The battle between the 49ers and Santa Clara has reached a conclusion of sorts, but it was apparently preceded by a massive blowup that led to the police being called.
According to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle, a closed session involving Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and the city council got heated during a discussion surrounding lawsuits between the city and the 49ers organization.
Those lawsuits stem from a years-long feud that came to a head in 2019, when the city council voted that the 49ers could no longer manage Levi’s Stadium, due to a laundry list of alleged issues and broken promises. The team sued the council after the vote, and then the council countersued.
Which brings us to Tuesday, when the city council met after the 49ers agreed to pay $1.675 million to the Santa Clara general fund to settle the lawsuits. Gillmor and council member Kathy Watanabe were critical of the 49ers’ offer, which led to an angry exchange with council member Anthony Becker, who has been sympathetic to the 49ers on stadium issues.
Becker allegedly flew off the handle, at one point screaming “Fuck you!” at Watanabe and flipping off both her and Mayor Gillmor. As the verbal abuse continued, Gillmor called the police.
“Then he continued verbally assaulting me,” Gillmor told The Chronicle on Wednesday. “It just went on and on, to the point I felt so uncomfortable and I wasn’t going to take the abuse. So I stood up and left.
“I called the police because it was obvious he was having huge anger issues. I’m always very careful if it appears anyone is getting out of control. But he was so emotional and I wanted to protect myself.”
After a police officer responded, the session continued without incident.
“The flipping off and the F-bomb took it to another level that was shocking,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“This was worse than anything I’ve experienced in my six years on the council,” Watanabe said. “I’ve never felt this uncomfortable.”
At some point after the incident, the city agreed to settle the lawsuits with the 49ers. If the decision was made on Tuesday, it took place without Watanabe and Gillmor in the room, according to The Chronicle.
Becker declined to give a statement to The Chronicle about the incident. He is running for mayor in November.