By Robert Haugh
Last week, Santa Clara News Online (SCNO) ran a Measure B campaign story with a photo of the Yes Campaign’s website.
The front page features an endorsement from former Santa Clara Police Chief Frank Vasquez.
But there’s one major problem.
Vasquez opposes Measure B. Oops.
After the SCNO story, Vasquez contacted the Yes campaign with this message:
It has come to my attention that your website has a photo of me and a quote which I have never said nor endorsed. I have never been interviewed by you nor whom you represent. The quote is false.
In fact, I am in support of an elected Chief of Police for the City of Santa Clara. I request this quote, as well as the photo of me be removed.
Frank Vasquez, City of Santa Clara, Chief of Police, retired
According to numerous sources, City Councilman Suds Jain and the campaign’s treasurer Jeff Houston are running the campaign and are in charge of the website.
Vasquez’s photo and quote have been removed from the Yes campaign’s website.
As for the No campaign, it looks like they decided to do some big outdoor advertising.
This billboard on De La Cruz Boulevard near El Camino has been up for about a week:
It’s a good location because it’s near Costco. Lots of Santa Clarans will see the No on B message as they drive by.
So far, there are no billboards for the Yes campaign.
A few Yes on A and B yard signs have been seen around town – but not in front of Frank Vasquez’s home.
[…] week, SCNO reported that the Yes on Measure B campaign falsely used former Police Chief Frank Vasquez’s endorsement. He opposes Measure […]
[…] Clara News Online (SCNO) reported that the Yes on Measure B Campaign was falsely using former Police Chief Frank Vasquez to support […]
[…] That’s what the Yes on Measure B Campaign did with former Police Chief Frank Vasquez, as Santa Clara News Online (SCNO) reported yesterday. […]
none of you chumps. But here are the answers anyway with a bonus at the end…
1. – Retired Santa Clara Police Chief Steve Lodge, October 2016, “unqualified first line supervisor referring to Nikolai https://www.svvoice.com/letters/letter-from-steve-lodge
2. – Retired Santa Clara Police Chief Steve Lodge, November 2016, speaking out against union involvement and PAC money https://www.svvoice.com/letters/letter-from-steve-lodge-2/
3. – Retired Santa Clara Police Chief Mike Sellers, June 2019, railing agianst Gillmor and her nasty politics infesting Santa Clara https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-police-chief-mike-sellers-will-retire-before-term-ends/
4. – Retired Santa Clara Police Chief Charles Arrola, letter to 2023 Charter Review Committee Supporting and Amendment to the City Charter https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/81697/638303005306830000
Both the Silicon Valley Voice and San Jose Spotlight published articles about the upcoming election today, just for you Valentine’s Day POA love birds!
SVV reports that a police union PAC from Sacramento is throwing more than $30,000 to help SCPOA fight Measures A&B. While most of you keep screaming and kicking your feet about unsubstantiated claims of 49ers/York’s involvement, it is SCPOA that has acquired Gray Money to fight residents. Do I need to remind you guys that 95% of SCPD officers don’t live in the City? So it’s literally outside influence fighting residents. https://www.svvoice.com/follow-the-money-police-pac-spends-50000-opposing-appointed-police-chief-appointment-supporters-spend-300/
The SJ Spotlight confirms Nikolai is retiring in December and that Measure B “doesn’t affect him.” Certification and nomination for Chief of Police needs to be filed in just five months, by July 15, 2024. Do any of you know who the next police chief candidates are? Your answer is NO! So here you are griping about continuing to elect the police chief when you have no known candidates, brilliant! https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-voters-to-weigh-electing-police-chief-measure-b-election-2024/
Nikolai is out the door. Gillmor is headed down the tubes. Police Chiefs have for decades asked for the public’s help in updating the City Charter. Pull your heads out and get with the program, Vote YES on Measures A & B!
Measure B is retaliation for the SCPOA’s support of Pat Nikolai in 2016. Measure A is just collateral damage. Sellers got a vote of no confidence by the rank & file in 2016 and the POA made their preference known. Yeah, Nikolai lost by 100 votes but that election made a big statement showing voters were paying attention. The old guard got butt hurt that their “golden boy” was not the POA choice and change was imminent. Too bad. So sad. The people are speaking with their votes. Can’t wait for March 5!!
The only members of the current City Council who were on the 2015/16 Council are Lisa Gillmor and Kathy Watanabe. The “old guard” is Lisa Gillmor. No one cares about Nikolai in 2016 as the preferred candidate for police chief was Mike Sellers, who won the election.
Measure B is about upgrading the way a police chief is selected in the City of Santa Clara. Nikolai is the least educated and traininged police executive since George Fallon took office in 1911. Every other police department leader in Santa Clara County is much better educated, credentialed, and trained than Nikolai. The only reason why Nikolai is the second highest paid police chief in the entire state is because the POA trades high pay and guaranteed 5%+ annual bumps for endorsements. Pat isn’t qualified to be a police leader, everyone knows it.
