A Testament To Excellence

The Chamber of Commerce, paragons of superbness, sent out an attack mailer today that criticized Kansen Chu for tax liens. Yes, those tax liens.

In honor of that achievement, two of our friends would like to present the following pennant to Miss Dando.

My Apologies

I'm out of town for work a few days, so updates will be sporadic. I'm sure Tom McEnery will do something exciting in the interim. Like buying this house! From the Dalis trust! Only $820k!

20 CC's of Honesty, Stat!

An astute observer has noticed some significant differences between the bios of Hon Lien the school board candidate and Hon Lien the Council candidate, who we assume are the same person.

One key difference is the absence of her position as the Chief Financial Officer of COVN, 'Creating Opportunities in Vietnam'.

Now, there are two theories as to why this change was made. The first is that she finds it inopportune, now that Bryan Do is out of the race, to be seen as a supporter of involvement in Communist Vietnam. The second, according to a tipster, is even more interesting.

It seems that Hon Lien may have come down with what San Jose's political-medico community is referring to as 'Oliveri-itis', a rare condition in which a candidate overstates his or her involvement in a non-profit to seem more legitimate. (This condition has, of course, been known to be effective in winning elections.) The tipster indicates that COVN wasn't enthusiastic about Hon's self-promotion. Which, as with most of her self-promotion so far, has been pretty inaccurate.

The 1,083,262 Dollar Question

New details have emerged about Hon Lien's bankruptcy filing way back in 2006.

An anonymous tipster sent us the full bankruptcy filing (PDF, 147 pages, 2 megs). Within, we learn the following details.

First of all, Hon Lien's Golden Phoenix supermarket was on the hook for $1,083,262 dollars to 141 different creditors. Amazing.

Notable entries include, from A to Z:

• Albertson's for $20,798
• The City of Mountain View for $6,874
• Foster Farms Dairy for $28,684
• M. E. Fox and Company for $5,136 (nice of Mike, Jr., to overlook that when the Chamber endorsed her)
• PG&E for $9,571
• Regal Wine for $24,260
• Santa Clara County for $1,679
• Sing Tao Daily for $264.47 (so much for that endorsement. Unless Mike Fox, Jr., works there, of course)
• Sonny's Produce for $39,055
• Sunnyvale Seafood, CEO: Hon Lien, for $137,598
• Zenith Insurance for $9,306

Really, truly, staggering.

Additionally, we learn how precipitously business dropped off. From $3.8 million in gross sales in 2004 to $900 thousand in 2005. That's what I call managing! Won't someone please elect this woman to something?

Feel free to peruse the whole document, and let us know if you find anything else interesting.

You Know What San Jose Needs?

San Jose needs some sort of organization that will distribute news to the broad population. A radio station, television station, or, say, some sort of large-format written communication.

The 'Head In The Sand' counter, on the right side of the main page, is at five days right now - five days in which the Mercury News has ignored questions about the role of Vic Ajlouny in the administration. And now it may as well say one additional day for their ignoring the lies of H. Tax Lien.

If this isn't news, but this story about a small fire is - it explains a lot about San Jose elections. People aren't given the chance to be informed.

For the record, if Cindy Chavez were Mayor, or had done what Hon is doing during her campaign - front page news.

Front-Running Candidate: Hon Lien

Front-running if she were running for World's Biggest Hypocrite! (In street parlance, that's called a 'dis'.) She is certainly not leading the District 4 race, and she is poised to sink further. Why?

Because this woman is absolutely unbelievable. I won't bother going over all the previous hypocrisy, lies and libel (or maybe I will) - but today's action takes the cake. A quick recap:

Hon sends out a mailer accusing Kansen of having liens against his business. Then, it is revealed that she apparently intentionally misled voters by using erroneous information about liens on another, similarly-named business.

Now, guess what? Turns out Hon actually had liens filed against her business. I have no idea why this surprises me.

That's right. She owes the County over $7,000 (including late fees assessed after the document above was sent out). Seven grand. And she tried to nitpick Kansen over a $50 lien that wasn't even for his business. Note as well, she had already filed to run for school board when this was sent to her. What kind of person runs for office while they owe the County seven large?

