A House Divided
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The Civil Grand Jury of Santa Clara County published a report A House Divided: Cupertino City Council and City Staff.
The report shows there is a tension between the City Councilmembers and the city staff.
City of Cupertino hired Linda Daube to investigate issues raised in the report. Linda returned to the Council with her Fact Finding Report.
In the City Council Meeting of 5/9/2023, the council majority (Mayor Hung Wei, Vice Mayor Sheila Mohan, and Councilmember J.R. Fruen) made some unpreceded decisions, including
- Remove all committee assignments from Councilmember Chao and Councilmember Moore.
- Referred Santa Clara County District Attorney to investigate current and former councilmember (including former Mayor Paul) to see if they had unduly influenced the City Manager or City Staff in hiring or firing decisions.
- Went ease for City Staff and didn't ask for any improvement in response to the Civil Grand Jury report.
The interesting thins is the Deputy District Attorney responded to the referral in a short 9 business days and claiming "There is no evidence ... that any former or current council member attempted to influence any of the City Managers in their hiring or firing decisions".
San Jose Spotlight covered the story.
