As the year winds to an end, the Dispatch is pleased to present
its list of the most important stories covered in 2005. Though it
cannot possibly encompass all the news of the Garlic City, the
Dispatch staff has chosen what it believes to be the most
influential and significant events. Vote for your favorites on the
left.
Staff Reports
Plans for the Future
City officials established the groundwork for a new era in smart growth this year, completing three major planning documents that will shape the future landscape of Gilroy for decades to come. The planning has taken thousands of hours and has led dozens of city officials, developers and residents into a labyrinth of policy options. Often, the answers have been less clear than the questions:
Should the city force developers to build affordable housing? How can officials ensure that future neighborhoods have different housing types and open space? What policies will inject new life into downtown and stoke interest in the area for years to come?
The city sought to answer those questions this year with the Downtown Specific Plan, the Glen Loma Ranch Specific Plan and the Neighborhood District Policy.
Officials have held up the Glen Loma document as a blueprint for future broad-based planning efforts. The document contains detailed guidelines on how the Filice family, over the next decade, will bring 1,700 new homes, a new school, fire station and a new town center to the city’s southwest quadrant.
The development of the plan closely paralleled the crafting of the Neighborhood District Policy, which reflects the city’s desire to guarantee a diverse mix of housing for all income levels, preserve open space and create public parks. Officials decided not to use the policy to force developers to include affordable housing on individual projects. But despite objections from developers, they increased the percentage of homes – from 10 to 15 percent – within broader neighborhoods that must be priced at affordable rates.
In addition to resuscitating the downtown by freeing developers from hundreds of thousands of dollars in permit fees, officials in recent months signed off on guidelines to guide the area’s future growth.
Feds Investigate Indian Fraud Claims
The outcome of two federal inquiries into claims of fraud by local Amah Mutsun Indians could determine whether large-scale development will come to Sargent Ranch, thousands of open acres of rolling hills and streams just south of Gilroy.
The inquiries by a congressional subcommittee and by a federal watchdog agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior came in the wake of an August Dispatch story, which detailed claims that forged documents influenced federal decision-making.
Two years ago, Amah Mutsun leader Valentin Lopez, who heads one of two rival factions claiming to represent the tribe’s 500-plus members, told officials at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs that forged documents had been sent to the agency. He claims that the suspect documents benefited rival leader Irenne Zwierlein, who has struck a multimillion-dollar pact with Sargent Ranch owner Wayne Pierce to bring large-scale development to 3,000 acres, more than half the ranch.
County officials have blocked the developer’s past efforts to build golf courses and hillside homes to the land, but the deal with Zwierlein would allow Pierce to ignore county zoning regulations. The entire deal hinges on Zwierlein gaining control of the tribe through the BIA recognition process and placing the land under tribal sovereignty.
Lopez, who said his faction would allow some development but wants to preserve the vast majority of Sargent Ranch, claims that his rival’s leadership rests on forged documents and that she has no authority to negotiate land deals. Zwierlein, who denies any part in producing or mailing the alleged forgeries to the BIA, counters that the forgery issue has no bearing on the leadership dispute or the tribe’s recognition efforts.
In coming weeks, U.S. Representative Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) is expected to report the findings of the congressional inquiry into the matter.
Meanwhile, federal investigators with the DOI’s Office of Inspector General confirmed that they also launched an inquiry into the matter in September. It remains unclear how long the investigation will last.
Binding Arbitration
Pressure from public safety unions amidst an election season helped kill efforts by Mayor Al Pinheiro to uproot binding arbitration – the strongest bargaining chip in labor talks for firefighters and police who are prohibited from striking.
Pinheiro led the push for a ballot measure to eliminate binding arbitration at the beginning of the year, when city representatives and Fire Local #2805 reached impasse in labor negotiations. Momentum on Pinheiro’s initiative withered over the summer as public safety unions complained about due process and threatened political retribution.
The November election saw the election of three candidates – Peter Arellano, Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman – who pledged to oppose a repeal of binding arbitration.
