MEDIA BLACKOUT WEIGHED AS STADIUM NEIGHBORS SURVEYED
Consultant worries results will be skewed if council members publicize views on issues
SANTA CLARA » Elected officials in Santa Clara are at odds over whether to respond tomedia inquiries as the city gauges public concerns and satisfaction with how Levi’s Stadium is run.
Catherine Lew, principal and co-founder of the Lew Edwards Group that is helping coordinate the outreach effort, raised the question in an email last Friday to the Stadium Authority, which is comprised of councilmembers. She pointed to recent reports by this news organization and NBC Bay Area about singer Ed Sheeran’s decision to play his next Bay Area show at AT&T Park in San Francisco instead of Levi’s because of the latter’s 10 p.m. curfew.
“I am less concerned about the coverage itself, but … more concerned about the views of the elected board, all of whomare influential, affecting the community views being tested at this time,” she wrote. A final report is due to the city by June 15.
The NBC report included an interview with Councilman Dominic Caserta, who called the curfew draconian. He claimed it is costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Other council members, however, see the curfew as fulfilling a promise to regulate noise coming from Levi’s.
At a Stadium Authority meeting this week, Vice Mayor Kathy Watanabe ques- tioned the timing of the reports by this organization and NBC Bay Area, which coincided with the first round of interviews with neighbors who live within a mile of the stadium.
“We have put this money out there to do something for the benefit of the community and to see that there’s a purposeful attempt to taint that effort is just really disconcerting,” Watanabe said.
“It’s inappropriate,” she continued. “It creates a lack of trust and that’s not what we need. We’re trying to work together to find out how to resolve the issues that people have about the stadium.”
In her email, Lew said she did not believe the media coverage biased or skewed the survey results.
Caserta bristled at the suggestion of any
impropriety on his part or the football team.
“Nothing was tainted,” he said. “What we all agreed to was not attend community meetings.… This argument that somehow some Wizard of Oz bogeyman, meaning the 49ers, are controlling a news network like NBC Bay Area news is not transparent.”
Still, Councilwoman Patricia Mahan wondered if the council should adopt a protocol for responding to reporters, such as referring any questions to City Manager Deanna Santana.
“If you refuse to talk to them, or if you answer the call and say, ‘Sorry, I can’t talk,’ then that’s what they report,” Mahan said. “That in and of itself is something in the news that can taint the process.”
Caserta, for his part, refused to be muzzled.
“As a teacher of civics, I will not under any circumstances chill freedomof the press nor my fiduciary responsibility as an elected official to speak mymind,” he said. “If this body decides somehow to chill that right, I will vote no, and if I get calls from the press and I feel it’s in my elected capability and fiduciary responsibility, I will answer that media call.”
For now, any vow of silence where Levi’s is concerned will be voluntary, said Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
“If you want to speak out you certainly have a right,” she said. “I don’t think any of us can stop you, but we’d appreciate it if you don’t during the time that we’re outreaching to our community.”