A few weeks ago, I and The Weekly received a registered letter from our City Attorney Brian Doyle. This was not an acknowledgement of, or a congratulations for, the work we do in covering news of our City and community. The letter begins, “To ensure that Santa Clara taxpayer’s expenditures are in compliance with state … Read more
It is a sorry sight to see the manufactured behavior of our City Council majority. Watching our Council last week along with the 10 or so folks in the audience and the 40 people watching online, it was a tragedy of Shakespeare’s making. Most of you know that Police Chief Mike Sellers retired at the … Read more
When is the right time to buy a home? The answer is quite simple, “when you are ready.” As we have witnessed over decades now, home prices vary. However, when you consider the time factor, houses have consistently trended upward. Short term thinking is not always a good application to apply to a home purchase. … Read more
How do you obtain legitimate community news? You know…accurate, truthful and informative facts on local events, legal notices, activities, politics and issues. Every community in America wrestles with this same problem. The internet and social media have permitted the average Joe to post stories, opinions and adulterated information that is full of speculation or assumptions, … Read more
The Santa Clara Rotary club has been serving our community for more than 80 years as one of the most active service clubs anywhere. Led this year by President Colleen Noll, owner of Silicon Valley Montessori Schools, she is only the second woman to hold this prestigious position. The very first was Lou Ann Alexander … Read more
Today this writer celebrates another Milestone: turning 80 years of age. Half of those years have been as Publisher of The Weekly. Through those years my column has made hundreds of observations, expressed opinions, broke a few stories, complimented some, occasionally criticized, made suggestions, and most often, offered a point of view. Putting out a … Read more
Yes, I was wrong. In my column last week, I misstated the timeline of Fire Chief Bill Kelly’s conversations with City Manager Deanna Santana. Also, Santana did in-fact ask Kelly to stay until June. My apology for that mistake. On the other hand, was the essence of my column accurate? Yes. While the City Manager … Read more
Editor’s Note: The City of Santa Clara refutes the following column Planning to retire and being retired are different stories and sometimes there is more to the story. The Weekly carried a story in May this year, announcing the retirement of Fire Chief Bill Kelly. Now it’s true that Kelly planned to retire this year … Read more
Perhaps the most important quality missing from our City Council is balance. Having the odd number of Council representatives at seven, does provide some protection from votes being tied. However, the issue in Santa Clara is simple. The majority wins with four votes. Mayor Lisa Gillmor knew this going in and worked hard at establishing … Read more
When it comes to making decisions, you usually apply that most wonderful gift called common sense. The other options fall in the category of a different kind of sense. These would be less, no, and non. Voters who are informed, usually apply common sense when making their choices based on what they know, what they … Read more