By Robert Haugh
Tomorrow’s City Council meeting includes the first public opportunity to evaluate the FIFA World Cup information.
Here are the agendized items:
- Closed session – Conference with Legal Counsel-Existing Litigation — William Kelly v. City of Santa Clara, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Case Number ADJ16898646
- Reconsideration of the Council Action on Appointments of the City’s representative(s) on the Cities Association of Santa Clara County
- Recognition of Wilcox High School Varsity Football Team for Winning the Central Coast Section Division II Football Championship Title and Recognition of Brayden Rosa as the Santa Clara County Player of the Year
- Proclamation of Black History Month
- Santa Clara Women’s League Presents Showtime 2025 on March 1 and March 2, 2025
- Public hearing – Action on the Proposed FIFA World Cup 2026 Assignment and Assumption Agreement with Bay Area Host Committee and Forty Niners Stadium Management Company LLC (ManCo), Proposed “Field Improvements” Required by FIFA in Connection with the Event, a Guaranty of Certain 2026 FIFA World Cup Obligations Executed by Forty Niners Football Company LLC (TeamCo) in favor of the City and Stadium Authority, and Related Actions
- Public Hearing: Action on Proposed Update to the City’s Citizen Participation Plan for the Use of Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Grant Funds
This is a “news” article from the Silicon Valley Voice from yesterday. The reporter claims in the headline that FIFA will “put Santa Clara in the black”. The new version of the 49er 5 seem to be hard at work covering for the 49ers, once again. Where is our city attorney and city manager? Our city is facing financial ruin for years if anything, at all, from the best case scenarios don’t come to fruition. The $400 million we just voted on to improve our city will go into the toilet thanks to the incestuous and criminal activity of the 49er 5 and the 49ers. Becker was the fall man for so many others, both city officials and 49er managament alike. I sure hope the DA is not done and neither is the Grand Jury. Suds, Park, et al need to be investigated.
https://www.svvoice.com/fifa-deal-appears-to-put-santa-clara-in-the-black/
Unfortunately, I cannot be at the City Council meeting tomorrow night so I am submitting a statement that I would have hoped to read:
The 49er elected councilmembers have obviously not learned from the Grand Jury reports that called out bad behavior, lack of ethics and transparency. At the January 28 council meeting, Suds Jain asked for a reconsideration of the appointment of Kelly Cox to the Santa Clara County Cities Association. This is after the council unanimously approved all the City Committee/Commission appointments at the January 14 meeting.
I just want to add that Kevin Park NEVER attended a Cities Association meeting as an alternate in the two years that I was the Board Member representing the City of Santa Clara. He stated at the January 14 meeting that he did. I attended EVERY meeting with the exception of one when I had a conflict with a community meeting. I asked if he could attend and he could not because he was covering another meeting as an alternate for Raj Chahal.
Now Suds Jain wants to remove Kelly Cox in attempt to put Kevin Park on Cities Association after he was denied. Wow, this is like deja vu when almost two years to the day when I was absent from the City Council meeting due to breaking my arm that day and Mayor Gillmor was recuperating from hip surgery. Then Vice Mayor Kevin Park was running the meeting and used the opportunity to remove me as the liaison to the Santa Clara Cities Association and also removed Mayor Gillmor from NURC making her an alternate. It’s the same meeting where he attacked a member of the public by reading from a children’s book to insult them.
What has become of those Grand Jury reports that were supposed to go back to Ethics and Governance to address the Grand Jury recommendations? Nothing. Crickets. Because it would mean that this abominable behavior can continue without question.
I hope the Grand Jury is still watching the unethical behavior of members of this City Council and maybe there will be a third Grand Jury report calling out their despicable behavior to suit their own personal agendas. Never thinking about what is good for the public they were elected to serve.
When you ask the 49er five and the niners, ‘how much do you think we will put up with?’, they take it as a challenge. People like this do not stop pushing and taking on their own. THEY HAVE TO BE STOPPED!!
Despite numerous promises that there would be ample time to review the World Cup documents, staff breaks their commitment to the public and waits til the last minute to unveil several new documents full of very severe risks to the City. Here are some highlights I have been able to find in the short amount of time:
– Despite never having mentioned this, staff is now proposing that the CITY sign on as a party and obligate itself to perform services for the nonprofit Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) and ManCo and give them (the 49ers) the right to disapprove payment for those services!
– Staff is recommending Council to approve documents that have extensive redactions of terms! (Doesn’t the City Attorney have an ethical obligation to inform his clients of important information?)
– Staff is proposing that the City give up its right to communicate with FIFA and let the BAHC do all the interaction!
– The legal documents contain dozens of serious risks that the staff report does not address.
Once again, the 49ers are conducting a “bums’ rush”, pressuring the City Council to act. It is totally unfair of staff to expect the two new Council members to vote on this deal tomorrow night with so little opportunity for them to absorb this latests overreach and to receive public review and comment. Let’s see how the other Council members will treat them and the public, as the 49ers muscle to push Santa Clara around.