Readers
– and a candidate for City Council – pan the new sidewalk
ordinance, call for a barking dog law and wonder about the Garlic
Idol contest winner
Enough is Enough, Candidate Would Repeal Sidewalk Law
Dear Editor,
As a candidate in the upcoming Gilroy City Council election, I started attending Council meetings a while back. I was there last Monday when the City Council enacted the revised sidewalk ordinance. The main speaker was a gentleman from the Association of Bay Area Governments or “ABAG.” He was the head of ABAG’s Risk Management group and he described ABAG as being like the city’s insurance company.
This ABAG representative, who said he was not a lawyer, told the Council that by enacting this ordinance they would be transferring the legal liability for failure to maintain the sidewalks onto adjacent homeowners. He pointed out that the City of San Jose had passed a similar ordinance and it had been upheld in court. Therefore, he said, the City of Gilroy should adopt a similar ordinance. The Council then did exactly that. Only Councilmember Craig Gartman voted against the ordinance. Notably, Councilmembers Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette – who are both running for re-election this November – both voted in favor of the ordinance.
This sidewalk ordinance should have never been approved by the City Council. It is the wrong solution for both moral and legal reasons.
The city’s role in creating the problems with the sidewalks is too well known to bear lengthy repeating here. Suffice it to say, the city built the sidewalks, planted the trees between the sidewalks and the curbs (invasive liquid ambers in many cases), and is still responsible for maintaining the trees. Of course, in the vast majority of cases, the trees are the reason that sidewalks are cracking and buckling. It is simply immoral for the city to create a mess like this and then – instead of fixing its own mess – try to wash its hands of the problem and put the risk of being sued on homeowners who are in no way at fault. “We did not say it was your fault,” the city’s leaders seem to be saying to homeowners, “we said we were going to blame you.”
Why would the city do such a thing? It seems the City Council believes that this will allow the city to escape from lawsuits because now – instead of the city – it will be homeowners who are going to have to answer in court for the sidewalks. And that fundamental misunderstanding by the Council is why this sidewalk ordinance needs to be repealed immediately. And why – if elected to the Council – I will do everything in my power to see that it is repealed.
Here is what the Council missed: The new ordinance does not in any way, shape or form reduce the city’s liability. What it does is give plaintiff’s lawyers an additional class of defendants, name us as Gilroy’s homeowners. Find that hard to believe? Here is the language taken right out of the San Jose case that the ABAG representative was relying on:
“The ordinance does not absolve San Jose of responsibility for dangerous conditions on public sidewalks; rather, it provides an additional level of responsibility for the maintenance of safe sidewalks on owners whose property is adjacent to and abuts the sidewalk.” So the homeowner get sued, but the city still gets sued as well.
Enough is enough. Let’s take City Hall in a new direction. Let’s begin by repealing this misguided ordinance before a single Gilroy homeowner is sued as a result of the city’s failure to take responsibility for the sidewalk problem it created.
Perry Woodward, Gilroy
Barking Dog Law a Definite Need in City
Dear Editor,
I completely agree with passing an ordinance to deal with barking dogs. Unfortunately, complacent neighbors allowing their dogs to bark, at all hours, and not acting to resolve the situation after many attempts and complaints, is becoming a common-day occurrence. We support the city’s efforts 100 percent.
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Caparelli, Gilroy
Garlic Idol Judges Missed the Winner
Dear Editor,
Dannah Antonio sang her heart out at the Garlic Festival idol singing competition and by far was the most talented.
I think the judges should be ashamed of themselves. Dannah was the winner. in a lot of people’s minds that day. I was one of many people who went up to her to tell her so. Shame on the judges.
Virginia Barrios Gutierrez, Morgan Hill
