Author Archives : The Left Hook

Vice Mayor Carrasco to Face Opponent in Bid for Re-election


San Jose Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco will face an opponent in her bid for re-election. Yesterday, Jennifer Imhoff, Secretary for the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party and Communications Director for the Libertarian Party of California, submitted her Candidate Intention Statement for District 5 to the San Jose City Clerk. Currently, there are 156 registered Libertarians out of 32,500 registered voters…

SVO Flips on Decision to Stay Out of Board of Supervisors Race: Rumored to Back Their Employee’s Opponent


In our January 5th post, The Silicon Valley Organization and Its Employee Candidates, The Left Hook shared that the Silicon Valley Organization (SVO), formerly known as the Chamber of Commerce, had committed to staying out of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors race because it employs Susan Ellenberg, a candidate for the open Board seat.  The SVO stated that…

Committee to Recall Judge Persky Will Submit Nearly 100,000 Signatures to Place Recall on June Ballot


Tomorrow morning, the Committee to Recall Judge Persky (Committee) will submit nearly 100,000 signatures to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, placing the recall of Judge Persky on the June 5, 2018 ballot. After four months, the Committee has completed its signature gathering efforts and with the number of signatures gathered, the recall appears to be one of the…

Mountain View City Council Elects 2018 Mayor and Vice Mayor


In January of every year, the Mountain View City Council elects one of its members as Mayor and another as Vice Mayor. Last night, the Council voted Vice Mayor Leonard (Lenny) Siegel to the office of Mayor and Councilmember Lisa Matichak to the position of Vice Mayor. Both Siegel and Matichak are progressive leaders. Siegel is replacing Mayor Ken Rosenberg.…

Policy Watch: Week of 1/8


County of Santa Clara Provide direction regarding 10-year Capital Improvement Program, including possible GO bond or other revenue strategies The Board will receive a report on the 10-year Capital Improvement Program Development. It is estimated that current capital needs over the 10-year horizon is approximately $4 to 5 billion. The administration has identified an approximately $2 billion funding gap between…

San Jose: The City That Keeps Giving…To Developers


In the January 3rd blog, The Left Hook presented two seemingly unrelated projects, and like a tricky LSAT question, asked readers to find the invisible thread connecting them. The first project is the proposed Google mega campus in the Diridon Station area.  Still in the negotiations stage, residents and activists are voicing concerns over how the project will exacerbate the…

The Silicon Valley Organization and Its Employee Candidates


Immediately after the Silicon Valley Organization (SVO) announced that Madison Nguyen would be their new Executive Vice President, rumors that she was positioning herself to take over the organization from Matt Mahood began to swirl. However, that seems unlikely as Nguyen is already poised to run for Santa Clara County Supervisor District 3 in 2020 and has $83,000 cash on…

Madison Nguyen: The New Exec VP of the Silicon Valley Organization


Starting mid-January, Madison Nguyen will be the new Executive Vice President for the Silicon Valley Organization (SVO), formerly known as the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. She is replacing Derrick Seaver. Nguyen’s role at the SVO will be to drive the organization’s public policy strategies, which she regularly supported during her final years on the City Council and which consistently…

Policy Watch: Week of 1/1


City of San Jose Direction on Worker’s Comp program; staff recommends continuing hybrid model until State audit is completed The City of San Jose is currently in a multi-year Pilot Program to evaluate service delivery models for providing workers’ compensation benefits to employees. Under the Pilot, workers’ compensation claims are split between an In-House City team and Intercare, a Third-Party…