By Robert Haugh
At yesterday’s Council meeting, the Council voted 5-2 to place a Charter amendment measure on the March 2024 ballot to change the elected Police Chief and City Clerk to City Manager appointed positions.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Kathy Watanabe dissented. The 49ers Five, Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy, Suds Jain and Kevin Park voted in favor.
The ballot question can be up to 75 words. As adopted by the council, it’s 22 words.
One of the arguments Watanabe, Gillmor and members of the public brought up was that the ballot measure language is biased and too short.
Election law attorney Dale Larson called in saying that, as worded, the ballot question language violates State election laws by providing misleading or biased information.
Larson added that the question provides no information to voters that the positions are currently elected roles and the language intentionally pushes for a yes vote.
Watanabe said “obviously the Council majority is not listening to the voice of the people.” She continued, “It’s a miscarriage of justice how the Charter Review Committee worked.”
City Attorney Glen Googins says he “believes the language is legally compliant, but if challenged, a Judge may say otherwise.”
Indicted Councilman Becker refused accepting Watanabe’s request to ask Googins to add some language to the ballot question.
Dana Caldwell appeared in the Council chambers, saying, “it’s a right of Santa Clarans to elect our Police Chief and City Clerk. It’s enshrined in our City Charter.”
He adds, “we don’t need to fix what’s not broken,” saying the Police Department has great leadership and lacks the turnover of other local agencies.
David Goldfinger, a retired police officer who worked several years in Santa Clara said via phone, “this is being forced to a ballot and is not a citizen mandate … What’s the real driving force?” He added SCPD is one of the best in the Country.
Gillmor reiterated that the public didn’t ask for the measure. “If you live in the community, you understand it.”
Both Gillmor and Watanabe brought up the lack of independence of the Charter Review Committee, citing an egregious amount of communication between Councilman Jain, and his appointee and Committee Chair, Jeff Houston.
Houston spoke at the meeting strongly favoring the ballot measure to appoint hoth positions. Houston has also served as Jain’s treasurer for his campaigns.
Santa Clara POA president Jeremy Schmidt said that the least the Council owes the community is using fair language. He mentioned that according to a Peace Officers organization, there are 64 sworn peace officers living in Santa Clara. He adds that Santa Clara is the smallest police department in the NFL, but superb management has allowed the Department to have strategic relationships with lateral agencies to provide services.
The Charter Review Committee did not review options of changing the Charter to increase the geographic restrictions. The Charter mandates both police chief and Clerk positions reside in Santa Clara.
Becker’s motion authorized Jain, Hardy and Chahal to draft the argument supporting the measure, with the trio having the ability to add up to two other individuals to draft that.
Becker claimed switching to appointed positions would be “securing us from corruption and politics.” Quite the irony coming from the one accused of felony charges of leaking a confidential grand Jury report to the 49ers, an entity that spent over $2 million to try to get him elected Mayor last year.
[…] Council appointed Suds Jain and Karen Hardy to draft the ballot argument – the same team with Raj Chahal that led the effort to change the City Charter in […]
[…] December 2023, Indicted City Councilmember Anthony Becker led the effort to put Measures A and B on the […]
[…] addition to voting to place a ballot measure on the March 2024 ballot with biased language, the Council also acted on other major […]
Dear Community,
Having a Chief of Police like Tony Mata, here in San Jose is the Best thing for the Community
Chief Mata lives here.
When we have an issue in District 5, he know the exact area we are talking about.
We do not have to send over a SNAP-SHOT from Google Maps about the Address, or the Block, or the Neighborhood.
Since the Chief is from here, he knows just what amount of change needs to be sent where.
Every City has Police Department Issues.
With 1,000 Police Officers, and more Community Responce Officers, we know that is a given.
Padt that though, if you look at the contact and knowledge for Neighborhoods, Community Organizations, NGO’s, Neighborhood Associations, Parks, Creeks, Homeless Camps, you can only do better with a Chief thst has his Wife, and Children, invested in their Community.
In Community Spirit,
Danny Garza
President
Plata Arroyo Neighborhood Association and Gateway East N.A.C.
Danny, while your support for Chief Mata is good, remember he is from originally from Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago prior to moving to San Jose. And the fact that San Jose is the largest geographical city in the South Bay makes it highly probable a lot of police officers live in that city.
Santa Clara is the opposite where more than 90% of SCPD’s officers don’t live in the city but 99.9% of all contact with the community occurs through them. If Santa Clarans are satisfied with non-resident rank and file police officers being the first line of contact, they’ll be satisfied with a future highly educated and credentialed APPOINTED police chief maybe not living in the city as well.
