COUNCIL, UNIONS DELIVER FIRST DEFEAT TO MAYOR-ELECTBy Steven Tavares During a combative, sometimes riveting, city council session Monday night, it was the union’s who struck back after a long campaign season in which their service was often villified by candidates. The council approved,… Read More ›
Tony Santos
Reading the Tea Leaves
CASSIDY CANCELS DINNER MEETING WITH D.C. LOBBYIST; CHIDES SANTOS IN EMAIL EXCHANGEBy Steven Tavares CITIZEN INSIDER No matter the amount of conflict resolution counseling San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos and Mayor-elect Stephen Cassidy partake, they will never be cordial. Ever…. Read More ›
Cassidy Upsets Santos Amid Status Quo in East Bay
YEAR-IN-REVIEW / OCTOBER-DECEMBER Stephen Cassidy became the first person to unseat an incumbent mayor in San Leandro history. LOCKYER WINS BIG; S.L. HIRES FIRST FEMALE POLICE CHIEF; TOWNSHIP LOSES COUNTERSUIT OCTOBERNadia Lockyer easily crosses the $1 million mark in campaign… Read More ›
The Darkside of Politics Rears Its Ugly Head
YEAR-IN-REVIEW / JULY-SEPTEMBER The ire of Tea Party activists were stoked by two summer town hall meetings “Who are you going to kill today?” asked Stark of a questioner and told a woman the government can do whatever it wants. HAYASHI GETS… Read More ›
Cleantech’s Future Resides in California, Flourishes in Bay Area Cities
REPORT LAUDS STATE’S ACTIONS SO FAR, BUT WORRIES ABOUT CHINESE, EUROPEAN AGGRESSIVENESSBy Steven Tavares Fremont cleantech firm Solyndra. A report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute says California’s has a unique opportunity to enhance its international and economic standing in clean… Read More ›
Money was the Message for the Lockyers
YEAR-IN-REVIEW / APRIL-JUNE The will of Bill Lockyer to fund his wife, Nadia Lockyer’s campaign for county supervisor kicks into high gear before the June primary. SANTOS BRINGS RCV BACK; CHAN BECOMES SUPERVISOR; S.L. SCHOOL DISTRICT LOSES $1.6 MILLION APRILFran David… Read More ›
City Budgets Prepare For The Worst in 2010
YEAR-IN-REVIEW / JANUARY – MARCH LAI-BITKER PASSES ON RE-ELECTION; SAN LEANDRO APPROVES RCV; HEALTHCARE DISTRICT SUES SUTTER BAD OMEN: A black cat strolls into a conference room at San Leandro City Hall in January as the finance director announces the city… Read More ›
Santos Calls Cassidy Supporters At Meeting ‘Brown Shirts’
CASSIDY’S INNER CIRCLE LOBBIES FOR COUNCIL TO PUT OFF LABOR DEALS UNTIL NEXT YEARBy Steven Tavares Apparently hoping to collect on the spoils of last month’s mayoral victory, a small group of mayor-elect Stephen Cassidy’s supporters asked the San Leandro… Read More ›
The Crusade Against Ranked-Choice Voting
SANTOS VOWS TO STOP RCV ACROSS THE COUNTRY; COUNCIL TELLS HIM, ‘I TOLD YOU SO’By Steven Tavares Opponents of ranked-choice voting typically share one unique trait–they have been bitten by its topsy-turvy results in the past. Newly-minted adversaries of the… Read More ›
Santos Reflects On His Public Service
MAYOR TONY SANTOS’ FAREWELL ADDRESSAs I say farewell to city government, I want to say I am proud of my service to our great city. San Leandro has always been known to have stable government and I am sure that… Read More ›
Santos’ RCV Legal Argument May Be Difficult To Defend
CITY MEASURE AND ORDINANCE APPEARS TO UPHOLD CASSIDY’S MAYORAL WINBy Steven Tavares “Upon reflection, I am sorry I supported ranked-choice voting,” San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos wrote Friday to the city council. Once one of the voting system’s most staunchest… Read More ›
CASSIDY WINS; MAYOR NOT CONCEDING
UPDATED RESULTS GIVE CASSIDY SLIGHT LEAD; SANTOS WINS MOST FIRST-PLACE VOTESBy Steven Tavares Stephen Cassidy declared victory Wednesday evening after the Alameda County Registrar gave the upstart San Leandro mayoral challenger a narrow lead over Mayor Tony Santos in its… Read More ›
Will Cassidy Play Nice? ‘It’s Up To Him’ Says Starosciak
COUNCIL OPPOSITION TO CASSIDY MAY ALREADY BE FORMINGBy Steven Tavares With Stephen Cassidy likely to assume the mayor’s post, many in San Leandro city government are preparing for a drastic change in tenor at City Hall. The expectation of Cassidy’s upset… Read More ›
Potential Pot Moratorium May Achieve Few Results
NARCOTICS DETECTIVE TELLS COUNCIL ILLEGAL POT GROWERS IN SAN LEANDRO ARE EVERYWHEREBy Steven Tavares The number of San Leandro residents illegally growing marijuana is so high placing a citywide land-use moratorium on dispensaries and large-scale growing facilities may accomplished little to stem… Read More ›
No Change in San Leandro Mayor’s Race
TIGHT RACE IN OAKLAND POSTPONES RESULTS TO TUESDAYA week ago, the Alameda County Registrar told voters the results of the first-ever Ranked Choice election would come by the end of the week. Then, it was next Tuesday, then Monday. The… Read More ›
What If Neither Candidate Gets 50 Percent?
