And yet another local gov't entity ripped by oversight org
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First, SJ Housing Dept. gets hammered by a state audit. Next, VTA governance was ripped by a state investigation. Now, the Santa Clara City Council’s effectiveness is blistered by a civil grand jury. The excellent Silicon Valley Voice explains.
A new report from the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury accuses some members of the Santa Clara City Council of behaving badly.
A new report released by the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury on June 12 once again calls out the Santa Clara City Council majority while laying no blame at the feet of the minority. The report, titled “Irreconcilable Differences: The Santa Clara City Council,” came after the Civil Grand Jury “received multiple complaints” about “unprofessional and antagonistic behavior” by some members of the Council.
“The Civil Grand Jury found that Council members’ behaviors reflect deep divisions, rivalry, and routine disrespect among the Mayor and Council Members and towards other City of Santa Clara (City) elected officials,” read the opening lines of the report. “In addition, several Council Members have turned public meetings into spectacles by displaying abusive and belittling behavior from the dais towards members of the public …”
The 91-page report (including Appendices) singles out incidents involving five council members: Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy, Suds Jain and Kevin Park. There is little to no mention of Mayor Lisa Gillmor or Council Member Kathy Watanabe, except in passing.
The Civil Grand Jury watched “over 400 hours” of Council, committee and commission meetings that took place between Jan. 2020 and May 2024. It also examined City documents like the City Charter and Ordinance Code, the City’s Ethics and Values Program and testimony from the Criminal Grand Jury proceedings conducted in 2023.
At the heart of the investigation is the behavior of the Council majority on the dais, where some members of the Council are accused of behaving unprofessionally, grandstanding, engaging in off-topic monologues and personal insults such as accusations of lying...
As a result, the Civil Grand Jury recommended that the City hire a conflict resolution professional and adopt “robust” conflict resolution training strategies. It also recommended that all members of the Council attend one-on-one conflict resolution training, though it pointed out that Gillmor and Watanabe have “shown appropriate meeting decorum.”
Read the whole thing here.
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