Santa Clara voters listen up. Just because your lights stay on and you can obtain water from your tap to make coffee every morning, you may think things are just dandy.
Folks, the water is fine. But our politics are polluted. What’s going on, and what’s not going on … better get your attention.
Most of us go about our daily activities and pay little attention to activities at city hall, meeting agendas, actions or non-actions of our city council.
Behind the curtain at Santa Clara City Hall are hundreds of city employees who perform, or fail to perform, dozens of responsibilities.
What if some city employees were instructed by their supervisors to turn off your electricity? You would be on the phone or pounding the desk at the front office, demanding action. Your lights and TV would be working again.
But what if something less noticeable yet just as damaging to public trust in the city were to happen? Let’s say that our newspaper made a Public Records request to determine the causes and effects of council actions or those of a city employee.
Then, let’s say the city refused to provide that information. Should our newspaper shrug it off and just write about “new tulips in the park” or “dog bites lady on crutches?”
What if city council members requested information from the city? Do they have implied rights as elected officials to obtain documents?
In most cases, yes. Yet that doesn’t mean city employees can’t drag out delivery — particularly if they have been instructed to drag their feet. And what if they have been instructed to delay by superiors, council members, or even the mayor?
Currently, there are numerous requests for Santa Clara to produce public records that are critical to residents and even more so to city council members. Yet, these have not been produced.
Prolonged power in public office offers too many opportunities for self-aggrandizement and impropriety. Consider that Mayor Lisa Gillmor has been either a council member or mayor 28 of the last 32 years. Her entrenched political power is poisonous because she uses it to ensure things go her way or no way.
Santa Clara deserves balanced leadership on the council that respects the law, residents, our city staff and business partners. Leadership that invites new ideas, growth, partners and business. For this to happen, we need to serve an eviction notice on the cabal that has poisoned Santa Clara politics for the last decade.
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Milestones – What Super Bowl? – Opinion
Milestones – Go Up Not Out – Opinion
Milestones – Super Bowl Insights – Opinion
