The City Council chambers were draped in complete silence for a
full minute Monday night as residents and city employees stood to
honor Gayle M. Glines, a city recreation supervisor who died
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Monday night’s regular Gilroy City Council meeting lasted a brisk 85 minutes. For one of those minutes, the Council chambers at City Hall were draped in complete silence as residents and city employees stood to honor Gayle M. Glines, a city recreation supervisor who died suddenly Sunday at the age of 57.
Glines worked in the city’s recreation department for 34 years. The meeting was dedicated in her honor.
“It’s evident in her work and certainly in the remembrance of the recreation staff how many lives she touched,” City Administrator Tom Haglund said. “Gayle is going to be sorely missed.”
Gline’s husband, Walt, is the circulation director for The Dispatch and its two sister papers.
Shovel-ready exemption could be axed
The Council voted 5-2 Monday night to direct staff to strike the shovel-ready exemption from the city’s zoning code.
Resident Thomas Fischer read a letter against the ordinance, stating it allowed projects to circumvent the city’s normal residential development ordinance by meeting simple requirements “which are based solely on the speed by which a project can be built, not on any amenities provided or benefits to the community.”
Council members Bob Dillon and Dion Bracco voted against the motion to seek repeal, and local developer James Suner spoke against eliminating the exemption.
“I’d like to see it continue to exist in some form,” Suner said.
Suner said killing the shovel-ready ordinance would send a message that “we can’t map anything.”
“Let’s find some way to keep the door open for property owners who weren’t part of the last RDO competition,” he said.
Mayor Al Pinheiro said, “I voted no on this from Day 1,” and Councilman Perry Woodward said the ordinance “outlived its usefulness.”
Council votes to change alarm ordinance
By a 6-1 vote, the Council also directed staff to alter the city’s alarm ordinance.
With Pinheiro the lone dissenting vote, the Council asked that the city’s $20 yearly registration fee for residential and commercial alarm owners be stricken in favor a one-time-only $20 fee.
“I’ve always been opposed to the annual fee, and only the annual fee,” Woodward said.
The Council also voted against refunding the 759 businesses and residents who have paid the $20 fee since 2010.
Gilroy Police Department Chief Denise Turner provided background on the city’s alarm issues, saying “about 99 percent” of alarms in the city were false.
According to Turner’s numbers, police responded to 1,450 alarm calls in 2010 – 1,128 were false alarms and 181 were canceled.
Dillon interjected, saying those numbers didn’t equate to 99 percent. He was correct, as, according to those figures, actually 90 percent of calls were false or canceled.
Under the current ordinance, registered alarm owners are given a free pass on their first two false alarms. A third strike, however, nets a $195 fine.
Unregistered alarm owners are charged a $195 fine beginning with their first false alarm, Turner said.
She estimated there were still at least 2,000 unregistered alarms in Gilroy.
