In this special and historical moment in San Jose History, we present a recording of the June 28th ‘Special Meeting’ of the San Jose City Council. The purpose of this rare Special Meeting is to decide upon a course of action with respect to the recent indictment of current Mayor, Ron Gonzales. As always, the audio is being presented from a neutral point of view, and was recorded during the course of the City Council meeting.

A bit of background - A Santa Clara County grand jury recently indicted Mayor Ron Gonzales on 6 felony counts including bribery, conspiracy and misuse of public funds in connection with a supposely ’secret deal’ with garbage waste hauler Norcal Waste Systems to cover future payments not detailed in the original contract. This led to the Mayor to seek additional funds in the amount of ~$11Million a few years later.

Others that were indicted were both Norcal Waste Systems and Gonzales’ aide, Joe Guerra. At the arraignment hearing on Monday (06/26/06), all three did not enter a plea, but indicated they would ask the court to dismiss the charges.

The City Council is expected to ask the Mayor to resign, and if not, seek to explore ways to restrict his power as Mayor, including removal of his staff, reductin in salary, and removal of additional perks that the Mayor currently has.

As this is a long podcast, I have provided some markers:
00:00 - 42:50 Opening Statements and discussion
42:50 - ~1:10:00 Public Comments
1:10 - City Council Discussion

Final Count:
Motion to Resign by Cindy Chavez
Second by Chuck Reed

In Favor
Cindy Chavez
Linda Lezotte
Chuck Reed
Ken Yeager
Dave Cortese
Judy Chirco
Nora Campos
Nancy Pyle

Against
Madison Nguyen
Forest Williams
Ron Gonzales

Important links:
What is San Jose Charter Section 405?
City Council Agenda

Memos
Cindy Chavez
Cindy Chavez #2
Chuck Reed
Dave Cortese
San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle
San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle #2

What do YOU think of the Indictment of Ron Gonzales? Either call us and leave a voicemail, drop us an email, or talk about it in the forums at http://www.citizensanjose.com/forum/

Lastly, if you have material that you would like to have carried on this podcast, please contact us and we’d love to talk to you.

Audio recording provided by Citizen San Jose
Date Recorded: 2006-06-28
Recorded by Joe C
Phone 1*206*666*JOSE
email: Citizensj ‘AT’ gmail.com

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NOTE: There are occassional audio dropouts that were noticable and this was on the part of the City Hall systems (not us!) Sorry ’bout that!

For those that are following the Podcasting phenom, Podcast Academy 3 is being held Thurs/Fri at the Yahoo campus in Santa Clara. If you are interested, you should check it out as you will definitely learn something about Podcasting, and perhaps even meet a few people just like you. I’ll be attending for 1-economy, and will provide some updates throughout the conference, as I (attempt) to blog real time. Enjoy.

(If you can’t attend, you can listen to - can you guess?- the podcast from Podcast 2 that was held in April 2006 in Boston. And yes Virginia, these sessions will be made available as a podcast in a couple of weeks)

Link to Podcast Academy 2 (Boston) podcasts HERE

-Joe

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(Click Image to play Video)

We are posting copies of the commercials that are currently airing for each of the San Jose Mayoral Candidates. This episode features the new commercial that Dave Cortese has released, his second. Check it out and compare it with the other commercials that we have posted. Out of curiousity, drop us a line and let us know what you think of the commercials. Discuss them in the forums. Are the messages clear? Do the commericals influence you one way or the other? Let us know what you think!

Previously posted commercials were posted:
Video Links

(We will add additional commericals from the other candidates as they become available. If we are missing one, let us know and we will post it!)

email: Citizensj ‘AT’ gmail.com

Keep up to date by subscribing to this podcast (for free). Just cut and paste the following into your favorite podcatcher (i.e. iTunes )

http://feeds.feedburner.com/CSJ

(Click Image to play Video)

We are posting copies of the commercials that are currently airing for each of the San Jose Mayoral Candidates. This episode features the second commercial for Michael Mulcahy. Check out the other TV spots that we have posted for you (Previously posted commercials were with the tag ‘Video’), and compare them side by side, and then discuss them in the forums. Are the messages clear? Do the commericals influence you one way or the other? Let us know what you think!

(We will add additional commericals from the other candidates as they become available)
If we are missing any spots, drop us a line and let us know, we will do our best to get them posted ASAP!

email: Citizensj ‘AT’ gmail.com

Keep up to date by subscribing to this podcast (for free). Just cut and paste the following into your favorite podcatcher (i.e. iTunes )

http://feeds.feedburner.com/CSJ