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San Jose City Council votes to request mayor's resignation
| Wednesday, Jun 28 2006 4:15 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jun 28 2006 4:15 PM
The City Council asked Mayor Ron Gonzales to resign on Wednesday in the wake of his indictment over a secretly negotiated garbage contract.
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Gonzales voted against the proposal, which passed 8-3, and said he has no plans of quitting. Gonzales was booed by a heckler at one point when he vowed to stay in office.
The council is now mulling ways to strip Gonzales of his power.
Possible actions, according to City Attorney Richard Doyle, include cutting Gonzales' office staff's budget, revoking his city-issued credit card, withholding his travel funds, and reducing the mayor's $105,000 salary to as low as a regular council member's pay of $75,000 a year.
The council could prohibit the mayor from representing the city at events, though it can't restrict his ability to attend gatherings. It could also reassign his physical seat from the center of the city council dais, but it can't remove him as the presiding chair over council meetings, Doyle said in a memo issued Tuesday to councilors, citing the city's charter.
Some city council members have also questioned whether they would be able to directly remove the mayor, and Doyle wrote that they likely cannot do so.
For one, the mayor may be protected by state labor laws that prohibit employers from firing a worker over an arrest that doesn't result in a conviction, Doyle said. Also, though the city charter gives the council the authority to establish the grounds for removal, they probably would not be able to apply it retroactively, he said.
Gonzales, 55, has been under fire to step down since he was indicted last week on bribery and conspiracy charges stemming from his handling of the city's contract with Norcal Waste Systems Inc.
Prosecutors allege Gonzales pressured Norcal into using the Teamsters union - instead of a lower-paid union - at a recycling plant, and then secretly agreed to help the trash contractor recoup the extra labor expenses at a taxpayer cost of $11.25 million.
Gonzales, who is serving his final year as a termed-out mayor, has denounced the charges as false and vowed to finish out his term.