Gonzales claim seat at meeting. Was it his ?
Posted on Thu, Mar. 23, 2006
Mayor makes unexpected appearance
OFFICIALS WONDER IF GONZALES VIOLATED TERMS OF HIS CENSURE
By Barry Witt
Mercury News

Two months after San Jose's city council tried punishing Mayor Ron
Gonzales by removing him from a variety of boards and commissions, the
mayor showed up Wednesday as chairman of an advisory board overseeing
plans for the proposed BART extension to Silicon Valley.

The move was so unexpected that Gonzales' name doesn't even appear on
the roster of board members posted on the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority Web site. Nor is it on the list of members
included in the minutes from the board's last meeting on Jan. 25.

Yet at Milpitas City Hall, Gonzales chaired the session and voted with
the rest of the members of the BART ``Policy Advisory Board'' -- which
includes representatives appointed by both VTA and BART -- on matters
related to the extension. Most significant, the board decided at the
meeting that two planned stations on Santa Clara Street in downtown
San Jose should be consolidated into one to save an estimated $105
million.

San Jose Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, who also is chair of the VTA board
of directors and a member of the BART policy board, said she was
surprised to learn from Gonzales' staff earlier on Wednesday that he
would be there. Chavez, who sat next to Gonzales, did not question the
mayor's presence during the meeting but said afterward she planned to
look into it to figure out how he was appointed to the board. She also
wants to know whether his presence was consistent with the city
council's decision in January to remove the mayor from jobs in which
he would represent the city after they censured him for his dealings
with garbage hauler Norcal Waste Systems.

Exactly what seat Gonzales holds on the policy board was something of
a mystery on Wednesday. Under a joint VTA-BART agreement, VTA is
represented by two of its own board members and ``a combination of
three members representing Santa Clara County and/or the cities of
Santa Clara, Milpitas and San Jose.''

Gonzales had been a VTA board member, steering policy on the most
important initiative of his tenure as mayor, until the council removed
him from that job in January.

VTA spokeswoman Jayme Kunz said administrators in her agency took
Gonzales off the policy board roster in January because ``we were
under the impression that when the city council took the action it did
with regard to Mayor Gonzales' committee appointments, we assumed he
would no longer be on the policy advisory board.''

She said a Gonzales aide called VTA's offices on Tuesday to tell them
he was still a member and held a city of San Jose seat. But it's
unclear whether such a seat actually exists. If it does, Kunz said it
was up to San Jose to decide who should represent it.

Gonzales spokesman David Vossbrink said he was unsure if the mayor's
appointment was by VTA or the city council. In any case, Vossbrink
said the council's only action in January was to remove the mayor from
four specific assignments, including the main VTA board, so he
continues to hold any other positions that weren't specifically
mentioned in the council's action.

Gonzales still holds a non-voting position on the San Jose Sports
Authority board of directors, and his chief aide, Joe Guerra, whose
Norcal-related activities also were condemned by the council, also is
a member of that board.

Councilman Ken Yeager, who pushed for the council action against
Gonzales, said the intent was to remove Gonzales from any position
over which the council held control, and those he was removed from
were the only ones Gonzales or city administrators told them about.

``We worked with the city attorney and clerk's office to get an
accurate list of all appointments. Some might have slipped through,''
Yeager said.