CA: Gonzales should step down (San Jose Mayor)

He repeatedly has violated the city charter. He has spent the last year trying to dodge responsibility and berating his critics. And now he has issued a pathetic apology stressing his lofty goals more than his improper behavior. His credibility, already damaged, is now so tarnished that he cannot lead the city. ...

Gonzales and his top aide, Joe Guerra, cooked up a deal to pay garbage hauler Norcal more money to cover recycling-worker wages, then got council members to pass a rate hike to cover the cost without telling them what the money was really for. We reported the secret deal a year ago, and last summer a civil grand jury found that the mayor had acted improperly. Further Mercury News reporting disclosed the details of the coverup. This week, an independent investigator hired by the city looked at the evidence and drew the same conclusions.

On Wednesday, some council members proposed censuring Gonzales and disciplining Guerra. That would be better than nothing, but it would not get at the real problem: Gonzales and Guerra see nothing wrong with making a secret deal with Norcal and then lying about it.

The mayor's half-baked apology Wednesday proves the point. In essence, he says he's sorry people are disappointed in the way he went about doing such a great job for them. Oh, please.

But the grand jury and independent investigator understand how government is supposed to work in San Jose. They read the City Charter. It lays out careful procedures for making decisions and requires that they be made in public.

The Norcal deal violated the charter's ethics provisions and other guidelines. Gonzales and Guerra seem to feel it's OK to violate the charter for a cause they believe is good. ...

Whew. ;-)

S.J. mayor apologizes

In an abrupt reversal after months of denying wrongdoing, Mayor Ron Gonzales Wednesday apologized to San Jose residents for his role in a secret deal with Norcal Waste Systems

excerpted..

In an abrupt reversal after months of denying wrongdoing, Mayor Ron Gonzales Wednesday apologized to San Jose residents for his role in a secret deal to help trash hauler Norcal Waste Systems get an $11.25 million contract amendment.

His apology came a day after a scathing report from a special investigator and just hours after city council members said they planned to formally censure the mayor for brokering the arrangement. The deal led to an increase in garbage rates for 155,000 households served by the city's largest trash hauler.

Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy also said he is reviewing the special investigator's report to see if any criminal probe is warranted.

And later in the day, Norcal announced it would not seek an extension of its current contract, which is set to expire in June 2007. Instead, it will join other companies that will compete for the work when the city reopens the garbage contract for bidding.

``I would like to apologize to the people of San Jose,'' Gonzales said in a memo from North Carolina, where he is attending a conference this week. ``In my efforts to do the right thing for the people of San Jose . . . I failed to do it the right way. For this I apologize. The buck stops at my desk as mayor, and I take full responsibility for my decisions and those of my office.''

Gonzales' statement Wednesday came as several San Jose City Council members, including his closest ally, Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, said they planned to levy the most serious of three possible reprimands against Gonzales by censuring him. It would make him the first mayor in recent memory to be censured by the council.

--snip--

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