City’s involvement on Bonfante goes back five years
Gilroy – Dion Bracco, the city’s new appointee to the Bonfante Garden’s governing board, said the horticultural park’s controversial land dealings must be disclosed to city council during public session.
Council last week discussed the possibility of holding closed sessions to discuss sensitive information involving the park’s financial maneuverings. But Bracco, who will be formally appointed to the park’s board of directors in coming weeks, said such private discussions would violate state open government laws.
“I believe we can only go to closed session if it’s a personnel issue, pending litigation, or land negotiations,” Bracco said. “I don’t think it will apply to someone else’s deal…”
The city’s involvement with the park dates back about five years, when officials agreed to let the park sell of a portion of its land for development to stave off creditors. In exchange for permission to develop, the park agreed to set up a nonprofit board of directors and include a city council appointee to serve as the council’s “eyes and ears.”
But Mayor Al Pinheiro, the city’s first appointee, failed to report back to city council as the park went about trying to develop additional land along the scenic Hecker Pass corridor, a winding stretch of farmland and hillsides that leads into western Gilroy.
The failure to keep council members appraised of the park’s deals earned the mayor repeated criticism from the Dispatch editorial board, and inspired grumbling among some council colleagues.
During a day of informal policy talks Friday, City Attorney Linda Callon suggested that the city appointee to Bonfante’s board of directors could balance the park’s privacy concerns and the need to share sensitive information with fellow council members by reporting back in a closed session.
Such private discussions would violate the state’s open meeting laws, according to Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition.
Scheer said a closed session would be appropriate if the report involves a matter that would ordinarily permit the city council to go into closed session – for example to discuss strategy for dealing with pending litigation or to give instructions to city negotiators for the sale or purchase of real estate.
“But if they’re buying and selling land and the city’s not a party, and they’re just interested as an unaffiliated party,” Scheer said, “then that report has to be made in a public manner.”
Bracco said land deals qualify as the type of information he plans to report back to city council in open session.
“As a council member, my first allegiance is to the citizens of Gilroy, so I’m going to do what’s best for them, not for a board that I sit on,” Bracco said. “And I believe everyone on our council believes the same thing.”
