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Political sparks flew during the San Jose City Council's debate about implementing sunshine laws to create a more transparent city government.
During a March 21 session, there was public testimony in support of city reform under the sunshine law. Mayor Ron Gonzales criticized the additional costs, and there was dissent among council members.
Councilman Chuck Reed offered his own sunshine laws, saying the presented proposal was not strong enough. Councilman Dave Cortese criticized Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez for holding meetings at her house with community representatives, sarcastically calling the closed meetings a "brilliant idea," and noting he had not been invited to attend or give input.
Reed, Cortese and Chavez are among 10 candidates for the San Jose mayor's seat.
In the end, a motion to send the reforms as originally proposed by Chavez to the city manager's office for further study passed 10-1, with Gonzales voting against it.
"I believe that San Jose already has a very transparent, open government," Gonzales said. "Many of the proposals could cause problems in terms of cost, complexity and distraction."
The sunshine law proposal was developed by Chavez and Councilwomen Linda LeZotte, Judy Chirco and Nancy Pyle. They propose policy changes to make city government more accessible and transparent. This proposal follows on the heels of several controversial decisions, such as the $4 million Grand Prix subsidy approved by council members after only a 24-hour public notice, and the mayor's Norcal contract scandal.
The proposal includes 22 reforms falling under the headings of public information, neighborhood participation and government accountability.
Highlights include requiring the council agenda to be available online the Wednesday before its Tuesday meetings and requiring expenditures of $1 million or more to be available for public review two weeks prior to a vote. Other components include extending the speaking time for neighborhood group designees from two to four minutes and requiring every staff memo to have a contact person for public questions.
However, Reed offered an alternate motion, calling the sunshine laws proposed by the councilwomen "partly cloudy with occasional breaks of sunlight." Reed proposed 34 additional reforms, plus provisions suggested by the Mercury News and League of Women Voters and suggestions from Cortese. Only Cortese and Yeager supported Reed. The motion failed 8-3.
Cortese criticized the council for failing to support Reed's motion, with comments directed at Chavez, saying her vote against Reed's proposal was motivated by politics rather than logic.
But council members such as Chirco saw it differently.
"I'm concerned that we'd redo work that the blue ribbon task force spent long hours of thoughtful discussion and community input on," she said.
Chirco added that many of the reforms Reed proposed had been brought before the council a few weeks earlier and lacked support.
The city manager's office will report back to council as soon as possible with recommendations on creating a task force for implementing the sunshine laws.
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