
Doyle contends that 49er exec Al Guido is misrepresenting his authority to FIFA to obligate Levi’s Stadium for games.
Doyle also said in a written statement that Guido has a financial conflict of interest that he has told the public of FIFA about.
But the 49er Five quickly dismissed Doyle’s request and he lost 5-2.
Councilmembers Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy, Suds Jain, and Kevin Park voted to reject Doyle.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe voted to give Doyle a chance to appear on a future agenda.
The second FIFA item was to “Consider a Resolution to Support the Bid to FIFA for the 2026 World Cup and Related Events.” It was proposed by Hardy.
But when Gillmor asked some basic questions about the bid, Hardy couldn’t answer them.
Gillmor wanted to know if FIFA was asking for any fee waivers or if Santa Clara taxpayers would have to assume any liability.
During the meeting, Mission City residents were texting comments like “Hardy has a deer in the headlights look” and “she looks like the kid in class who forgot to do her homework.”
During the Council meeting, Hardy did admit she heard Al Guido’s presentation to FIFA. But maybe Hardy wasn’t paying attention because she didn’t think any of the material would be on a midterm or final exam.
You can watch Hardy’s performance on YouTube starting at this point.
This is a developing story.
Editor’s Note: Doyle wrote a lengthy comment about his concerns about Guido and the FIFA bid on our site on October 29.
[…] out Guido’s conflict of interest in an SCNO opinion piece on October 29, 2021. The 49er Five rejected Doyle’s request to agendize the issue for City Council discussion on November 16, 2021. This article was updated on […]
[…] abusive on two separate occasions during the November 16, 2021 meeting. Both times were related to FIFA items, said […]
Another huge and illegal action in closed session by the 49er 5. I’ve heard through a good source this lawsuit against the city is for $100 million dollars. This lawsuit was filed in just the last few days.
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/housing-developer-files-lawsuit-against-santa-clara-for-allegedly-rejecting-project/
Did Karen forget she defunded police?
Did Karen forget she was voting to defund fire?
Did Karen forget she FIRED the city attorney?
Did Karen forget she said in 2018 that she would not change the curfew?
Did Karen forget who she is supposed to be listening to?
YES! Karen has forgotten a lot at the expense of the City she was elected to represent.
Just say NO to Karen in 2022!
Are you sure Karen was awake and not just talking in her sleep? Is that why Raj was talking for her?
I feel for her. That’s what I looked like when I didn’t do my homework.
Of course the 49er 5 didn’t approve Doyle’s petition! They fired the dude because the 49ers wanted him gone! Doyle will be a reminder of their egregious actions to ruin Santa Clara.
Thank you Robert for linking to the relevant portion of the meeting!
Basically she is saying she didn’t think it was important to know what she was gong to support. She was told to support it, that was all she needed to know, right?