January 12, 2006

Gonzales beats council to the punch by
resigning from major committees

Council advances mayor’s budget message by
two weeks as punishment for Norcal deal

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales beat his colleagues to the punch Tuesday night by self-punishing himself for his involvement in the Norcal garbage deal. He resigned from four powerful municipal committees and appointied council members of his choice to replace him.

San Jose City Councilmember David Cortese, a mayoral candidate, voted against spending $4 million to continue to subsidize the Grand Prix race next summer. He also said he suspected possible violations of the Brown Act regarding his replacements on four committees. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Gonzales’ committee withdrawal came as further castigation for his involvement in a secret garbage deal that cost $11.25 million in payments to Norcal Waste Systems and its subcontractor California Waste Solutions.

The scandal, according to Gonzales’ critics, has weakened his last year in office. The private deal, being investigated by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, resulted in a $1.40-a-month garbage rate increase in 2003 for 155,000 city households. On Dec. 13, the council unanimously censured him.

The council unanimously approved the mayor’s committee relinquishment, after Councilman Ken Yeager made a motion against publicly debating the matter due “to the lateness of the hour,” which passed 9-2. Councilmen Forrest Williams and Chuck Reed voted against it.

The mayor’s action came in response to Yeager’s desire last month to further sanction Gonzales for his participation in the private deal, which a Santa Clara County grand jury investigation and an independent investigator’s report found had misled the council and the public.

“The mayor has made the right decision in voluntarily stepping down from his council appointments,” Yeager said.

Gonzales will no longer serve as co-chairman of the Coyote Valley Taskforce Committee, as director of the Valley Transportation Authority board, as a member of the San Jose/Santa Clara Treatment Plant Advisory Committee and as a member of the Habitat Conservation Plan Advisory Group. The first two committees are powerful and visible bodies in which the mayor has served.

Former Vice Mayor Pat Dando, now president of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, sitting between two audience members during Tuesday’s city council meeting, spoke in favor of continuing the Grand Prix race next summer to help the local economy. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Although Gonzales reportedly did not discuss his intention to ask specific council members to serve as his replacement on fouor committees, he surprisingly had their tacit agreement to step in for him.

Councilmember David Cortese, who serves on the VTA board, said he suspected possible violations of the Brown Act.

The mayor appointed Councilmember Nancy Pyle to serve on the Coyote Valley Taskforce, Councilmember Madison Nguyen to serve on the VTA board, Councilmember Linda Lezotte to serve on the San Jose/Santa Clara Treatment Plant Advisory Committee and Councilmember Judy Chirco to serve on the Habitat Conservation Advisory board.

“I believe our most important consideration as a city council is always to determine our course of action that will best serve the people of San Jose and to accomplish the policy goals that are most important to our residents and the future of our community,” Gonzales wrote in his memo circulated before the council meeting started at 1:30 p.m. The issue didn’t come before the body until later in the afternoon.

“It’s my hope that these changes in assignments will allow us to do exactly that while enhancing our strength, both as a council and as individual policy makers, to make further progress to reach critically important goals. We cannot afford to lose time and focus on matters that interfere with our progress; these changes will let us achieve an effective transition in my final year as mayor,” he added.

San Jose City Councilmember Chuck Reed, a mayoral candidate, voted against spending $4 million to continue to subsidize the Grand Prix race this coming July. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

David Vossbrink, the mayor’s spokesman, said Gonzales resigned from the committees to allow the council to return to city business and build its strength, leadership and expertise on issues that will have a long life past his term in office.

“On one hand the mayor would certainly prefer to be in the roles that he’s been in, but he was also elected to serve the community and to make decisions for the community’s best interest,” Vossbrink said. “It goes beyond whatever personal desire he has and what’s best for the city.”

One of only three public speakers on Gonzales’ committee withdrawal said he didn’t think his resignation from the committees was punitive enough. “I personally feel that the mayor should be removed from office,” he said.

Lee Wilcox, Pyle’s chief of staff, said the councilmember was excited about serving on the Coyote Valley Taskforce and had expressed a desire to be on the committee as soon as she was elected last year “because of the huge impact on District 10.”

