San Jose Google Project: Group Calls For Transparency

SILICON VALLEY, CA — Community leaders in San Jose are calling for the public release of non-disclosure agreements signed by city leaders in relation to a Google project that involves the sale of publicly-owned land.
On Friday, the organization Silicon Valley Rising released letters that they and fellow community associations sent to Mayor Sam Liccardo and the San Jose City Council demanding transparency in the agreements they
signed with Google that prohibit discussion of aspects of negotiations between the agencies.

"The public deserves to know which city agencies and officials may be unable to fully disclose their discussions with the company going forward," Silicon Valley Rising campaign director Maria Noel Fernandez said in the organization's letter.

San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle confirmed the existence of the agreements in a statement sent out Friday.

"San Jose's non-disclosure agreement with Google has had no effect in constraining the release of any information to the public since June of 2017, months before any negotiations over the price of publicly-owned land took place," Doyle said in his public comment.

Doyle said that though the city council considered a compensation agreement relating to the sale of the property on Feb. 13, the agreement will face a total of 15 public hearings by 14 separate governmental agencies before the land changes hands.

The San Jose Google developmenthas already faced heavy criticism from community groups such as Silicon Valley Rising since the idea surfaced. On Jan. 31, the City Council approved the creation of an advisory board that will provide input to the project near Diridon Station.

The city council voted to add groups that were suggested by council members and city leaders alike after nearly three hours of public comment from those who believed representation of the community should be
added and those with ties to Google should be removed.

Voices of religious groups and people of color that many believed were missing from the advisory group are now a part of the board through organizations like People Acting in Community Together and the Silicon Valley Minority Business Consortium.

Silicon Valley Rising's director specifically named lobbyist Carl Guardino as a concern, questioning his judgment in possibly signing the agreement "in pursuit of personal ambition."

"We certainly hope that California Transportation Commission member and Google lobbyist Carl Guardino is not signing legally questionable non-disclosure agreements and cutting back room deals to allocate state
resources," Fernandez said. "Mr. Guardino's defense of secrecy surrounding the sale and development of San Jose's public property to Google is absurd and disingenuous."

Guardino has not publicly reacted to any of the allegations, but did retweet a tweet from Liccardo on Monday which said, "Google hasn't asked for a dime in subsidies and we haven't offered any - taxpayers are getting a
price for public land that is 2 1/2 times what land was appraised for."

Neither Guardino nor spokespeople from his agency, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, were immediately available for comment.

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By Bay City News Service

Photo by Stefano Paltera/Associated Press, file