By Robert Haugh
Santa Clarans have received a lot of mail this election cycle, mostly from independent expenditures like the 49ers, the Santa Clara Police Officers Association (POA), the Santa Clara Firefighters and the Related Company.
But candidates have produced their own mail, too. And voters should hold them more accountable for what they print about themselves.
This year, Councilmember Kevin Park wins the award for Most Deceptive Mailer. Park is one of the 49er Five candidates on the ballot. The others are Anthony Becker and Suds Jain.
Here’s an image of a mailer that Park sent to Mission City residents recently.
It touts the endorsement of former Police Mike Sellers, the most unpopular Police Chief in Santa Clara history. He was the only one who had his department vote “no confidence” in his leadership because of “lack of honesty and lack of accountability.”
The Mercury News even asked Sellers to resign. And the newspaper hasn’t even done that with Becker since he was indicted!
Sellers did eventually resign before finishing his term. And he cashed out $500,000 after spiking his pension, according to numerous sources.
Park uses Sellers and retired Fire Chief Phil Kleinheinz to suggest he has the support of public safety.
But the mailer drew a rebuke from Jeremy Schmidt, the president of the POA.
“Teresa O’Neill has the sole and united support of Santa Clara police officers and firefighters,” said Schmidt in an email to Santa Clara News Online.
“If anyone implies otherwise, they are trying to deceive voters.”
O’Neill is running against Park in District Four. She seems to have some momentum.
Recently, Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, who represents Santa Clara, endorsed O’Neill.
Park’s “public safety” mailer also implies that he’s a Democrat, but Park isn’t registered as one.
Local political observers consider this a close race.
Suds, are you running out of space for all the people living rent free in your head?
You need a couple extra hands so you can point more fingers at everyone who you think has wronged you.
The fact about the mailers is that the ones sent by Related, POA and Fire fighters have actual facts on them and reference where you can find them. The ones from the 49ers have the best lies they can come up with. They have even recycled lies from the 2022 election. That alone shows me that they think Santa Clarans are not smart enough to remember this. You also forget to mention all the social media, TV, text messages and internet ads that the 49ers have put out on your behalf.
Clearly you are still butt hurt about the charter amendment fiasco you were behind based on your comments about Chief Nikolai. I’m sure you remember that. It cost the city over a half a million dollars and had no chance of passing. But you were determined to carry out your marching orders from Jed.
I’m betting on Santa Clarans to boot you out tomorrow.
Hey Joe, it’s been 2 weeks and results are sinking in. WTF? So many expected Suds would be washed away by now but Jed added more soap. This Suds like Park don’t deserve a 2nd term. They could never get elected until Jed stepped in. You can lead a horse to vote but the result is up to them. Sad. Truly.
Robert,
Kevin Park may win the award for the most deceptive mailer, but perhaps you should give Suds Jain the award for the most dishonest Councilman.
I read his rant. Fortunately, I read the Grand Jury reports thanks to Grandjuryreports.com. Here’s what the Grand Jury says. Nikolai is right.
The Stadium Authority Board/City Council, both past and present, have compounded the issues by 1) allowing changes to the already 49er-friendly terms in Measure J to be adjusted in the Stadium’s legal agreements to further and materially benefit the 49ers; 2) giving away what little leverage and control they did have in settlement agreements; and 3) relinquishing its power to the 49ers over the last decade. By taking a passive role in its oversight duties, the Board has undermined Stadium Authority staff.
CASERTA
NEWS
Actual roll call votr on Caserta will be done on nov 14.
In respojse to my cure and correct demand
Sudshanshu,
Do you have “news article alert” notifications for SCNO? Do you need a friend?
Does anyone know what Sellers has been doing since he bailed as Chief?
He hates mayor Gilmore. Working with Jed to destroy SC. Rumors have swirled he’s playing footsies with a local entrepreneur??
Here we have Lisa Gillmor’s self appointed awards committee giving out awards for most deceptive mailers without giving any proof of why my own mailers are deceptive. Maybe he should give himself a Jabroni since he certainly won’t ever give one to his benefactor Lisa Gillmor. It’s the Faux News Online. I have received 7 mailers from the 49ers but 3 mailers from Related, 4 from Firefighters and 2 from POA for a total of 9 mailers benefiting my opponent.
