A sitting Santa Clara City Council member and Vice Mayor of the city, Anthony Becker, was just found guilty of lying under oath about an illicit favor to the San Francisco 49ers ownership. He’s now stepped down, and he’s got prison time to worry about.
If you don’t follow the politics in the City of Santa Clara, which is of course where the San Francisco 49ers play, the battling political camps can be broken down into two groups. There are the politicians who 49ers CEO Jed York has showered with campaign contributions and thus faithfully deliver whatever Jed York wants, and then there are the politicians who are critical of the 49ers’ attempt to gouge the city financially and who attempt to keep York’s desires in check.
Team Jed York is now down one member. And that member is also looking at prison time after having committed perjury in his attempts to do an illegal favor to Jed York and the 49ers brass.
Santa Clara City Council member and Vice Mayor of the city Anthony Becker was found guilty of committing perjury last Thursday. The charge stems from a 2022 incident where a Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury produced a secret report detailing unethical financial arrangements between the 49ers and (ahem) certain Santa Clara elected officials. Becker reportedly gave 49ers an illegal “heads up” that the report was coming by sending them a PDF of it on the app Signal. Becker then lied under oath about having done so when asked about it.
KTVU reports that Becker resigned the day after being found guilty.
"The circumstances surrounding Mr. Becker’s resignation relate to a recent criminal trial and conviction,” the City of Santa Clara said very diplomatically in a statement. “His resignation [Friday] formally vacates the 4-year term to represent District 6 in the City of Santa Clara that he was elected to in November 2020.”
Becker had lost his reelection bid in November, and was a lame duck anyway. But obviously the possibility he is heading to jail certainly clouds his ability to govern in the final month of his term.
Becker put out a gracious-sounding resignation statement.
“I’m proud to say that, together, we achieved remarkable milestones, including ending costly litigation, significantly reducing our deficit, putting a successful infrastructure bond initiative on the ballot, and generating new revenue streams,” Becker’s statement said. “Santa Clara will always be known as the Center of What's Possible and it will always be at the center of my heart.”
You will notice he left out the part about having committed a crime and how he’s looking at jail time. Becker faces up to four years in jail, and is scheduled to be sentenced January 31, 2025.
Related: Santa Clara City Councilmember Indicted for Lying Under Oath About Leaking Report to 49ers [SFist]
Image: Anthony Becker, Santa Clara Councilmember- District 6 via Facebook
