Two years after Santa Clara officials worked to fix a botched public affairs contract, a San José Spotlight investigation found city leaders repeated some of the same errors mere months after vowing not to make those mistakes again. Public documents show city officials didn’t follow the city’s code, typical timelines and industry best practices when...

It’s official: Santa Clara will have two police chief elections in 2020 after councilmembers on Wednesday night said they couldn’t agree on who to elect to the newly-vacant position between now and Dec. 2020. The decision comes after a contentious meeting where elected officials were set to decide what to do about the retirement of longtime Chief Mike...

Santa Clara councilmembers are grappling with a slew of technical, long-term planning issues, including raising fees for home developers to bridge a park funding gap and the future of the city’s north side. The council meeting Tuesday evening ended with requests for more information so lawmakers could make informed decisions on hot-button topics, but the...

Santa Clara elected officials returned from a monthlong legislative break Tuesday to discuss traffic safety, brainstorm a response to a scathing transportation audit and rework part of a plan that will guide future development in an area slated for major growth. Response to Civil Grand Jury’s VTA Report City leaders are required to respond to a Santa...

Mary Grizzle still gets emotional when she remembers the old downtown Santa Clara, torn down decades ago after spending much of her youth there. “Just thinking about it, I cry to see the wrecking ball wrecking the City Hall,” she said. “To see all my memories in a week or two just bulldozed.” Much of...

Santa Clara’s Police Chief Mike Sellers is set to retire more than a year before his term ends, leaving elected officials in the hot seat to decide who will be his successor, and already we know of at least one contender: Sgt. Pat Nikolai. The South Bay city is the only municipality in the state...

Santa Clara’s City Council met for more than six hours Tuesday night, most of that time was spent weighing the merits of Gateway Crossings, a massive and controversial new residential project in the city. City officials’ sentiment about the project, which sits near the Santa Clara Caltrain Station, could be summed up effectively with a...

Santa Clara’s City Council this week made several noteworthy decisions during its twice-monthly council meeting, including approving a new biennial budget and offering a stamp of approval on a land sale and the next phase of a condo development. Read on for a rundown of the most newsworthy items discussed this week during the city’s...

Santa Clara’s March 2020 ballot will include a question to determine how future City Council members are elected, but first the city is building a committee to help create that pivotal question — and they need volunteers by June 28. The timeline to apply for the committee, known as the Charter Review Committee, has been...

Santa Clara Police Chief Mike Sellers will retire on Sept. 1, more than a year before his term ends in December 2020, Sellers told San José Spotlight on Tuesday. Sellers has been Santa Clara’s elected police chief for the past seven years, but he’s worked full-time for the city’s police department for more than three...