The crowded field in the race for Gilroy mayor is beginning to
differentiate itself
– and unfortunately, not in a good way.
The crowded field in the race for Gilroy mayor is beginning to differentiate itself – and unfortunately, not in a good way.
Two of the four candidates to replace outgoing Mayor Tom Springer have separated themselves from the pack with questionable behavior – or perhaps non-behavior would be more accurate.
Political newcomer Mary Hohenbrink distinguished herself by claiming to vote in several elections when she hadn’t, and by not even being a registered voter until she decided she want to run for Gilroy’s top political job.
Hohenbrink, a Santa Clara County resident since 1997, said she had been voting in Los Angeles County elections via absentee ballot. That’s disconcerting enough – it’s dubious at best to skip voting on important Gilroy and Santa Clara County races and issues in order to vote on L.A. items. But it gets worse. Hohenbrink’s claims of voting via absentee ballots turned out to be false.
Hohenbrink now claims that the last time she voted – she thinks – was in the 1998 gubernatorial election (the one where Gray Davis won his first term as governor of California) and hasn’t been a registered voter since 1999.
“I thought I did vote absentee at one point,” Hohenbrink said. “Sometimes your memory fails you when you’re trying to remember things over the last few years.”
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of her ability to govern and lead a growing community like Gilroy. And her excuse leaves a lot to be desired.
“There are life circumstances that sometimes prevent you from doing things you want to do. There’s work, there’s putting kids in kindergarten,” Hohenbrink said. “I still had my opinions and my dinner table discussions, but I didn’t get to vote on them all the time.”
The job to which Hohenbrink aspires, mayor of Gilroy, requires a huge commitment of time – committees, hearings, public appearances, answering reporters’ questions, hundred-page agenda packets to study, public and closed-door council meetings, and more. If her job and registering the kids for school don’t leave her enough time to register and vote, we can’t imagine Hohenbrink has the time to run Gilroy.
Then there’s Guadalupe Arellano, an experienced local political player and former City Council member, who really ought to know better than to play fast and loose with election paperwork requirements.
Despite a home visit from City Clerk Rhonda Pellin, Arellano is two years late on filing required paperwork from her failed bid to win re-election to City Council in 2001.
Arellano’s filing lapse affects her personally – so far, she’s racked up $700 in fines – but also impacts others.
“I’ve taken the form to her home and volunteered to assist in helping to complete those forms,” Pellin said. “I’m required to have the forms in these files. That’s my duty as a filing official. When I don’t have those forms, I am out of compliance.”
The explanations Arellano’s offered for her two-year tardiness smack of a third-grader’s “The dog ate my homework” excuse. We’d expect to hear such lame rationalizations from Bart Simpson, not a seasoned political player like Arellano.
Arellano, who often displayed a take-no-prisoners style while a member of City Council, would never accept such behavior – or excuses – from any lobbyist, developer, consultant, city staffer or fellow council member when she was a member of that panel, and we shouldn’t accept it from her now. The fact that she is asking Gilroyans to accept her behavior and excuses reeks of hypocrisy.
Hohenbrink and Arellano are asking for the voters’ trust to place them in the highest position of leadership in Gilroy. They want to represent this community in many ways for the next four years. Their actions of the last few years give us great doubt as to their ability and fitness for that role.
