1. Councilman shot himself in the foot with public records request
City Councilman and mayoral candidate Dion Bracco shot himself in the foot recently by making a public records request to the city of Gilroy for information on his rival’s home alarm records.
Not only did Bracco misuse the public records request process, he embarrassed himself and the city as a whole.
Remember, Bracco wants to be mayor.
After ducking phone calls from reporter Mark Powell for days seeking the answers to questions surrounding his request, Bracco issued “a statement.”
2. Apparently mayoral candidate cannot take the political heat
That big-city-politics tactic is just another red flag: Bracco apparently can’t withstand the political heat in the kitchen when a controversy erupts. Answering questions about your judgments – especially when the news is tough to swallow – is very much a basic for someone who wants to be the mayor of a small town. It’s called Accountability 101, and Bracco failed miserably.
If someone had legitimately brought an issue to him regarding Councilman Perry Woodward’s home alarm and whether his fellow councilman had paid his $20 city fee, Bracco should have passed that on to a proper authority. But what’s clear is that he was fishing for political dirt and ended up getting caught with his hand in the pigsty.
3. Claim that some anonymous person complained is dubious
First off, it’s dubious that anyone at all made this unfounded complaint to Bracco since he refuses to name the person that did. Bracco’s claim is made even more suspect because his wife, Christy, who has worked for the city was, at one point, in charge of the alarm program.
Setting that aside, it is not a Council member’s responsibility (by City Charter) to personally investigate these types of complaints. A complaint is an administrative function. He should have contacted City Manager Tom Haglund – or better yet just brought it up face-to-face with Councilman Woodward.
It’s all so silly and unseemly. And it clearly begs an important question: If after all these years on the City Council that’s the way he chooses to conduct business, what kind of mayor would Dion Bracco be?
