By Robert Haugh
Santa Clara City Councilwoman Karen Hardy received a free game pass from the 49ers for a Monday Night Football game on November 15, 2021.
Hardy did not declare it which is a violation of state law. And City law prohibits her from receiving any gifts from the 49ers under the City’s lobbyist ordinance.
The pass was discovered as part of a public records act request.
However, information on the pass was heavily redacted.
According to sources familiar with 49ers game passes, there’s no personal information on passes so there’s no reason to redact the information.
The hidden information on the pass would have indicated what type of access Hardy had at the game, including VIP field access. It may have also included the value of the pass.
With the game pass, Hardy would have received a parking pass, too. Both passes would have been expensive since it was a popular Monday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Councilmember Raj Chahal also attended the game with Hardy. He has not produced a game pass or parking pass.
At the last week’s City Council meeting, the pro-49er Council majority rejected a request to publicly discuss how Hardy and Chahal may have violated the lobbyist ordinance.
They also rejected a request for District Attorney Jeff Rosen to investigate since interim City Attorney Steve Ngo and the Lozano Smith law firm have been advising Hardy and Chahal and have a conflict of interest.
Ngo would have been involved with the redaction of Hardy’s pass.
According to City information, the Santa Clara police department was unaware of Hardy and Chahal’s attendance at the November 15 game. It was not an officially authorized visit by the Stadium Authority.
The next night, at the Council meeting, Hardy and Chahal voted with their pro-49er Council colleagues to change the weekday stadium curfew.
The curfew was part of the development agreement to protect Northside neighborhoods during the work week. It was in place when the stadium opened in 2014. The team has been lobbying to change it.
Hardy publicly claimed that she received no “ticket” to the game during a June 21, 2022 meeting. She said she called the California Fair Political Practices Commission staff.
Hardy submitted a memo to the City Council that stated the following details:
On June 16, 2022 at 9:41 am Karen Hardy called the FPPC help number (866-275-3772) and explained (sic) the FPPC representative regarding our visit to the Levi’s stadium in the capacity of Stadium Authority Board Members for an operational tour and the concern that has been raised. The gentleman on the phone asked one question – Did you or the other council member accept a ticket for the event? To which Karen’s reply was, “No”. We (Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal) were with an escort the entire time of our stadium operations tour, we did not have tickets to the event. The FPPC representative said you are both fine and did not believe there was any violation.
(Editor’s Note: Yes, she referred to herself in the third person in her own memo.)
But Hardy cannot recall the name of the person she spoke to at the FPPC.
This is a developing story and there’s currently an active FPPC investigation.
I’ve worked for NFL films and KNBR on the sidelines at 49er games. There is nothing in the pass that needs to be redacted unless they are hiding something.
Coming from someone who has experience! Best source of information.
What are you hiding, KAREN!!??
I worked for the Raiders doing similiar type things. You are a thousand percent correct and if Homeland Security worked t the game, that is illegal.
N go. Away. He has been a problem since he got here. Conflict of interests to the point hes not fit to represent the city. Hes busy advising and pampering the 49er 5.
Pack it up N go !!!
Ngo has been fined twice by fppc for failing to file teports
It isn’t just N that needs to GO. Sanchez needs to take a hike too. The special projects guy. Did he redact Hardy’s pass? Whose side is he on?
This is petty and does not really help. It does not matter if Chahal and Hardy got free game tickets or passes. What matters is if these were offered to the rest of the council. Who else was offered the tour? Who turned it down? Who was not offered to join the tour?
Even if Chahal and Hardy watched a quarter or two of the game as fans that is too petty to care about.
If they got tickets for family or friends and watched together then that would be a different story.
I want to know if Gillmor and Watanabe were given an invitation to join. They should have been included as part of the council and the commission.
If it wasn’t a big deal, why does the FPPC not allow it? Because if not checked it gets out 0f control. Every politician in the book gets free tixs and doesn’t have to pay? Hardy said that she had to investigate an issue that came up. What issue? What was the result of her investigation?
Ms. Hardy was on the field and publicly wearing this unredacted pass, or ticket, or whatever it is, in front of 85,000 fans in attendance, not to mention those watching the worldwide TV broadcast of the game, yet, when it comes to transparency for the citizens of Santa Clara, we all get the redacted version of the pass, or ticket, or whatever it is. Wow.
Are you sure that’s a gameday ticket or pass? The season tickets and guess passes don’t look anything like that. The redacted info could easily say ‘Stadium Authority Representative’ or some other BS to cover their story. Plus her official CC photos is used which is strange.
If you are correct, the redactions hurt her not help
The PRA with the blacked out stadium pass, is it me or do the text messages look pieced together with key dates missing cut and pasted to make it look like it was SCSA business Shady looking text messages. Lying and falsifying documents fits right into Hardy Rahul and Raj’s skill set. I wonder if they got some tips and tricks from Caserta
Liar liar pants on 🔥
Time to say goodbye, Mrs. Hardy.
Love,
Your disappointed students
Lock her up!
That pass is the ticket.
Fire Ngo!@