By Robert Haugh
Yesterday, Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said Councilmember Anthony Becker should resign since he was indicted last week for allegedly leaking a civil grand jury report and lying about it.
Becker allegedly gave the leaked information to the 49ers and the 49er-friendly SV Voice. He has been charged with felony perjury and a misdemeanor.
Gillmor was at the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “Future of Santa Clara” conference when she made her statement.
Gillmor was asked by the publications Editor-in-Chief J. Jennings Moss whether Becker should resign. Gillmor said, “Yes, I do.”
Gillmor later tweeted: “Anthony Becker has lost the trust of the people of Santa Clara.”
The only other time Gillmor asked for a colleague to resign happened in 2018 with disgraced former Councilmember Dominic Caserta.
Caserta had numerous credible sexual abuse and improper behavior complaints against him from his female students at Santa Clara High School. Caserta was a teacher there.
Caserta eventually resigned from the City Council and his candidacy for County Supervisor and was forced to leave his teaching job.
Becker has not responded to calls for him to resign from numerous community leaders who attended last Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
A local attorney familiar with the Becker situation said Becker is using his resignation as “a bargaining chip to stay out of jail.”
But the attorney added that District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky would look weak if they let that happen because Becker would be removed from office anyway if he’s found guilty of either the felony or the misdemeanor.
“Since the evidence has been presented to a criminal grand jury, it’s presumably substantial,” said the attorney who asked not to be identified for professional reasons.
Other local attorneys concurred with his assessment.
Becker returns to court on May 3 to present his plea to the charges against him.
Pardon a contrarian view. KEEP BECKER!!!
Resignations are for moral people. Tony Becker is an ANCHOR around the throats of the 49er FIVE. The longer the indicted person remains on council, the DEEPER the others will sink into the mud off Alviso. Imagine the Next City Council Reelection AD: “Vote for Park, Suds, Hardy, Chahal….. We LOVE and are in CAHOOTS with criminals like Becker!”
Resignation is like cutting out the tumor…. I say… let it fester and take down Yed JERK and his sycophants. Remove the 49er FIVE like they are chopping down beloved trees in Santa Clara.
Viva Santa Clara! Down with the 49er Five!!!!!!
The DA has the Sinnunu Towery Award for judicial courage. Named after Karen Sinnunu Towery, wife of Judge Towery. She is member of the CIVIL GRAND JURY. Guess what, Jain the Political Whore of Santa Clara who revealed closed session documents to AMY OPPENHEIMER, they are not finished yet.
I will be so happy when Becker is gone. But I will be even happier when Jed York’s people are gone also. We will have our great Santa Clara City back again. Our great Mayor, Lisa Gillmor does not deserve all this trauma. I hope that the 49er leaders realize what they have done to us, after we opened our City to them.
Dorothy Rosa
Dorothy is an important council watcher. Jain, Becker, Park took the faith of the little people and soiled it. Chandhok, Park, Becker, Jain are silly political whores who did not put their faith in the city. The four cowards waited until it was built.
If Becker is guilty and has the opportunity to resign in order to plead to only a misdemeanor charge then I hope that he is not so foolhardy to pass on such a light outcome.
If he resigns I wonder if the rest of the council majority will appoint a replacement or leave the seat empty until next year’s election.
In the meantime I will hold judgement and not assume that he’s guilty. Even though I expect full well that he is.
Lisa Gillmor
2008 to 2011 major leader of Measure J.
2012 Ed McGovern, a known sleazeball did what? Recruit an opponent to oppose her
Lisa Gilmor could rich beyond her dreams if was not Mayor.
105 cpras filed about Gillmor
Result
Dozens of invoices, pay stubs. Show Gillmor, as a land use consultant makes less than a mastee teacher
Landliord, dozens of business tenants allowed months without paying rents.
For 59 years her Gary has been attempting to develop Gilroy land
For Google??
Nope for single family homes. Affordable homes with open space
This is evil???
A dozen working poor families helped by.
Lisa
Mean??
Kathy Watanabe. 2010
Physically attacked by stadium opponents
Who gave 250 bucks to that group
Suds Jain
Becker
Dozens texts accusing lisa of funding trump
LG. Contributor Jamie Mcleod-skinner
Ro Khanna
Becker
It is going to get fierce
“Fortunately, my name was recently cleared when the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office dismissed charges against me. Though the heinous allegations were completely unfounded, they led to costly legal fees, lost wages and a lot of heartache. And they obviously have had a huge emotional toll on me and my family. Many ask how I paid the bills. Well, I used everything I had saved. My family tapped into a loan. Donations from friends and close family helped as well.” Anyone care to guess who that was? https://santaclaranews.org/2021/09/30/my-personal-story-i-have-been-cleared-of-the-malicious-and-false-claims-against-me/
How about everyone relax until all sides of the story come out and due process has run its course.
Gee, did Burt Field get that benefit of the doubt from Becker???
And then there’s Karma!!! When he goes to jail, I’m sure he will have something in common with the other jail mates. Everything happens for a reason.
That a problem with crooks. They start thinking they are smarter than everyone else. Becker no doubt figured he was in the cat bird seat and could get away with anything. Including lying under oath. How’s that working out for you Becker?
Did anyone notice how weak Rosen was on Caserta? Caserta had 20 complaints against him. Granted, there may have been little physical evidence. But Roosen should have forced Caserta to resign from Santa Clara High in exchange for not prosecuting him.. Instead, Caserta went on leave and was paid for by our tax dollars for an additional 3 years!!! SCUSD employe told me Caserta costs the school about half a million bucks if you count his leave pay and district’s legal fees. That’s on Rosen.
Caserta had friends in high places that hid a lot of his shenanigans. Not Rosen’s fault.
Frustrated,
Who was hiding Caserta’s misdeeds and how were they able to do that and why did they do that?
It’s well known many complaints were filed against that POS and couldn’t be found when needed to take action. Caserta was well protected. Why? Incredibly so that he even got a job teaching at foothill college until he got in trouble there. Big surprise! Case was filed. What’s the status? This guy should be in jail! He’s another teflon don and took advantage of his status. Glad he’s gone. Every parent who had a child in his class at SCHS knows the POS Caserta was but no one listened. Disgusting. Read up Bucher. You can find many articles about Caserta’s shady past.
Frustrated,
I have read and heard about how Caserta was well known to students as being a creep around female students. I think it is an outrage that he got such a soft exit from SCUSD and was able to get a teaching job within FHDA and also was lecturing at SFSU until last year I believe.
I believe it all and you seemed to be speaking with some inside knowledge of people protecting him and hiding his misdeeds and I was asking you to share what you know.
As for charges not being pressed I assumed this was because there was not enough evidence including maybe not enough victims willing to testify against him. If there was no chance of winning a conviction then it is understandable for a district attorney to not file charges.
Considering that Caserta often clashed with Gillmor and Gillmor seems to have a very good relationship with Rosen if there were strings being pulled with Rosen for Caserta I am wondering who was pulling those strings.
There were too many years and too many students effected by Caserta. Lots of people have knowledge.
Becker lost the trust of many Santa Clara residents a long time ago. How do you trust someone who is beholden to a company in the City and give them everything they want at the expense of those who he is supposed to represent?
He’s a power hungry sellout who saw politics as a way to make money without actually doing much.
Jain should also resign. He is as a big political whore as Becker.