Dear Editor,
Afghanistan, Iraq, and The Ukraine. Three places that hold free,
open, and fair elections. Cuba, North Korea, and The Gilroy Chamber
of Commerce. Three places that don’t.
Dear Editor,
Afghanistan, Iraq, and The Ukraine. Three places that hold free, open, and fair elections. Cuba, North Korea, and The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce. Three places that don’t.
Last year the Gilroy Chamber’s Government Relations Committee voted democratically in a clear majority to endorse Assembly member Simon Salinas. Then chamber leadership chose to nullify that vote, not endorse Simon Salinas, and finally changed the voting rules so that chamber members could no longer choose freely whom they endorsed.
Assembly member Salinas went on to win reelection in a landslide.
Now, unbeknownst to many of it’s members, chamber leadership has decided that a small hand-picked group, consisting of a few select members, will decide who we should all vote for. Throwing out principles of democracy, the chamber falsely published in their December newsletter that they did not endorse Assembly member Salinas at their Government Relations Committee. Three elected officials were present to cast votes and witness the endorsement; even still the chamber apparently has never retracted the printed falsehood.
I read your front-page article entitled “Exec Steps Aside” about the conflict of interest Jane Howard was embroiled in for possibly being able to make political endorsements for the chamber while she represents the City of Gilroy on salary as the interim Director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation. I was particularly interested in this article because it educated taxpayers about how much of their tax money is going to the EDC each year.
I was at the Government Relations meeting that you reported on, so I know that Chris Coté sometimes disagrees politically with Jane Howard and Rob Oneto, but I’ve seen how they each disagree agreeably and show each other due respect.
Coté supported Oneto assuming the chair of the GRC when Howard needed to step down and he supports her heading the EDC. What Coté was objecting to at the meeting when the conflict came to light, and what Coté has been objecting to for months now, is the chamber’s refusal to let its members vote on anything meaningful anymore. Your story left that out.
Chamber leadership lets a few committees vote on where lunches are going to be and what is on the menu to eat, but when it comes to deciding who we pick to decide if a man lives or dies, or how our taxes are spent, then the chamber leaders don’t trust Gilroy people to vote.
Gilroy taxpayers should be allowed to decide about the $108,000 that The Dispatch reported goes to the chamber affiliated Economic Development Corporation every year.
In the spirit of democracy and freedom, the chamber should let its dues paying members vote on issues and endorsements that it is their American right and duty to decide.
Joan Spencer, Parks and Recreation Commissioner, City of Gilroy Steward, SEUI UHW West