That post about the old guard certainly got your knickers in a twist! Sure hit a soft nerve. Keep it coming No on B support! The opposition is showing their weakness!
Hi Robert, and thank you for what you are doing to literally preserve democracy and a free press for the great citizens of Santa Clara.
It is funny that Suds who regularly came on here to make disparaging towards you and your readership has been silent the past few months. I remember the times he has even made these comments as part of the public record from the dais. Where are you Suds?
Robert, you have gained both the respect from citizens, and fear from the 49ers camp with truths you reveal. It is so obvious that somebody from either the 49ers camp or their pr firm is now coming on here and is tasked with making negative posts towards anybody or anyone that supports our elected chief’s position by just the way the posts are laid out and read. It is blatantly obvious and maybe they should tone down the perfect grammer and bulletpoints written and proofread in the comfort of their office.
Interesting that the DA’s computer lab is still analyzing electronic data from both the 49ers and our city council….I would be concerned if I were a past confidante of Anthony Becker regarding what transpired. I think part of the delay of the trial is that Becker’s attorney is waiting for more lab analysis of electronic transmissions that implicates others and could basically turn Becker from a suspect into a witness with a plea deal. He is not the only player but is absolutely and definitely taking the fall for others who used him as a useful idiot. I hope Becker realizes this and punches back against the other council members and the 49ers and does not take the fall alone. There are a bunch of guilty parties and Becker could actually be amongst the least guilty while those with the most to lose are making him their sacrificial offering to take the criminal fall. If this all comes to pass, and Becker is turned into a witness against the other councilmembers and 49ers executives, I would donate money towards Beckers legal fund on a go fund me, and I am not at all a fan of Becker’s but would support this.
Maybe that is something he should consider so he can fund his own private attorney and reduce his own penalty if convicted or a plea bargain is reached.
Observation is correct. 49er lobbyists have obtained an AI application to respond to Mr Haugh. I find it reprehensible. I disagree with a great many readers here and with Mr Haugh himself. But Suds Jain and Becker have treated him and his readers unfairly and with malice and that is wrong.
It is also a stupid strategy.
It simply gives the blog tremendous weight. It shows how jain and becker are useless and petty. An Ethics Commission would do more the rebalance city politics. Gillmor is not afraid of that at all. The dismissal of Burt Field and the public ridicule of Vartan also empowered this blog as did this charter election.
Jain is a creature out of a Lovecraft story and Becker is a discarded piece of political waste.
So we are going let a city manager that has been here less than a year decide who our police chief should be? It’s not yet clear that he is competent in his decision making, plus he is being guided by a city council that is controlled by the 49ers and includes at least one criminal, possibly more.
I have to agree that Sheriffs have generally been a disaster across the country. Costing taxpayers millions is lawsuits, not following state laws (guns, covid protocols, etc), ignoring the constitution, participating in the Capital Insurrection, just for starters. Not a great example.
If electing law enforcement leaders is such a bad idea why are all sheriffs elected? Why isn’t that a disaster? We don’t have a problem, but too many shady operators are trying to sell us a solution. Please tell them, ‘No Sale’.
You mean Laurie Smith, Lee Baca, or Randy Waltz?
• Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, Guilty 2022: https://abc7news.com/santa-clara-county-sheriff-laurie-smith-corruption-trial-verdict-found-guilty-resigns/12413963/
• Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca in Federal Prison 2020: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-05/former-los-angeles-county-sheriff-lee-baca-is-now-a-prison-inmate-in-texas
• Del Norte County Sheriff Randy Waltz charged wit perjury and filing false voter registration and nomination papers 2022: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/story/2022-03-12/acting-sheriff-in-del-norte-county-charged-with-voter-fraud
Comparing Appointed to Elected, elected has a higher probability of corruption.
Harvard University’s Michael Zoorob: “Yet in practice, Sheriff misconduct is widespread (Yant, 1992; Greenblatt, 2018; Magary, 2018; Pishko, 2019b). According to the National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, there were 97 reported incidents of misconduct in Sheriff ’s Offices over 2015-2016, 68 of which personally implicate the elected Sheriff. A California newspaper writes “The county sheriff is the problem child among California elected officials. No office is less accountable, or more reliable in producing scandal” (Mathews, 2019). In South Carolina, nearly one in four Sheriffs have been accused of breaking laws, ranging from driving drunk to corruption (Bartelme and Cranney, 2019). Sheriff misconduct is so pervasive that can be hard to miss. An exploration of campaign financing in Sheriff races unwittingly discovered “how often sheriffs were found guilty of crimes during or after their careers as sheriff, for offenses ranging from corruption and tax evasion to indecent exposure and murder” (Clark, 2017). In light of wide spread reports of misconduct by elected sheriffs and their employees, these results suggest that elections may not be sufficient to produce responsible local government.”
