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<\/a><\/p>\nThe city\u2019s policy specifies that only a member of the prevailing side can ask for a reconsideration.<\/p>\n
But City Attorney Glen Googins said Hardy was on firm ground because the city\u2019s policy doesn\u2019t speak to the matter. The \u201cunique facts\u201d of the situation, Googins said, made him comfortable with Hardy\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
SPONSORED<\/p>\n
Among those \u201cunique facts\u201d was that the council took up the item close to 2 a.m., and the entire council wasn\u2019t present.<\/p>\n \u201cBy saying that the people that were absent from the vote have a right to weigh in makes no sense whatsoever,\u201d Park said. \u201cIf you are saying that anyone can leave the dais and not being present and come back and request that an item be reconsidered, that doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Googins argued that a motion failing to pass is the same as no action, but acknowledged Park had \u201csome support\u201d for his position.\u00a0<\/p>\n Park called such a categorization \u201cworld-breaking.\u201d He referenced a letter from Yolo County Judge Dave Rosenburg, the author of Rosenberg\u2019s Rules of Order, the city\u2019s rubric for parliamentary procedure.<\/p>\n Googins paraphrased the letter, but Park insisted on reading its contents. The letter specified that Park is the \u201cprevailing side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Park suggested delaying the item until the city\u2019s Governance and Ethics Committee could take it up. Googins interrupting foundational concepts \u201cwilly-nilly\u201d then feeling comfortable proceeding is a \u201cdangerous precedent,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n Still, the council approved adding Hardy\u2019s request to a future agenda. Park left the dais for the vote.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jay Ess, a public member, previously pulled three items from the consent calendar: the Peregrine contract, the approval of the police department\u2019s inventory of military equipment and a surveillance drone grant. He called the reconsideration \u201cBS.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to be pretty obvious that the council wants to turn Santa Clara into a surveillance hub, and that is something that the constituents, the residents don\u2019t want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ess called Gillmor moving the items to the end of the agenda a \u201cprocedural shell game\u201d that \u201cfundamentally undermined public transparency, trust and democracy.\u201d He accused Gillmor of \u201cusing the clock as a weapon to tire out dissent,\u201d adding that it\u2019s an \u201cabuse of the chair.\u201d<\/p>\n Ess called for the council to amend its policy to guarantee public participation, ensuring any item pulled by a public member must be heard in agendized order or following the consent calendar.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the mayor knows the public has pulled these items to speak on privacy and civil rights, and then pushes them into the dead of night, it sends a clear message that this council prefers to authorize surveillance in the dark,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s stop using procedural tricks to silence the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Several public commenters scoffed at the notion that the item warranted reconsideration because council members were absent. Many said if the item mattered to those council members, they should have stayed for the entire meeting.<\/p>\n Adding items to the agenda and how they end up there also came up again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former Vice Mayor Anthony Becker again called for the city to investigate the leak of FIFA documents to The San Francisco Chronicle. Becker said his request, called a 030, to have that item added to an agenda has yet to be fulfilled, despite several attempts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere seems to be a thumb on the scale in this city that continually pushes things in a certain direction,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n In addition to Ess and Becker, several members of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe<\/a> also requested an item be put on a future agenda. That request was to have the council draft a letter supporting their fight for federal recognition.<\/p>\n Despite having a portion of the agenda earmarked for considering 030 requests, Council Member Albert Gonzalez moved to add the tribe\u2019s request to a future agenda, something that drew ire from Park. Chahal joined him in dissent, saying he opposed it on \u201cprocedural grounds.\u201d While Jain said, \u201cwe have never done that,\u201d indicating that the council usually does not respond to public comment.<\/p>\n Googins waved away the discrepancy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no requirement that you wait until the end of the meeting. It is, in effect, a referral in the flow, a referral in the flow of the meeting on an item that came up. The Brown Act allows that, and your 030 policy allows it as well,\u201d said Googins.<\/p>\n Contact David Alexander at\u00a0d.todd.alexander@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous Santa Clara City Council Meetings: SPONSORED<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/banner-v_21_page-0001.jpg\"\/)
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<\/a><\/p>\n
Police Surveillance Hot Topic for Santa Clara City Council<\/a>
Stadium Budget Item Highlights Capital Needs<\/a>
Santa Clara has a Transparency Problem \u2014 Still<\/a>
Santa Clara Car Dealership\u2019s Alternate Trash Pickup Denied<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Clara City Council\u2019s parliamentary process has come under attack, with one council member saying city employees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2914,16829,6036,79747,2915,2916,2917,2918,88,90,89,197,2919,2920,2921,2922,2923],"class_list":{"0":"post-248148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-albert-gonzalez","9":"tag-anthony-becker","10":"tag-bay-area-news","11":"tag-glen-googins","12":"tag-karen-hardy","13":"tag-kelly-cox","14":"tag-kevin-park","15":"tag-raj-chahal","16":"tag-san-jose","17":"tag-san-jose-headlines","18":"tag-san-jose-news","19":"tag-santa-clara","20":"tag-santa-clara-city-council","21":"tag-santa-clara-mayor-lisa-gillmor","22":"tag-santa-clara-weekly","23":"tag-silicon-valley-voice","24":"tag-suds-jain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}