November is only four months away, and this year’s City Council
race already is shaping up to be a captivating spectacle with
possible candidates ranging from a 75-year-old council veteran to
an ardent anti-marijuana crusader.
November is only four months away, and this year’s City Council race already is shaping up to be a captivating spectacle with possible candidates ranging from a 75-year-old council veteran to an ardent anti-marijuana crusader.
Councilman Craig Gartman announced this week that he will not be seeking another term
after spending nine years on the council.
Three seats will be up for grabs. Councilman Dion Bracco will run to retain his seat. Councilman Peter Arellano is undecided and Gartman’s seat is open.
Gartman speculated that eight or nine people may run. By announcing he was calling it quits, he hoped that some fresh faces would throw their hats into the ring.
“I’m looking forward to a spirited campaign,” Gartman said.
Political newcomer Pasquale Greco, former councilman Russ Valiquette and Bracco all pulled official papers Monday, indicating their intentions. Also, former planning commissioner Art Barron and San Benito County Deputy District Attorney Peter Leroe-Muñoz have filed forms with the state Fair Political Practices Commission indicating their intention to run. A handful of other potential candidates are taking a wait-and-see approach.
City Clerk Shawna Freels said numerous people have talked to her about what is involved in being a City Council member and what steps they must take to run.
“It’s kind of neat seeing the new faces,” she said.
Council races in the past decade have attracted from five to seven candidates, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. Gartman wondered if more people might jump in this time because people have been unhappy with decisions on a range of issues including contract negotiations, medical marijuana and downtown issues.
“There’s a myriad of issues out there that people get upset with,” he said.
The new council will have to contend with serious budget challenges, and earthquake-safety issues downtown. A few contenders also have mentioned “council unity” as a major focus, as the current council often has been under fire from community members for not getting along.
Unlike some past councils, the current council appears to have an independent streak, with few alliances among them. Council members vote in completely different ways depending on the issue.
Gartman and Arellano often vote differently on union-related issues, but they both have supported an ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in town.
Current council members also have occasionally resorted to personal attacks from the dais during particularly tense meetings.
However, Barron said it appears that relations between council members have improved recently. He plans not to run a negative campaign, and he said he hopes other candidates do the same.
Barron said many community members have encouraged him. He has been involved in organizing several local political campaigns, including recent campaigns for county supervisor contender Teresa Alvarado and Gilroy Unified School Board trustee Francisco Dominguez’s run for state assembly. Both efforts failed.
Valiquette hopes to improve council relations as well as relations between the council and city employees, which have suffered in part from layoffs and reduced benefits for workers during the past couple of years. In that vein, he aims to bring civility to negotiations between the city and between public safety unions.
All the interest in the upcoming council race is a good thing.
“The more the merrier,” Valiquette said. “You don’t want to get to the position where you have so few people running that people get idea that they’re voting for the lesser of two evils.”
Greco, a 72-year-old Gilroy native, spent 37 years working for the city of Santa Clara’s electrical department, finishing off as an electricity distribution supervisor.
In that supervisory role, he interacted with people from various city departments, he said. Greco became inspired to run for council after watching a meeting on television.
“I thought, ‘Oh shoot, all those people are doing all these things that I already know,’ ” he said.
Like Greco, Leroe-Muñoz wants a transparent budgeting process, saying that residents have a lot of mistrust of the city related to financial matters, such as past contract negotiations with police and firefighters.
Leroe-Muñoz is secretary of the Police Activities League in San Benito County, and he believes a vibrant PAL in Gilroy would help deter gang activity. He also recommended a “buy local” campaign and a farmers market to help improve downtown.
The 30-year-old Oakland native said his father grew up in Hollister, and one of his father’s first memories is of picking fruit in the fields near Gilroy.
Hollister attorney Elivira Robinson, a trustee for Gavilan College, was among the people who asked him to run for office, he said.
Meanwhile, there are a slew of maybes.
Paul Kloecker, 75, who served on the council from 1983 to 1995, said several people have approached him about running, saying that the council appeared more cohesive in when he served with Don Gage, who is now a county supervisor.
Still, he said that serving on the council requires a lot of time and effort, and he wants to think seriously before making another run.
Tim Day, another former planning commissioner and an agent at Mayor Al Pinheiro’s insurance office, said he must consult further with his wife before deciding. He unsuccessfully ran for council three years ago.
Anti-medical marijuana activist Ron Kirkish said his wife opposes the idea, and he would prefer for someone with city leadership experience who shares his values to run instead.
As newcomers gear up for the November election, Gartman looks forward to taking time off.
“It’s time for new blood,” he said. “It’s time for fresh views.”
Gartman will continue to work at his wife’s business, Incentive Awards, and does not plan to seek any other political office at this point.
Gartman, known as one of the council’s most fiscally conservative members, first served on the planning commission in 1997. He ran unsuccessfully for council in 1999 before being elected in 2001 and then serving a second term in 2005. He also made an unsuccessful bid for mayor against Al Pinheiro in 2007.
Looking back, Gartman said he was particularly proud of an agreement the council reached to get Los Arroyos, Sunrise and Carriage Hills parks built in a timely fashion in western Gilroy at a time when the city often let park building lag far behind development.
He also said he was proud of making a third fire station in town into a campaign issue in 1999.
Gartman also ran into controversy at times, being accused in 2009 of mismanaging funds for the annual Memorial Day parade by the parade committee.
Gartman has said the accusations were politically motivated and that they were manifested by the mayor, although Pinheiro has denied those claims.
If past elections are any indication, Gartman said some people likely will decide not to run once they learn how much of a commitment is truly required.
“There’s a lot of people who talk,” he said. “It’s the people who file who count.”
