Change was the operative word this year, whether forced upon us,
or embraced by the community
Gilroy – In 2006, Gilroy pumped life back into its downtown, but lost three lives on city streets; reeled from murder and wrangled over raises. Schools were stripped of funds, and lost key leaders, but came out singing, thanks to one Gilroy family. And though our hillsides became a battlefield, and our city’s coffers spilled, at long last, we cheered.
Gilroy’s top 10 stories of 2006:
Blood on City Streets
After three pedestrians died in Gilroy in less than four months, rattled residents called for beefed-up traffic enforcement, more school crossing guards, and sheer common sense to keep blood off city streets.
In June, 5-year-old Brayan Trejo died when a pick-up truck turned left at the intersection of 10th and Church streets, hitting the young boy as he rode his scooter alongside his 13-year-old brother, Jesus. Less than four months later, in October, environmentalist Norm Watenpaugh, nicknamed Gilroy’s ‘Birdman,’ died while crossing Wren Avenue at dusk, just hours after celebrating his 76th birthday. Within days of Watenpaugh’s death, another 5-year-old boy, Julio Gonzalez, was killed on his way to Rod Kelley Elementary School.
To many, it seemed that Gilroy driving had reached a crisis point. When the shock faded, tempers flared over who
or what – to blame.
Some contended that traffic enforcement had grown lax, as time-strapped Gilroy police rushed from one call to the next. Since Joseph Crivello was promoted last spring, the department hasn’t had a dedicated traffic officer – a vacancy soon to be filled by Officer Nestor Quinones, who will take the job this week.
To fill the gap, police officers volunteered to work overtime, patrolling Gilroy schools during the after-school rush. The blitz of traffic enforcement revealed that parents dropping off and picking up kids were often guilty of reckless school-zone driving: police issued 27 citations in one 2-hour operation.
“It’s not as if outsiders are coming through and speeding,” said Mayor Al Pinheiro. “We need to slow down.”
Others called for design improvements to high-risk intersections. The Trejos clamored for a left-turn signal at the intersection of 10th and Church streets, where Brayan died. The project is currently in the design stages, said city traffic engineer Don Dey, and won’t be in place before 2008. Another design idea, a short barrier and median lining 10th Street near Gilroy High School, was floated briefly by parents worried about teens cutting across 10th Street, but seems unlikely to take off.
Parents complained that busy intersections were left unstaffed by school crossing guards. The school district struggled to fill those positions, but the odd hours made it difficult to post a guard at every allocated intersection – or to add guards at new ones. To keep kids safe en route to school, police presented safety assemblies to students, aided by a certain McGruff the Crime Dog. New measures may be in store: outgoing Superintendent Edwin Diaz is at work on a Safe Routes to School application from Caltrans.
In the wake of three pedestrian deaths, the topic of traffic safety, and of prosecuting negligent drivers, became a heated one. But Gilroy residents also pulled together, raising funds for victims’ families, piling flowers, cards and mementos onto impromptu roadside memorials.
Three deaths shook the city, but they didn’t shatter it.
Downtown Renewal
After years of decline, life started returning to the historic heart of Gilroy in 2006.
Downtown Monterey Street was transformed into a construction zone for seven months this year, as workers gave the street and sidewalks a facelift. The winding median that made a two-block stretch of the road an obstacle course for drivers is gone, as are the narrow sidewalks that pooled with rain. A handful of dim lights that left much of the street in darkness have been replaced by several dozen antique street lamps. Their frosted bulbs stretch as high as the rooftops and shower light on sprawling new sidewalks.
The new look has received rave reviews, but the changes did not come without pain.
Merchants said customers started to vanish from the beleaguered downtown in April, when the city sealed off a portion of Monterey Street that serves as home to dozens of stores. Business owners reported losses of 50 to 80 percent during the construction, which stretched months beyond the original completion date in July due to bad weather and technical problems.
Business owners and city leaders have heralded the streetscape project as the opening act in a new era for the downtown. More than 20 buildings are planned for the area, many of them blending above-ground apartments with street-level stores and offices. At least a half dozen businesses have moved – or are planning to move – to the area, and city officials hope the pace will pick up in coming years with the construction of two major projects. The old cannery on Lewis Street is now being transformed into 45,000 square feet of retail space and 200-plus homes, and city officials plan to build a new arts center by 2010 at the corner of Seventh and Monterey streets.
