This was originally posted on Linkedin on October 1, 2025

The San Jose Mercury News played a crucial role in Santa Clara's collapse from national ethics role model to one of California's most troubled cities—and the newspaper's coverage--and its silence--are a big part of what happened. 

 

For seventeen years (1998-2015), I worked as Santa Clara's professional ethicist on an ambitious public ethics education program that earned international recognition. Scientific surveys from 2006 to 2008 showed that 9 out of 10 residents believed the city was heading in the right direction. By 2024, that number had dropped to 4 out of 10.

 

What changed? The San Francisco 49ers systematically purchased control of City Hall through $13 million in campaign spending—creating a five-member council majority that votes as a bloc on every major decision favoring the team. And the Mercury News, which once provided tough accountability coverage, went silent just as the story mattered most.

How the 49ers Bought City Hall

 

The team's strategy was straightforward and devastatingly effective. Initially, they bedazzled the City Council with celebrity and possibility. They outplayed city and consultant lawyers, drafted stadium contracts that favored the 49ers over the city, and convinced both the public and council that a publicly-owned stadium with an NFL team as long-term tenant—and a team-affiliated management company handling both NFL and non-NFL seasons—was good for the city.

 

But their most powerful move was electoral and it came ten years after voters approved the stadium.  In 2020, 49er PACs began making massive independent expenditures, all legal, to create a new team-selected Council majority.

 

By 2020, 49ers CEO Jed York had spent nearly $3 million to elect the new majority, in a city where candidates traditionally accepted a $30,000 spending cap. By 2024, it was $13 M.  Five of seven council/Stadium Authority members now owe their seats to unprecedented 49ers spending.

 

What's the Problem? 

 

The ethics standard says to avoid any relationship that will compromise—or appear to compromise—the decision-maker's ability to make an independent judgment for the people. The 49ers' $13 million investment in council seats creates exactly that appearance.

 

The "49er Five," as their critics like to refer to them, have said publicly that they wish the 49ers would not spend their money on their political races, but they have not fulfilled the ethics promise they all committed to in the California's Code of Fair Campaign Practices:

I SHALL IMMEDIATELY AND PUBLICLY REPUDIATE support deriving from any
individual or group that resorts, on behalf of my candidacy or in opposition to that of my opponent, to the methods and tactics that I condemn. 

In 2022, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury released Unsportsmanlike Conduct looking into the relationship between the city, the council, the Stadium Authority,and the 49ers.  It concluded that the Council majority "can and does put the interests of the 49ers above those of the public."

 

Of course, the Council majority disagreed with virtually all the findings and recommendations.  They even disagreed that a voting bloc existed, saying that they did not always 5-2, a claim that could not be fact-checked because meeting minutes were months behind.  People noted that even the response to the Civil Grand Jury passed 5-2.

 

When the minutes did arrive, a review of decisions from 2022-2024 shows every major decision favoring the team passed 5-2. The "49er Five" have fired professional staff, rejected most findings and recommendations from three Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury reports (2022 and 2024), and rejected proposals for an independent ethics commission twice in 2022 before finally accepting to study one in 2024.

 

The Case of Anthony Becker

 

One of the greatest violations of local government ethics--and the resulting destruction of public trust, involved one of the 49er five, CM Anthony Becker, who leaked the first Civil Grand Jury report to the 49ers, lied about it under oath, was indicted and convicted for perjury and misdemeanor for leaking the report in the first place.  

 

His actions allowed the 49ers to set their communication and public relations people at work to discredit the work of the grand jury and to attempt to use the report to advance Becker's mayoral race against incumbent mayor Lisa Gillmor.  The 49ers pulled out all the stops, hired opposition researchers to destroy the reputation of civil grand jurors, followed them to church and other intrusions into their personal lives.  

