Following Friday’s surprise news that Gilroy City Councilman Peter Arellano is exploring the possibility of joining the 2012 mayoral race, Don Gage, Santa Clara Valley Water District director and former Gilroy mayor said he’s thinking about dropping his name into the pool of candidates.
As the city of Gilroy happily reports glowing and growing sales tax numbers – “Seven straight quarters of sales tax increases” – and the unions call for new hiring, I wonder if anyone gets it. Or will we turn a blind eye to reality and take the easy way out as Mayor Al Pinheiro did in the last election? Personally, he said, binding arbitration for public safety employees was a horrible burden for the city, but he declined to take on the political fight to overturn it. That could have caused a real election rumble with the firefighters and police unions spending money to save the right for an out-of-town attorney to have the final say on pay and benefits for Gilroy’s public safety employees.