The key question: Will Hon Lien do the right thing and let voters know about her mistake? Kansen Chu, according to a press release sent to us, has called on her to do just that.

No wonder she doesn't want to debate Kansen. Who would, after spending thousands of dollars lying? Plus side to all this is that we have a new nickname: Hon "Tax" Lien. Catchy.

Sunnyvale Seafood Is A Good Neighbor

We were pointed to an exchange at a recent Planning Commission meeting (motto: See Xavier Campos!) in which residents of District 7 raise an issue with their neighbor - one Sunnyvale Seafood. CEO, as you know by now: Hon Lien.

What kind of neighborhoods do Hon's (non-bankrupt) businesses promote?


Well, according to the speaker, "the noise that they [Sunnyvale Seafood] make is unbearable." Also, "forklifts running all night long, dropping heavy metal objects." "It's intolerable to live like this... We don't sleep and they're rude and inconsiderate."

Telling comment: "...I've been to the Mayor, I've been everywhere and nobody cares." Now, why wouldn't Mayor Reed care that the business run by his Manchurian candidate is disruptive to a community?

(And yes, ladies, the meeting is being run by the Xavier Campos! Next Commission meeting is on May 16th*. Bring your autograph books!)

(Someone wrote in to correct the date, so all you Xavier fans didn't miss your chance. Thanks, mystery savior!)

Honest Hon Lien and the Liens

A few days ago, Hon Lien was the first District 4 candidate in the mail, dropping a hit piece attacking Kansen Chu for having dirty buckets in his restaurant and having tax liens against his company. The piece, a four page spread, mentions these liens against Ocean Harbor Restaurant and shows a lien for delinquent garbage service. The question asked, in bold red type at the bottom of the page, is, "How can we trust Kansen Chu at City Hall with his track record?" You can see the key page here (PDF, 500k).

Well, guess what. According to a very revealing tip and file sent to us, Hon had it wrong. Completely wrong.

Turns out there are two Ocean Harbor corporations that were filed with the State. Here's the first:


And the other:

Apparently, shortly after the liens were levied against the restaurant, Kansen Chu bought it.

Astute readers have already guessed that it was the first, non-Kansen Ocean Harbor Inc. that had the all of the liens Hon's mail mentioned, except one, which we'll get to in a moment. Here is a PDF sent by the tipster that contains the various liens against Ocean Harbor, Inc. (PDF, 1.3M. Pages of 2, 1, 5, 8 and 6 of this document correspond to Hon's mail's numbers 1 through 5, in that order. She even got the amount wrong on the first one she lists, as you'll note.)

So this can be attributed either to sloppiness or malice. But the last lien mentioned, the one that is pictured on the mail piece, answers that question. The one pictured on the mail was against a Kansen-owned business, that was leased to a third party, that didn't pay its garbage bills. In other words, of the six called out in the Hon piece, the only one that had any relation to Kansen was the one that was pictured. And even it, mind you, wasn't his fault.

The odds that it is coincidence, that Hon should happen to put up the one lien that actually was related to Kansen of the six, are about 17%. Wouldn't want those odds on an operating table. Seems pretty clear that Hon Lien, her patron Chuck Reed, and her campaign consultant / city employee Vic Ajlouny knew what they were doing.

The question that must be asked, then, is: How can we trust Hon Lien at City Hall with her track record?

Working Out Details

I removed a post that I had up earlier after determining that some of the details were inaccurate. Once I can confirm them, I will re-post it. Thanks.

This Picture Says It All

If you would like to know what the Rotary is all about, this sums it up.

Rotary makes older white people happy. And Chuck has Pat Dando in the palm of his hand. Worth a thousand words.

Two More Hon Lien Mail Pieces

You read it here first. A piece touting her law enforcement support (for now), and another bragging on how down she is with the Vietnamese community.

The police piece looks almost exactly like Chuck's mail from last year. The Vietnamese piece is very rough, white background, blurry photos. One of the Vietnamese military leaders pictured has far longer hair than would go over in our armed forces.

