Ron Gonzales, a top aide and Norcal Waste indicted after trash
contract investigated
Gilroy – Fresh off his end-of-day commute from Silicon Valley, Patrick Corpus was less surprised about the indictment of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales than he was about how long it took.
The mayor, a top aide and a garbage hauling company were indicted by a Santa Clara County grand jury Thursday amid an investigation into a secretly negotiated trash contract. The move comes half a year after District Attorney George Kennedy announced an investigation into the back-room deal Gonzales struck with Norcal Waste Systems that cost taxpayers an additional $11.25 million in labor costs.
“I’m surprised it took that long after such a scandal,” said Corpus, a Gilroy resident and engineering manager who works in South San Jose. “All the information was out there.”
The mayor’s office announced the six-count indictment but the charges were not immediately clear. Prosecutors would not comment Thursday, but they scheduled a news conference for today on the results of a grand jury probe into the Norcal deal that led San Jose City Council members to censure Gonzales last year.
“Mayor Gonzales has not seen the indictment,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “He broke no laws.”
The mayor’s lawyer, Allen Ruby, said a copy of the booking slip was difficult to read.
“I believe, based on what I’ve seen, there are some conspiracy counts,” he said, adding that the mayor was at work Thursday.
Alan Lagod, lawyer for the mayor’s aide Joe Guerra, also hadn’t seen the indictment but said his client surrendered at the sheriff’s department and was released.
Norcal was named in four counts of the indictment but denied any wrongdoing, said Bill Goodman, an attorney for the company.
Authorities refused to reveal the charges but the mayor’s office said he and Guerra each posted $50,000 bond Thursday morning. All three defendants are scheduled to appear Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
A civil grand jury accused Gonzales and Guerra last year of “duping” the council into approving a 2003 rate increase and a 2004 contract amendment to cover the increased costs.
Gonzales did not disclose to city council members that $1 of a $1.40 per month garbage rate increase was intended to cover labor costs.
A lawyer hired by the city to investigate the garbage contract said in December that Gonzales and Guerra violated city policy requiring independence and impartiality when they privately assured Norcal the city would cover increased union costs.
The City Council censured Gonzales in December for the deal and ultimately forced him to resign from a number of powerful commissions, including a task force planning to develop thousands of acres in Coyote Valley. Gonzales’ removal from that committee has not stalled plans to bring 50,000 jobs and 80,000 residents to the area north of Morgan Hill, but it has brought a more reasonable approach to the development, according to Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy.
“Early on his goal appeared to be to move forward very quickly with the development of Coyote Valley,” Kennedy said of Gonzales. “That has clearly changed … What I see is a change in attitude on the part of San Jose. There’s a lot more realistic approach, a recognition that there’s no need to go barreling ahead without addressing traffic and congestion and other things that affect neighbors.”
Kennedy was reluctant to draw conclusions about Gonzales’ guilt before a jury decided the matter.
“He deserves a fair trial, but you know it’s not a good thing,” Kennedy said. “It gives all elected officials a bad reputation. It’s the result of what can happen if you think you have more power than you really do.”
As she waited in Gilroy Thursday evening for the southbound train from San Jose, Catherine Bretz, a resident of Coarsegold, was hardly surprised about Gonzales’ indictment. She chalked it up to a system corrupt from top to bottom, pointing to the scandals engulfing numerous members of Congress.
“I think if he’s guilty, he should be run out of town,” Bretz said of Gonzales. “Every crooked politician – send ’em to Siberia.”
