Community

There’s an attraction bringing hundreds of tourists to Gilroy, but Gilroy residents aren’t supposed to go there.

Elementary school students have a music program thanks to one Gilroy Hall of Fame honoree.Christopher High has a stunning new athletic complex thanks to another.One man filled the city with flowers and new breeds of seeds, and the fourth helped resolve one of the city’s messiest environmental problems and bring Gilroy Gardens to the city.Don Christopher, Dale Connell, Glenn Goldsmith, and Bob Kraemer were inducted into the Gilroy Hall of Fame on Saturday, the first honorees since the Chamber of Commerce suspended the annual awards in 1994.The awards’ “short break” ended with the pile driver-like persistence of Bob Dyer, 82, of R.J. Dyer Real Property Investments, Inc., who wanted the city to recognize “people who worked hard and spent the time to make Gilroy a better place.”Mike Sanchez cele-brated the rebirth saying: “Some would say, ‘not bad for down at the end of Silicon Valley.’ I would prefer to say, ‘well done, Gilroy, well done.’”Don Christopher, founder of the nation’s top family garlic producer and co-founder of the Garlic Festival, donated the land on which Christopher High School was built and provided money to construct its new athletic complex.He was inspired to donate after seeing the school’s subpar athletic facilities, said Gilroy Foundation executive director Donna Pray, who introduced him.Christopher also served on the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Advisory Board and the County Planning Commission.“Don Christopher is a man who demonstrated his commitment to his neighbors and their shared community with consistency and purpose,” Pray said.Dale Connell was remembered as an ardent supporter of public education. A former president of the Gilroy Unified School District and a teacher himself, Connell donated $1.1 million to the district for music education.“Dale knew that it’s important that children learn not just with books but with instruments,” said Kurt Michielssen, a senior executive at Pinnacle Bank.Larry Connell accepted the award on behalf of his father, who passed away in 2013, and honored his philanthro-pic legacy. “When I was a couple years out of college, I had the idea that as a son it was my duty to climb a little bit higher than Dad climbed,” Connell said. “By the time I got past 35 I realized I wasn’t doing it. And at 81 I’m not sure I even came up to his bootstraps.”Glenn Goldsmith was honored for his philanthropy and generosity towardhis employees. The founder of Goldsmith Seeds (now Syngenta Flowers), a multinational flower breeder, he began the annual Rotary Flower Sale, which raises up to $50,000 for the Gilroy Rotary Club’s charities, said his son, Joel Goldsmith. Goldsmith operated a plant in Guatemala that employed thousands of workers. After learning that many employees at the facility were going without health care, Goldsmith built a clinic on site. He also provided eyewear.The younger Goldsmith recalled accom-panying his father to the country, where he learned how deep Glenn’s compassion ran. They witnessed blind children begging on the streets, and Glenn Goldsmith explained that their mothers had blinded them to make them more sympathetic.“When he said that, he did not say it with judgment or contempt,” Joel Goldsmith said. “He said it with empathy and sympathy for somebody who thought maiming their child was the best way to get ahead in life. It illustrates how he sees the world.”Glenn Goldsmith had a shock when he was alerted to a mistaken article by Jack Foley in the Dispatch that said he was deceased. Emcee Mark Turner couldn’t resist quoting Mark Twain’s famous line that reports of his own death had been “greatly exaggerated.”Goldsmith added: “I had to show up. I had to tell them I’m alive.”Bob Kraemer, a decorated Vietnam veteran, scout master and the first Mr. Garlic, was remembered as a selfless and unwavering problem solver.During an environmental scandal involving Gilroy officials and the city’s major agricultural companies, Kraemer set aside finger-pointing in favor of finding a solution, said Jay Baksa, former city administrator. Kraemer, who sat on the committee overseeing the agricultural industry, brought Gilroy’s four major agricultural companies together and led a coordinated response to help resolve the crisis.“What we learned about Bob at that time was, if there was a problem—and especially if it was a hard problem—get Bob Kraemer involved,” Baksa said.Former Gilroy mayor Al Pinheiro, who met Kraemer when they both worked at Gilroy Foods, praised Kraemer’s devotion to serving others.“There was no ‘in it for Bob’ kind of thing,” said Pinheiro. “It was all about the reasons why he got involved, whether it was the school district for the kidsor whether it was some other project. It wasn’t about Bob, it was about making a difference.”