I was reminded of a T-shirt a friend used to have that read, "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit." Ladies and gentlemen, I think we're being baffled.

Why Wikipedia Can Be Challenging

For those unfamiliar with it, Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia that arrives at its breadth and depth by allowing users to create content for it. For example, if you are the world's foremost expert on the coelacanth, you can share your knowledge with the world. (For the record, I am the world's foremost expert on the coelacanth, by knowing that it is a fish.)

What this means too, of course, is that anyone can put any old information up that they want. And, often, particularly for local elected officials, the officials or their lackeys can have free reign. Take these choice excerpts:

• Chuck Reed: "Chuck Reed has gained many nicknames during his tenure in office including 'Mr. Integrity'..." Why does that not sound familiar? The page also does a remarkable job downplaying any criticism - like his $48,000 loan to himself from City funds.
• Dave Cortese: "Soon after his swearing-in Cortese began establishing himself as a leader on the council." Now that's good objectivity.
• Sam Liccardo: "Councilmember Liccardo has been on the for front for Immigrant Rights since elected onto the City Council in January of 2007." You can also volunteer to copyedit entries, although, apparently, no one does.
• Nora Campos: "Campos' former colleague Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez was widely viewed as a powerful pro-union elected official on the City Council. Upon Chavez leaving the office due to term limits, there was speculation that Campos would carry Chavez's mantle. However, on March 4, 2007 the San Jose Mercury News noted that,'...some privately question whether Campos has the political skills to emerge as a council powerhouse.'" A fair, balanced, unbiased assessment. Recommendation to Nora's office: you should clean this up a bit.

Madison's, Pete's and some of the others are actually pretty good - simple, to-the-point, and accurate. Hopefully, they've learned a lesson from this: you can put whatever baloney up that you want. Let's get to editing!

Keeping It Real at City Hall

The yokels over at ObnoxiousBlowhards.com have spent another day railing against the Mexican Heritage Plaza and the investment of $100 grand to figure out how to keep the organization solvent.

In case you're keeping score at home, the number of days they've complained about the $4 million gift to the Sharks and McEnerys? Zero.

And in case you weren't incensed enough about the Sharks deal, Chuck Reed has made his quid pro quo even more explicit, with the signs placed at City Hall and throughout the City:


I guess the vote's going through, then. The Chamber's mail on this is going to be vicious!

Quick Notes

• The Mercury News' headline editors make a clear point: that's a lot of tiimes! (In the original link, the Merc spelled the word 'tiimes', too. They fixed it, because they want to embarrass us. It's a full-blown vendetta!)


• Chuck Reed certainly hates those developers. It's too bad, really.


• Looking for a Councilmember willing to put aside bias and do the right thing? Look no further than Pierluigi Oliverio, whose moral compass is so true that he reviews books at Amazon that plug his company. Which appears, incidentally, to still be his company.

Spending Money the Hon Lien Way

Last week, we broke the story about Hon Lien's 2006 bankruptcy filing for her business Golden Phoenix Enterprises.

An alert tipster makes an interesting point. In April of 2006, Hon Lien filed bankruptcy. In November and December of last year, however, she made a critical investment - in her race for Council. According to City filings, as seen below, she loaned herself $20,000 for the campaign.


A quick Hon Lien timeline, for those just joining us:

• 2002: Receive warning from health officials about seafood company.
• Early 2006. Move to District 4, file bankruptcy (not necessarily in that order).
• Mid 2006. Sell soul to Chuck Reed and Pat Dando.
• November 2006. Run for school district, come in last.
• Late 2006. Loan self twenty grand. Run for Council.
• March 2007. Vote for first time, apparently ever.
• May 2007. Attack opponent in Council race for health violations, financial issues from the early 1990s.

Hard to believe folks are reconsidering their endorsements.

Hon Lien Goes Negative (UPDATED)

Hon Lien's campaign also released a hit piece yesterday, attacking Kansen Chu for health code violations at his restaurant in the early 1990s. Because if there's one primary job responsibility of a City Councilmember, it's keeping roaches of out the building.

