Written by T. Logan Dayne
A stream of scandals in Santa Clara County have slowly been coming to light.
The first of which comes from a San Jose tech entrepreneur turned politician who is being accused of sharing nude photos online. Gary Kremen, creator of Match.com and the first registrant of Sex.com, is being accused by a former staffer of uploading many nude photos to a dropbox. Kremen currently serves on the Valley Water Board. The staffer describes allegedly being upset and even vomiting after seeing the photos. When confronted about it Gary Kremen at first joked but then became upset and refused to remove the photos. “He made it really uncomfortable, made jokes about it, laughed at me being uncomfortable and offered no solutions,” the staffer claims. “He made me feel like maybe he did this intentionally. Or he did it unintentionally and enjoyed that he had done this.” Kremen claims that more than 20,000 photos had been uploaded and that they weren’t checked to see if any intimate ones were included. The staffer goes on to claim that other instances of sexualized conversations and touching took place at parties stating that Kremen, “ was always talking about the times he was so drugged out with all these women, and that he can get whatever he wants.” Kremen denies these allegations.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith is the subject of an upcoming corruption trial alleging that she had been issuing concealed-carry licenses (CCW) to friends and donors. An investigation found that between late 2015 and 2019 new CCW applicants had a 14.5% approval rate but of donors, 9 out of 10 were approved, a 90% approval rate. New testimony emerging claims that Laurie Smith “doesn’t like to have a lot of guns there on the streets.” Going on to say that CCW permits were not given unless need was demonstrated. However, a known campaign donor testified that he had no safety reason for applying and even did as little to leave the “cause” field on the application blank and still was issued a permit. Former public information officer Rich Glennon testified that Smith would keep applications pending indefinitely, so the “law was on her side” so long as she never rendered a decision on the applicant. “So that was her explanation to you, personally, of why she could just keep applications pending indefinitely?” the prosecutor asked, to which Glennon responded, “That’s correct.”
In the city of Santa Clara, the City Council has voted in a closed session to remove the fire city manager over a dispute with the 49ers. According to the council, they voted to fire City Manager Deanna Santana due to a “lack of confidence”. Mayor Lisa Gillmor said the removal of Santana by the council “has clearly put themselves and the city of Santa Clara in a precarious situation.” Gillmor believes that the 49er’s wanted Santana removed due to suggestions that team President Al Guido has a conflict of interest involving the 49er’s World Cup Bid. The vote won 4-2 with the four City Council members known for regularly supporting 49er’s interest. Santana previously expressed to the council that she believed Guido may have an illegal conflict of interests to bring the World Cup to the stadium in 2026. The next day the closed session meeting was formally requested.
Photo Cred: San Jose Spotlight