Interesting that we have Haugh calling “Police Mike Sellers, the most unpopular Police Chief in Santa Clara history” without mentioning that Pat Nikolai is the least qualified Police Chief in recent memory who only won because he ran unopposed after POA pressured Assistant Chief of Police Dan Winter to drop out of the race. Maybe it was because Nikolai was head of the POA for 17 years. Remember the POA is a Political Action Committee that spends heavily on elections. Nikolai has become more political than any other police chief that I can remember, being featured on POA funded mailers. Of course, an appointed chief could not get involved in elections and we have the only elected chief of police in the entire State. Remember Deanna Santana promoted a second assistant chief presumably because she had little faith Nikolai could do that job. Nikolai has no performance goals nor an performance reviews.
In the POA flyer, Nikolai states “They made the stadium contracts worse” which is completely false. The settlement agreements increased the amount that the 49ers pay for safety at NFL games as well as the amount generated for Senior and Youth Fees. I don’t think he understands the contracts.
According to transparentcalifornia.com Pat Nikolai’s base salary was $328,772 and his total compensation was $568,880. According to the Mercury News Article this week: https://enewspaper.mercurynews.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5546bfac-4082-4895-90bf-4549a3cb7a46&share=true
“A 2021 PERF study found that about 7% of the 335 chiefs polled reported an annual salary of more than $250,000.
The last two permanent commissioners of the New York Police Department had a salary of about $243,000, according to news accounts. Garry McArthur, the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, makes roughly $260,000 a year, city records show.”
Many people, including me, question what Nikolai even does since his public calendar shows that he attends very very few meetings and I’ve received more briefings from other people in the department than from Nikolai.
Police reformer Jain.
Any views about Park hiring a rock cocaine dealer.
Was Nilolai a police officer, Suds??
That means he was exoepted to sacrifuce his life for someone robbing you.
Another Suds rants…. I can picture him furiously slamming his keyboard as he types these comments that go off on a tangent.
Notice how he stopped responding to his other rant on Nextdoor when it quickly turned against him?
@Suds I can tell you he spends his days searching for all that missing money from the BMX track that he stood at the podium and swore up and down that he would get to the bottom of. Another great example of cozying up between police/developer/city collusion to strip the community of a very viable asset at the expense of great people. The best part though is that 400 kids who participated there weekly have 800 parents that all are SC voters and won’t forget how that all played out. Good luck tomorrow in your political races who would ever have thought that political races would outlast the #1 track in the country that no longer runs races. Crazy times we live in!
Kevin Park record
Park special assistants
ROGER LEE, busted for selling cicaine
JAY REED, fired for writing twitter urging wimen to wstch men have happy endings
Park
Misuses children’s books
Shortchangex non profits
Mike Sellers didn’t “spike” his pension. The $500,000 included the payouts of unused PTO, Vacation and sick time. Those payouts don’t contribute to his pension. His pension is still his base salaries.
All officers get these payouts (maybe not this high of value) when they retire.
News Flash
Kevin park managed by
ROGER LEE
orecision politics
https://www.metrosiliconvalley.com/papers/metro/05.22.97/group-home-9721.html
Noted rock cocaine seller
What a classic picture of former 49er Council Member….dang, can’t remember his name now.
Wait a minute it will come to me, hold on, I think I should at least recognize the person who was the 49er Council member from my District, even if half of his face covered up.
Ok, I give up, who is that person on the Right?
Really, that’s Kevin Park!
Funny I just looked up who he was, and the first word to describe him was, Irrelevant! According to Mr. Haugh’s Blogger Rules, I am not allowed to type the other words that were used to describe him, fair enough I will honor that request.
I hear he has a new book to publicly show case.
Thankfully he will never get that chance.
The title of this new book is….
“All my friends have been voted out of Office”
Maybe we can invite Mr. Kirk Vartan up to do a special presentation, I believe he has earned that honor.
Burt Field
I do wish these weren’t all printed on glossy cardstock. At least then I’d be able to compost them and turn them into something positive.