S.J. mayor names outgoing council member for key new commission

Among its tasks, the panel will look at changes to governance structure

Despite concerns over his partiality, outgoing San Jose councilmember Lan Diep has been tapped to serve on a new independent commission that’ll evaluate a proposal to give San Jose’s mayor as much control as other strong city mayors like those in San Francisco and Oakland — a change Diep has advocated.

Diep, who ends his council term at the end of this month after losing in another close race on Nov. 3, was one of three appointees chosen by Mayor Sam Liccardo for the city’s new 23-member Charter Review Commission. The independent commission will most notably decide whether to recommend potential changes to the city’s governance structure and moving the mayoral election to presidential years.

The council voted 6- 4 Tuesday to approve the list of community members nominated for the commission, including Diep, who was allowed to vote for the motion and therefore his own appointment. Councilmembers Magdalena Carrasco, Maya Esparza, Raul Peralez and Sergio Jimenez dissented, citing concerns about Diep’s objectivity.

“I think it goes without saying that the optics here are pretty bad,” Peralez said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “For me appointing people that would be fair and open-minded was really important… and Councilmember Diep is the only one on the list of appointees that has a formal document stating his very strong opinion.”

In late June, a proposal began floating around the City Council to put a measure on the November ballot that would have granted Liccardo

the most powerful position in the city and two extra years in office. The proposal became one of the hottest and most contentious subjects the council debated in recent years. Faced with serious public scrutiny over what some referred to as a “back-room deal,” the council in late July agreed to pump the breaks and instead establish a new commission that would vet such proposals before sending them to voters in a future election. Each council member appointed two community members to the panel, while the mayor was permitted to nominate three.

But before the ballot measure idea was tabled, Diep wrote a detailed memo to the council explaining how the city should go about changing its governance structure, including granting more power to the mayor, creating a new office of councilmemberat- large to be elected by voters citywide and changing the ceremonial role of vice mayor to council speaker. He also supported moving the mayoral election year to 2024 and extending Liccardo’s term two years.

Liccardo stood behind his appointment of Diep, noting that another commission appointee, Garrick Percival, had written two op-eds in the Mercury News voicing his support for moving the mayoral election to presidential years.

“I don’t really understand this notion that somehow or another someone needs to recuse themselves or that if they do not have a blank slate then they can’t serve on the commission because they’ve expressed strong views or opinions,” Liccardo said.

The mayor said he chose Diep to serve on the commission because he “wanted someone who had a deep understanding of the city process and institutions not merely by his experience but by his thoughtfulness.” Liccardo also noted that Diep, a Vietnamese-American who is bilingual, would add diversity to the panel and could help reach Vietnamese speakers in the city.

Diep, who lost his bid for reelection to Berryessa Union school board member and incoming Councilmember David Cohen last month, said he would “proceed with an open mind.”

“I’m not going to apologize for having viewpoints, because I have put some thought into it,” Diep said during the meeting. “And I will share those viewpoints, but they are not set in stone. They evolve.”

Councilmember Esparza and Peralez asked Diep to consider recusing himself from Tuesday’s vote though according to City Attorney Nora Frimann he was not required to do so.

“I just think we need to think about the public confidence in the work of this commission,” Esparza said, noting that her biggest goal was creating a “truly independent body” to tackle the work ahead.

Diep, however, opted to take part, casting his vote in support of all of the appointees listed, including himself.