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Local workers reached an agreement Friday afternoon with San Jose’s largest recycling hauler after a brief strike that threatened service for more than 175,000 homes. The strike came after Teamsters Local 350 and California Waste Solutions (CWS) deadlocked over a contract for 10 clerical workers who provide customer service. Union members claimed the company was taking away...
UPDATE: San Jose mayor selects newcomer as vice mayor
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has announced his choice for vice mayor is first-term Councilmember Rosemary Kamei, in hopes of bringing together a divided governing body. “San Jose residents don’t care about labels, they care about results,” Mahan said Friday. “Rosemary Kamei is collaborative, thoughtful, independent, has a ton of common sense and is a...
San Jose struggles to reduce homeless count
San Jose’s unhoused population is not as big as initially reported, but the number of chronically homeless people continues to grow, new county data shows. A report released last month shows San Jose with 6,650 homeless people in 2022—a drop of roughly 100 people from when preliminary data was released in May. Despite the drop, the current homeless...
San Jose lobbyists skirt transparency
In the heart of Silicon Valley, lobbyists of powerful organizations meet frequently with city officials, but not everyone discloses what they discuss. A San José Spotlight review of 2022 lobbying disclosure reports show how some lobbyists failed to divulge details of their meetings. While some provide a blanket statement about who they work for, others...
Storm displaces San Jose homeless living along creeks
Geraldo Garcia had 10 minutes to pack his belongings, scramble into a car and leave his makeshift shelter near Coyote Creek. The threat of flooding from an unprecedented atmospheric river storm gave him barely enough time to grab his essentials. “I’m sad. I’m desperate. I really don’t know where to go,” Garcia said, who’s been living...
Disgraced eBay exec wielded power at San Jose City Hall
A disgraced ex-eBay employee helped make high-level decisions for former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo three months after he lost his job at the tech giant for his alleged part in a stalking campaign. Boys and Girls Club Silicon Valley CEO Steve Wymer, who was fired by eBay in September 2019 for his alleged involvement...
Say hello to San Jose’s new mayor
A photo hanging in the lobby of San Jose City Hall still lists Mayor Matt Mahan as the District 10 councilmember. While the title will be updated soon, Mahan, who was sworn in on Dec. 29 and took the helm Sunday, isn’t waiting around. With a limited two-year term ahead of him, Mahan is building out...
Murali Srinivasan wins tiebreaker for Sunnyvale City Council
Nearly two months after election day, a winner has finally been named in the Sunnyvale District 3 City Council race. Until Tuesday morning, the race was locked in a tie between Murali Srinivasan and Justin Wang, following the election and two recounts. In a brief but tense public event on Tuesday, both candidates wrote their...
Here’s who could be appointed to the San Jose City Council
Nearly three dozen people have applied for two open seats on the San Jose City Council, some just hours before the Monday midnight deadline. As of Jan. 3, 24 people have applied for the District 10 seat, which became vacant after former Councilmember Matt Mahan won his race for San Jose mayor. Thirteen are eyeing...
Flood risk grows as San Jose expects more rain
San Jose has gone from parched earth to soggy ground after this past weekend’s soaking, and more is on the way. San Jose got nearly 1.5 inches of rainfall last weekend, with some flooding around the South Bay and more serious flooding in the San Francisco area. Some areas around San Jose’s creeks experienced flooding, primarily impacting...