Joan Spencer has dropped out of the City Council race and cast
her support behind Cat Tucker, who remains the only female
candidate among the four running.
BY Chris Bone Staff Writer
Gilroy – Joan Spencer has dropped out of the City Council race and cast her support behind Cat Tucker, who remains the only female candidate among the four running.
Spencer said her decision stemmed from a desire to wrap up environmental projects she has spearheaded on the city’s Planning Commission.
“I want to finish what I started,” Spencer said, alluding to ongoing citywide cleanup efforts, pending recycling upgrades in all the schools and specially painted curbs and crosswalk signs to protect pedestrians from recent traffic accidents.
General red tape and the process of getting to know newly selected Superintendent Deborah Flores have slowed Spencer’s efforts to introduce plastic and glass recycling in schools and implement safer crossing guard practices.
“There is no way I can finish these projects between now and November 18, and even if I could, running the campaign while trying to keep those projects going would be pretty difficult to do on top of full time job,” said Spencer, a respiratory therapist and mother of two.
Spencer spent her July 14 weekend thinking about the campaign since she had an appointment at City Hall the following Monday so she could formally announce her candidacy, “but I just called and canceled my appointment,” she said.
Spencer’s absence from the election effectively halves the chances of a woman reaching the City Council, but Spencer stressed merit over gender.
“If people are going to vote for a woman, then they are still going to vote for a woman,” Spencer said. “There’s more to Cat than that she’s just a woman. She’s a very qualified candidate.”
City Council Candidate Bob Dillon still looks forward to the race despite the change-up. “I’ve often said that a woman on council would be a good thing. Cat’s a reasonable candidate. Let’s get out on the floor and dance.”
Spencer told Tucker July 17 about her intention to step down since the two have known each other for five years through Democratic club meetings and having both worked on the Planning Commission and the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
“I was shocked and disappointed. I was being optimistic and hoping we’d both win. Two women are better than one,” Tucker said. “If somebody is looking only at gender, this will boost my chances, but I honestly tried to convince her to stay (in the race).”
If she had stayed in, Spencer said she would’ve led a confident campaign.
“I wasn’t really that worried about the competition in general,” Spencer said from her home Monday as she filled out state-mandated financial disclosure forms detailing her “self-loans” because she hadn’t received any outside donations. “All the candidates are individuals, and each has our own pros and cons.”
Spencer’s ardor for her projects is perhaps her most well-known quality.
She said she specifically feared that her green schemes would face near paralysis if she won office and had to step down as co-chair of the Gilroy Unified School District Citizens’ Environmental Oversight Committee after co-chair Chris Cote had already resigned three and a half months ago.
“With Chris dropping out and myself starting the campaign, the projects fell apart temporarily,” Spencer said, “so I’m looking forward to getting that going again.”
Cote left the eco-friendly body that keeps tabs on district developments to supervise the Hanna Square Project, a neighborhood of solar-powered homes he is currently building on Gurries Drive after the Planning Commission approved it in February without Spencer’s vote since she was dating Cote at the time.
Both Cote and Spencer declined to comment on the status of their relationship now and whether it affected Spencer’s decision to drop out of the race.
“It’s my personal life, and until it interferes with the volunteer work I do with the city, I’m going to keep it personal,” Spencer said. “If at any time there’s a question of my integrity (on the Planning Commission), I definitely will recuse myself.”
“She just really wants to devote her time to environmental issues that concern her and the crosswalk initiative ” Cote said.
The crosswalk-revamping project will hold its first meeting Monday to discuss school crossing guards and eye-catching, fluorescent-yellow-green signs designed just for crosswalk areas. “That’s something that’s very important to me, and I want to get it done. There are children’s lives at sake.”
While her political life appears to be in a coma right now, Spencer says she “never gets bored” with her volunteer work and is confident that new environmental measures will come up.
“There’s going to be another race another year,” she said. “I am definitely keeping my options open.”
Staff writer Chris Bone covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 547-7216
