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OPINION: Follow the Money – From Jed York to Gary Ferraris and Kimberley Williams

By Brian Doyle

Here we go again. 

The 49ers’ owners have just put up close to a million dollars into expenditure committees to elect Gary Ferraris as Santa Clara’s next mayor and Kimberley Williams to replace Raj Chahal as District 2’s council representative. 

What’s going on here?

Over the last several election cycles, the 49ers have spent millions to obtain a council majority to get decisions in their favor at the Santa Clara residents’ expense. 

The 2020 election brought them the 5-vote majority that awarded them back the stadium management agreement riddled with conflict of interest violations. 

The 2024 election saw the 49ers preserve a majority that rubberstamped the backroom deals with the NFL for the Super Bowl and with FIFA for the World Cup.

What did the public get out of the council that the 49ers put into office? 

A compliant City staff who:

  • fiercely and illegally refuses to disclose public records about the financial transactions important to the 49ers; 
  • supports nondisclosure agreements (NDA’s) that hide crucial financial information from the council members who believe that the public has a right to know the basis for decisions involving millions of dollars in public expenditures; and 
  • still refuses to tell the public whether the City has been reimbursed the millions of dollars spent on the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup.

By all accounts FIFA made billions off the recent World Cup. No doubt the NFL made a bundle off the Super Bowl; and you can bet that Jed York and his family will continue to roll in the dough with a council majority that always votes their way.

Every dollar that Santa Clara spends that does not get reimbursed and every dollar lost in Stadium performance rent to the City’s General Fund represents a subsidy to these billionaires.

A million dollars in campaign spending in trying to preserve this gravy train is a drop in the bucket. It’s hard to believe that a guy who would nickel-dime a trailer park hooker doesn’t expect a return from the officials that he sponsors.

Keep a close eye on Ferraris and Williams – will they just be more of the same-old, same-old?

Brian Doyle is a longtime Santa Clara resident and served as the City Attorney from 2017 to 2021.

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