Gilroy
– City leaders will give a thumbs up or thumbs down later this
month to a host of major policy ideas, including a new scorecard
for housing projects, a crackdown on parents who allow teenagers to
drink at home, and new limits on political spending.
Gilroy – City leaders will give a thumbs up or thumbs down later this month to a host of major policy ideas, including a new scorecard for housing projects, a crackdown on parents who allow teenagers to drink at home, and new limits on political spending.
The topics will be discussed during two days of informal policy talks Jan. 26 and 27. The policy summit, held outside the formal confines of council chambers in City Hall, allows the seven members of Gilroy’s top governing body to explore new policy ideas, hash out spending priorities and direct city staff on policy decisions.
The meetings are a sort of cutting-room floor where ideas are born, develop and often die.
The list of policies that could blossom this year includes a so-called social hosting ordinance that could make it easier for police to penalize adults who allow teenage drinking in their homes. The idea trickled down to Gilroy in the past year after Morgan Hill officials strengthened a similar ordinance.
The fine print has yet to be worked out, and Gilroy Councilman Peter Arellano was cautious about how far the ordinance should go. He was not comfortable with an ordinance that would penalize parents for underage drinking that takes place when they’re away from home. But he was fine with a regulation that cracks down on parents who supply alcohol or provide a safe haven to drink.
“I would rather work with what we have on the books,” he said, “but if the police think we need to strengthen it more, I’m open to discuss it.”
An ordinance banning pit bulls and other types of dogs perceived as dangerous may fizzle out and die at the end of the month. The nature-versus-nurture debate surrounding dangerous dogs has persisted for years, and local officials seems no closer to settling the issue for Gilroy.
“If you take a look at it, I think Chihuahua was the No.1 fiercest reported dog out in the city in recent years,” Councilman Craig Gartman said. “You have dogs that attack people for whatever reasons, and the way that this has been proposed so far seems to be targeting different breeds. This is definitely something that needs a little more research. We need to make sure we are addressing the problem and not just … coming up with feel-good legislation.”
Campaign spending, however, is an area Gartman sees room for change. The sums raised and spent by council candidates are approaching the cap of roughly $24,500, and Gartman is prepared to lower the cap on political spending. He also believes the city should continue financing the $1,500-plus filing fee for political candidates, so that people with lower incomes are not hindered from running for office.
The council also will decide how soon it will tackle revisions to the city’s Residential Development Ordinance, which lays out a competitive process for doling out building permits for a 10-year period. Since the last revision in the early ’90s, Gilroy has turned into a high-priced housing market with fewer homes within reach of low- and medium-income residents.
Councilmen are eager to update a scoring system for housing projects to encourage more affordable housing, as well as eco-friendly construction and other socially conscious development. They also plan to update the ordinance to reflect the goals of the Neighborhood District Policy – a broad set of regulations that calls for neighborhoods with mixed housing types for different income levels.
The next major RDO competition is five years off, but officials may need to get started on revisions this year. The last RDO rewrite took a year, and the current round of changes are more ambitious than the last, according to City Planning Manager Bill Faus.
“They don’t want to just tune it up,” he said. “They want to rebuild the system.”
At the policy summit one year ago, council members postponed a push by Gartman to spend $5 million-plus on citywide sidewalk repairs. They opted instead to enlist a task force to prioritize the areas in need of repair and to study the overall costs.
That committee issued a report in October calling for a long-term approach to the sidewalk problem. It hinges on aggressive advertising for a city program that splits the cost of repairs with homeowners, along with reminders that they are legally responsible for any injuries that occur on concrete walkways in front of homes.
City Transportation Engineer Don Dey will present the findings to council at the policy retreat.
“It’s somewhat more of a slow, sustainable approach,” he said, “rather than dipping into the well to find a lot of money to make those improvements.”
The policy summit offers a behind-the-scenes look at council priorities that residents will not get on the campaign trail or during formal meetings, according to City Administrator Jay Baksa.
“This is the one time that council looks at the whole city and their entire work plan for what in essence turns out to be the next two years,” Baksa said. “A lot of things start with this retreat and it’s real important for the public to hear some of the ‘why’s.'”
