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<\/a><\/p>\nThe city is adding 12 new fees and deleting 14 fees.<\/p>\n
Council Member Kevin Park was skeptical the increases were necessary.<\/p>\n
SPONSORED<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get some cost recovery, but we were doing almost no cost recovery before, and we were surviving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The council unanimously approved the new fee schedule. The schedule goes into effect July 1.<\/p>\n Downtown Contractor Process Gets Revisited<\/p>\n The council also reconsidered an item from its last meeting.<\/p>\n First, Vice Mayor Albert Gonzalez proposed reconsidering putting an item on a future agenda to examine the city\u2019s vetting process of contractors working to rebuild downtown.<\/p>\n Mark Kelsey, a member of Reclaiming Our Downtown, said the issue has \u201cgone on for too long\u201d without \u201cleadership\u201d from city employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Park echoed his sentiment, reiterating his objection to the process of getting an item placed on the agenda.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not understand why this council would deny an opportunity for the public to simply talk about these issues in a public session,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But his colleagues didn\u2019t all share his position.\u00a0<\/p>\n Council Member Karen Hardy said she worried the item would invite \u201cpersonality\u201d and discussion about \u201cpersonal concerns\u201d to the dais.<\/p>\n \u201cThis sounds like it will not only slow it down, but it will bring up things that I don\u2019t think are very helpful, especially because we make policy, we don\u2019t arbitrate concerns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Despite failing, the item is slated to return at the council\u2019s priority-setting session next month.<\/p>\n Priority Setting Balloons in Scope<\/p>\n On a similar note, Mayor Lisa Gillmor took issue with a consent item that laid out how the council intends to handle this year\u2019s priority-setting session.<\/p>\n Gillmor said the days-long marathon sessions proposed by city employees are a bridge too far for council members with full-time jobs. The city shouldn\u2019t be \u201ccreating additional layers of process that will not produce clear, actionable results,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Further, she took issue with the process taking place more than five months into the year, a mere month before the city\u2019s budget approval.<\/p>\n \u201cPriority setting is supposed to inform the budget, not follow it,\u201d she said. \u201cAt this point in the year, much work has already been underway by our staff, which raises a very real question about whether this process will actually drive decisions or simply document them after the fact.\u201d<\/p>\n Council Member Suds Jain bemoaned that the stadium, and its big-ticket events this year, have \u201cderailed\u201d the council from focusing on its priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to continue to do the people\u2019s business regardless of these big activities, these big events that we are planning,\u201d Jain said.<\/p>\n Despite the disagreement, the item passed unanimously.<\/p>\n Paid Parking Downtown, Becker Returns<\/p>\n The topic of charging for parking also came up again.<\/p>\n Jain has raised the subject on multiple occasions, specifically citing that the businesses in the Franklin mall pay very little for the upkeep of the common areas.<\/p>\n Mark Kelsey said residents have been asking for improvements to the mall for years to no avail.<\/p>\n \u201cFranklin Mall is an embarrassment to the city,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, Franklin Mall is a disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n The item will return to the council June 9.<\/p>\n Finally, former Vice Mayor Anthony Becker again addressed the council for the sixth time, asking that the city investigate the source of the leak of FIFA documents to the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/p>\n Becker has postulated that the city is trying to run out the clock on its records retention statute.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Park renewed his objection that public members are unable to place items on the agenda, he did not move that Becker\u2019s request be placed on one.<\/p>\n Santa Clara Consent Calendar Spending<\/p>\n The council approved the following spending via the consent calendar:<\/p>\n A $5 million, five-year purchase order to Mader Supply for steel transmission poles for Silicon Valley Power.<\/p>\n A $1.73 million contract with Henkels & McCoy West for northwest loop capacity upgrades.<\/p>\n A $576,000 budget amendment for increases to the firefighter pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Council Member Raj Chahal was absent. The next regularly scheduled meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 5 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 1500 Warburton Ave. in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n Members of the public can participate in the city council meetings on Zoom at\u00a0https:\/\/santaclaraca.zoom.us\/j\/99706759306<\/a>; Meeting ID: 997-0675-9306 or call 1 (669) 900-6833, via the City\u2019s eComment (available during the meeting) or by email to\u00a0PublicComment@santaclaraca.gov<\/a><\/p>\n Contact David Alexander at\u00a0d.todd.alexander@gmail.com<\/a><\/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
Super Bowl, World Cup Reimbursements Flow Back to the City<\/a>
Surveillance Contract Approved but not Funded<\/a>
Gaps in Council Procedure Spark Heated Debate<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Santa Clara has updated its fee schedule.\u00a0 \u201cThese are fees charged to recover the cost of time and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2914,6036,2915,2916,2917,2918,88,90,89,197,2919,2920,2921,2922,2923],"class_list":{"0":"post-280883","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-bay-area-news","10":"tag-karen-hardy","11":"tag-kelly-cox","12":"tag-kevin-park","13":"tag-raj-chahal","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-santa-clara","18":"tag-santa-clara-city-council","19":"tag-santa-clara-mayor-lisa-gillmor","20":"tag-santa-clara-weekly","21":"tag-silicon-valley-voice","22":"tag-suds-jain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280883","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=280883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280883\/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=280883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}