UPDATE:
Two candidates have thrown their names into the pot to be considered for a temporary appointment to serve in District 4: David Hernandez, and former City Council member Margie Mathews, according to the City Clerk’s office. Anyone else interested has until noon today to apply for consideration, and the City Council is expected to make an appointment Tuesday Dec. 16th. However, when we inquired about how people were supposed to know the process was getting started, a source in the City Clerk’s office said it was on their website and “some outreach” was done, but that person could not say what the “outreach” was. The announcement could not be found on the City Clerk’s website.
After promising a conciliatory, inclusive approach to leading the City of San Jose, Mayor-elect Sam Liccardo is doing just the opposite. And he hasn’t even taken office yet. Kansen Chu’s election to the California Assembly opened up his San Jose City Council seat, and now Liccardo is now trying to ram though a temporary appointment to that seat.
The City started accepting applications for the open Council seat Thursday, and the application period closes Friday, leaving community members little opportunity to apply for the appointment. Few community members even know their Council representative is about to be appointed. There is no reason for the rush, except that Liccardo thinks he has the votes he needs now to appoint an ally and may not have them when the new Council takes over in January. This is a power grab pure and simple.
On Tuesday, Dec. 16 Liccardo will push the Council to interview and appoint a temporary successor to Chu. That appointment will almost certainly provide Liccardo with the swing vote the Council. The move signals that Liccardo plans to govern by playing hardball, not by reaching across the aisle.
The City has rules to prevent the Council from making important decisions without giving the community adequate notice. The City’s Sunshine Law requires at least ten days of public notice before a vote on an appointment. Ironically, it was Mayor Chuck Reed, supposedly a champion of ethics reform, who made the motion to waive the Sunshine Rules.
For Liccardo and his allies the need to secure a Council majority trumps democratic process and transparency. It’s wrong, and it’s a terrible approach toward governing
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