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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFundamentally, it was a lack of confidence in his advice and judgment,\u201d Jain said.<\/p>\n
Gillmor said she chose Doyle because his \u201cexpertise\u201d relocating San Jose\u2019s city hall would prove a \u201cuseful tool\u201d to Santa Clara, calling him \u201cvery knowledgeable.\u201d She said the council blocking Doyle\u2019s nomination was \u201cmore than petty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council Member Kelly Cox, who supported Gillmor\u2019s choice, said pulling a nominee undermined council members, adding that council members are \u201csupposed to have a modicum of trust.\u201d She called the move \u201cdisappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
SPONSORED<\/p>\n
Doyle\u2019s removal passed 4-3, with Cox, Gillmor and Vice Mayor Albert Gonzalez dissenting.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Klotz, assistant city manager, presented the item, which came back to the council after it opted against city employees\u2019 plans to secure the former Oracle campus, located near the former Agnews Hospital at 4220 Network Circle.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we look ahead, the city must determine whether the existing facility can continue to effectively support our municipal operations and city services, future growth and actually our community expectations,\u201d Klotz said.<\/p>\n The city will evaluate all reasonable options using technical analysis, financial review and community input, employing consultants to do a space needs assessment, fit plan, facilities assessments, architectural site feasibility studies and financial analysis to determine which alternatives best fit the city\u2019s needs based on lifecycle costs, sustainability and community impacts.<\/p>\n The committee will consist of Steve Lee (District 1), Kimberly Williams (District 2), Christine Koltermann (District 3), Saskia Feian (District 4), Michelle Ryan (District 5) and John Rhabar (District 6). Because her pick was denied, Gillmor will need to return with an alternate.\u00a0<\/p>\n City Attorney, City Manager Get Raises<\/p>\n The council also codified raises for the city attorney and city manager.<\/p>\n City Manager Jovan Grogan and City Attorney Glen Googins both got 2% raises.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grogan\u2019s base salary jumped from $430,767 to $439,382. His total compensation is now $627,000. Googins\u2019 base salary went from $370,461 to $377,870, with $567,000 in total compensation.<\/p>\n The item proved divisive since the increases are baked into the contracts and required by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), but they occurred without performance evaluations.<\/p>\n The raises come on top of a cost of living adjustment (COLA) and are retroactive to May 1 for Grogan and March 1 for Googins.<\/p>\n Gillmor said the action \u201creally stinks,\u201d adding that it is \u201ccompletely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA performance appraisal is supposed to be the mechanism that we use to evaluate whether these are the appropriate levels of compensation for both the city manager or the city attorney, that they\u2019re actually performing,\u201d she said. \u201cAt what point do we stop calling this an exception and call it what it actually is \u2014 guaranteed annual raises that bypass our performance review entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n Jain said the council has failed to do performance reviews in a timely manner and that he believes there have been deliberate efforts to confound those reviews, adding that city employees should not be punished for the council dragging its heels.<\/p>\n Although Gillmor dissented, the raises still passed with the rest of the council approving them.<\/p>\n Council Renews TID<\/p>\n The council also renewed Discover Santa Clara\u2019s management of the tourism improvement district (TID). That agreement allows the 11 hotels in the district and Discover Santa Clara, the city\u2019s destination marketing organization (DMO), to raise the 2% assessment to 3% in 0.5% increments.<\/p>\n Jain said he worried that the increase would hamper Santa Clara\u2019s ability to attract hotel guests, given that its hotel tax is already higher than the average at roughly 17%.<\/p>\n Christine Lawson, Discover Santa Clara\u2019s CEO, said the increase will allow the DMO to \u201crespond to what is happening in the market instead of locking into one rate.\u201d<\/p>\n She called the group \u201chardworking, passionate and committed\u201d that \u201chave not let the city down.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOur challenge is other destinations that want to eat our lunch,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cWe feel that we have, for lack of better terminology, kind of earned our stripes and the right to be able to manage the funds that come from the DMO 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n A deluge of public commenters, many from local hotel representatives, lauded the DMO\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n Council Member Kevin Park said while he appreciated the comments, he was skeptical they amounted to much.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line of Santa Clara is not bolstered by comments,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is bolstered by business.\u201d<\/p>\n The item passed in a 6-1 vote, with Park dissenting.<\/p>\n EV Charging<\/p>\n Finally, the council also approved a $1.37 million contract with Blair, Church & Flynn Consulting Engineers for design services for a citywide electric vehicle charging stations installation.<\/p>\n The item was originally on the consent calendar, but Jain pulled the item at a previous meeting. He challenged whether the city\u2019s metrics for EV charging are out of date.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the city should charge more for public EV charging and install load-bearing software.<\/p>\n Grogan said the city will pause on the 21 public charging stations and better contextualize their placement based on the city\u2019s overall strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous Santa Clara City Council Posts: SPONSORED<\/p>\n![\"Devid](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SVV-728x90-1-scaled.png\"\/)
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<\/a><\/p>\n
Levi\u2019s Stadium Capital Projects Approved Despite Division<\/a>
Charter Changes Move Forward Despite Division<\/a>
Council Approves Maintenance Costs, Utility Rates<\/a>
Santa Clara Tackles Employment Gaps, Overhauls Performance Reviews\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Clara City Council has blocked the appointment of its former city attorney from serving on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2914,6036,154096,79747,71587,2915,2916,2917,2918,88,90,89,197,2919,2920,2921,2922,2923],"class_list":["post-381219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-albert-gonzalez","tag-bay-area-news","tag-brian-doyle","tag-glen-googins","tag-jovan-grogan","tag-karen-hardy","tag-kelly-cox","tag-kevin-park","tag-raj-chahal","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-city-council","tag-santa-clara-mayor-lisa-gillmor","tag-santa-clara-weekly","tag-silicon-valley-voice","tag-suds-jain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381219","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=381219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}