May 18, 2006


Cortese clears the slate on lobbyist activities

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

After two weeks of discussion in the press and a “non-decision” by the council, Councilmember Dave Cortese may be free of the allegations that he misled the public and violated the city charter.

But whether it will be a major blow to his campaign for mayor in a tight race remains to be seen.

“People are really reaching for straws,” Cortese said, “so intent on winning this election for Cindy Chavez at all costs that they are willing to twist things around and make things up.”

The council voted unanimously May 9 to back Ken Yeager’s motion to reaffirm city policy that issues like this should be sent to the rules committee first. The committee meets every Wednesday at 2 p.m., but in the two Wednesday’s following the decision, no one had raised the issue to the rules committee.

The allegations were brought by Councilwoman Nora Campos and signed by Councilwoman Nancy Pyle, both of whom support Chavez.

They accused Cortese of directing staff in a memo, which is against the city charter, and lying to the council about his meetings with lobbyists and developers involved in a large residential project in his district.

The crux of the accusation lies in a quote from Cortese in a city council meeting a year ago on May 17 when he said, “I haven't met with the developers’ lobbyists on this issue at all.”

But Cortese said “the issue” wasn’t the Evergreen development in general, as Campos asserts. It was the very specific topic that was on the council meeting agenda that night; which was reconstituting what is now known as the Evergreen East Hills Visioning Strategy Task Force, a group making recommendations to the city council on the project.

“If the public looked at the agenda that night what would they think the issue was?” said Cortese. “It was about changing the composition of the task force.”

But to Cortese, the accusations that he met with developers about the project and tainted the process is still damaging. It could be a blow to his campaign because of his image as someone who does not entertain special interests. Cortese has repeatedly said that he hasn’t taken any lobbyist contributions in his campaign.

“I seldom if ever have met with lobbyists on any issue over the last five years,” he said.

However, Campos claims to have several lobbyist reports which claim they met with Cortese.

In response, Cortese says the system by which lobbyists report their activities is flawed. He contends that lobbyists will report that attending a public meeting, dropping off a memo, or leaving a phone message can be considered lobbying activity. But these aren’t private meetings, Cortese said, and there is no penalty for lobbyists who over report their activities.

Inside the lobbyist reports on file with the city clerk there are no explanations about what goes on at a meeting between a lobbyist and city official, just a list of contacts, a subject, and a rough number of “meetings.”

One lobbyist Cortese allegedly met with regarding the Evergreen development was Ash Pirayou. Pirayou happened to be Cortese’s election law attorney, and Cortese met with him to tell him he no longer needed his services. It was then that Pirayou told Cortese he was going to be lobbying on behalf of an Evergreen development crew. But Cortese said he didn’t respond to the statement and had no way of knowing that it would be brought up.

“If somebody walks up to me and says something, I can’t press a mute button,” Cortese said.

Dustin DeRollo, another lobbyist cited by Campos, said that his lobbying efforts with Cortese were limited to a memo he dropped off to all city council members. Cortese had told him he was not interested in meeting with him after he made a request with his chief of staff.

Another lobbyist cited was engineer Thomas A. Armstrong. Armstrong reportedly registered as a lobbyist out of caution, because anyone who spends too much time at city hall is “considered a lobbyist, registered or not,” Cortese said. Armstrong listed his attendance at meetings as lobbyist activity.

Lobbyist Gerry DeYoung said his lobbying activity, also cited by Campos, was limited to attending public meetings on Evergreen development.

Before the May 9 city council meeting, Campos added another report from developer Robert Freed of KB homes. Cortese said he never met with Freed but received a phone message from him explaining that Freed had just met with Mayor Ron Gonzales on the issue of reconstituting the task force.

Despite the clarifications from Cortese on these activities Campos reportedly still stands by her accusations that Cortese met with developers and tainted the process. She did not return phone calls by press time.

Cortese said he feels it is unfair that Gonzales, who actually did meet with lobbyists and developers about the Evergreen East Hills Visioning Task Force and then unfairly rearranged the group, hasn’t come under fire for the issue.

The other part of the accusations point to Cortese’s perceived direction of city staff, which is a possible violation of the city charter. In a memo to city staff and the task force, Cortese wrote, “after hearing community and developer proposals, I am hereby directing city staff as follows…”

Laurel Prevetti, deputy planning director for San Jose, said she did not feel like she was directed by the memo.

“Maybe it was an unfortunate choice of words,” Prevetti said. “From a strict sense it’s not appropriate for a council member to direct staff to do anything. The numbers in the memo were not anything new. He was summarizing where we were in the community process.”

At the May 9 city council meeting, 20 public speakers showed up to speak in support of Cortese.