The city and fire union, meanwhile, have failed to resolve their differences. Both sides have shown willingness to compromise, but the city continues to demand that the fire department roll back minimum staffing levels awarded by an arbitrator in 2000. The fire union has called the request a deal-breaker.
The first arbitration hearings are scheduled for early January. Meanwhile, Pinheiro has not given up hope of a ballot measure to repeal arbitration, which he and other city officials criticize as giving an outsider control over the city budget. He said he would raise the ballot measure proposal again during a Jan. 23 council retreat.
Gilroy Becomes Home for Hurricane Katrina Evacuees
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast Aug. 19 and is blamed for the death of more than 1,300 people.
In the weeks after the storm, Gilroy residents opened their hearts and their closets to the victims who lost everything they had, donating clothing, stuffed animals, furniture and money.
The South County Housing Corporation helped three families relocate to Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Alton Chalk, 51, was the first to arrive. The former limousine driver from New Orleans garnered almost celebrity status after moving to an apartment complex on Eigleberry Street. Chalk left his Gulf Coast apartment underwater and sold his car for $300 to get to Gilroy.
His Gilroy neighbor, Sandra McInnis, evacuated her home in Mount Olive, Miss. with her sister, driving 36 hours straight to San Francisco. South County Housing found her an apartment in late October.
In the meantime, she posted ads on a hurricane Web site hoping to learn the fates of her missing relatives. She panicked for days until she learned both of her grown children were safe.
McInnis will never forget the images of mothers crying over the loss of their children.
“It’s probably going to take years to make everything right,” she said.
Mississippi evacuees Wesley Jackson, Jade Reedus and the couple’s 10-month-old daughter Natalie are the last Hurricane Katrina victims to come to South County to settle. They will live in Morgan Hill once their apartment is ready.
Controversy at Post Office
With her order to skip mail delivery to mailboxes blocked by cars and trash bins, Gilroy Postmaster Penny Yates started a controversy that ignited on carrier Patricia Finley’s northwest quad route and spread nationwide The order caused a furor among residents on Finley’s route, who complained about missing deliveries because their mailbox was blocked. Yates’ “do not dismount” order was in violation of United States Postal Service policy and she repealed it after the article was published. Then, Yates tried to fire Finley.
After seeing Dispatch photographs of the carrier using her truck to push trashbins away from mailboxes, Yates issued Finley a “notice of removal” letter in which she said Finley’s actions could have resulted in injury to herself or to a small child or dog hidden behind the trash bins. Yates accused Finley of disloyalty to the U.S. Government and conduct unbecoming a carrier of “good character and reputation.”
In the end, Finley kept her job. For weeks, the Dispatch received letters and e-mails from scores of carriers across the country, with many arguing that they should not have to dismount to deliver mail. The Dispatch’s Web poll question on the dismount order received a record number of votes.
Two New Councilmen
A surprise victory in the November election by Peter Arellano, a former councilman and local physician, has thrown the future of the city’s top governing body into the realm of unpredictability.
Are there enough councilmen to push through sidewalk repairs? Does interest remain in getting council to negotiate directly with labor unions? Do councilmen agree that developers should ante up if they want special treatment?
A new council that also includes planning commissioner Dion Bracco, who secured one of three available seats in the November election, will tackle those issues in the next two years.
While Craig Gartman was re-elected, the council will lose its longest serving member, Charles Morales, as well as the man many regard as the most colorful councilman, Bob Dillon.
Morales, who stepped down after 12 years on the city’s top governing body, inspired the anger of Miller Avenue residents this fall after voting in favor of a controversial housing project on the picturesque street. The defeat of Dillon came as the biggest surprise in the election. Dillon blamed the loss on his decision to forego a 200-word statement in a ballot brochure that goes to every voter – a maneuver intended to save the city $1,500 and highlight his commitment to holding the line on the city budget.
Arellano and Bracco represent opposite sides of the political spectrum. Arellano is known for championing progressive causes, including environmental screening for new businesses, while Bracco, who owns a local tow-truck company, describes himself as a businessman who will keep an eye on the city budget.
