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San Jose’s campaign watchdog commission at serious risk

San Jose’s campaign watchdog commission is at serious risk of dissolving after city leaders say no one has applied to fill four vacancies on the panel. The city is scrambling to find commissioners in the next few weeks or be forced to turn over local election law enforcement to the state FPPC, which means no...

Police Activities League restructuring to ‘get back to the glory days’

The San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services department on Monday launched the first of two public hearings on the city’s Police Activities League, which has long been a bridge between local communities and their police officers but recently struggled with serious mismanagement and financial problems. Since 1968, San Jose police officers and kids in...

San Jose seeks input on rebuilding PAL program

The first step in overhauling the struggling San Jose Police Activities League begins tonight, seven months after a scathing city audit revealed serious mismanagement, financial problems and no checks and balances over money. The PAL program, which began in 1968, offers youth athletic programs and mentorship from police officers for hundreds of kids. But an...

Coyote Creek flood lawsuit continues against San Jose, water district

A judge recently handed flood victims some wins and some losses in the ongoing Coyote Creek flood litigation. More than 150 families of flood victims in 2017 sued San Jose, Santa Clara County, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and California’s Division of Safety of Dams in Santa Clara County Superior Court, citing claims of negligence...

The ‘Year of the Woman’ makes its mark in Silicon Valley

A record number of women across the nation ran for political office last year – many first-time candidates – and despite some gender discrimination, the “pink wave” swept four women into top elected offices here in Silicon Valley. Newly-elected county Supervisor Susan Ellenberg remembers how empowered she felt watching Hillary Clinton’s concession speech after the 2016 election....

Liccardo not worried about Newsom’s threat to withhold funding

Mayor Sam Liccardo isn’t rattled by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s threat to withhold money from cities that fail to build enough housing — despite San Jose falling short of its housing production goals. Liccardo said he was “all in” to support the governor’s ambitious housing development goals. “We’ve been begging for these kinds of carrots and...

Don Rocha outlines vision for Dave Cortese’s office

As he takes the reins of Supervisor Dave Cortese’s office, former San Jose Councilman Don Rocha says he’ll focus on bolstering Santa Clara County finances in the face of potential cuts in federal funding to a county that’s boldly led the resistance against Donald Trump. “No one knows what the White House or Congress is...