Gilroy
– The city powered through some million dollar rough patches in
2006 and is on the path to fixing sidewalks, building a new arts
center and tackling a proposal for the biggest shopping complex in
Gilroy history, Mayor Al Pinheiro said Thursday during his annual
state of the city speech.
Gilroy – The city powered through some million dollar rough patches in 2006 and is on the path to fixing sidewalks, building a new arts center and tackling a proposal for the biggest shopping complex in Gilroy history, Mayor Al Pinheiro said Thursday during his annual state of the city speech.
In remarks laced with humor and notes of frustration, Pinheiro praised the unsung accomplishments of Gilroy’s firefighters, planners, secretaries and more than 200 other public employees.
“We have a strange kind of government,” Pinheiro said. “It’s about checks and balances. If something good happens, we don’t get credit. If something bad happens, we get blamed.”
The new police headquarters, for example, is complete, despite coming in a year behind schedule after a million dollar snafu by the contractor. Traffic is flowing along an expansive new Santa Teresa Boulevard, despite an eight-month delay due to shoddy construction. And the downtown has emerged with new life following a major street and sidewalk improvement project, albeit three months past deadline and $1 million over budget.
“A lot of times things don’t go as well as we want them to,” Pinheiro said, “but this team stuck with it and it was well worth it.”
And not all the city’s efforts inspired criticism. On the labor front, more than a year of bitter contract wrangling with the fire union came to an end, Pinheiro pointed out, and with little fanfare or squabbling, officials negotiated new contracts with police and non-safety employees.
The perennial issue of buckled sidewalks inched closer to resolution in 2006 with a laundry list of recommendations from a task force, while the city earned a “green certification” from the county for its business practices.
Eco-friendly management and policies are gaining more attention at City Hall, thanks in large part to the efforts of Councilman Peter Arellano, said Pinheiro, who added that it doesn’t hurt to have a “tree hugger daughter.” In the coming year, city officials will tackle a range of issues from recycling on public property to a law that would make builders recycle at least half of their construction debris.
Despite the resurgence of downtown after years of decline, plenty of challenges remain, Pinheiro said. A-board signs and banners have mushroomed downtown and city leaders, in coming months, plan to aggressively enforce existing sign laws. If that fails to stem the problem, officials say they will ban A-board signs and banners altogether.
Redevelopment of run-down buildings remains an issue in 2007, and Pinheiro took a shot at building owners who, hoping to cash in on the area’s newfound energy, are stalling on improvements in hopes of selling their property for astronomical prices.
“Those people are smoking something,” Pinheiro said.
Even as the city emerges from one of its busiest construction periods in history – in the last three years, Gilroy spent more on public projects than in its entire history – it prepares to tackle a pair of major projects. Officials still hope to push forward on a new arts center across from the Caltrain station on Monterey Street, and to seek alternative funding sources for a new library.
They also will review a proposal to build a 1.5-million-square-foot outdoor mall on farmland just east of the Gilroy Premium Outlets.
Reflecting on a year that had its fair share of bad news, City Administrator Jay Baksa lauded public employees.
“This may sound crazy, but I’m proudest of this organization when times are tough,” he said. “When times are good, it’s easy. But when things are bad … every time you come through.”
