By Robert Haugh
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor responded to the scathing Civil Grand Jury report with a 6-point “Anti-Corruption Reform Plan.”
“The Civil Grand Jury report clearly documents violations of law and the potential for corruption. It’s a sad day for Santa Clara and a wake-up call that says we need to clean up our city,” wrote Gillmor in an email to reporters after the report’s official release.
Here are the elements of Gillmor’s plan:
1. The City Council should accept the Grand Jury’s findings and recommendations at the next possible council meeting.
2. The City Staff should work on the Grand Jury recommendations immediately to meet the February deadlines.
3. Councilmembers should publicly pledge to voluntarily and fully cooperate with all investigations that involve potential violations of law or potential corruption.
4. If Councilmembers wish to redact or withhold information from investigators, they must publicly report at a City Council meeting why they are doing so.
5. Councilmembers should disclose to our City attorneys all communications with the 49ers lobbyists on all matters that could have a financial impact on the City.
6. The City Council should create an independent Ethics Commission that is responsible for ethics training of Councilmembers and City Staff and has the power to censure and admonish wrongdoing.
“The City Council majority may be resistant to this plan,” said Gillmor.
“But they should realize that because the 49ers have spent millions of dollars to influence our elections and City Council decisions, public trust in Santa Clara has been destroyed. If we love our City, we need to rebuild our bond with residents starting today.”
The next City Council meeting is Tuesday, October 18, 2022.
[…] an item to discuss the potential creation of an Independent Ethics Commission. Mayor Lisa Gillmor proposed this last October after the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury recommended […]
Speak with your VOTE!!!!! Not your words!!!
They’re all pretty much corrupt in one way or another, yes including Gilmoor. She’s just pissed she was purposely not included in the little “reindeer games” It’s ALL about MONEY, & POWER which are both the same. Money gets you Power/Power gets you Money. Absolute POWER corrupts ABSOLUTELY. It’s going to continue this was untill our species, “Humans” evolve some more in a positive way.
The good: Mayor Gillmor, Kathy Watanabe
The bad: Suds Jain, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy
The ugly: Anthony Becker, Kevin Park
I agree with you on how grand juries can be used. And I would not rule out that there is some backroom politicking behind this grand jury investigation and report.
But try to both zoom out and take a look at the big picture as well as zoom in and look at the important facts. The report is not really based on anything that was not already publicly known. And the findings and recommendations are quite natural ones to make given the facts at hand.
I can understand that one smells or suspects fishiness with the grand jury but they also investigated and reported on conduct that is far fishier. And the facts on this are just the facts.
It is a fact that five councilpeople have had very frequent private meetings with the Forty Niners and exclude Gillmor and Watanabe as well as any appointed non political city staff. They have no recordings or transcripts or minutes or notes and do not talk openly and completely about what is privately discussed between them and the Forty Niners.
It is a fact that all five do not even meet with the Forty Niners as a group of five. They meet in groups of twos and threes which is inconvenient but they do this to evade laws that require meetings with four or more of them to be public. So it is a fact that they clearly do not want there to be recordings or transcripts or minutes or notes of these private discussions with the Forty Niners.
It is also a fact that the Forty Niners have spent millions of dollars to put all these five councilpeople into office or to keep them in office or to promote them to a higher office. Millions of dollars do not get spent unless there a return on investment is expected. What is the return on the Forty Niners investment?
This all reeks of fishiness. Maybe the grand jury has some fishy smell too but given all the above is true do not you think that Santa Clarans should make sure to publicize all of the above going on because it is only natural to be afraid of why the Forty Niners are spending millions of dollars on councilpeople who take pains to meet with them in private without record?
“A grand jury is meant to be used to decide if there is enough evidence in a case to bring it to trial. To fulfill this purpose, the grand jury should have no bias and be made fully aware of all the evidence. But this is not the case in most states” [including California].
…
“The fact that the jury can be chosen by people connected to the court, rather than at random, demonstrates its potential for bias.”
https://conservativejusticereform.org/issue/grand-jury-reform/
Grand juries aren’t meant to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s typically just an opportunity for the accuser to lay out evidence that isn’t cross examined. The accused are usually not allowed to defend their actions. It’s intent is sometimes to get to the truth, but is often to unnecessarily destroy lives. I’m not saying that’s what is going on here, but I’m not saying it’s not. A grand jury report is often not a balanced investigation of the facts, and should not be used as the sole basis for setting policy.
It’s pretty clear there is a riff between the mayor and several council members. I’ve seen lots of childish behavior on both sides of the riff. This grand jury request appears to have been instigated by a political ally of the mayor. It appears the findings of this grand jury were factually in error and poorly investigated. There appear to be factual errors, and a resistance to set the facts straight. The mayor wants to jump right to implementing the proposals w/o any further investigation or an opportunity to hear from the accused council members.
This smells a little fishy…that’s all.
The CEO and 49ers only give money to candidates they intend to influence or have already influence-and those need for the grand jury to tell us about the excessive amounts of money they spent on several candidates including ousting Teresa O’Neill who was perhaps the least politician influenced by money. Her loss was our loss
A little off subject but check out their ad about Christian Pellechia. They spell corporations wrong…it’s NOT corportations
I support Gilmore ! To Hell with the 49ers and their corrupt money.
The truth needs to come out. Wrong doing must be punished. Move on…
The facts are there. There is somehing not right here. 1 million dollars to support Becker for Mayor. No. I am willing to ally myself with Richard and Howard, and reconcile with Burt Field, to go after Jain night and using the law, just cease defending the Weekly, taking the time to listen to Vartan, because ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR BECKER IS OBSCENE.
Right is right. Santa Clara is too beautiful to violated like this.
Time to shout and slam hands on a table.
It is obscene.
The ship is being rerighted. Santa Clara deserves a trustworthy council that represents the people over profit to their election and re-election campaigns by Jed York!
Robert it is shameful, and a bit embarrassing that we have to do this, but really what are the options at this point?
The Civil Grand Jury has spoken.
I am supporting our Mayor’s new, “Anti Corruption Reform Plan”
If me agreeing with this puts me as part of the “Gillmor Gang”, sign me up.
Burt Field
Bravo, Mayor!
This a 100 percent LISA GILLMOR PLAN. She has suggested parts of this plan before and so she owns it.
2009
A resident proposed an Ethics Commission before the Council. Lisa was not on the Council but did lobby for it.
Kevin Park completely ridiculed the idea along with Suds Jain and they enlisted local wacko Stephen Hazel to threaten the opponent.
From where I stand the 49er five are caught in a squeeze play. If the go along with the Anti-Corruption Reform plan and investigation they run the risk of some embarrassment at a minimum. #3 above investigates possible conflicts and violations.
I can’t believe much can be done w/o approval of the council and if they block it that makes them look worse than ever and the DA’s office will almost certainly turn attention to them, as requested by the Police Chief.
Either way works for me.
Yes! Awesome! And I personally hope that this message and why it needed to happen in the 1st place, are dealt with in the upcoming election. Fingers crossed …