Santa Clara political observers worry that former officials are making moves to return to City Hall.
The Santa Clara City Council fired City Manager Deanna Santana and City Attorney Brian Doyle in 2022, but they’re still sticking around. Santana recently donated about $100 to each of the four council candidates backed by Mayor Lisa Gillmor. The move has some worried Santana could return to City Hall in the future. Doyle recently attended a handful of council meetings to discuss Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury reports and the city’s role in approving Levi’s Stadium to host major sports events.
The council majority provided vague reasons for firing both, but cited a need for a new direction. Since then, the city’s gotten out of major litigation against the 49ers and patched the city’s multimillion-dollar deficit. Both Santana and Doyle aligned with Gillmor, including against the 49ers, and they were fired after she lost support from the council majority.
At the Oct. 8 council meeting, former city facilities maintenance worker and former AFSCME Local 101 President Gary Ferraris shared concerns that Santana and her anti-union actions might return to the city. He said her leadership has brushed off worker complaints and sidelined employee safety.
Santana did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Ferraris, who retired last year, told San José Spotlight that while the city was responding to resident concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, the HR director Santana hired regularly dismissed worker safety concerns, such as issues related to COVID-19 transmission through garbage pickups. He also said her leadership team aided in the city’s steep decline in staff morale.
“It was horrible,” he told San José Spotlight. “She will tell you that it’s all about the pandemic and, sure, I’m sure the pandemic had some impact on that. … (But) her track record shows that she is not good for the employees.”
Campaign filings show Santana lives in Sunnyvale, but donated money to four Santa Clara council candidates — $100 each to David Kertes, Satish Candra and Kelly Cox, and $150 to Teresa O’Neill. All four candidates are endorsed by Gillmor and would likely align with her on the council, if elected.
Santana is poised to potentially sue the city over wrongful termination and breach of contract. She filed a claim against the city in September 2023, which alleges she was fired in retaliation for calling out councilmembers for their connections to the 49ers and the city did not pay the full severance package outlined in her contract.
Ferraris said if Gillmor has an allied council majority, he worries she could reinstate Santana or Doyle — or that Santana could be hired as a consultant on the city’s multimillion-dollar infrastructure bond, which is on this year’s ballot.
“If she ever set foot into City Hall in any official capacity rather than a general citizen, I think that would be a horrible thing for the city,” Ferraris said.
He was less worried about Doyle’s engagement in city meetings, but still didn’t like it, citing Doyle’s handling of the city’s California Voting Rights Act lawsuit. The city tried skirting the law’s required transition to council district elections and lost the ensuing lawsuit, forcing the transition and costing the city more than $3 million. Ferraris blamed Doyle for the expensive litigation.
Doyle said he had no independent authority in the voting rights lawsuit and declined to elaborate on his role because most of the discussions happened in closed sessions.
“The narrative that I somehow controlled that case or I was not giving good advice or any of that is just … a narrative that I can’t really defend,” Doyle told San José Spotlight. “I could if I didn’t have those confidentiality obligations, I could much more clearly explain to the public how my role was completely defensible.”
As a Santa Clara resident, Doyle told San José Spotlight he’s interested in what happens in the city. He added that it’s not unusual for former city officials to continue engaging with City Hall after their tenure, citing former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, who ran for mayor in 2022.
Doyle sued the city for unlawful termination in 2023, alleging councilmembers conspired with the 49ers to get him fired. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Amber Rosen in September. Doyle can still appeal. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Doyle said he would consider returning to work for the city if offered. But he acknowledged it would be a difficult decision due to the tension that led to his firing. He said the 49ers harassed and threatened him, a claim he has previously made and the 49ers have thrown back at him.
He added he felt betrayed by Councilmembers Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal, after they initially voted to terminate the 49ers’ management agreement, and then worked to settle the ensuing dispute, which kept the 49ers in charge of Levi’s Stadium management.
“I just don’t know how much more of that I want to allow to happen, so I would have to carefully consider whether or not, what level of participation I would be willing to enter into, if I were asked,” Doyle told San José Spotlight.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.