Day of Silence
The decision of four Gilroy High School teachers to remain mute all day to symbolize the oppression of gays sparked a widespread debate among educators, parents, students and other community members.
In April about 16 student and four teachers participated in a national demonstration called Day of Silence at Gilroy High School. At one board meeting set up to discuss the issue, every seat in the room was taken and other participants were crammed in the back.
Of the 16 who spoke about the Day of Silence, only two GHS teachers expressed their support for the educators who participated in the event.
While teachers argued that they have the right to participate, lawyers from nonprofit agencies, including the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) said educators don’t have inalienable First Amendment rights in the classroom to say and do whatever they want.
The volatile issue is expected to revisit Gilroy again this spring if teachers participate again.
BART Becomes Top Priority
In January, San Jose representatives on the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority were able to ram through a proposal on making a $4.7-billion BART to San Jose project the VTA’s top priority.Â
By December, though, the county’s small cities had banded together to tie up the contentious project and stir fears that a much needed sales tax measure to pay for it will fail at the polls next year.
With too many projects and not enough money, representatives from Gilroy and Morgan Hill, and cities in North County have demanded that their regions get as much attention as San Jose and some, such as Supervisor Don Gage and Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy, have said they may not support a new tax if it won’t pay for more services in South County.Â
Next month, Kennedy, and a zealous anti-BART councilman from Mountain View will join the VTA board, shifting its balance of power. San Jose may have enough votes to put a sales tax measure on the ballot, but they may not have the support they need to sell it to voters.
Meanwhile, VTA General Manager Michael Burns has said the agency has no back-up plan if the sales tax measure fails.
The VTA board will consider a new financing plan in February.
Achievement Gap Becomes Defining Point
In late October locals learned that a substantial achievement gap exists in Gilroy’s public schools, when the Academic Performance Index growth targets were released.
When minorities and the poor were factored in, only half of schools met the API growth targets set by the state. The report was not welcome news to community members, who had watched Gilroy Unified School District standardized test scores slowly rise over the years.
Those improvements were revealed in August when the 2004 API base report was released, showing that 11 of Gilroy’s 12 schools increased their scores.
Unlike the base report, the API growth report, includes schoolwide results and subgroup information. To satisfy the 2004-2005 growth goals, schools had to meet their 5 percent schoolwide target, plus every significant ethnic group and socio-economically disadvantaged group had to improve by at least 80 percent of the schoolwide target.
Scores can range from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, with a statewide target of 800.
Hispanic students API growth was 665 – the lowest among all subgroups, a factor that many community members, educators and district officials have said must be mended.
McDowell Sentenced in Kinkel Death
On Aug. 1, 2004 Erin Kinkel, a Gilroy High School sophomore, was killed when the truck she was riding in veered up an embankment while turning, throwing the 15-year-old onto the pavement. About one year later, the driver – Anthony Scott McDowell, 19, of Morgan Hill was sentenced to three years probation, 300 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $14,500 in restitution to the Kinkel family.
The sentence considered light by some, including Kinkel’s mother and grandmother, was handed down by Superior Court Judge Susan Bernardini at Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Martin.
McDowell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and asked Judge Bernardini to sentence him to serve some jail time.
But she did not, saying that Erin Kinkel would not have wanted it for her former friend.
“She would forgive Anthony to help her parents, if that’s what she needed to do,” Judge Bernardini said.
Kinkel’s tragic death brought hundreds of mourners to say good-bye to Erin on Aug. 6, 2004.
It wasn’t until nearly a year later that McDowell apologized to the Kinkels for the death of their daughter.
“It’s been a long time, but I am sorry,” he said. McDowell and Scott Kinkel – Erin’s father – embraced in the courtroom.
About 20 people spoke on behalf of the Kinkel family and McDowell.
“The ultimate thing we all have to do is we all have to forgive,” Cherly McDowell said on behalf of her son.
