[ San Jose | MetroActive Central | Archives ]

Measure O, Airport Traffic Relief (San Jose) [March 3, 2000, 4:40pm]    Former San Jose Mayor Janet Gray Hayes is accusing opponents of Measure O, the so-called Airport Traffic Relief Act, of stealing campaign banners from her truck. It all happened when Hayes, Measure O's most notable proponent, strategically parked her sign-toting truck earlier this week near Coleman Avenue, a main traffic artery to the airport. Hayes and her husband Ken tied two 6-by-12 banners--which said "Traffic Relief--Yes on O"--to the truck around 3 pm, then went back home. When they returned six hours later to retrieve the truck, Hayes says that the banners were gone. All that remained were shreds of rope used to secure the banner to the truck. "To me," a clearly upset Hayes told Eye, "this is the ultimate in political dirty tricks." Hayes has since filed a police report, though chances of finding the culprits are slim to none. Ken Hayes acknowledges that neither he nor his wife have any proof that anti-Measure O forces--who are spending around $500,000 to defeat the ballot initiative--stole the banners. Chamber of Commerce executive director Steve Tedesco, a main player in the anti-Measure O crusade, assures Eye that he didn't surreptitiously gather himself a couple of campaign souvenirs at the Hayes' expense. "I didn't do it," he chuckles, "and I don't know who did." Tedesco, however, does acknowledge that the campaign manager for No on O complained to city parking police about the Hayes' mobile billboard being parked on the Park Avenue overpass by I-880. Not too long afterward, Ken Hayes found a $25 parking ticket on his windshield. Then he found another one two days later. Tedesco defends his decision to snitch to the cops. "If he [Ken Hayes] got a parking ticket there," Tedesco reasons, "then he was parked illegally. ... If the other campaign is doing something illegal, it's fair game for us to report them." [ San Jose | MetroActive Central | Archives ]