Cortese said the mayor’s committee resignations made him a “lame duck.”

“He was a lame duck before this happened. He was a lame duck before the Norcal investigator’s report, and he’s an extreme lame duck now. It’s got to be extremely difficult to be a public servant in that position,” Cortese said. “I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be in an elected position and be debunked and disempowered of any real authority to do anything.”

San Jose City Councilmember Ken Yeager’s further sanctions of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales for his involvement in a secret garbage deal with Norcal Waste Systems were preempted when Gonzales agreed, before the Tuesday meeting, to step down from four council committees and accept further budget review. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Cortese said the mayor’s upstaging of the council’s further sanctions was “classic Ron Gonzales.”

“Which way is the wind blowing, 24 hours before a vote occurs, he could be opposed to it and he’ll turn around and be for it. He jumps to the correct side of the vote and runs to the front of the parade. It’s been going on for years. It doesn’t surprise me,” Cortese told reporters after the meeting.

“I think it’s important we don’t have a double standard,” said Councilmember Chuck Reed, a mayoral candidate, referring to former Councilman Terry Gregory’s removal from council committees before he resigned from office a year ago after pleading no contest to 11 misdemeanor counts including failing to report gifts.

Reed said the scandal is not over for Gonzales and that City Hall “outsiders” have received subpoenas to testify next week before the grand jury.

Advancing the budget
The council also unanimously approved two memos, one from San Jose Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez and Councilmembers Yeager and Lezotte regarding the council’s early review of the Gonzales’ budget message for fiscal year 2006-07 and one from Gonzales, which agreed to the budget’s further scrutiny.

The budget message will be released March 7. The council will also convene a budget study session March 13 to further review the message, to be approved during the council’s March 21 meeting. It will then be forwarded to the city manager’s office for preparation of the proposed city operating and capital budget, to be released May 1.

Traditionally, each city department submits its budget request to the city manager’s office by the end of January.

The office compiles the requests and forwards them to the mayor’s budget and policy office in mid-February to assist the mayor in preparing the budget message, to be released March 15.

David Vossbrink, a spokesman for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, said his boss’ resignation from committees was not a diminishment of his power. He also denied accusations of impropriety in the Grand Prix race $4 million extra subsidy approved by the San Jose City Council Tuesday by an 8-3 vote. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

The added steps in the budget process, they wrote, “will help to reaffirm the strong working relationship between the council and city staff when it comes to the budget process and ultimately move the city forward.”

Vossbrink said the move didn’t diminish the mayor’s authority, but gave the council greater knowledge, involvement and increased strength in the budget process.

Grand Prix
The council also voted 8-3 to spend $4 million to continue the San Jose Grand Prix car race and meet the event’s financial obligations in the amount of $2.9 million for this year’s summer race and $1.1 million for the 2007 race. Reed, Yeager and Cortese voted against the expenditure.

The city learned Monday that it was left with $600,000 of un-reimbursed expenses from the Champ Car World Series event last year. Gonzales is said to have learned about the added expenditure in early December, but the council and the public learned about it Monday when the news was posted on the city’s Web site in the form of a staff report attached to Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle and City Manager Del Borgsdorf flank San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales during Tuesday’s meeting. Gonzales resigned from four council committees and accepted further budget review as punishment for his involvement in a secret garbage deal that raised rates for city households. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Some council members complained the race’s unexpected cost approval was also a backroom deal by the mayor. “This simply has to stop that memos that are ready are not distributed to us just because the matter is held,” Lezotte said about the Grand Prix expenditure.

“This is not a correct process. This is wrong,” said Cortese. “We just censured the mayor. He said he would work hard to gain back our trust, and now we’re presented today, on 24-hour notice, with a $4 million deal that he evidently signed off in December.”

Reed said, while he thought the race was a great event for the city, he could not give event organizers the money due to the expected $70 million budget shortfall the city will have to deal with this fiscal year.

“It’s going to be the worst budget we have faced as a council,” Reed said. “I’m sorry we can’t afford the rent. This is too much money.”