A final note: through a rigorous vetting process, Chief Mata competed against more than half-a-dozen highly qualified candidates before he was selected for the role. Santa Clara’s current process is uncompetitive and the current police chief doesn’t have credentials that he can stack up against many others. An elected police chief process is not ‘enshrined’ as some might want voters to believe. Like every other city in California, government is For the People, By the People and Santa Clarans also deserve to modernize processes that best benefit the community. Residents should vote YES in March to change the City’s charter and APPOINT a highly qualified police chief.
CSC, as stated by the POA President in the last mtg, 64 peace officers live in Santa Clara of approximately 260 in SCPD. That’s way more living in Santa Clara than your number of 90% living outside of Santa Clara.
Adam, there are only ~150 officers at SCPD of which less than a dozen live in the City of Santa Clara and none are nearly as qualified as police chiefs in neighboring cities. The 64 number the SCPOA representative mentioned are allegedly benefits members of the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC). Hypothetically, if just one of those “64 officers” were qualified to be a chief of police and wanted to raise $300k in campaign funds, build political alliances, and seriously compete for Police Chief we would have heard of him/her already as Nikolai’s term is up in about 11 months. The SCPOA representative has a history of saying things he can’t substantiate at City Council meetings, his pitch last week seems more of the same.
CSC, says you. Ha, ha!
On this matter I disagree with Gillmor and Watanabe and Nikolai.
There are many reasons why it has become the norm for cities to appoint their police chiefs and not have them elected.
It is attractive in principal to make police chiefs the elected choice of the people. But the reality in this day and age is that only a tiny portion of the population cares about city politics and elections at all and an even small portion of that is educated and has an opinion on candidates for police chief.
I think the realistic fact of the matter is that the city manager and their staff and the city council will put much more work into vetting candidates and more thought into selecting an appointee. I think we can keep a strong element of citizen involvement in the process by having a citizen’s committee be part of the process maybe through the chief’s advisory committee.
Another fact of the matter is that we very rarely have competitive elections for police chief in Santa Clara. The pool is restricted to Santa Clara residents and to those who are willing to mount an election campaign to even be considered for chief. This is too high a bar and practically excludes all but one or two potential candidates.
We should be able to choose from a pool of candidates that are not limited to residents or those willing to run an election campaign. We have one of the most highly paid police chiefs in the nation and we should be able to select from the best candidates around the nation.
The way it is now we mainly just have the choice to decide if we will vote for or against a single candidate who has won whatever process there is within the SCPOA to gain the union’s backing in the election. That is not a good way to determine candidates for our police chief. The chief of police has to manage and sometimes discipline officers and for the public interest the person who disciplines officers should not be chosen by the officers.
I think having out police officers work up through the local ranks increases incentives to stay put. Positions open up as more senior officers advance. What better way to engage local voters than to solicit their direct vote for these positions.
I watched last night’s council meeting and listened to speakers’ opinions. Taking into consideration all testimony and research submitted to the CRC, setting aside any survey or poll that appear corrupted or politically slanted, it is clear the side in favor of appointing a police chief was much better prepared and educated in their arguments. The side in favor of an elected police chief didn’t find one independent research conclusion to support their view.
Anyone else notice how Caldwell showed up last night to express his views but didn’t have documentation in hand to show the City Council, City Clerk, or City Attorney that Stand Up for Santa Clara is a legitimate 501(c)(3)?
It appears the pro-elect group found an attorney who can’t listen and think very well. Assistant City Manager Bojorquez and Major Gillmor confirmed the language drafted for this Santa Clara measure is like language used in past neighboring city ballots, but those other measures probably weren’t about electing a city clerk or police chief. The last city to change its city clerk charter in Santa Clara County was Morgan Hill 2018 when 62% of residents voted in favor of appointing their City Clerk instead of electing one. Their 2018 ballot language read, “Shall the office of the City Clerk be appointed?” which is much different than the current language Santa Clara city staff has proposed. Morgan Hill’s 9 ballot words were not contested by residents and don’t appear to have violated any state or Federal voting guidelines or laws. The 21- and 22-word ballot language drafted by City of Santa Clara staff seem to be much more descriptive to voters.
This is all water under the bridge now, quit whining and just prepare yourselves to vote.
Wow, our City is falling apart, and yet you feel compelled to go after residents like Mr. Caldwell.
“Quit whining”, didn’t see that coming.
Maybe he should have said, “Thank you sir, may I have another?”
Mr. Caldwell is a lifelong resident who is active in our City, volunteer for a number of positions all in the hopes of making our City better.
On this night he who took his time and spoke very publicly about how he was feeling. He had 2 minutes to do so, yet he spent the night for that honor.
I could not make the meeting, yet he did.
To leave work early, to miss another dinner with his wife and kids, is impressive in my book.
And yet (Un-named individual), the best you have is to mock him and tell us what he should have said or done is just weak.
I have tremendous respect for Mr. Caldwell, and many other Santa Clara Residents who are fed up with what has happened in our City and what is being planned for us going forward.