“Not too long ago, maybe two-and-a-half years ago, I sat in an old (downtown) building and we were looking at what our vision was,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “But we had no money. If I had to look at it today, I’d say, ‘Folks, don’t get too complacent. We’re not even close to being there yet.’ Yes I’m excited, but I’m also disappointed that a lot of building owners have stayed on the sidelines.”
City officials plan to maintain the momentum in coming years by cracking down on owners of buildings deemed earthquake hazards, and by tightening up regulations on street signs.
GUSD Short on Funds
The past year was tumultuous for Gilroy Unified School District, and particularly harsh on the district’s wallet.
After crunching numbers on Christopher High School’s price tag, the district found they were $12 million short. Greg Crouch of Bunton Clifford Associates, Inc., the architect firm in charge of the project, said he was working closely with Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman to make concessions to help cut burgeoning costs.
Christopher High School, initially expected to cost about $39 million, is now expected to cost $91.5 million, not including the price of land, which would bring the total cost to $110 million.
“The $39 million was an early estimate made without a significant amount of details'” Brinkman said. “Truthfully, that was probably an unrealistic estimate. Since then, we’ve done a number of things to figure out what the details will cost, and that increased the estimate significantly. Hindsight is 20/20.”
Adding to the district’s problems was a court battle over a 8.9-acre patch of land with the Glen Loma Group, a development company planning to build 1,700 homes on 360 acres in southwest Gilroy.
In February 2002, the school district sold the same piece of land at the end of W. Luchessa Avenue for about $3 million to Glen Loma Group. Once plans for the mini-city developed and a school needed to be built, the district had to buy the land back. They offered $4.1 million for the land. Glen Loma Group asked for more than $14 million. Before the dispute could go to trial earlier this month, lawyers from both sides finally agreed the district would pay $10.8 million for the land.
“Any dollar that we pay additional for the elementary school property is one less dollar we have for the high school,” Brinkman said.
Leadership Vacuum at GUSD
Three top jobs – including superintendent – at Gilroy Unified School District are up for grabs, creating a vacuum of leadership and a potential rocky road for schools, the board and administrators.
Edwin Diaz, superintendent of the district, announced earlier this month he hopes to leave as soon as March for a new job as superintendent of Pasadena Unified School District. Jacki Horejs, assistant superintendent of educational services, left Dec. 1 to take the reins of Campbell Union School District as superintendent. Olivia Schaad, director of curriculum and instruction, who is filling in for Horejs, plans to retire in March.
Diaz said he’d be recommending someone internal to replace Schaad, opening yet another position at the district. But the assistant superintendent position will remain open until the new superintendent – whoever that may be – selects someone to fill the spot.
“It will be difficult – there’s no denying that,” he added. “The timing of me leaving is going to be tough with the other positions to fill, but there’s a benefit to having one of the assistant superintendent positions open. It’s always a good idea for a new superintendent to hire a senior team member who they feel comfortable with and can work well with.”
The GUSD board of trustees will discuss how to proceed in finding a new superintendent at their first meeting in 2007, scheduled for Jan. 4.
Cheerleader Trip to Hawaii
The Gilroy High School cheerleading squad went on a roller coaster ride of approvals and denials before it was confirmed they’d be on a plane to Hawaii to perform in the NFL’s Pro Bowl halftime show in February, missing three days of school.
In August, James Maxwell, principal at GHS, approved the cheerleaders’ request for the field trip to Honolulu. But, when the request arrived at the Gilroy Unified School District offices, it was denied on the basis that the trip defied the field trip policy, which discourages trips that result in “excessive loss of class time.”
So, the cheerleaders appealed the decision to the GUSD school board in September. The board upheld the district’s decision with a 5-2 vote to reject the appeal.
The vote against the cheerleaders’ trip created a firestorm of controversy, leading to a flood of letters to the editor and calls to the Red Phone in the Dispatch in support of both sides. Parents and other members of the community demanded a review of the boards decision, many arguing that other groups on campus, such as athletes and the choir, miss far more classes than the cheerleaders. Others pointed out that GHS cheerleaders were invited to perform in the show after earning superior rankings in summer cheer camp, a tradition that’s been happening since the 1980s.
A majority of the school board voted to approve a reconsideration of the issue in early October, angering many supporters of the district’s original decision to deny the trip. Supporters of the district argued that missing three consecutive days of class was detrimental to the girls’ education and set a dangerous precedent.
