By Robert Haugh
On Tuesday night, the Santa Clara City Council reviewed the most recent Civil Grand Jury report entitled “Outplayed.”
The report was released last month. The Grand Jury evaluated the 10-year-old stadium deal and concluded that the team “outplayed” the City.
The 49er Five were not happy with the report.
Councilmember Karen Hardy tried to downplay the significance of the findings.
“I do not see anything that is called out that is illegal,” said Hardy. She asked City Attorney Glen Googins for his opinion. Initially, Googins agreed.
But Councilmember Kathy Watanabe pointed out that findings 9a, 9b, and 9c are serious and involve money being withheld from the City.
“I don’t know that it was illegal,” said Watanabe. “I would like to think that it was.”
Googins agreed with Watanabe. “I was probably not as careful as I could have been,” he said.
Councilmember Suds Jain read a lengthy written statement and prepared a PowerPoint presentation that attacked the Grand Jury report.
He also attacked Mayor Lisa Gillmor, the Santa Clara Peace Officers Association, and individual Grand Jurors.
Jain spoke for 28 minutes uninterrupted. Yup, 28 minutes. You can watch it here.
Watanabe rebuked Jain. She said his comments were “really way off base and totally unwarranted especially since Mayor Gillmor is not here to defend herself and she can defend herself very well.”
(Gillmor chaired the beginning of the Council meeting from New York City. She is attending a Bloomberg Harvard conference for 39 mayors from around the world. Around 9 p.m., she turned the meeting over to Vice Mayor Anthony Becker.)
Watanabe also said that she and Gillmor agreed with all the Grand Jury findings.
Councilmember Kevin Park was the most visibly angry at the Grand Jury report and the grand jurors.
Park was more emotional than Jain and spoke for 23 minutes uninterrupted. You can watch it here.
“I could have written this report a lot better than this,” Park said. And I want to make sure we don’t get things like this again. Because holy cow this is a complete waste of time.”
Park urged the City Manager and City Attorney to stop the Grand Jury from writing another report about Santa Clara.
The City must give an official written response to the Grand Jury about the report’s findings and recommendations by September 11.
It’s clear from Tuesday’s statements that the 49er Five want to reject most if not all of the report. They also want the City staff to question the motives and operations of the Grand Jury.
It’s so great to read all these comments from fellow residents.
Lisa and Kathy need a hug from all of us.
November is coming, and not soon enough.
Sad part it may take Santa Clara years to unwind itself from all the damage caused by these few elected officials who chose the 49ers over fellow residents.
Actions have consequences… interested to see how these 49er Councilmember’s will be treated in our City after they are removed.
My guess Becker actually might like his new living arraignment.
Prision does offer“ 3 Hot meals, and a Cot to sleep on.
Not sure how many roommates he might end up with but you know, “Orange is the New Black”!
Register to vote.
Let’s get our City back and begin to hold people accountable for the damage they have caused to our City.
Burt Field
Let me quote from the Grand Jury Report:
“Finding 1
From the beginning, the City was impatient and overmatched in its negotiation posture with the
49ers to the long-term detriment of the City/Stadium Authority.”
“Recommendation 3
The May 2024 settlement agreement gives the Board/City Council new flexibility to divert
Excess Revenue from the Stadium Authority to the City’s General Fund.”
“Finding 5
The City/Stadium Authority failed to ensure that the Management Agreement included a fair
termination clause.”
“Finding 6a
The City/Stadium Authority failed to ensure the Management Agreement provided the Stadium
Authority with full access to financial records.”
“The Civil Grand Jury Expert concluded that their transaction-level testing “generally supported”
ManCo’s reporting of financial results for non-NFL events. Further, the Civil Grand Jury learned
that the detail and timeliness of financial records provided by ManCo to the Stadium Authority
has improved over the past two years since the implementation of a new financial management
system, which can be accessed by Stadium Authority finance staff.”
“The Civil Grand Jury wants to point out that many of the problems detailed above were the work of City and Stadium Authority staff who are no longer with the organization. The City and
Stadium Authority has recently brought in new leadership. The Civil Grand Jury acknowledges
that the City/Stadium Authority staff were responsive to the Civil Grand Jury investigation and
cooperative.”
“City leaders were excited to entice a major sports franchise with the prospect of a new worldclass stadium, and they were impatient to finalize negotiations on contractual terms and
conditions for the Stadium. The City appeared to be outmatched by the expertise of the 49ers’
negotiators. City staff understood then that many of the terms in the agreements strongly favored the interests of the 49ers, and some of the staff even understood that the 49ers had sophisticated long-term goals that would significantly favor 49er interests. The resulting Stadium contracts are complicated and intricately interwoven.”
