We’re still flabbergasted over the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees’s approval five years ago of a Capital Improvement Bond that netted $2.4 million at an ultimate cost of $28.2 million.
It’s a dismaying deal made in 2008 by one of the most intelligent, diligent, responsible school boards in recent memory. Yet Rhoda Bress, Denise Apuzzo, Javier Aguirre, Tom Bundros and Fred Tovar voted to approve what amounts to a “payday loan.”
It’s a classic example of just riding the current – maybe it was late into the meeting, surely the hired consultant made it sound good, yes, the new Christopher High School had to be finished before the school year, etc., … and so it goes.
But there was one trustee, Mark Good, who saw the blank spots on the proposal and stood up to be counted on for the taxpaying public.
Mark Good said loudly and clearly, “No deal.” He did the right thing when others went along to get along. Bucking the majority, unfortunately, is a rare commodity when it comes to elected public officials, though it should not be.
Protecting the public for the community’s benefit is what we elect people to do. Yes, it’s a complicated job, but going along to get along should have its limitations – and that buck should stop when it comes to spending our money.
Thank you, Mark Good. And, hopefully, this serves as an expensive lesson for elected bodies.
