San Jose misspent $24,000 in taxpayer funds by paying mileage costs of employees who were ineligible to receive such payouts because they violated a city policy, according to a critical new audit of the city’s reimbursement processes. The reimbursement audit of city employees’ expenses detailed major flaws in the city’s reimbursement process, which led to...
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo unveiled a gun safety proposal Monday that he knows won’t “suddenly end gun violence” — but will ensure the nation’s 10th largest city will stop paying for it. Liccardo is suggesting San Jose require gun owners in the city to carry mandatory liability insurance for weapons or pay an in-lieu...
While citizen complaints against the San Jose Police Department steadily decreased for the last five years, the number of internal complaints increased and allegations tied to excessive use of force spiked by 39 percent, according to an annual report conducted by the city’s police auditor. On Tuesday, San Jose lawmakers will hear the findings of...
Five Bay Area cities, including San Jose, will split $3.75 million from the state to increase coordination among law enforcement agencies tackling the escalating scourge of smash-and-grab car burglaries in the region. Leaders in the Fremont, Milpitas, Newark, Santa Clara and San Jose police departments say their cities have each seen a significant uptick in...
San Jose City Hall has a new watchdog and he vows to hold government officials accountable — including himself. The city auditor, one of the most important jobs at City Hall, was recently filled by a veteran of the department, Joe Rois, who joined the City Auditor’s office in 2008. Rois earned a couple of...
San Jose lawmakers are cracking down on enforcing stricter workforce protections for construction workers almost two years after the shocking discovery of an unlicensed contractor harboring undocumented immigrants in slave-like conditions at the former Silvery Towers site. On Tuesday, the City Council passed a law that requires contractors to pay workers a prevailing wage while...
A nonprofit group dedicated to securing land for affordable housing is asking the Santa Clara Valley Water District to donate some of its public land for low-income housing — beginning with San Jose’s Mayfair district. The South Bay Community Land Trust, the region’s first land trust for affordable housing, launched in late April and its leaders...
Santa Clara officials are deciding how the city will spend $5 million earmarked for affordable housing that the city has received from San Jose this week as part of a lawsuit settled last year. Though the money will go toward affordable housing, the city hasn’t yet identified specific projects or initiatives for the funds. San...
For nearly four months, more than a million people flocked to San Jose City Hall to catch a glimpse of the jaw-dropping “Sonic Runway,” a light-art installation that converted music into light patterns on 25 giant arches that stretched an entire city block. The art installation was so wildly popular that city leaders are now...
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling last month that President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter — prompting San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo to begin reinstating hundreds of social media users he’s blocked on Twitter and Facebook, a move that one good government advocate said is “better late than...
