A new Santa Clara County civil grand jury report suggests some Santa Clara City Council members have acted unethically in dealing with the San Francisco 49ers, especially when it comes to the management of Levi's Stadium.
The report suggests some council members have ignored city interests, even alluding to potential city and state legal violations. The panel says the city didn't meet a Monday deadline to respond to the report, so it was released.
The grand jury report says Councilmembers Anthony Becker, Suds Jain, Kevin Park, Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal "engage in unethical behavior, lack transparency in their governance and govern as if the City Council owes a fiduciary duty to the 49ers as opposed to the City, which they were elected to lead."
The panel's investigation found that those five officials "can – and do – vote in a manner that is favorable to the 49ers."
One of the council members at the center of the grand jury report posted a reply on social media, calling it a political hit-piece.
The 49ers issued a statement Tuesday morning.
"This is a kangaroo court," a team spokesman said. "At least two members of the 'jury' involved in creating this report have already been removed due to conflicts of interest, and we anticipate more will be uncovered. They didn’t even bother to interview three of the Councilmembers they criticize, they prohibited one from speaking to a lawyer, and they pressured a Councilmember to cast certain votes. When presented with hundreds of pages of evidence correcting their report, they said they have no responsibility to review any information contradicting their biases. This corruption of the justice system is outrageous, unethical and the public deserves an independent investigation."
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Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor released her own statement Tuesday, saying in part: "The Civil Grand Jury report clearly documents violations of law and the potential for corruption. It’s a sad day for Santa Clara and a wake-up call that says we need to clean up our city."
She is a frequent critic of the team and its management of Levi’s stadium, and said the report doesn’t surprise her.
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In the same statement, Gillmor proposed taking the following steps in response to the report and dubbed it "Santa Clara’s Anti-Corruption Reform Plan":
- The City Council should accept the Grand Jury’s findings and recommendations at the next possible council meeting.
- The City Staff should work on the Grand Jury recommendations immediately to meet the February deadlines.
- Councilmembers should publicly pledge to voluntarily and fully cooperate with all investigations that involve potential violations of law or potential corruption.
- If Councilmembers wish to redact or withhold information from investigators, they must publicly report at a City Council meeting why they are doing so.
- Councilmembers should disclose to our City attorneys all communications with the 49ers lobbyists on all matters that could have a financial impact on the City.
- The City Council should create an independent Ethics Commission that is responsible for ethics training of Councilmembers and City Staff and has the power to censure and admonish wrongdoing.
Gillmor added: "The City Council majority may be resistant to this plan. But they should realize that because the 49ers have spent millions of dollars to influence our elections and City Council decisions, public trust in Santa Clara has been destroyed. If we love our City, we need to rebuild our bond with residents starting today."
Anthony Becker is one of the five councilmember named in the report and said, "I'm really concerned this is a witch hunt."
“It’s pretty disturbing that the mayor continues to spread this narrative that we are illegally meeting with the 49ers. That we are basically siding with the 49ers, yet I have the same questions about her and the related company that backed her campaigns,” said Becker who is also running for mayor against Gillmor.
He said the timing of the report is suspicious, noting it was released the same day ballots were sent out for the election.
The report also claims he’s met with the 49ers as frequently as he’s met with the council.
“Well no, yeah sure it’s true. I’ve actually met with the 49ers,” he said. “They’re a business partner in the city of Santa Clara. They’re a stakeholder. And in fact, in the grand jury report, they never even interviewed me. They never even asked me questions.”
Becker also claimed the mayor has ties to members of the civil grand jury, which she denies.
“I don’t know any of those grand jurors and those accusations are absolutely false,” said Gillmor. “The trust that the community has with us has been destroyed because of these five council members so starting today, we really need to clean up what is happening."
