Last week the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce not only endorsed City
Council candidate Bob Dillon and mayoral candidate Al Pinheiro for
the Nov. 6 election, but it also selected incumbent Roland Velasco
and Planning Commissioner Tim Day for the council since there are
three available seats.
Gilroy – Last week the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce not only endorsed City Council candidate Bob Dillon and mayoral candidate Al Pinheiro for the Nov. 6 election, but it also selected incumbent Roland Velasco and Planning Commissioner Tim Day for the council since there are three available seats.
Councilman Craig Gartman is challenging Mayor Al Pinheiro for the mayor’s seat, and Planning Commissioners Tim Day and Cat Tucker, former Councilman Bob Dillon, lawyer Perry Woodward and incumbents Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette are running for the three seats.
Day secured two-thirds of the votes largely because of his patient, wait-and-see approach to development, according to Day and a chamber press release. Day was the chamber’s 2005 chairman and now sits on its 12-member board. He recused himself from the endorsement process.
Velasco’s moderate, pro-business stance and his eight years of experience on the council, plus his years working for Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, were the major factors in the chamber’s decision to endorse him, said Chamber Chairman Rob Oneto.
The Dispatch inadvertently omitted Day and Velasco’s endorsements in a Sept. 27 story.
Both Day and Velasco attracted the chamber with their thorough decision-making, Oneto said. He added that recent criticism of the council as “rubber-stamping” has diverted attention away from Day and Velasco’s prudence.
“Four years ago people said the council needed to unite. It was divided under [former Mayor Tom] Springer, and what Al has brought to it is consensus,” Oneto said.
“So of course you’ll get 6-1 or 7-0 votes, but it’s not rubber-stamping. It’s what the people wanted.”
While Oneto said he believed Day would try to continue this consensus, Day has repeatedly said that he’ll never make up his mind on a project until he’s seen everything.
“A person who makes a decision in the absence of fact is by definition ignorant,” Oneto said. “Tim’s a terrific sounding board … and he’s a consensus builder, but he’s also a leader and an independent thinker.”
Day welcomed the characterization.
“I’m willing to listen, willing to hear all sides of an issue, not just the business side, but also the environmental and any community interests involved,” said Day, who not only devotes time to the Planning Commission, but also to his church, which Oneto said attested to Day’s devotion to Gilroy outside of government.
Another issue the chamber noticed, and that Day and Velasco agreed on, was “binding arbitration,” the city’s way of preventing union negotiations from stalling by having an arbiter who essentially decides for one side or the other to prevent a strike that could disrupt emergency services.
“I am not in favor of arbitration, but having said that, I’m not looking to replace it at this time,” Velasco said. “It is what it is, and I don’t know what would happen if it wasn’t there.”
Day recognized the same predicament.
“Police and fire unions need a method to resolve their disputes [with the city], and that’s what binding arbitration is all about,” Day said. “But my problem is that this leaves a third party to decide on city issues.”
Pinheiro dislikes the third party bit and has said as much to the chamber, but the question becomes, what will replace that third party and prevent a service-freezing strike?
“If someone can come up with a better idea than binding arbitration, then I’d be willing to hear it,” Day said, “but so far I haven’t heard it. It’s one of those things I don’t like, but I don’t see anything better.”
Dillon thinks binding arbitration is difficult but necessary, according to the chamber’s press release.
He also thinks the council should shy away from using its $26.7 million reserve fund, while the other three say using the “rainy day” fund is justified at times.
Aside from these issues, the chamber’s press release said Pinheiro won endorsement due to his concentration on downtown revitalization and his willingness “to extend his knowledge of the budget to the community to keep an open line of communication.”
