City manager of San Jose, 1950 to 1969
Anthony P. Hamann
(September 26, 1909 ? March 27, 1977), better known as
A. P. Hamann
or
Dutch
, was the
city manager
of
San Jose, California
,
USA
, from 1950 to 1969. During his tenure, San Jose grew from a small agriculture-based city of 95,000 residents to a large economically diverse city of almost 500,000.
In 1977, he was killed in the
Tenerife airport disaster
.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Hamann attended
Bellarmine College Preparatory
and was a
football
player at
Santa Clara University
.
[1]
After graduating in 1932, he served as the university's alumni association director before joining the
United States Navy
during
World War II
. After the war, Hamann left the Navy as a
Lieutenant Commander
, to become a division manager for
General Motors
.
Political career
[
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]
On March 10, 1950, Hamann was appointed city manager of San Jose by a 4?3 vote of the city council. His first large project was to pass a
bond measure
to upgrade and expand the city's sewage system, building a new sewage treatment plant near
Alviso
. At the time, the city's sewage system was insufficient to handle the large amount of waste produced by the local
canneries
; Hamann's new plant was designed not just for current demand, but allowed for a significant expansion.
Hamann then directed an aggressive growth program for the city. Growing up in
Orange County
, Hamann felt that the development of that area, consisting of several mid-sized cities without a dominant city in the region, was a failure and worked to ensure that San Jose became the major city of the
Santa Clara Valley
. Central to this project were "
strip annexations
"—Hamann and his staff would determine where new tax-generating developments such as shopping centers were likely to be built, and would annex small strips of territory around the property to ensure no other city could claim the property so that San Jose would receive the sales tax revenue produced by property when it was finally developed.
When industries decided to move into or expand in the area, Hamann would ensure they found a willing partner in the city.
IBM
wanted to move its research staff out of downtown to a dedicated facility to be sited on unincorporated land south of San Jose, but were being blocked by the
Santa Clara County
Board of Supervisors. Hamann simply had San Jose annex the proposed site and pushed the project's approval through the city council.
In addition to annexing unincorporated territory, Hamann's staff also annexed existing neighborhoods, including
Cambrian Park
, and one city. When the city of
Alviso
attempted to annex the new sewage plant to boost tax revenue, Hamann countered by having San Jose annex Alviso. A special city staff, known as
Dutch's Panzer Division
, executed 1377 annexations during his time in office—previous to Hamann's administration there had been a total of 42.
Later life and death
[
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]
In 1969, anti-growth candidates were elected to the city council, and Hamann chose to resign rather than work with a city council opposed to his program. He returned to Santa Clara University as its vice president of development. He was inducted to the SCU sports Hall of Fame. Hamann and his wife Frances died on Pan Am Flight 1736 on March 27, 1977, in the
Tenerife airport disaster
, a collision of two
Boeing 747s
in the
Canary Islands
. This incident remains the worst aviation accident in history.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- McKay, Leonard (2006).
"Dutch Hamann ? Part One"
. San Jose Inside
. Retrieved
March 11,
2006
.
- McKay, Leonard (2006).
"Dutch Hamann ? Part Two"
. San Jose Inside
. Retrieved
March 11,
2006
.
- Rogers, Paul (1999).
"Hamann: San Jose's growth guru"
.
San Jose Mercury News
. Archived from
the original
on February 23, 2005
. Retrieved
March 6,
2005
.
- Trounstine, Philip J.; Terry Christensen (1982).
"Flashback: a short political history of San Jose"
. Political Science Department, San Jose State University. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2001
. Retrieved
March 11,
2006
.
External links
[
edit
]