By Robert Haugh

For the past few years, Dr. Tom Shanks has been asking a basic question about Santa Clara:

What happened to a city that was once considered a model for government ethics?

Now, Shanks wants to know what Mission City residents think today.

Shanks has launched a new survey through his Public Trust Now website to measure residents’ and other stakeholders’ views about the direction of the City, ethical leadership, public trust, accountability and quality of life.

It’s the latest step in a project Shanks has been working on for several years.

Santa Clara News Online first reported in 2024 that Shanks was studying how Santa Clara went from a nationally recognized model for ethical government to a city facing serious questions about ethics and public trust.

Shanks knows the history firsthand.

He helped create Santa Clara’s award-winning ethics program and served as the City’s ethics consultant for 17 years. He was also Executive Director of Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

Under the old program, Santa Clara developed a Code of Ethics and Values, ethics training, behavioral standards and programs designed to promote ethical campaigns and increase public confidence in City government.

Shanks has argued that much of that infrastructure disappeared over the years.

He has also become an increasingly vocal critic of City Hall.

In 2025, Shanks criticized the City’s lack of transparency after City staff initially declined to publicly provide clear total compensation information for top executives.

“Public trust requires transparency,” Shanks told SCNO at the time.

Earlier this year, Shanks criticized the City’s handling of its ethics policies and supported creating a truly independent Ethics Commission.

That issue goes back to the 2022 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report that criticized the relationship between the 49ers and members of the City Council and recommended stronger independent ethics oversight.

Shanks has also raised concerns about the millions of dollars 49ers-funded political committees have spent in Santa Clara elections.

In July, Shanks launched Public Trust Now, an independent website focused on ethics, governance and accountability in Santa Clara.

Now he’s asking the public to weigh in.

The survey asks residents and stakeholders to share their views about whether Santa Clara is moving in the right direction and how they view ethical leadership, accountability, public trust and the City’s overall quality of life.

That could provide an interesting comparison to earlier surveys.

According to Public Trust Now, 87 percent of residents surveyed in 2008 believed Santa Clara was moving in the right direction.

By 2024, that number had fallen to just 40 percent.

Shanks believes the decline coincides with the weakening of the City’s ethics infrastructure and growing concerns about the influence of special interests at City Hall.

Public Trust Now says the new survey will help guide future research, discussions and possible solutions.

Shanks describes the website as independent and nonpartisan. He currently funds the project himself as a public service.