Today, a community organization and government transparency advocates sued the City of San Jose over its handling of a deal to sell valuable public land to Google.
Working Partnerships USA, a San Jose based community organization, and the First Amendment Coalition, a nonpartisan, non-profit dedicated to free speech and government transparency, filed suit at Santa Clara County Courthouse this morning.
The groups’ petition alleges that San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and other City staff and councilmembers signed non-disclosure agreements at Google’s request and that the City has refused to turn over vast numbers of public records related to the Google project. The groups also formally submitted a demand letter calling on the City to address the fact that the City Council has been negotiating major details of Google’s proposed mega-campus behind closed doors while leaving the public in the dark – all in violation of California’s open-meetings laws.
Google plans to build a huge new campus in downtown San Jose for up to 20,000 employees. But the secretive plans have raised enormous local concerns over the impact an enormous tech hub will have on the city’s housing crisis, homelessness and eviction rates and cost of living. The new campus is contingent upon Google purchasing a number of valuable parcels of public land from the City of San Jose.
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