Apr 5, 2018
Perhaps you marched (or wanted to), donated to a candidate (or meant to), signed a petition (or almost did), or attended a community meeting (or you are looking for one). I am writing this letter to you. I was you, and I want to share my story about how I took action so that you can too. Many people associate…
Apr 4, 2018
Yesterday, the City of San Jose passed a groundbreaking set of policies to increase wages and workplace protections for construction workers and to promote local hiring and construction career opportunities. The policy passed 8-3 with Councilmembers Johnny Khamis, Dev Davis and Lan Diep voting no and the SVO (formerly the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce) aligning with the…
Apr 2, 2018
County of Santa Clara Update & approving poll for a potential sales tax extension & increase on Nov. 2018 ballot The Board will receive a report relating to possible extension and increase of the retail transactions (sales) and use tax for Santa Clara County. The Board will approve the Second Amendment to Agreement with EMC Research, Inc., relating to public…
Mar 30, 2018
A new poll released earlier this week shows that the majority of likely Santa Clara County voters are poised to recall Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky in the June 5th election. According to the poll, conducted by SurveyUSA exclusively for KPIX-TV News, 56% of voters would vote to recall Persky if the election were today. 29% would vote against recalling…
Mar 8, 2018
A report released today by Working Partnerships USA finds that Silicon Valley is suffering from a lack of middle-income, family-supporting jobs for blue-collar construction workers. In Santa Clara County, the majority of job openings over the next 10 years are projected to pay either less than $40,000 per year, or more than $100,000 – with less than one-third being middle-wage,…
Mar 7, 2018
County of Santa Clara Adopting a strategy and approving funding to ensure complete count in 2020 Census The proposal is for an aggressive strategy and a commensurate budget appropriation to enable the County to identify every possible household for census response, deeply and broadly engage the community, implement a smart communications strategy, take leadership with key partners, and launch its…
Feb 28, 2018
While Google and the City of San Jose have excluded the public from their negotiations, last night nearly 100 community members and leaders gathered at a public meeting to review and endorse a set of community demands for Google’s proposed San Jose mega-campus. Attendees assessed a set of proposed demands developed through eight months of consultation with San Jose communities. Around 1,500 San…
Feb 22, 2018
The Silicon Valley Organization (SVO), formally the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, has endorsed Pierluigi Oliverio, a candidate accused of sexually harassing and berating a female staff member while he was a San Jose City Councilmember. Earlier this month a video titled #HimToo, based upon a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Oliverio, was released. SVO’s new Executive Vice President, Madison Nguyen should…
Feb 20, 2018
City of San Jose Successor Agency to approve compensation agreement for Google Diridon parcels Staff rec is to approve a Compensation Agreement by and among the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Jose, the City of San Jose, the County of Santa Clara and other affected taxing entities under Health and Safety Code Section 34180…
Feb 15, 2018
Community groups have called for answers from the City of San Jose after it was revealed that the Mayor, various councilmembers and other City officials had signed non-disclosure agreements with Google over the sale of a number of valuable parcels of publicly owned land (source). Community members have long voiced concerns about the lack of transparency throughout the negotiation process…