It also lists tax liens (pronounced "leans") and includes photos of the code violations, most of which are snapshots of grubby counters and buckets. None of the photos or code violations is after 1994 - and the dates of the liens aren't listed.

The mail has the same aesthetics as Chuck Reed's "Roll the Dice" mail piece from last year - plain white backgrounds, awkward text - and has a warning, for faint-hearted readers, about the photos within. Frankly, you'd have to be pretty faint-hearted.

The piece definitely whiffs of desperation. Mountain from a molehill anyone? These violations were thirteen years ago. The piece indicates that all problems were taken care of. And, frankly, none of the issues seems like anything related to being on the City Council. Now if, say, the company in Kansen's control had gone bankrupt, just last year - that seems like more of an issue.

As a service to the Lien campaign, I have created the following graphic, to put on future versions of this piece.

You're welcome, Hon. Let's do lunch! Chinese?

UPDATE: An anonymous tipster points out the sheer hypocrisy of this mail piece given that one of Hon Lien's companies, Sunnyvale Seafood, for which she was the CEO (and which was sued by creditors), received a warning letter in 2002 from the Department of Health and Human Services for "serious deviations from the Seafood HACCP regulations". I believe the vocabulary word you're looking for is gall.

Milpitas Gossip

Hopefully the headline of this didn't turn you off from reading it. After all, what could the gossip be? New strip malls?

Somewhat more interesting, I think.

Vic Ajlouny, likely city official and campaign consultant to Hon "Chapter 7" Lien, is the political kingpin of Milpitas, doing campaign work for a number of Milpitas-centric issues and candidates over the years.

Well, now three separate tipsters have shared his next plans: electing the next Mayor of Milpitas - who appears also to be his girlfriend.

Rumor has it that Vic is engaged in an extra-professional relationship with Milpitas Councilmember Deb Giordano. The Republican, elected in 2004, is recently divorced and now, according to multiple sources, is seeking her boyfriend Vic's help in moving up the ladder of city government - moving past now-Vice Mayor Armando Gomez. (If that name seems familiar, it is because he is Chuck Reed's Budget Director. Incestuous!)

For the second time, it seems worthy of note that, as far as we know, Vic is still married. If he isn't, we wish the couple much success and happiness. Well, happiness anyway. If he is, it would ceratinly explain his moral composition.

Or maybe not.

Quick Notes

• Over at ObnoxiousBlowhards, Tom McEnery shows his age by complaining about access to toilets.


• The Mercury News does a fine job summarizing budget changes online. Doesn't look so bad!


• How long are we going to be almost at a million people? The only way San Jose will ever be the largest city in the country is if everyone else dips below 950 thousand.

A Challenge For Our Readers

The first mail piece was spotted in the wilds of District 4 by an alert tipster. I was sent a full PDF of it, but damned if I'm going to help her spead her message. Besides, she'll just change it anyway.

Suffice it to say, it looks exactly like Chuck Reed's awful, ugly mail from last year. Chuck could have mailed toilet paper and it would have been as attractive, and had the same impact. Hon's mail has the same little floating heads, same concocted quotes. Tom McEnery and Chuck Reed both featured prominently, of course.

But the content. Oh Lord, the content. It was clearly, undoubtedly, obviously written by (City employee) Vic Ajlouny. Somehow, I don't think that Hon is as versed in, say, the city's structural deficit as this mail would have you believe.

So here's the challenge. We ask that someone go to a candidate forum in District 4 and ask either of the following of Hon Lien:

• "When, if ever, was the last time you voted in an election?"
• Any question that requires she know what her own material says about a complex issue.

I have a strong suspicion she wouldn't be able to answer one in a way that would inspire confidence. If you want a copy of the mail to pick out a juicy trap for her, let us know.

We wish you success in this endeavor. Maybe we'll even scrounge up some prizes. Maybe.

Meet Your 2007 City Hall Staff

Here, for your reading pleasure, is the full Council and Mayor staff list (PDF, 36k), provided, no doubt, in response to our earlier discussion questioning what the hell Vic Ajlouny does, and who he does it for.

Here's one interesting bit:

So, he's a consultant with no public City contract. And good ol' Vic isn't there at all. Keep watching the Head-in-the-Sand-ometer (on the right hand side of the main page) and let's see when the Merc starts to care.

