GILROY
– The filing period for the school board and Gavilan College
trustee candidates opened last Monday but so far only one candidate
has officially entered each race.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – The filing period for the school board and Gavilan College trustee candidates opened last Monday but so far only one candidate has officially entered each race.
The last day to file for the Nov. 2 election is Aug. 6 at 5 p.m., unless an incumbent does not file, in which case the deadline is extended until Aug. 11.
Three seats on the Gavilan College Board of Trustees are up for grabs, one each in the Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Benito County areas.
Manly Willis filed papers Tuesday to run for the Gilroy-area seat on the board currently held by Mark Dover. Dover, 38, has said he will seek a second term. Willis, 57, retired military and entrepreneur, has lived in Gilroy for 24 years. He, his wife and children all graduated from Gavilan College, he said.
“The reason I’m running now is because I have observed Gavilan College going downhill,” Willis said.
Some of the issues Willis will address in his campaign include insufficient board oversight and misuse of funds by the college, he said.
The other two Gavilan seats up for grabs belong to Morgan Hill Trustee Leonard Washington and San Benito County Trustee Tom Breen. Neither has filed to run, although Breen, 68, has said he plans to. Washington could not be reached before press time.
Gilroy Unified School District Trustee Bob Kraemer is currently the only candidate in a race for three seats. The other two incumbents, Trustee John Gurich and Board President Jaime Rosso, both say they will run for second terms.
GUSD parent Rhoda Bress has pulled filing papers but has not returned them.
Robert Bickle, a GUSD parent announced in the spring that he intended to run for one of the available trustee seats, but the volunteer instructor for the district’s gifted enrichment program will not be able to file, however, because his employer is relocating him to Philadelphia.
“It’s unfortunate,” Bickle said. “I would have like to (run), but it’s a long commute.”
Both races have a steep candidate statement filing fee: $1,710 for GUSD and $3,030 for Gavilan. Many potential candidates say the cost will deter them from submitting the 200-word statement in the Santa Clara and/or San Benito county ballots.
Neither Willis nor Kraemer submitted statements when they filed, and both say they will not.
“I don’t collect, I don’t fund-raise, I’m not asking for contributions and for me to spend $3,000 just to print something in both Hollister and Santa Clara County, I just felt those fees are outrageous,” Willis said.
Details: www.sccvote.org.