SAN LEANDRO CITY CHARTER CALLS FOR A WINNER WITH SIMPLE MAJORITY; RUNOFF COULD BE POSSIBLEBy Steven Tavares So many variables still exist in deciding whether San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos wins re-election or Stephen Cassidy pulls off the big upset…. Read More ›
San Leandro Easily Passes Two Funding Measures
CITY FOLLOWS LOCAL TREND OF VOTERS APPROVING MEASURES WITH SIMPLE MAJORITYBy Steven Tavares San Leandro High will benefit from improvements to Burrell Field. In times of economic uncertainty, San Leandro voters easily approved a bump in the local sales tax to 10 percent,… Read More ›
Electoral Cliffhangers Abound
FROM LOCAL TO NATIONAL RACES, ELECTION DAY UNCERTAINTY MAY CONTINUE FOR WEEKSSan Leandro voters woke Wednesday morning to find the city in the midst of one of the most exciting races in its history. With first place votes tallied, Stephen… Read More ›
Election Day Questions
‘THE BROADUS EFFECT’ ON PROP. 19; THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRST PLACE VOTES IN RCV; YOUNG GOES FOR TWO STRAIGHTBy Steven Tavares By the end of the night, voters in San Leandro will not know the name of the person elected… Read More ›
How Hospital Could Have Been A Thorny Issue For Santos
SANTOS, GREGORY COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE HOOK FOR HOSPITAL IF DISTRICT HAD NOT ACTEDBy Steven Tavares A year ago, San Leandro’s economic outlook was the basically the same as today. More businesses were leaving than coming and the city’s financial… Read More ›
Campaign Manager Said Santos Didn’t Create Crime Problem
ON SANTOS: ‘HE’S NOT THE GUY WHO CREATED IT’Under the file of be careful what you say on video in the age of YouTube, Stephen Cassidy’s campaign manager said, in a two-year old video, San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos did… Read More ›
Candidates Miscalculate RCV’s Kumbaya Factor
It’s difficult to attract the cooperation of your opponents within RCV when divisive ads like the one above alienate a large segment of the electorate. VOTERS WERE SOLD ON RCV’S FRIENDLY CAMPAIGN SEASON; IT HASN’T TURNED OUT THAT WAY By… Read More ›
Cassidy’s Politics of Personality (Or Lack Thereof)
A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE WITH MAYOR CASSIDY? Stephen Cassidy announcing his run for mayor last year. By Steven Tavares Stephen Cassidy readily admits it’s not his personality you should vote for, but his ideas. He is the self-proclaimed “black sheep”… Read More ›
Express: The Gloves Are Off in San Leandro
By Steven TavaresThe former mayor of San Leandro summed up Mayor Tony Santos’ chances for re-election with her typical straightforward style. “Tony hasn’t killed his wife and he hasn’t stolen any money,” said Shelia Young. “There isn’t a good reason… Read More ›
Kids for Cassidy?
CASSIDY ACCUSED OF USING SCHOOL AS CAMPAIGN EVENT; FOLLOWS ALLEGED DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE AT SLHS, 2008 FPPC LETTER By Steven Tavares Stephen Cassidy Stephen Cassidy is using support from the San Leandro school district to flout election fair practice laws,… Read More ›
Santos Misses Council Meeting After Bout of Fatigue
San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos was absent Monday night for a shortened meeting of the city council after undergoing tests at Kaiser Hospital earlier in the day for fatigue and dizziness. A full battery of test turned up negative. According… Read More ›
Police Union Says Dual Endorsement is Intended to Stifle Cassidy
SOURCES HAD SAID UNION WAS ANGERED BY STATEMENTS BY STAROSCIAKBy Steven Tavares It wasn’t anything Councilwoman Joyce Starosciak said that lead the San Leandro Police Officers Association to split their endorsement for mayor between her and Mayor Tony Santos, it… Read More ›
LiveTweeting from Monday’s S.L. Council Meeting
Follow the East Bay Citizen on Twitter! Here’s a few tweets from Monday’s San Leandro City Council meeting in 140 characters or less. Visit the EastBayCitizen.com and twitter.com/eastbaycitizen for up-to-the-minute news and observations from scheduled political events and public meetings, along… Read More ›
Starosciak on the Offensive with a Month to Go
COUNCILWOMAN ATTACKS CASSIDY DURING FORUM; CALLS FOR ‘NEW LEADERSHIP’By Steven Tavares The two main challengers to San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos made moves Thursday night to make it a two-person race with just a month until election day. During the… Read More ›
San Leandro to Receive $2.4 million Grant for Five New Cops
JUSTICE DEPT. ANNOUNCES FEDERAL GRANT; POLICE FORCE GAINS MODICUM OF FINANCIAL STABILITYBy Steven Tavares San Leandro is one of many municipalities, announced today, receiving funding from the Justice Department. Help is on the way from the federal government. San Leandro officials say the… Read More ›
