San Jose city government marked its return to downtown San Jose on Tuesday afternoon with ceremony, pageantry, technology -- and brevity.

About 400 residents, honored guests, city council members and employees gathered outside the new City Hall to witness the dedication of a landmark building and the San Jose City Council's first official business in the state-of-the art chambers.

Kicked off by a performance by San Jose Taiko drummers, the 30-minute outside ceremony turned patriotic as the San Jose police and fire departments' color guard raised flags representing the nation, state, city and the new City Hall. The fire department's choir sang the national anthem, and Mayor Ron Gonzales welcomed the crowd, which included former mayors Ernie Renzel, 98 (1945-46), Bob Doerr, 90 (1956-58),and Susan Hammer, 66 (1991-1998), who launched the new City Hall project. Council members then led the crowd up the sweeping walkway to the chambers.

Gonzales called the meeting to order with three raps of the gavel, followed by more ceremony: An invocation by Monsignor J. Patrick Browne, a history lesson from city historian and Superior Court Judge Paul Bernal, and a recognition of past-elected officials who supported the $382 million civic center on East Santa Clara and Fourth streets.

Quoting Winston Churchill, Gonzales said, `` `We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.' My hope today is that the way we have shaped our new City Hall and these council chambers will shape the way we serve our community long into the future.''

While the dignitaries left the chambers to continue a tour of the City Hall complex, the council got down to business, moving quickly through agenda items and completing their official work in about an hour. The agenda was intentionally kept light so council members could get used to using the keyboards and touch-screen monitors in front of them.