Amid a wave of scrutiny over awarding a six-figure public contract to a private Catholic school, Mayor Sam Liccardo suggested reopening the contract to other schools — but his council colleagues didn’t agree. On Wednesday, City Manager Dave Sykes recommended keeping the current contract with Cristo Rey intact and instead, perform better outreach to schools...
Nearly four years after San Jose prioritized combating illegal massage parlors, statistics paint an unclear picture of compliance despite the controversial measure’s success in closing a vast number of businesses. According to Lt. Paul Messier, of the San Jose Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, there are currently 80 massage businesses remaining in San Jose. That’s...
A task force to review San Jose’s general plan is gearing up to come back together again to assess the land-use bible, which will guide how and where the South Bay city will grow in the coming years. Mayor Sam Liccardo announced last week a group of 42 community, business, city and nonprofit leaders that will...
San Jose lawmakers on Tuesday dropped a proposal to boot executive employees working in the city’s Office of Retirement Services from the retirement plan that they directly work on. City Manager Dave Sykes said some questions about the proposal need to be revisited and asked lawmakers to drop the item until a later date. It’s...
San Jose leaders on Monday paid homage to the suffragette movement, and more importantly, white women’s right to vote in a rally on National Women’s Equality Day. The event served as a kickoff for a year’s worth of activities celebrating women’s history and activism, to be led by the Women’s Equality 2020 Leadership Council. Nearly...
An audit of how San Jose analyzes personal financial disclosures from its key decision makers has begun to change how the city looks for corruption — drawing accolades from a statewide good government group that says San Jose could set an example for other cities with its newly proactive approach. California’s Political Reform Act specifically...
Proposals to address local hate crimes at both city and county levels were announced at San Jose City Hall Wednesday afternoon. Led by San Jose Councilmember Maya Esparza and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, the proposals call for implementing a regional Hate Crimes Task Force to address local hate crime and hate speech, especially...
The San Jose-Evergreen Community College District has sent a letter to developer Republic Urban Properties LLC saying it doesn’t intend to further extend or modify the exclusive negotiation agreement to develop surplus land. In a July 11 letter to Michael Van Every, president of the San Jose-based development company, SJECCD Chancellor Byron D. Clift Breland...
For decades, local officials have wanted to shut down San Jose’s Reid- Hillview Airport, serving local pilots, aviation students and educators as a hub for flight trainings and the local community as a resource for disaster relief. But after hours of discussion, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday reviewed how the nearly 60-year-old airport’s closure...
One day after a San José Spotlight report highlighted concerns over a six-figure grant the city awarded to a private Catholic school, a national watchdog group announced it is investigating the “unconstitutional grant.” “The city’s decision to award more than 800,000 dollars of discretionary funds to a private religious school, subsidizing religious instruction, is unconstitutional,”...
