Posted on 06/22/2006 12:44:46 PM PDT by jamesm113
San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and his top budget aide Joe Guerra were arrested and released by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's department this morning, according to Deputy Sheriff Serg Palanov.
Although the grounds for arrest were not immediately known, it came amid a civil grand jury investigation related to the two men's behind-the-scenes actions from 2000 to 2005 to help Norcal Waste Systems get an $11.25 million contract amendment after it underbid the labor component of its winning bid to collect trash for 155,000 San Jose residents.
Allen Ruby, a lawyer for Gonzales, did not immediately return a call for comment. Alan Lagod, an attorney for Guerra, said he had no comment at this time. David Vossbrink, a spokesman for Mayor Gonzales, did not return calls or pages.
Since January, a Santa Clara County grand jury and the County District Attorney's Office have reviewed piles of subpoenaed documents and interviewed witnesses. The grand jury's one-year term ends next week, so a report from that panel is expected to land soon.
It was not immediately clear what the arrest will mean for the conduct of business at City Hall. A criminal charge does not have an immediate impact on an elected official. ``You're innocent until proven guilty,'' said City Attorney Richard Doyle.
The contract scandal has already led to the mayor's censure by his council colleagues for having misled them in 2003 about the reasons for a garbage rate increase.
Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez typically handles business in the mayor's absence. Under San Jose's charter, any council office including the mayor's is considered vacant if the officeholder is ``convicted of a felony or of any offense involving a violation of his or her official duties.''
Under the charter, the council has the power to remove people from office, but the affected person has due-process rights to be heard in a hearing before such an action can be taken, said councilman and lawyer Chuck Reed, who investigated the city's rules on such matters during the censure proceedings for Gonzales and former Councilman Terry Gregory.
No party mentioned = DemocRat.
***San Jose Illegal Immigrant Cesspool Alert***
No bail mentioned either. Probably way low.
His main offense was not being the mayor of San Francisco. Back scratching is common in SF but the mayor's office is more connected, powerful, and corrupt.
This will be a moot point in a few years. The citizens of San Jose will simply conclude that paying for some one to haul away garbage is part of that pinchey anglo unmanly foolishness that la Raza does'nt need to worry about.
Why pay to haul away garbage when there is a perfectly good camino or culvert in front of your casa?
¿Señor, esta usted loco en la cabeza?
The proper method of trash removal is to flatten the top of your midden, build a new floor, then raise the wall & roof height.
California looks more and more like Mexico every day.
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