Rent hike won’t prompt immediate move
Gilroy – Mayor Al Pinheiro is negotiating a contract that could eventually affect fire services in the city, but he has not told his colleagues on city council about it.
The mayor, a city appointee to the governing board of Bonfante Gardens, has been in talks with officials from the South Santa Clara Fire District about increasing rent on the station located at the park.
Officials for the agency, a branch of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, say increased rent will not force them to close or relocate their Hecker Pass fire station any time soon. But even if changes are not imminent, some council members think they should be let in on the planning.
“This is the first I’ve heard about it,” Councilman Craig Gartman said. “It would have been nice to have gotten a heads up.”
The rent hike on the station comes as the nonprofit park emerges from near-bankruptcy. The cash-strapped horticultural park reduced its debt load by millions of dollars last summer in a land-deal with Shapell Industries, developer of the gated Eagle Ridge golf community south of the park. Now, Bonfante officials are seeking to build a handful of estate homes across from the park’s entrance at 3050 Hecker Pass Highway.
The park’s latest financial maneuvering involves negotiating a rent hike.
“We’re not priced out yet, but it is a fiscal impact,” said CDF Battalion Chief Derek Witmer. “We’ll definitely have to evaluate it in the future. It’s a very amicable deal. They have a business to run and the Fire District has a business to run. I don’t see us going anywhere for quite some time.”
The department now has a month-to-month lease while preliminary talks continue.
According to Witmer, any decision to close or move the station in the future would involve long-term strategic analysis of response times and calls for service. They would not pack up and leave overnight even under budget strains, he said.
“We wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize the public safety of the city,” Witmer said.
The Hecker Pass station has operated at the site since late 1981. It handles emergency response in an area stretching from the county line, atop Mount Madonna, to Highway 25 to the south and Calle Cielo to the north.
Firefighters from the Hecker Pass station respond to all fires west of Church Street and help cover the city when Gilroy Fire Department engines are tied up on other calls.
Other than the Hecker Pass station, the next nearest CDF outpost is on the east side of Gilroy on No Name Uno. The nearest Gilroy Fire Department station with full firefighting capability is Las Animas, located at 8383 Wren Ave.
“Obviously it’s better to have them here than not to have them,” Pinheiro said of the Hecker station. “Any time that we would lose a facility close to our city would be bad. But they run their department and they must do what’s best for them.”
Pinheiro declined to specify the current rental fee or how much more rent the nonprofit park is asking.
Gilroy Fire Chief Dale Foster is aware of talks between Bonfante board members and CDF officials. He expected the departments would coordinate emergency response changes if the Hecker Pass station ever closes or moves.
“They’re responsible for covering the west end of the city,” he said. “It’s important to Gilroy that we do get their assistance … We use them most of the time on structure fires to add to the staffing.”
CDF officials and Bonfante board members are scheduled to finalize the contract in coming months. Pinheiro has yet to disclose any information about the rent increase or its possible effects to fellow councilmen.
“City council has nothing to do with it,” he said. “This is a private nonprofit facility that has land that they’re renting out to the county. There would be no reason for city council to be involved.”
In recent years, the Dispatch editorial board has criticized Pinheiro’s dual roles as mayor and board member of the cash-strapped horticultural park, even calling for his resignation from the park’s governing body.
The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission cleared him of any financial conflicts of interest several years ago, after he asked the agency for a review.
Under continued criticism from the paper, he asked his council colleagues earlier this year to re-affirm him as their appointee to the nonprofit board. Council unanimously agreed to have him continue in the role, noting at the time the importance of having “eyes and ears” on Bonfante’s board.
But some council members say they’ve been left in the dark.
“If someone is making decisions that are going to affect the response times for emergency personnel in the city, then I think it should be talked over with city council,” Gartman said. “We’re talking about people’s lives and that is not something to be flippant about. Public safety is not something to be taken lightly.”
