THIS MODERN WORLD
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I SAW YOU
metroactive.com s sanjose.com s metrosiliconvalley.com s OCTOBER 10-16, 2012
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ISawYou@metronews.com Send us your anonymous rants and raves about your co-workers or any badly behaving citizen—or about citizens you admire. I SAW YOU, Metro, 550 S. First St., San Jose, 95113, or via email.
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COMMENTS Letters@metronews.com Metro welcomes letters. Like any great work of art, they should be originals—not copies of material sent elsewhere. Please include your name, city of residence and daytime telephone number. (Phone number will not be published.) Letters may be edited for length and clarity or to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. = SanJoseInside
= via email
Keep It Up The Fair Political Practices Commission was apparently sound asleep until the news department at Metro conducted this investigation (“King George,” Cover Story, Sept. 26)”. Real journalism by people
like Josh Koehn is one of the best defenses we have from a totally corrupt government. I hope Mr. Koehn will carefully examine the campaign disclosure forms of George Shirakawa Jr. and other local politicians to look for evidence that they steered public contracts to their campaign contributors. Thank you for this superb reporting! DENNIS MARTIN
Do the Right Thing Recently, the San Jose City Council voted unanimously to approve a response drafted by city staff to the Santa Clara County Grand Jury on the issue of whether or not the city
had fulfilled the legal requirements of Measure I (the ballot initiative that authorized the construction of the new, downtown City Hall). In its response to the Grand Jury, the city states, “The Measure I analysis never assumed the sale of the old City Hall. Measure I did not require the city to use the proceeds from the sale or transfer of City Hall or adjacent property for the pay down of debt issued to construct the existing City Hall.” That is a false statement. Measure I authorized the construction of a new city hall “so long as the costs are paid by using the proceeds from the sale or lease of the old civic complex and other land.” The city of San Jose transferred the old City Hall property to the
Santa Clara County government (at an assigned value of $10 million) to help offset a debt that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency had with the county. Clearly, this is not a legal transfer. Hopefully, the Grand Jury will see through the city’s false statement and direct that the county government return the old City Hall property to the citizens of San Jose. PETE CAMPBELL | SAN JOSE
Research I don’t understand the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. They endorse the parcel tax, Measure B and they endorse Drew Spitzer? Do they do any research? S. RANDALL | SAN JOSE