SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A yearslong war between the Santa Clara, California, mayor and the San Francisco 49ers over the management and funding of Levi’s Stadium has morphed into a grand jury investigation into City Council corruption and collusion — raising questions over the clout of professional sports in city politics.
The civil grand jury’s 61-page report released Monday surrounds the controversy concerning Santa Clara City Council members’ dealings with the National Football League team, which has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the city over the use of stadium land for years. The grand jury delved into multiple ethics complaints involving some members of the City Council and found the activities of five council members are “not consistent with the duties owed to the constituents they were elected to serve” and cause “severe dysfunction.”
Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilmember Kathy Watanabe were not implicated in the report, which describes clear divisions on the council. Council members Anthony Becker, Suds Jain and Kevin Park, elected in 2020, enjoy backing from political action committees affiliated with the 49ers. Council members Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal side with them and together they often vote on issues that align with the 49ers’ preferences, the grand jury found.
In the city of Inglewood, the council pretended to go along with a petition to gather signatures from Inglewood residents under the guise of putting the SoFi Stadium proposal on the ballot, despite having knowledge a law was on the books that allowed them to use the signatures as “votes”.
Related: Stadium developer has donated $100,000 to Inglewood officials’ campaigns
Hollywood Park Land Co. pledged in excess of $100,000 to finance the 2015 re-election of Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts and two of his council picks, George Dotson and Alex Padilla’s in 2014 campaigns who unanimously approve the stadium project in Feb. 2015.
Related: Inglewood meeting to approve Clippers deal violated state law, D.A. says
Additionally, Murphy’s Bowl LLC (Steve Ballmer) heavily influenced the Inglewood city council’s decision to approve the Intuit Dome project which the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office found violated open meeting laws. Due to the timing of the complaint that was filed with their office no legal action was taken.
It appears that elected officials fall over themselves to be at the beck and call of billionaires which eventually comes back to haunt them.
Read the full article on the grand jury probe into the Levi’s Stadium deal here.
Courthouse News contributed to this report.
