By Dr. Tom Shanks
Tonight, the Santa Clara City Council will deliberate on the San Francisco 49ers’ proposal for the Stadium Authority to allocate $640,000 toward leasing an additional facility beyond Levi’s Stadium, which the city owns and leases to the team.
The 49ers essentially want the public dollars to pay for their private office space. The $640,000 is for just the first year. The team wants funding to continue for many years and increase annually.
This decision carries significant implications for public trust. Residents should rightfully question whether their Council will prioritize the community’s interests over special, private, or personal agendas.
Between 2009 and 2023, the 49ers and their ownership invested approximately $13.1 million into Santa Clara elections, aiming to secure a Council favorable to their interests. According to my study of City Council decisions related to the 49ers, it’s clear that the team succeeded.
I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion.
A 2022 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report criticized a five-member Council bloc—comprising Anthony Becker, Karen Hardy, Suds Jain, Raj Chahal, and Kevin Park—for prioritizing the 49ers’ interests over those of the city. The report highlighted concerns about government ethics and transparency.
In response, the Council majority disputed the characterization of a “voting bloc,” asserting that their decisions were independent and not uniformly aligned. However, an analysis of Council meeting minutes from 2023 and 2024 reveals a consistent pattern: Becker, Hardy, Jain, Chahal, and Park frequently voted together, often opposing Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilmember Kathy Watanabe.
On 17 proposals involving the 49ers, spending, contracts, and funding, the Council majority often voted 5-2 in favor of the team’s interests. These votes justified the group’s moniker: the “49er Five.”
In the 2024 election cycle, the team spent over $2.4 million in independent expenditures to support specific Council candidates. The 49ers succeeded in electing a new Councilmember: Albert Gonzalez who represents the neighborhoods surrounding the stadium. His decisions in particular will demonstrate how much sway the team has and will also provide a case study of how money influences political decisions at the local level.
Residents expect their elected officials to act independently and uphold the community’s best interests. As the Council evaluates the 49ers’ proposal, transparency and accountability remain paramount to ensure decisions benefit Santa Clara as a whole, free from external influences and personal political agendas.
Dr. Tom Shanks is a renowned ethicist who established Santa Clara’s award-winning ethics program from 1998-2014. He is currently engaged in an ethics case study of how the 49ers have used independent expenditures to win votes, influence Santa Clara City Councilmembers, intimidate the Grand Jury, and buy positive local media coverage.
It is a foregone conclusion that the 49er 5 puppets will unanimously vote to give another million to their puppet master. The 49er 5 are absolutely disgraceful and shameful yet sheeple stupidly keep voting them into office. Whoever thinks they have the best interests in heart for Santa Clara citizens needs to have their head examined. Our city attorney and city manager, especially the city manager, are so in the tank for the 49ers and Levi’s stadium it couldn’t be more obvious.
Jed York is the only NFL owner with two open political corruption cases. York is not Balder but Loki, a malevolent dark prince with delusions.
News flash.
Trump task force investigating Santa Clara FIFA game.
Curious to the spin that these “puppets” will trying to sell to us tonight.
Curious to see which side of the aisle “our” City Attorney and “our” City Manager are going to be standing on.
Tip it will be difficult for them to justify voting to help this Private Company again…. we shall see.
It’s either going to be the Residents they support, or the 49ers.
Burt Field
I often wonder where the tax money is going as I attempt to navigate through the traffic and dilapidated black top that roughly passed for roads!
The city has gone mad with high- density building projects, yet cannot manage to maintain what it already created.
Parts of the city, (primarily West), look like a third world country and the signage is unreadable to most Americans and older citizens of the city.
Yet, the face shown to the outsider’s (237 and Great America Parkway) is pristine, modern and spacious.
The Mayor is of an age and ancestry to remember what the city was like (under 70, 000 residents, affordable, bikable, safe, family oriented with a patchwork of orchards and farms and views of the surrounding mountains.
Tech and the NFL have taken center stage, and the city has not kept its bargain with the taxpayer.