Retired Chief Frank Vasquez will be 89 years old this year and does not recall the Mercury News interview from 1994 featuring him and retired Chief Manny Ferguson, where I believe the YES on Measure B side got the quote. https://cdn.svvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/26124315/1993-mercury-vote-on-elected-police-chief.pdf
“Vasquez, who has been outspoken about wanting an appointment system, repeated his belief that the current system creates divisiveness within the police department before each election.
‘It’s demeaning for the position,’ he said of the election process. ‘I just think it’s an opportune time to visit this issue,”
Today’s trivia, who said these four quotes…
1. “Santa Clara – the only city in the state that elects the chief, has created the opportunity for a first line supervisor, who does not qualify for advancement beyond his current position, nor the opportunity to run for chief in any other city, to run for chief.”
2. “I was a POA member for much of my career. But sometimes, under the guise of supporting the worker, the union goes to far. We saw this when the POA fought to get binding arbitration, but the Santa Clara voters were wise enough to see that it was not in the best interest of our city and voted it down. Despite that loss, our police officers are amongst the best cared for in the industry. In this (2016) election we see another example of the union going too far. They have raised over $70,000 from developers and other wealthy opportunists from outside Santa Clara to promote their candidate. Is that the role we want our police officers to play? Previous Chiefs Vasquez, Arolla, Kyle and I all agree with our 24 years experience as Chief of Police, Mike Sellers is the most qualified to continue leading our department.”
3. “Our city has been subjected to a level of hatred and nastiness that has never been seen before. It is being compounded by your lack of leadership, honesty, and transparency,” he told Mayor Gillmor in a 2017 speech on the matter. “This unnecessary burden is affecting the fine men and women that serve this great city.”
4. “…the then-current Charter’s requirements were insufficient for a candidate for Chief of Police with the duties and responsibilities which were incumbent for that office. I do not believe that the Committee should be limited by this belief; and should actively explore raising the standards for the elected Chief to be consistent with those of appointed Chiefs in adjacent jurisdictions.”
Lol. What’s it do to morale when the city manager appoints a poor leader as a chief? Ask Sunnyvale DPS.
What’s it do to morale when it takes the City Manager a year to make an appointment? Ask Marina PD.
What’s it do to morale when you go through 10 appointed chiefs in 10 years? Ask Oakland PD.
According to a SJ Spotlight article this past September, the former and current employee union presidents had two different views of Phan Ngo’s impact at Sunnyvale’s DPS. PSO’s who left Sunnyvale didn’t do so solely because of morale. https://sanjosespotlight.com/people-flee-bad-leadership-in-sunnyvales-public-safety-department/
Sunnyvale PSO’s I know left for fire department jobs elsewhere. In the past decade, fire departments all over the state have adopted 48/96 Kellly Schedules which allows firefighters to work 2-24-hour shifts followed by 4 full days off. Since Sunnyvale PSO’s hold both certifications, they preferred the 48/96 fire schedule to current 4/10’s that typical police officers work. SCPD works 4 days of 10-hour shifts followed by two days off; SCFD works 2 day, 24-hour shifts followed by four days off.
The City of Marina took an appropriate amount of time to find the highest qualified Chief. After Tina Nieto was elected Sheriff, Assistant Chief Steve Russo was appointed interim Chief by the City Manager, there was never a loss of leadership. Chief Randy Hopkins was hired last month and has an MBA, graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School, is a graduate and former trainer at the U.S. Army Command Staff College, graduate of the FBI National Academy, and graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Management Institute for Police Executives. https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-hopkins-ab8b8916b/
Santa Clara’s Patrick Nikolai refuses to state what university, if any, he received a degree from. According to a letter penned by former Police Chief Steve Lodge, in 2016 Nikolai didn’thave a college degree and never sought advancement or mentoring from SCPD leadership. https://www.svvoice.com/letters/letter-from-steve-lodge-/
Santa Clara should never be compared to Oakland, there are too many socioeconomic and cultural differences.
RE: Winner Gets an Attaboy – you’re really going low on this one Suds. That interview was 30+ years ago! Unless someone has a direct quote on the current Measure, it’s taken out of context. Period. There is only one reason you used that ancient interview – you cannot find any other supporter quote over the last 30 years!
I may not be the winner but you’re clearly a loser.
Neighbors
Want a sign … Let me know. I was a very busy delivery boy yesterday!
Got to meet some great people, and as I was leaving, I felt like I had some new friends.
All this all goes back to why this is important to me.
We are a great City.
We are worth fighting for.
No on A
No on B
Burt Field
burt.field@gmail.com
408.687.2622 cell (text first so I can add you to my contact list)
Well, it’s not really the Yes on A campaign’s fault. They thought he was dead.
There’s still a quote and pic of Vasquez on the Yes FB page. .
Suds the liar
Mr. Haugh deserves some praise for this. He has uncovered clear election fraud. Suds Jain and Jeff Houston got this 1994 quote from Byron Fleck. Fleck offered to do this.
Jain must resign.