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Silicon Valley voter turnout in primary election inches up

Santa Clara County is almost done counting primary election ballots, with advocates hoping a neck-and-neck congressional race and historic county contest will get voters to the polls in November. Voter turnout as of Wednesday sits at 37.38% according to the county’s Registrar of Voters, with 382,958 ballots counted out of just more than 1 million registered...

Lawmakers pass the buck on San Jose transparency bill

A state bill to increase public access to the communication of government officials died on the desks of lawmakers without consideration — a sign of the uphill battle transparency measures face in Sacramento. Senate Bill 908 — introduced in January by State Sen. Dave Cortese — would have required public officials to forward messages about government business...

San Jose program to build backyard homes is thriving

Hundreds of granny units are popping up everywhere in San Jose due to a successful city program implemented five years ago. The city has issued nearly 3,000 permits and seen 1,451 granny units, also known as backyard homes or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), completed since launching its preapproved contractors program in 2019. In the first...

Sunnyvale city manager to retire after steering key changes

Sunnyvale’s top administrator is retiring after seven years on the job. City Manager Kent Steffens will step down in June, according to a Wednesday news release. He led the city in completing recent projects including the new City Hall and kickstarting plans to rebuild the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The city will begin looking for...

San Jose adopts landmark policy to stop displacement

A long-awaited landmark policy will preserve housing specifically for residents at risk of displacement in hopes of keeping them in San Jose. The San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the first policy in the city to give tenant preference based on geography. New or acquired affordable housing projects that are city funded or...

Cupertino spent affordable housing funds on lawsuit

Cupertino is scrambling to fix what city officials are calling an “accounting error” after discovering more than $100,000 in affordable housing dollars went to pay off fees from a housing lawsuit, drawing backlash from residents in a time of fiscal uncertainty. The city used money from its below-market-rate housing fund to pay for a lawsuit filed last year by...

San Jose not diverting 911 calls to mental crisis hotline

San Jose is struggling to divert 911 calls related to mental and emotional distress away from police, despite the county adopting the 988 mental crisis hotline two years ago to handle those situations. A recent report shows county mental health teams in 2023 responded to just 2% of nearly 60,000 San Jose 911 calls that...