Is Santa Clara Moving
in the Right Direction?

Santa Clara once led California in municipal ethics. Its nationally recognized ethics program was studied, copied, and trusted by residents. 

In 2008, at the height of the program, 87% of Santa Clara residents said the City was going in the right direction.

Today, the ethics program has largely disappeared. In 2024, just 40% said the City's direction was the right one.

Santa Clara now faces once-in-a-generation decisions that will either rebuild public trust through ethical leadership—or deepen a City Hall culture that ignores ethics, rejects criticism, excludes the public, and treats public trust as an afterthought.

Santa Clara Faced These Choices Before

Twenty-six years ago, the people of Santa Clara told the City Council they had had enough.

Enough of the negative political culture growing in the City with its win-at-all-costs election campaigns.

Residents were looking for something better: ethical leadership, fair elections, an ethics code that provided practical help, and a city government worthy of public confidence.

To its credit, City officials and Senior staff listened, acted, and engaged the public in new ways. 

The City and the People Partnered

City government and residents began working together as partners to define what trustworthy government looked like in practice. That partnership is a main factor in the success of the program. 

The Mercury News called it Soul Searching in Santa Clara.

Santa Clara asked its people a question most cities are afraid to ask:

When government is at its best earning the public's trust, how does it act?

How do trustworthy public officials treat residents, each other, and City staff? How do they make decisions when what's best for the people conflicts with what they think is best for their donors, their business, their political agenda, their family and friends? What do they promise residents — and how do they hold themselves accountable for keeping those promises?

Beyond Legal Compliance

To answer those questions, the City first looked to its 1960's era "follow the law" compliance ethics code. Surely that would describe trustworthy government?

It didn't. Santa Clara's Code, like most codes at the time, just said: "Follow the law."  These were described primarily as a set of "Do Nots."  (As in "Do not lie, cheat, or steal.")

Cities understood that breaking the law destroys public trust. Over time, they learned that earning trust requires more than simply following the law. Law is the minimum standard of public service, not the definition of ethical leadership. Law is what we must do.  Ethics is what we ought to do to earn the most trust.

Ethical leadership is decision-making that is done in the best interests of the public, meeting their needs with honesty, impartiality, accountability, and fairness.  In fact, these are the fiduciary duties all elected and appointed leaders promise the people they will fulfill.  

Santa Clara rejected its old compliance-based code because it provided no vision or standards for trustworthy government.

The Code of Ethics & Values

Working with Dr. Tom Shanks, then Executive Director of SCU's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the City then developed the first consensus-driven, integrity-based Code of Ethics and Values in California.

Instead of legal rules and "do not's," this Code focused on positive ethics, which the City defined as "the way city government and officials act when they are at their best earning public trust."

Every official pledged to practice the eight consensus core values developed earlier.  As a representative of Santa Clara, I will be ethical, professional, service-oriented, fiscally responsible, organized, communicative, collaborative, and progressive.

Those values were translated into real-world behaviors that showed city officials and residents alike what trustworthy government looks like in practice.  The City then turned those into ethical standards, which prescribed how trustworthy City officials ought to act in order to earn the people's trust. 

The City adopted the Code in 2000 and immediately began a continuous "Make It Real" implementation program. In 2008, the City added Behavioral Standards for Council members for each of the Code's standards.  Column 3 of 4 listed what each Code standard looked like in practice, in words and deeds people could hear and see.  Column 4 listed the words and behaviors to avoid, what the Code's standards did not look like in practice.

For more than a decade, Santa Clara was a role model for cities across California.


It Worked...Then It Didn't

For more than a decade, it worked. Residents trusted their government — and the numbers showed it. In 2008, 87% said Santa Clara was going in the right direction.

That same year, the San Francisco 49ers announced plans to build their new stadium in Santa Clara. They bedazzled the City Council with celebrity and financial possibilities — and quietly, the Ethics Program began to unravel.

Dr. Shanks was alarmed. The 49ers negotiations were raising public ethics issues the Council routinely ignored. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, he proposed a program to train City staff to prepare Ethics Impact Reports — flagging the ethics and values stakes in each stadium decision. He wrote: "Few city decisions have as much potential impact on public trust as the decisions about the 49ers new stadium." The proposal was rejected without public discussion all three years.

Someone had decided there was no need for ethics in the stadium approval process. The Council, staff, and city contractors were all held to the Code of Ethics & Values — but not the Stadium Authority, the 49ers, ManCo, or StadCo. That exclusion was never explained, never debated, and never reversed.

Then the pillars fell, one by one. The ethics consultation budget disappeared. The Vote Ethics program — eight election cycles of nonpartisan candidate education and accountability — ended after 2016 without explanation. The "Make It Real" implementation program quietly stopped. No single dramatic decision — just a series of small ones behind closed doors, easy to miss unless you were watching closely.

Having Santa Clara's Back:
A Message from Founder Dr. Tom Shanks

Santa Clara had my back during a difficult time in my life. I have Santa Clara's back now.

For 17 years (1998-2015),  I worked with wise and courageous City Staff and the Council to build something here that worked — an internationally recognized ethics program, 87% resident approval, and a role-model for other cities. I watched the City dismantle the ethics & values program, quietly, across five Councils, with the last two the least interested in public trust.  Their decisions were easy to miss unless you were watching closely.

I started watching closely again in 2020, when Jed York changed strategy. Instead of legal battles with a City Council that challenged him, he invested millions in PAC spending to replace the Council majority. After the new majority met 57 times with 49ers lobbyists in hidden-agenda meetings, they fired the City Manager and City Attorney.  That's when I published an op-ed in the Mercury News raising a public alarm. I could no longer remain silent about things that matter.

Thomas Jefferson believed that when things get so far wrong as to attract the people's notice, they may be relied on to set them right. That's the moment Santa Clara is in. There is nothing left to save — but everything to rebuild.  

PublicTrustNow exists to make sure residents have the mind (and the information) they need to move the City in the right direction before it's too late, and the heart (and the community) to want to do so.

Please join us.  Please invite your family, friends, and neighbors.   

Enough!

The Bulldozer Is Already In the Yard

Twenty-five years ago, a long-time Santa Clara resident on the ethics ordinance committee pulled Dr. Shanks aside after one of the committee meetings. He didn't want Dr. Shanks to be disappointed if other residents didn't respond to the request to participate in the ethics development process.

"You've got to understand," he said. "Santa Clara residents won't respond to City Hall unless there's a bulldozer with the City's name on it in their front yard. It's already knocked down the fence and it's on its way to the front door. Then they'll respond."

After working on this site for the past three months, we believe that bulldozer has arrived. It has already knocked down the front fence, and it's on its way to the front door. There is no time to lose.

The people are the only force with the political power to change a city's direction. Thomas Jefferson understood what this moment requires:

Whenever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

Article II Section 1 of California's Constitution makes it law:

All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require.

The public good needs your attention. Public Trust Now is here to help.

What You Can Do

Santa Clara was once a role model for ethical leadership and public trust. Residents can help the City become that again. Here's how to start.