This article was originally posted to LinkedIn on October 24, 2025 Why That’s Indefensible Recently, the City of Santa Clara approved a major deal: the Santa Clara Stadium Authority (SCSA) voted to accept a roughly $6.4 million reimbursement agreement tied to hosting Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. Anyone who follows Santa Clara knows that … Read more
This article was originally posted to LinkedIn on October 29, 2025 An Important Discussion Today Today (Thursday, October 30, 2025) at 10 a.m. via Zoom, Santa Clara’s Governance & Ethics Committee will review the city’s Gift Policy and a new policy on event/seat tickets. If the city gets these right, trust can begin to rebuild. … Read more
A Case Study: Should the City Keep or Eliminate Senior Center Fees? At the June 23, 2026 City Council meeting, several residents asked the Council to eliminate the fees seniors pay to use the Senior Center. Suppose you were a Council member. How would you make the decision? Where Do I Begin? The first step … Read more
The Charter Review Committee did admirable and extensive work — but voters should judge the proposed Charter by what it leaves out: the kind of city Santa Clara wants to become, the Stadium Authority, a real ethics code, and the protection of meaningful public engagement. Read more
Buried in the 2022 Civil Grand Jury report “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” is a concise statement of what public office requires: the fiduciary duties every Council member and city staffer owes the people they serve — care, loyalty, impartiality, accountability, and preserving the public’s trust. Here’s why Santa Clara should measure every official against them. Read more
Independent-expenditure committees funded by the San Francisco 49ers have spent more than $10 million across three Santa Clara City Council elections — over $1 million on a single race against a roughly $26,000 voluntary cap. A look at what that imbalance has bought, and what it means heading into November 2026. Read more
A City of Trust doesn’t exist yet — not in Santa Clara, and, as best we can tell, nowhere else. It’s an idea: that public ethics is an organizational commitment, not a matter of personal virtue. Most cities never reach it. Santa Clara built that kind of trust once — and could lead the way again. Read more
Santa Clara’s Charter rewrite is a real chance to restore public trust — but it leaves out the Santa Clara Stadium Authority entirely. Why the body that governs the city’s biggest financial entanglement with the 49ers can’t be left out of the Charter. Read more
Biases Revealed in Santa Clara’s Grand Jury Responses By Dr. Tom Shanks | Public Trust Now | May 6, 2026 There’s an old story about an emperor who hired tailors to make him a magnificent suit of clothes. The tailors were con artists. They told the emperor the fabric was so fine that only wise … Read more
PTN looks at City decisions through an ethics and public trust lens. In this post, we want to show you what we see when we ask: Applied to the proposed replacement Ethics Code, these questions lead to clear concerns. What the City Has Done: The Facts On July 11, 2023, the City Council approved a … Read more
Working to improve the ethics quality of local government decision-making — toward a city government of, by, and for the people.