San Jose Councilman Raul Peralez says a police officer pointed a gun at him at his downtown home not long ago.

Peralez, a former officer himself, revealed the incident when taking on a Nevada legislator who he says is giving “insane” advice — that it’s OK to point a gun at a police officer if the cop aims one at you.

The confrontation happened when Peralez accidentally set off a silent alarm in his backyard while using an electric leaf blower. The special alarm sent a signal directly to the police department.

Within minutes, officers showed up at the councilman’s door. But the leaf blower made it impossible to hear them knocking. And Peralez was hard to recognize with a beanie, dark glasses and gardening gloves. Before he knew it, an officer was in the backyard with his weapon drawn.

“When I turned they were already in my backyard and pointing a gun at me,” Peralez told IA. “I heard him say ‘drop it and put your hands up,’ so I complied and didn’t say anything back.”

The misunderstanding was ironed out minutes later when officers learned that Peralez wasn’t an intruder. That he actually lives there. That he’s a councilman. And a former cop.

But Peralez says if he’d followed Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore’s advice — he’d be dead. Fiore told local TV reporters that there’s nothing wrong with pointing a gun at police — if they pull out a firearm first.

“Whether you’re a stranger, a bad guy, or an officer, and you point your gun at me and you’re going to shoot me and I have to decide whether it’s my life or your life, I choose my life,” Fiore told reporters.

Peralez called that “pure ignorance.”

“As the owner of a handgun and a concealed weapon permit I often carry my handgun, but I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that had I pointed it at the officer that day, I would not be typing this message today and it would have been a completely justified shooting by that officer,” Peralez posted on Facebook.

Chamber hit mail not a hit with their man

You have to wonder at the desperation of opposition researchers after seeing some of the mail being sent out in San Jose’s District 8 council race. A recent piece paid for by the ChamberPAC, the political arm of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, took on labor-endorsed candidate Josh Barousse for a ticket for using his cell phone while driving and another for driving solo in the carpool lane. It also inveighed against Barousse for supporting a bodyguard for then-Board of Supervisors President George Shirakawa Jr., who later fell from grace.

It is not that the driving offenses are mere trifles. Pollsters say cell phone violations have more resonance than once did, particularly among female voters. But in big type, the piece proclaimed, “Josh Barousse Represents Everything Wrong With Politics.”

Really? That’s everything? What happened to old-fashioned bribery, or self-dealing, or extortion?

The CEO of the Chamber, Matt Mahood, declined to offer an explanation for the piece. Barousse, however, took a philosophical view of the attack. “Frankly, it’s part of the game,” he told us. “I anticipated the chamber would go negative in some fashion. They’re going look for anything they have on me. I made some mistakes, but I paid my fines and I’ll try to do better.”

The hit on Barousse, however, provoked an intriguing response from Pat Waite, a Chamber-endorsed candidate in the same race. In an email to Victor Gomez, the chamber’s director of public policy and advocacy, Waite wrote that the piece “hysterically blows relatively minor infractions out of proportion.” He vowed to renounce the ChamberPAC’s endorsement if such attacks continued. “It is not the kind of political climate we need to create,” Waite wrote.

Council candidate draws support from vacant house

With Election Day a month away, San Jose council candidates are turning up the heat and delivering an extra dose of drama — especially in the crowded District 6 race to succeed outgoing Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio.

Candidate Chris Roth took aim at opponent Myron Von Raesfeld, a real estate agent who decided to post a campaign sign in the front yard of a vacant home he’s selling. “I just thought it was fishy because it was right next to his realtor sign,” Roth told IA. “I feel like he is taking advantage of the situation.”

The campaign sign has since been removed, but the home is still for sale.

Von Raesfeld says he sees nothing wrong with placing a campaign sign there — he asked the homeowner for permission.

“The owners of the house are very big supporters of me,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we can put our signs wherever people want them.”

There are two other signs on vacant properties in the Willow Glen district, Raesfeld said, but he plans to add more — just to irk his opponents. “I will do it on every house that I list between now and whenever,” he said.

Meanwhile, another candidate says people are snagging his signs. Ruben Navarro lamented about the ordeal on several Willow Glen Facebook pages, claiming that roughly ten signs have gone missing.

“I was really saddened by this news,” Navarro posted. “I spoke to the witness and she said a lady just went up to her lawn, took my signs, mangled them, then threw them across the street.”

Oliverio chimed in on the issue — but not about Navarro’s signs. Oliverio thanked Navarro for a letter supporting his voter information transparency project, which allows candidates to “vote” on real City Council agenda items to help voters decide.

We give ourselves high marks

It’s reassuring to know as California taxpayers that our state government is evaluating itself. So we were thrilled with the news that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response has evaluated its response to the May 2015 Refugio oil spill near Santa Barbara and given itself high marks.

The agency acts as the on-scene coordinator during oil spill response efforts that include federal and local authorities.

“Refugio was a test of our office’s preparedness to immediately plug in to a unified response to a devastating oil spill crisis,” said Thomas Cullen, OSPR Administrator and State On-Scene Coordinator, in a news release trumpeting their findings about themselves. “Our successful cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the County of Santa Barbara and other partner agencies allowed us to quickly assess the damage and coordinate our response and cleanup efforts.”

May 19, 2015, a buried section of a 24-inch pipeline owned and operated by Plains All American Pipeline, LLC, ruptured in a cliff above Highway 1 near Santa Barbara, releasing more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil, with a significant amount entering the Pacific Ocean at Refugio State Beach. On May 20, 2015, the Governor issued a State of Emergency for the incident.

Internal Affairs is an offbeat look at local and state politics. This week’s items were written by Ramona Giwargis, Scott Herhold, John Woolfolk, and Paul Rogers. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call 408-920-5782.