The current tempest over the work of the city’s agriculture
preservation task force shows how pointless it’s become to
volunteer to serve on a Gilroy task force. The frustration level
has become so high that the committee’s chairman, Ralph Santos,
stepped down.
The current tempest over the work of the city’s agriculture preservation task force shows how pointless it’s become to volunteer to serve on a Gilroy task force. The frustration level has become so high that the committee’s chairman, Ralph Santos, stepped down.
“This is too emotional for me,” Santos told reporter Eric Leins. “We based our policy on something we’re now being told we can’t do. To me, that’s a waste of time.”
Santos is rightfully frustrated – and, in truth, his quotes were likely tame compared to what he would tell a friend over a beer. He gave the city months of his time working to craft a farmland preservation policy that balanced the interests of the city, taxpayers, farmers and developers, only to have that policy quashed by Gilroy’s city attorney.
If there were legal considerations the task force needed to keep in mind as it developed a policy, those should have been clearly explained to the committee – which is comprised of volunteers – at the beginning of the process, not at what should have been the end of it.
These people have attended committee meetings for six months out of civic spirit, the desire to make their community a better place and a love for Gilroy. First, City Council disrespected their efforts by rejecting their recommendations two months ago and sending the committee back to the drawing board.
Now, city staff has followed suit by wasting these committee members’ time and energy.
We’ve said it at least twice before, but apparently it needs repeating: Short of egregious errors in the process used by task forces, City Council has a duty to honor the process it establishes and the hard work done by volunteer task force members by adopting their recommendations.
Maybe it’s time that the Council consider halting the process of forming task forces at all. Is Council just sloughing off busy work on citizens?
It also apparently bears expanding: City staff should make sure task force members have all pertinent information at the start of the process, not at the end.
If City Council and city staff don’t work to make the task force system a positive experience for Gilroyans, they will find they can’t find anyone willing to serve on their volunteer committees. If City Council has an outcome in mind at the beginning of the process, and won’t accept any other result, then it should drop the charade of task forces and community involvement. Council is capable of writing and adopting policies on its own.
The current system has become a waste of time, money, energy and – most disturbing of all – the goodwill of Gilroyans.
It’s up to the Council and the city’s leader, Mayor Al Pinheiro, to right this floundering ship. Repairing the damage will require time and careful planning to make sure citizen input is valued. Right now it’s hard to blame good Gilroyans who are on citizen committees if they ask, “What’s the point?”