The Most Amusing Tip We've Received

An anonymous tipster sent in a great tip.

Remember Pierluigi? Italian guy, ran for Council? Well, apparently he won and then proceeded to try to prove some sort of point about parks.

Last night, the neighborhood leaders for District 6 got together, and Pierluigi showed up to make the case on shunting Rose Garden maintenance to some random company. As the tipster puts it:

As usual, he brought Denelle Fedor and his entire staff with him for cover.

Some cover.

Next thing he does is proceeds to claim that he can find a contractor to do more maintenance work, at $20,000 less than the city. Maybe if the overall budget were five hundred thousand dollars, I'd buy that. But he's saying the outside company would do more work at 75% of the cost. Sure.

Then, since his plan has been foundering, he promised to move that extra twenty grand into traffic calming, hoping everyone would jump on board. This, I believe, is what Julius Finkelstein would call bribery. (Don't worry, Pierluigi. No one else calls it that.) The neighborhood leaders collectively rolled their eyes.

Then, the business leaders got together and voted for a new group Chair. They chose one Clark Williams. Oh well, better late than never.

As the tipster put it:

Oliverio lost his smirk last night... It was fun to watch.

I bet.

Chuck Reed's Calendar, Part Two (UPDATED) (AGAIN)

An anonymous tipster (just use the box on the right!) has pointed out something very interesting, as a follow up from my complaints about Council calendars this morning. Turns out, maybe there is useful information revealed within.

According to Mr. Charles Rufus "Openness" "Sunshine" Reed's calendar, he didn't do anything in April. OK, that I believe. However, it also indicates that the last time he met with Vic Ajlouny was on January 12th. Hmmm.

As the tipster puts it:

Vic is still doing press releases (at least he did one on April 16th), which means that he is communicating in some way with Reed, but there is no record of any of their meetings. Funny how sunshine doesn't always apply to everyone.

Vic is, as far as we know, in the same employment position as Dean Munro, but at least Dean shows up on the calendar every so often, with near-weekly meetings in March. Vic is also the primary consultant for Hon Lien's campaign, was, until a year or two ago, a registered lobbyist with the City, and is considered a City employee.

Who doesn't officially meet with Chuck Reed. Must make doing these press releases kinda a chore.

UPDATE: Since we had such luck with a counter last time - we've started a counter, in the column at right, indicating how many days until the Merc (motto: "Openness today, openness tomorrow, openness... well, that's about enough.") covers this obvious breach of Chuck Reed's "core values".

UPDATED AGAIN: Maybe Vic isn't helping. After all, you'd think he knows how to spell his own name.

DEVELOPING: Another Blow For Hon Lien?

Hon Lien has been instructed to make attacking city workers and their benefits part of her campaign platform. And so, it is part of her platform, and she is not shy about sharing that opinion. Whosever it is.

Rumor has it, this (and, likely, other reasons) is causing her some strife with a particular sort of city employee - the sort that gets shot at protecting her. The Police Officers Association, according to solid reports, may be reconsidering their endorsement.

As more details become known, I'll share.

Quick Notes

• Really? Pierluigi? Grandstanding? Look, Oliverio, the Merc actually put on its thinking cap. I think you can buy them on Lincoln.


• Erin McEnery certainly doesn't seem to know her audience. I feel confident they fall mainly into the unhappily married 35-and-older club.


• Why does the ever-so-important-and-useful Mayor's calendar page link to this set of Outlook documents from before he was Mayor? Especially when he has a calendar up. In fact, most of the Council do, but few of them have been updated since March (has there been an unannounced hiatus?), and even fewer have links from their websites.
  
  Where's the outcry? Nonexistent, because this was a non-issue from the get-go. The Merc was sure that, if calendars became public, they'd see:
  
  9:30 am. Met with lobbyists to take bribe to build stadium/housing/mansion for developers.
  
  Turns out what they're seeing instead is an uninteresting snapshot of a little bit of things that happened a month ago. If they can find the calendar. Thanks, Merc, for the massive waste of time.