Tuesday Night at City Hall — What Are You Looking At?

The answer depends on the agenda item.

In Santa Clara, the same officials — the Mayor, City Council, City Manager, City Attorney, and others — serve in two roles simultaneously. At one moment they may be acting as the City Council. Moments later, the same people are acting as the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. Someone attending or watching needs to keep an eye on the printed agenda to see which body is dealing with which item.

This matters because these are two different government bodies — and they are not governed the same way. The City Council operates under the City Charter, the Code of Ethics & Values, and clear expectations of public trust.

The Stadium Authority has no comparable ethics framework, no independent oversight, and no ethics code.

When the same people act in both roles, three questions arise: Which rules apply to this decision? Which responsibilities come first? And whose interests are being served?

At the center of it all is a basic obligation that applies to both bodies: public officials have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the residents. When roles overlap and expectations differ, that duty is harder to see — and harder to enforce.

Every person at that table serves two roles simultaneously: City Council member and Stadium Authority Board member. When the agenda switches from City business to Stadium Authority business, nobody moves. The room doesn’t change. The rules do — and the Stadium Authority has far fewer of them.