So Mr. Caldwell was in the trenches doing something. He was not sitting back telling others what he thinks they should have done.
He was doing something….I really respect that….
I’ve quoted Theodore Roosevelt before, and I’m pretty sure this is not going to be my last time I will do so.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
I don’t think Mr. Caldwell or myself are going to stop our “Whining” anytime soon.
Burt Field
You’re entitled to your opinion. And you’re entitled to be wrong. And you are.
@Burt – again, your inability to read and comprehend equals your inability to compose. I believe the heart of your vast inabilities is hypersensitivity and uncontrolled emotion. Yourselves” in the last sentence means the comment was a general plea to all who read it, not just you or Caldwell.
The fact that Caldwell found it important enough to prioritize Tuesday’s meeting is the basis for my criticism of his ongoing refusal to provide evidence of a proper 501(c)(3) formation. It’s the same criticism aimed at you for spending years commenting on this blog while refusing to surface documentation validating Stand Up for Santa Clara as a legitimate IRS/FTB non-profit.
Copy and pasting Internet quotes doesn’t provide cover for your lack of education and intellect. Before you reply, please go get those non-profit you confirmations and Caldwell claim to have. As responsible and accountable members of the community, the rest of us would appreciate it.
Do you feel justified now? Attacking a member of public who spoke respectfully and professionally. Caldwell didn’t attack anyone like you’ve attacked him and Burt Field. You are part of the problem not the solution!
The mischievous 5 couldn’t risk any changes to the question ’cause it could have delayed getting to the ROV in time. Deadline is December 8. So they stuck with the prescripted ballot language even though its biased, unethical, illegal and misleading. Oh, and so glad the CRC will get the blame for the egregious recommendation.
All this nonsense is such a colossal waste of time. Do these 5 (and city staff) not have more urgent matters to address in SC?? Oh I don’t know, maybe issues like city budget shortfalls, stadium safety, plan for the future of Great America, housing, homelessness, and on and on and on…
Instead they are running their pet project that NOT A SINGLE VOTER asked for!! It’s such an obvious pork barrel kick-back project.
How many times did “Indicted for Perjury” 49er Council Member Becker recuse himself?
From what I heard and read, he was actually helping to drive this motion through.
Really sorry I wasn’t able to attend.
Really appreciate all that did.
Being a resident of Santa Clara is an honor and one that means we will soon be able to let our elected leaders know just how we really feel.
No resident that I have ever talked too has ever shared their desire to give up their right to choose who will lead their City.
Why is that? With Appointed positions you don’t have to make a lot of people happy. In reality, you just make a very small amount of people happy, most of the time.
Maybe an effective way to run a Volunteer Food Shelter, but not how I want Santa Clara to be run.
With an Elected Chief of Police and City Clerk, I know they will at least do what is best for the residents whenever they can.
Why? Real simple, they are elected by us the Residents.
They are accountable to us, they are part of us.
Burt Field
Burt Field – Would you please start a city Charter Amendment initiative for the 2024 ballot that formalizes the ‘Special Advisor to the Mayor’ as an elected position, not appointed?
Appreciate your help – KV
Kirk Vartan actually has the same status o Mayor Gillmor as Bernard Baruch had to FDR. Pretty good precedent
Is anyone forming a movement to inform the voters?
Has anyone supplied a reason for the special election? It has to be that for some reason jed york thinks it will be easier to buy a special election but I don’t see how. Maybe it has to do with planning the campaign spending and spreading it out or not wanting to mix the issues. You can be sure it has to do with him wanting to buy an election set up by his monkeys just for him.
There was an argument mentioned during the CRC processes that having both the Police Chief election on the November ballot, as well as a Measure asking for a Charter change for that same position would be too confusing to voters.
Robert, thanks re: rationale for special election.
I can see why the 49er five have a low opinion of the voter’s intelligence, after all THEY were elected. But let’s be consistent.
Are the voters too dumb to trusted to elect the Police Chief(and city clerk)?
But they are smart enough to vote to have the PC appointed?
But too dumb to be able to vote for the PC and also decide if this policy should be continued?
Let’s hope they are smart enough to know which members of the council to give the boot.
Fact is, IMHO, we don’t need more voters, or smarter voters, we need more informed voters.
The elected police chief and clerk are up for reelection in November. Guess Jed is trying to save them the trouble of campaigning. SMH.
Another highly disappointing council meeting. Mayor Gilmore had valid points! If these people really represented their districts, they would engage in civil discourse & come up with smart solutions instead of acting like toddlers, stomping their feet & refusing to be adults. The 49er Five must be getting some hefty kick backs to not even consider changing the biased language of the ballot question. Sure sucks to live in Santa Clara with these bozos corrupting the city month after month.
The voters will vote to keep the elected police chief and city clerk. All that special election money will be wasted thanks to Suds Jain. Look forward to November 2024 elections.