Nov 30, 2015
City of San Jose Priority Setting Session Dec. 8; potential priorities include gender pay equity, downtown storefront activation, 1% development fee for art, more Council to approve new items for the Council Priority List to create an updated, rank-ordered list. The process for establishing Council Priorities at the Dec. 8th meeting are as follows: Nominated Ideas Voting – Council will…
Nov 25, 2015
Earlier this month, Dennis Kennedy, former Mayor of Morgan Hill and current Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) Board Member, resigned due to his battle with cancer. While no candidates have officially filed for the vacant District 1 seat, there are a handful of people who are rumored to be interested. The first is Morgan Hill Council Member Rich Constantine…
Nov 19, 2015
The race for Assembly District 30 is heating up. Today, Anna Caballero, the Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency officially announced her candidacy for the seat. Prior to serving in the Brown Administration, Caballero served in the California State Assembly from 2006-2010 and held the seat of Mayor and Council Member of Salinas for 15 years. She ran…
Nov 16, 2015
Santa Clara County Proposed changes to County policy regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers / notification requests The board will consider adopting a Policy Resolution as proposed by Board President Cortese relating to civil immigration detainer and notification requests. It will also consider directing Administration to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with DHS & ICE contingent upon adoption…
Congressman Sam Farr surprised many yesterday with a bombshell announcement he will not run for re-election. His sudden retirement creates an intriguing race in 2016 for California’s 20th Congressional District, which covers parts of Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. There are a few big names that we may see jump into this race. Monterey County District…
Nov 12, 2015
Apple, Cisco and eBay contractors have been banned from the H1-B Visa program for wage theft. The contractors, Scopus Consulting Group Inc. and Orian Engineers Inc., both from Sunnyvale, were cited for short-changing workers approximately $84,000, according to a recent Silicon Valley Business Journal article. Scopus Consulting Group Inc. and Orian Engineers Inc. will have to pay back wages to…
Nov 10, 2015
Sexism was on full display Monday night as the male members of the West Valley-Mission Community College (WVMCC) Board appointed another man, Steve Landau, instead of a more qualified woman, Randi Kinman. Kinman was the only applicant for the open seat on the Board who had experience in the Community College arena, having served for twenty years as a Community…
Nov 6, 2015
The field is set for the appointment to the vacant Area 4 seat of the West Valley -Mission Community College District. Two candidates have thrown their hats into the ring. First we have Randi Kinman, a long-time activist in the community college arena. Kinman has served as a community liaison between her neighborhood and the Managements of the San Jose…
Nov 5, 2015
The California Faculty Association (CFA) announced that 94.4% of its membership voted to authorize CFA’s Board of Directors to call a strike if the contract negotiations with California State University (CSU) management fail to produce a fair deal for the faculty and staff on the 23 CSU campuses. The talks, which began in May of 2014 and are in the…
Nov 3, 2015
Santa Clara County Consider recommendations related to the Silicon Valley/Alameda County Nexus Study Project To enact an affordable housing impact fee, jurisdictions must first conduct a nexus study to demonstrate how market-rate housing or commercial developments create the need for the affordable housing. To conduct a nexus study a city or county would typically hire a consultant on its own. …