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Santa Clara County wants to empower minority-owned businesses

Santa Clara County is launching a disparity study to level the playing field for minority-owned businesses. The county wants to be more inclusive by identifying underrepresented businesses facing language and cultural barriers that have been left out in the past. Dennis King, executive director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley, said organizations that get...

San José Spotlight is suing San Jose, Mayor Liccardo over private email use

San José Spotlight has partnered with the First Amendment Coalition to sue San Jose and Mayor Sam Liccardo for improperly withholding public records in violation of the state’s transparency laws. The organizations are seeking reforms to ensure more government transparency in San Jose and compliance with the California Public Records Act. San José Spotlight, represented by...

San Jose mayor’s ally wrote gas exemption to his benefit

A Silicon Valley energy company that lobbied for a last-minute gas ban exemption crafted the policy language it benefited from—with help from Mayor Sam Liccardo’s close friend. San Jose-based Bloom Energy, whose Vice President Carl Guardino is a personal friend to Mayor Sam Liccardo, worked directly with the mayor’s office to shape and write a controversial...

Which San Jose council candidates lead in campaign contributions?

With half of the San Jose City Council’s seats up for grabs, this election season will be contested and costly. Candidates are required to disclose campaign contributions—the most recent deadline being Monday for funds raised between Dec. 9-31. While not every candidate has their numbers in, here’s a look at what we do know for the...

Mahan still leads in fundraising for San Jose mayoral race

As San Jose’s mayoral race heats up, campaign fundraising is following suit with the four leading candidates collectively raising more than $1.4 million in one month. Three councilmembers—Dev Davis, Matt Mahan and Raul Peralez—and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez are all vying for the job. All contributions and donor information are based on campaign...

San Jose council considers cutting fees for downtown high-rise

The San Jose City Council is looking at cutting fees for a downtown high-rise, potentially saving the developer more than $4 million. Councilmembers will decide later this month whether to halve two construction taxes and waive the city’s Affordable Housing Impact Fee for The Carlysle—a proposed mixed-use tower at 51 Notre Dame Street. A Tuesday vote to...

Palo Alto offers more help to renters facing eviction

The Palo Alto City Council is expanding relocation assistance to include more renters, but the only long-time renting councilmember could not participate. The council voted 5-1 Monday to pass an emergency ordinance requiring landlords of smaller residential buildings to pay relocation assistance to tenants during evictions. An existing law already requires the owners of buildings...