San Jose mayor censured over handling of garbage contract

"I’ve always tried to carry myself as a get-it-done type of mayor,” Gonzales said. "I tried to solve this problem on my own. I should have disclosed more information sooner and more often.”

Gonzales became the second prominent city politician censured in the last year, joining Councilman Terry Gregory, who resigned in January after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges over allegations that he demanded free meals, gifts and charitable donations from local executives. He was censured last December.

This was believed to be the first time a San Jose mayor has been officially rebuked by the council, said David Vossbrink, the mayor’s spokesman.

"I’m tired of being asked by people, ’Are you all a bunch of crooks?”’ council member Linda LeZotte said in explaining her vote. "The actions of the mayor are more than censurable, but that is all we can do.”

The mayor faces the possibility of further disciplinary action, including the removal from some or all of the subcommittees on which he serves.

Gonzales, who also sits on the City Council member, is one of five council members to serve on the Valley Transportation Authority, which has oversight for public transportation in Santa Clara county. He is also chairman of the Council of Youth, Education and Families, Vossbrink said.

"When I think of all of my anger and all of our anger of what has happened to this city, censure is not enough,” councilman Ken Yeager said in calling for Gonzales to face additional disciplinary action.

The council ultimately opted to revisit the issue at a council meeting next month, after some members said they were concerned Gonzales’s removal might harm some of the work being done by the subcommittees.

Gonzales will also be forced to submit city budget messages to the city attorney rather than the council as a whole, another move designed to strip some of the mayor’s power.

Gonzales, who has one year left in his term as mayor, said he would not resign as some have called on him to do.

He said the only people who benefited from his actions were San Jose residents and businesses, who pay among the lowest trash-removal rates in the Bay Area, and trash haulers who are "now paid a decent wage.”

Among certain facts related to the city’s trash contract that Gonzales failed to disclose was that $1 of a $1.40 per month rate increase approved in 2003 would cover additional labor costs, according to an independent investigator looking in to the matter. The city voted 9-2 in favor of closing that investigation.<