 Quetzalcoatl |
Silicon Valley |
 |
|
| Send FReepmail if you want on/off SVP list | |
| Silicon Valley Slang | |
Posted on 09/05/2004 9:24:55 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
What began in June with a controversy over an $8 million technology contract has escalated into a scandal exposing high-level management failures at San Jose City Hall.
``It's becoming clear that both the city manager and the city attorney have been running very dysfunctional offices,'' Councilman Dave Cortese said late last week, after more revelations surfaced about favoritism and collusion in the failed deal to buy Cisco Systems networking and telephone equipment for the new City Hall.
``At a tremendous cost to the city, they let that condition fester, and now it's a big-time problem and a big-time cost to taxpayers,'' Cortese said.
City leaders at first denied favoring Cisco Systems when the Mercury News uncovered apparent bias toward the company in a June article. They then argued that the deal's architects may not have known they were violating city ordinances by giving special preference. Now it is clear that at least three city employees -- two in the city administration and one in the city attorney's office -- repeatedly warned of problems long before they became public.
And now, as the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office searches for possible criminal wrongdoing, both City Manager Del Borgsdorf and City Attorney Rick Doyle are struggling to explain why the whistle-blowers were ignored. Council members have begun to question whether these two men can ever pick up the pieces from the mess and move on.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Ask the Mayor.
Quetzalcoatl |
Silicon Valley |
| |
|
| Send FReepmail if you want on/off SVP list | |
| Silicon Valley Slang | |
What better time to get married?
Yep. Under the radar and out of everyone's sight, Hizzoner is finally tying the knot. Mayor Ron Gonzales, 53, and his fiancee Guisselle Nunez, 29, are getting hitched today at the secluded CordeValle lodge and golf club in San Martin, according to insiders.
Not surprisingly, the couple has been making a concerted effort to keep this as low-profile as possible -- considering his affair with her was the most high-profile moment of his time in office. No word on how many people were invited, or who was on the guest list. But rumor has it the wedding will be a smallish affair.
(snip)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/9587329.htm
OOOooo...
Thanks for the headsup. :-)
Awwwwww.
I remember Gonzalez's election campaigns, where MUCH was made of his status as a "family man."
He trotted out the old lady and kids to grin for the camera.
Granted, the old lady looked like Ron himself in drag, but still...
didn't she have a child of his?
Cisco isn't the issue here altho they get mud slung at them for being a top dog in the industry.
My gripe is with the folks at the top...and politics in this neck of the wooods is a long standing 'love fest' down this way.
I am not sure if your rightful antipathy to government is motivating your postings on this issue or some other personal involvement.
As I live in the east bay, and have some knowledge of the situation, I find this to be a lot of political hoogoblinary. The truth is that CISCO was a standard in San Jose for more than six years and millions of dollars of previous equipment purchases were routinely approved by all levels of City Hall...including the suddenly indignent City Council. I know, because I occasionally visited the City on related matters and was told it was the standard in 1999.
Suddenly, everyone acts 'surprized' and declares collusion. Maybe so, but to blame it on employees who, unlike the politicos, do not get campaign contributions is a fool's accusation.
Moreover, it bespeaks a total ignorance of the nature of Info. Tech. and the rightful duties of your in-house experts to pick the best equipment, with other factors than just cost.
I smell a rat - and its probably the City Hall building project itself, not the tiny component called 'technology'.
P.S. The new City Hall has 30% less space than the current one and offices had to be reduced in size with new (smaller) furniture - that's the scandel.
I'm a fiscal conservative, that is where my 'antipathy' stems from... and also a homeowner in sj for over 20 years. Plus, I am not a Gonzales fan in the least.
The fact that the leaders that be felt a government complex of this nature was needed to solidify belief in the downtown area as a happening place is a scandal in and of itself, imo.
One need only drive a few miles from downtown to locate campuses of buildings sitting empty, ready for occupancy, but some politicos wanted the centralized civic center, ignoring a reasonably cost effective way to house city employees and departments in complexes already built.
As you mentioned about working space, this civic center will not be able to accomodate all the desired city employees as originally envisioned.
Your comments are well taken on cisco being 'standard', as I have lived and worked in the industry enough years to see cisco presence is pretty much everywhere.
The issue has to do with a 'closed' spec being written for this project, and some folks are now being called to task for the bidding process. There are a few other vendors that could have quoted a similar product or technology, but .. were excluded altogeher from the get go. The 'fact' cisco was standard is mute from a legal standpoint, the public bid process was supposed to be open but in this case , it was mishandled.
Oh, and there are those involved in this mess who hope to make political hay from it, but there usually are, so it is a normal thing, in that sense.
It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out and if voters decide to vote for fiscal sanity or want to simply continue to spin the mystery wheel and see what the next brouhaha will be over or how much the next project is botched up before it is straightened up.
NormsR,
Your reaction is understandable - no doubt the City Hall project is the most dunderheaded project in recent municipal history - undertaken during a fisical crisis no less. As a SJ resident would also be outraged and calling for heads.
However the technology 'controversy' is, IMO, a diversion. The politicians approve an ill concieved, bloated, and eventually delayed building project AND when the bad news gets bad enough (for the whole project) they then pick on a few department heads (helped by the frightened City Manager) on a narrow subject (technology).
Their reasoning: Why not focus on 2% of the building cost if it obscures the issue of who approved the building itself, no?
I also disagree about the 'botched' bid. I read the auditor's report and buried within its lurid speculations are the begrudging finding that the process was conducted fairly and the evaluations were valid.
The CIO and GS Director chose to release a bid that allowed more than CISCO equipment BUT honestly stated that the preference was for CISCO as a standard and that if other equipment were proposed a convincing rationale would be needed by the bidder. Sounds pretty fair to me.
To my mind you hire professionals to make managmeent judgement calls on wise purchasing, not to become bid clerks (otherwise why bother to have experts). If you want Cities to be like businesses, you've got to give City employees the same authorities.
And like a business, if the bottom line is that CISCO was a bad choice hold the IT staff accountable. Otherwise, lay off.
again, good points. Thanks for burrowing in to the spec. we're talking semantics here at this point as to what is approved and recommended etc..
The 'lay off' comment , however, is out of bounds , imo.
This is silicon valley where lay off is a dirty word, yaknow. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.