Finally, in mid-October, the board voted a second time on whether the squad should go to Hawaii. After three hours of deliberation, trustees voted 4-3 to give the OK for the trip. Trustees Jaime Rosso and Javier Aguirre said they changed their minds following the discussion, siding with David McRae and Jim Rogers to vote in favor of the field trip, while Rhoda Bress, Tom Bundros and Pat Midtgaard each voted against the trip for the second time.
The controversy has lead multiple school board members to promise a review of the district’s field trip policy in 2007.
Land Use Slugfest
South County found itself in a slugfest with environmentalists this year over the fate of its farms, hillsides and ranchlands – and the battle is far from over.
The first round went to pro-development interests who opposed Measure A, a controversial land-use initiative that sought to restrict construction on hillsides and ranchlands in unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County.
The initiative was spearheaded by a consortium of environmentalists called People for Land and Nature, who gathered more than 60,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. An alliance of farmers, developers, landowners and real estate interests opposed the measure every step of the way. They won a battle in court over language on the ballot, but failed to delay a November vote by arguing that petitioners failed to translate the measure into multiple languages.
County voters defeated Measure A in a vote of 166,878 to 159,508, or 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. The defeat by more than 7,000 votes came as a surprise in a race where many South County voters expected to be overwhelmed by their eco-friendly, urban neighbors to the north.
Just weeks after Measure A was defeated, environmentalists and pro-growth forces geared up for another round of fighting, this time over the right of cities to gobble up farmland outside their borders and convert it into homes and malls.
At the center of the fight is a farmland preservation policy crafted by the Local Agency Formation Commission, a regional body with veto power over cities’ ability to annex county land.
Developers, property owners and city officials in Gilroy and Morgan Hill are railing against the fine print in the policy, while some environmentalists say it does not go far enough.
On Dec. 13, the five-members of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which OKs the annexation of county land into cities, postponed a final vote on the draft policy until April 11, and appointed a two-person subcommittee to study controversial elements. The two members of the subcommittee – District 1 Supervisor Don Gage and Commissioner Susan Vickland Wilson – plan to report back to the full commission Feb. 14.
“You gotta find a balance there that allows cities to develop and individuals to develop, while at the same time preserving land and making sure you don’t have sprawl,” Gage said. “But you can’t choke off all development … You’ve got to find a balance there, where the landowners as well as the people who want to preserve land can live together.”
Former Garlic Queen Killed
The murder of a Gilroy mother sent ripples of shock through the community, pulling domestic violence to the front page.
In September, 38-year-old Franca Barsi, a former Gilroy Garlic Queen, was found dead in her Westwood Drive condominium, leaving her 10-year-old son motherless. Her boyfriend, David Reyes, surrendered to police after an hour-long car chase from San Jose to Gilroy and back, driving Barsi’s minivan. Reyes confessed to the crime, according to Detective Mitch Madruga, saying he’d killed the single mother in a fit of anger.
Friends and family mourned Barsi, a vivacious woman blessed with an abundance of talents. As a teen, she was crowned Gilroy Garlic Queen, an honor accorded for her leadership and volunteerism. Barsi met David Reyes while working as a cashier at PW Supermarket. Her family never warmed to him.
Their relationship was turbulent, veering from heated arguments to reconciliation and back, Barsi’s family said.
“The one and only time I met him I got a really bad impression,” said Lauretta Avina, Barsi’s sister. “I was trying to tell her ‘You can do better than this.’ ”
Reyes’ criminal record is a chronicle of violence and misogyny, including numerous arrests for battering women and a conviction for assault with intent to commit rape. This summer, an armed robbery and carjacking landed Reyes on Gilroy’s Most Wanted list, published weekly in The Dispatch.
The dismal tale raised awareness of domestic violence in South County, which reports some of the highest rates of the crime countywide. Gilroy women who identified with Barsi’s story sought restraining orders after hearing of her demise. Others seized on it as a cautionary tale.
When columnist Cynthia Walker wrote that Barsi should have “listened to Dr. Laura,” and abstained from pre-marital sex and dating, her words sparked a furor among Dispatch readers who believed yet again someone was blaming the victim for the behavior of a killer. One letter-writer called Walker’s column “downright cruel and hurtful.”
Another added, “In Santa Clara County, violence against women is on the rise, and it has little to do with whether they are single parents.”
Connells Donate $1 million
Long-time Gilroy residents Dale and Ruth Connell dug into their investments in September and set up a $1 million endowment through the Gilroy Foundation for music to be taught in local schools.