 

Some residents defended CM Becker, claiming that the mayor had also leaked the report to the SF Chronicle.  No proof or evidence of that was ever presented.  Many residents asked Becker to step down, asked the Council to suspend him until the case was settled, all to no avail.   Becker refused to step down "because in this country we have something called 'innocent until proven guilty.'"  The Council and the City Attorney allowed him to vote on every 49er-related vote for the year and a half before his case came to trial; he continued to serve on the Stadium Authority Board; and the Council even elected him as vice-mayor, despite the fact that he had admitted to leaking the report. In so doing, he had put the private interests of the 49ers and his own political ambitions ahead of the best interests of the people of Santa Clara.

 

When the Civil Grand Jury sent its first report to the city as a confidential document prior to its public release a few days later, Mr. Becker leaked the report to a 49er executive and the editor at a local news outlet.   This allowed the 49ers time to get their message out that the Grand Jury was incompetent, the report was political, and the Grand Jury was in the back pocket of the incumbent mayor.  

 

 

Legal but not Ethical

 

Spending massive amounts on independent expenditures isn't illegal, but it's clearly unethical given how much money is at stake and the appearance of conflict it creates when those who are supposed to provide oversight of the largest city-owned asset owe their election to the tenant and management company they are elected to oversee. 

The Newspaper That Stopped Reporting

Against this backdrop of ethical issues, ethically questionable decisions, the appearance of conflict, we turn our attention to the local newspaper of record, the San Jose Mercfury News.

In 2010, the Mercury News covered the 49ers stadium campaign with tough questions and real accountability. Reporters dug deep. Editors held power to account. It was watchdog journalism at its best.

Then the coverage changed significantly. We know that Sharon Ryan became the Mercury's new publisher in 2014; the 49ers poured money into local elections; stories about conflicts of interest, unpaid stadium revenues, and dismantled ethics safeguards were unreported or buried.

A few years later, Ms. Ryan joined the Executive Committee of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. In 2020, 49ers owner Jed York became chair of that Board. The team became a major partner with the newspaper. The newspaper editorial board has endorsed every 49ers-backed candidate—including Anthony Becker, who was later convicted of perjury for leaking a confidential grand jury report to the team.

Here's how far things have fallen: During a recent ethics debate, the "49er Five" council majority listed their accountability mechanisms—the Civil Grand Jury, the DA, the FPPC, the courts, the ballot box. Missing from that list? The Mercury News. When I moderated ethics discussions years ago, the newspaper was always cited as a crucial check on power. Not anymore.

Silence as Strategy

Over a year ago, I sent Mercury leadership detailed documentation showing how their coverage violated Trust Project standards—the journalism integrity program prominently featured on their website. I documented missing stories about millions in unpaid revenues, ignored Civil Grand Jury reports, the systematic dismantling of ethics infrastructure. I filed formal complaints with the Trust Project.

Complete silence.

This isn't incompetence—it's institutional abandonment. The newspaper that once held power accountable now ignores the story unfolding in its backyard. Residents increasingly turn to the San Francisco Chronicle for actual reporting. The Chronicle has become Santa Clara's paper of record by choice.

Why Ethics Stories Disappear

The Mercury's failure reveals newspapers' institutional fear of ethics stories. They'll cover corruption after indictments, when it's legally safe. But the conflicts of interest that make corruption inevitable? The slow erosion of trust? Those stories demand explaining why something legal might still be profoundly wrong.

Ethics stories are hard. They require journalists to explain why relationships matter, why campaign spending at unprecedented scales creates obligations, why voters deserve to know when institutions designed to serve the public have been quietly transformed into instruments serving private interests instead.

By the time newspapers finally tell these stories, the damage is done—to governance and to the twin pillars of democracy: trust that local government serves the public, and trust that news media tell citizens the truth they need to vote wisely.

The first step to fixing any problem is acknowledging it exists. Until that happens, the newspaper that once held power accountable remains part of the problem it was designed to solve. That's unfortunate for journalism. It's devastating for democracy.

#MercuryNews #SanJoseSpotlight #SharonRyan #TrustProject #SF49ers #SantaClara #JedYork #PublicEthics #Journalism #LocalNews #MediaAccountability #SiliconValleyLeadershipGroup #PublicTrust #InvestigativeJournalism #PressFreedom #CivicEngagement #LocalGovernment #CaliforniaPolitics #NewsroomEthics #WatchdogJournalism

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