“Stadium contracts ceded control and important benefits to the 49ers. Since then, while
the 49ers have been difficult partners/tenants, the 49ers were emboldened by the agreements,
and the Stadium Authority has historically failed to assert its remaining limited rights and
controls. This report has a number of Findings that fault the Stadium Authority’s actions. Sadly,
there are fewer Recommendations, as many of the Findings relate to poor Board decisions made
for over a decade that cannot easily be undone. The City and the Stadium Authority were clearly
outplayed by the San Francisco 49ers.”
Is there are TLDR version… this is like your drawn out council speech….
Please Suds.
Stop. You don’t
know when to quit.
Is there one positive
comment here about
you? No. So stop.
Suds,
Please back away from your keyboard. Kiss your wife. Enjoy your life.
I give great deference to your screed that is repetitious from the hallowed halls of the Chambers of the City of Santa Clara. Your post wins no friends for you–and only secures your defeat in the Fall of 2024.
So many “quotes” without an analysis by you is evident that you are twisting in the wind. As much as I disagree with you, I do feel sadly about your position.
Again, please enjoy your life with your family.
Suds, take care.
Who is on the grand jury that is a friend of Lisa Gillmor?
How can Santa Clara prevent the Grand Jury from issuing a report on Sants Clars?
Kevin Park and Jay Reed attempted to get money from the 49ers six months after the election.
Keep up the “spin” Suds. The clock is ticking down to November.
Some of these issues are debatable.
But Suds is so strident and angry in his presentation. He comes across as a bit clueless about how he’s perceived and the city is perceived. Clinically there may be a bit of autism going on here.
Kevin Park is just playing the victim card and is also quite clueless.
I hope everyone watches the links to see that the Grand Jury was indeed right about them.
If someone has to be speak for almost 30 minutes to make a point, they have lost their audience.
Suds…wake up. The only thing well researched is the deep support the 49er Five has for the interests of the 49ers, not the City.
1. This council majority (yes, still the 49er Five) settled multiple lawsuits
2. Those settlements are akin to renegotiating the main contracts
3. They gave the Management Agreement *BACK* to the 49ers after documented abuse and failures
4. They just settled the last litigation in support of the 49er interests, justifying their actions by saying they will get $20Million over the next two years.
Cough…the legal contingency fund that provide a substantial portion of it is the City’s money! Oh, here ya go, you can get your money back. And part of the $20million was existing rent being paid that was NEVER IN QUESTION. What a joke.
And Suds and Park whine about the report. Maybe the reality is, you are just really bad at your job as a council members. To imply the Grand Jury is full of Gillmor allies is laughable and insulting. You would rather tear down legal institutions than to admit you are ding your job poorly.
Pathetic. This council continues to disgrace the city and I look forward to November when a majority of the problems can (and hopefully will) be removed.
The irony of it all is thick. People like Park continue to do exactly what the report says….talks and talks and talks endlessly, just to hear his voice. No one wants to hear it. Get to your point and stop talking. Suds too.
Did the Grand Jury point out that Suds got $1 million in campaign help from Jed York. Did the Grand Jury point out that Suds lost all his elections before he got Jed’s checks. Did the Grand Jury point out that Suds voted to settle lawsuits in the 49ers favor so the city couldn’t make the agreements better
Lisa Gillmor is now occupying a mansion in Suds Jain’s head. He will use any opportunity to attack her or her Dad. Suds shows his disdain for Lisa Gillmor any time he mentions her name.
“This is gonna end in November. We’re gonna wash away the Suds, we’re gonna wash away the Beckers, we’re gonna wash away the Parks. We’re changing. And this is what the citizens want is change here coming in November.” (David ?? speaking at Tuesday’s council meeting under public presentation)
Councilman Jain,
You, Becker, and Park, in the best interest of our City, need to immediately submit your resignations.
It was actually the Civil Grand Jury report that attacked Lisa Gillmor for her poor decisions over 10 years ago. The just never called her out by name which makes me suspect that the Grand Jury was biased and I talked about why I think so. It was Gillmor who made the motion on March 15th, 2012 to approve the Management Agreement with the 49ers which allowed the 49ers to manage the Stadium. My statements were well researched and I encourage everyone to watch the Council Meeting where I point out that Gillmor didn’t seem to understand what she was signing. That is irresponsible. Of course, her reliable mouthpiece, Robert Haugh would never call her out on anything. Remember Gillmor brought the 49ers stadium to Santa Clara and also wrote the first letter to bring FIFA here. Please watch the council meeting.
Suds – I think it’s fair to say the Management Agreement is not the problem. It’s the 49ers greedy, twisted, and illegal re-interpretation of the agreement that’s the problem. It they are truly a community partner in SC, consensus can be reached.
But unfortunately the SC community, they found 5 schills to act as their pitchmen and protect there newly found pot of gold. This is your legacy.