City Council rejects claims of 49ers bias
It rebukes grand jury's claims, won't adopt its suggested reforms
Two months after a blistering civil grand jury report accused five councilmembers of becoming too cozy with the San Francisco 49ers, the Santa Clara City Council formally has rejected the grand jury's claims and decided against adopting any of the report's suggested reforms.
“It's clear to me that the grand jury didn't have all the information when they deliberated this,” said Vice Mayor Suds Jain, one of the four councilmembers who voted Dec. 8 to reject the findings in the council's response to the grand jury.
The report, released Oct. 10, accused the five councilmembers of holding undisclosed private meetings with lobbyists affiliated with the 49ers, forming a “voting bloc” that frequently acted in the team's interests, potentially misappropriating public funds, and terminating the city's last city manager and city attorney under pressure from the team.
The civil grand jury's reforms
recommended that the city record and release minutes of councilmembers' private meetings with team officials and employ auditors to assess the team's finances.
Four of the accused councilmembers — Anthony Becker, Karen Hardy, Raj Chahal and Jain — maintained that they believe the accusations are false, saying that the jury did not have accurate information about their interactions with the team and
didn't give them the chance to respond to the allegations before the report was released. One of the accused members, Kevin Park, was absent from the meeting but expressed similar sentiments in a previous meeting to discuss the report.
“They lacked some information; they didn't have the full facts,” Chahal added.
Meanwhile, two members of the council — Mayor Lisa Gillmor
and Councilmember Kathy Watanabe — said they did not support the rest of the council's decision and asked for their differing views to be reflected in the published response to the jury.
“I have concerns that, if we refute the findings of the grand jury … that the grand jury will come back and rebuke the city even more so as a result,” Watanabe said.
“The council majority has basically dismissed findings,” she added. “If that is the case and this council wants to submit that report, I do not want to be a part of that decision.”
Gillmor echoed Watanabe's request that her differing opinion be reflected in the response. Three of the accused councilmembers — Jain, Chahal and Hardy — did not oppose Gilmor's request. But Becker said that highlighting a dissenting opinion would only continue to stoke division on the council, especially after a tough election season.
“Going that route to have a dissenting opinion just continues to show the political divide not only on our council, but maybe even in our city,” Becker said. “I don't think that's fair when we're really trying to come together, find ways we can find solutions … when you start having dissenting opinions flying around, it just shows chaos in our political system and in our city.”
Gillmor confirmed that the cover letter to the grand jury would include the council's vote and would reflect that its response to the allegations was not unanimous.
After the meeting, she said in a statement that she still believes an independent ethics commission is needed to evaluate the findings of the report.
“The City Council majority does not have the ability to police themselves,” Gillmor said.
The response to the jury's report comes a month after the City Council elections, in which the 49ers spent over $4.5 million to back Becker, Chahal and Hardy's campaigns. Chahal and Hardy both won their reelection bids, but Becker was defeated by incumbent Gillmor in the mayoral race.
The team's spending on the councilmembers' campaigns and the allegations in the grand jury report inflamed existing questions of whether or not members of the City Council were failing to hold the team accountable for its management of Levi's Stadium — and its inability to deliver the kind of financial returns the city was promised when the stadium first was approved by voters in 2010.