First, thanks to all the readers who sent nice comments about
our Election Night coverage on the web. It’s most appreciated
…
You have to hand it to Fred Tovar, member-elect of the Gilroy
Unified School District Board of Trustees. As a relative newcomer
to Gilroy, he won the top spot by a wide margin, and I have to hand
it to him: he outhustled everyone to earn it
… making the rounds house to house, business to business and
handshake to handshake. Plus, he put up the sharpest-designed local
campaign signs I’ve ever seen in our fair small town. Add in the
political reality of a general election and his Stanford job
credentials and you have the makings of a l
ocal surprise winner. Congratulations, Fred, I hope your tenure
on the board is as successful as your campaign.
First, thanks to all the readers who sent nice comments about our Election Night coverage on the web. It’s most appreciated …
You have to hand it to Fred Tovar, member-elect of the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees. As a relative newcomer to Gilroy, he won the top spot by a wide margin, and I have to hand it to him: he outhustled everyone to earn it … making the rounds house to house, business to business and handshake to handshake. Plus, he put up the sharpest-designed local campaign signs I’ve ever seen in our fair small town. Add in the political reality of a general election and his Stanford job credentials and you have the makings of a local surprise winner. Congratulations, Fred, I hope your tenure on the board is as successful as your campaign.
BTW, since we’re on the subject, let’s get those “Thank you Gilroy voters” signs that go on top of the campaign signs up quickly and then please get all the signs down before Thanksgiving comes …
That means yard signs, too, folks. And for the record, I’ve never been a big fan of those. They cause more trouble than they’re worth and I can’t imagine that someone actually sees a yard sign and internally declares, “Oh, now I get it, I’m going to vote for XXX.”
Analyzing some of the results, it confirms why I think that city Measure E, which passed overwhelmingly, and requires moving city elections to coincide with general elections is a really stinky idea for Garlic City. Here’s a line from a recent political column that our reporters, who interview plenty of voters, can absolutely verify as a truism: “Most voters take contests for governor, U.S. senator and president far more seriously than those for lesser offices.” Yep, they know who Barack Obama is and that he can send a text message, but they have no idea who Jaime Rosso is and whether or not he owns an iPhone (please pardon the overt sarcasm regarding what’s important about a candidate) …
What’s really galling about Measure E is that the rationale to pass it was that it would save the city money. Yes the city needs to save (more on that one in a bit), but isn’t anyone paying attention? There are 788,821 registered voters in Santa Clara County, already 556,181 are registered to vote by mail. That’s more than 70 percent, an astounding number. Elections will soon be all by mail in California and Gilroy and it’s too bad that MayorAl, in particular, couldn’t see the wisdom in having Gilroy issues be the focus of future elections which are going to be by mail anyway and therefore less expensive regardless …
Another election disappointment … newspaper headlines across America: The predominant headline “Obama Makes History” was so darn, well, vanilla that I couldn’t believe I kept reading it on print edition front-pages captured on the web time after time as the lead headline across the country. It’s so, “Well, duh?” and unimaginative. Headline writing is more of an art than most appreciate, but such a trite phrase for such an historic occasion left me wishing for a better effort from my colleagues … perhaps we can chalk it up to the financial battering the journalism industry has taken recently while it makes the transition to fully integrate the future – electronic delivery – with our traditional print product …
The financial realities which have been with the private sector for quite some time now have hit home and hit hard at City Hall. Though circumstances conspired against the city to makes things worse recently, the truth is this has been coming for quite some time and indeed the city should have acted a long time ago to trim the workforce in anticipation of tough times. Hopefully, the unions will quickly come to their collective senses and make permanent, one-time wage and benefit concessions that would save some jobs now and lessen the likelihood of additional future cuts. It’s going to be a long road …
And, though clearly it isn’t the perfect time to open a new restaurant, I think Nick and his father, Mike, will beat the odds. Their “South Philly Cafe” over by Barnes and Noble in the 10th Street shopping corridor near Leslie’s Pool Supply is hands-down outstanding. Mike, who hails from Philly many moons ago, is a one-man show in the kitchen and the food is Italian delicious. Like a good sandwich? Italian sausage, meatball, a mouth-watering Philly steak with sauteed onions, well they’ve got it. Mike would fit in perfectly with the Garlic Festival calamari chefs. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed …
And since we’re on the Garlic Festival, I appreciated Director Brian Bowe’s straightforward invitation to the Red Phone caller – and anyone in the community – to come down and look at the festival’s financial books. My humble belief is that all the festival’s financial records should be public and posted for all to see on the Garlic Festival’s web site. As an event that’s truly owned and operated by the community, the festival should literally be an open book.