“We’re strong on singing because it’s a noncompetitive thing,” Dale Connell said. “Nobody has a better horn than anyone else.”
This is the couple’s third donation through the Gilroy Foundation for music education in the Gilroy Unified School District. The pair – both in their early 90s and married for 67 years – formed the Connell Family Music Fund in 1997 with a $50,000 donation. The Packard Foundation matched that money, which ended up providing $100,000 for a summer music program for below-grade-level students. In 2004, the Connells added an additional $50,000 to the that fund.
Following the $1 million donation, the couple was nominated for the prestigious ABBY award by the Arts Council Silicon Valley, which bestows the award on philanthropists who make supporting the arts a priority through significant monetary contributions.
The Gilroy Unified School District nominated the Connells.
“GUSD, Gilroy Foundation and our community hope that Arts Council Silicon Valley will acknowledge this couple’s great contribution to the arts, our youth and our Valley with the ABBY award,” the nomination reads.
But Ruth dismisses such accolades, saying she and her husband really haven’t done anything special – “just tried to help out every once in a while.
Firefighters Win pay raise
Gilroy firefighters won a 10-percent wage increase this year, ending a two-year contract battle that pitted the local fire union against City Hall. Wages were the sticking point throughout nine months of negotiations, decided in September. In the end, an outside arbitrator settled the dispute, rejecting the city’s proposal for a smaller wage increase of 4.5 percent. Arbitrator John Kagel of Palo Alto said the city’s offer wouldn’t keep pace with increasing Gilroy prices.
The pay hike is expected to cost the city $500,000 annually, said City Administrator Jay Baksa.
Other issues were settled more easily. Four months earlier, the parties agreed to an expensive new retirement package, nicknamed “3 at 55,” because it pays 3 percent of the highest salary for every year worked, up to 30 years, and allows retirement at age 55. The package isn’t as cushy as that afforded city police, “3 at 50,” but the benefit still has impact, adding $250,000 to the fire union’s $3.4 million payroll.
In return, the union permitted lower staffing levels at the Sunrise Fire Station in northwest Gilroy, due to become an engine station in 2007. In the past, the union has fiercely defended keeping four firefighters on each engine; this year, firefighters struck an informal agreement with the city that the Sunrise station could operate with three firefighters, rather than four. But with staffing shortages in the fire department, the Sunrise engine won’t be staffed until later in the year.
Binding arbitration was under fire last year, when Mayor Al Pinheiro tried to axe the process at the ballot box. The hearings, led by an outside arbitrator, determine pay, health-care contributions, retirement benefits and other hot-button contract details. After negotiations wrapped this year, firefighters applauded the process.
“The process did its job. It was very positive,” said union spokesman Jim Buessing. “It brought forth benefits for everybody – the city, the union membership and the community.”
Bad Luck or Bad Decisions?
Whether through bad decisions or bad luck, the city had a healthy dose of botched projects and costly litigation this year that drained more than $2 million from tax coffers.
Topping the list were roadwork projects. At the start of the year, the city was hit with a $1.13 million spike in the estimated cost of a project to tear up and replace a two-block stretch of downtown Monterey Street. The increase was blamed on the need to fast-track the project and skyrocketing costs for asphalt, concrete and other materials.
The city took a smaller hit – to the tune of $115,000 – from botched roadwork along Santa Teresa Boulevard. Officials disclosed in January that portions of the newly expanded western traffic artery were showing early signs of deterioration. After months of further study, the city and contractor Granite Construction agreed to split the cost of repairing the road – a gentleman’s agreement that allowed both sides to avoid court and to have the road completed in time for the Garlic Festival in July.
The most controversial issue to take a chunk out of city coffers in 2006 was the legal settlement with Rex Wyatt, a former building official fired in 2004 based on a subordinate’s sexual harassment charges. Wyatt’s termination was approved by four tiers of city officials, including city council, but a Santa Clara County judge ruled that the decision was not supported by the evidence.
The prospect of a costly wrongful termination lawsuit prompted city officials to settle with Wyatt for $370,000. After the cost of litigation, the total bill came to nearly $690,000.
“Had this city turned its back and not acted, there would have probably been a suit from the other way,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “Then we would have heard about how the city turned its back on a sexual harassment suit … If you’re talking about how the city was unlucky, you wouldn’t be wrong … You add those up and it’s obviously a lot of money, but if you discover things that happen, you have to deal with them.”
Staff Writers Serdar Tumgoren and Kelly Savio contributed to this story.