St. Joseph’s Family Center has an ambitious plan to help struggling families this holiday season by serving turkey dinners to thousands of hungry people.But there’s a big bump in the road: South County’s largest food distribution agency only has 16 turkeys in its freezers.“We need turkeys desperately,” said Vicky Martin, the donation and pantry coordinator. “I’m a little nervous right now because Thanksgiving is creeping upon us quickly and with only 16 turkeys, our freezers are completely empty.”Usually, people or companies pull up to the entrance at 7950 Church St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and drop off needed food. This year, donations have slowed, perhaps because people think the economy is doing better. But in Gilroy, the need is higher than ever, said Martin.“It’s winter. You have extra expenses in the winter anyway and it’s predicted to be an El Niño year, so a lot of our migrant families and agriculture workers will be out of work during the rain.”St. Joseph’s, which serves thousands of Gilroy residents from its Church Street center, includes among its service programs transit passes for the homeless, help with employment for those looking to apply for a job, hot meals for the homeless, and a food pantry for both families and individuals.Every Monday it serves 600 families healthy produce, with no questions asked. Anyone who needs food can line up and get it. The pantry also stocks eggs, milk, bread and canned goods.The center is one of about 300 agencies supplied by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. St. Joseph’s asks for donations of non-perishable snack foods, fresh produce, and unprepared meats year round. For the holiday season, the center asks for turkeys, yams, and stuffing.Martin has seen slow beginnings to the donation season before and watched things pick up, but this year she’s really worried. She says she may have to buy turkeys for the first time.The agency has a tiny workforce compared to other food charities,” Martin added. It is one of the largest organizations in the county for distribution, but has only nine employees. Other, smaller agencies have 30-80 employees. Gilroy volunteers make up the difference.St. Joseph’s, like many community outreach centers that serve low-income households and the homeless, also asks for clothing, blankets and sleeping bags. Tents and tarps, used by the homeless to protect themselves from cold weather, are in especially high demand, Martin said

GILROY—California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Miceli’s message to Gilroy’s high school seniors is simple: reckless and distracted driving kill. They are the No. 1 killer of America’s teenagers.

GILROY—After nearly two years of work behind the scenes, Gilroy’s youth boxing program finally has a permanent home. It’s a return to its former location from over a decade ago in the heart of downtown.

GILROY—Jaime Rosso believes it’s time to live-stream meetings of the elected officials who make all decisions about Gilroy classrooms, teacher salaries, school construction, bond measures and a whole lot more.

GILROY—It has been called iconic, a landmark and the heart of town—and more recently a curb-hugging eyesore across from stately Old City Hall on Gilroy’s most important, historic downtown corner.

GILROY—Four men who have contributed to making Gilroy what it is today will be inducted Nov. 7 into the newly resurrected Gilroy Hall of Fame.

GILROY—Santa Clara University students are hard at work engineering a solar-powered tiny home for an international competition, and they’re getting Gilroy’s help designing the structure that will have a permanent place at a South County nonprofit.

GILROY—Fidel and Veronica Elizondo of Gilroy became first-time homebuyers when they were picked for a seemingly terrific deal for low-income families: a brand new, $430,000 house for only $230,000—if they agreed to a few resale conditions.Fifteen years later, their dream has been a nightmare.In 2010, they were in a class-action lawsuit because of what they said was shoddy construction, and when they tried to refinance their mortgage, all the restrictions they agreed to when they purchased got in the way.Concrete has split, the roof leaked, linoleum peeled up and the seals on double pane windows failed.Their small settlement amount was not even enough to replace the windows, they said.Then, in August they learned that for 14 years they had been overbilled on property taxes, and they were not the only ones.More than 200 others families whose low incomes qualified them to buy below-market-rate (BMR) homes from the now nearly defunct nonprofit builder South County Housing also received notices by mail from the Santa Clara County Tax Assessor that they had been overbilled and that refunds would be in the mail.Now, after receiving the good news about refunds, the Elizondos and their neighbors in the Los Arroyos subdivision, along with five others built by SCH, face a new and potentially devastating financial blow whose impact is not yet entirely understood.The questions are these: will the families have to pay federal income tax on that $7 million in refunds, averaging approximately $35,000 per family? And, if the families wrote off on their income taxes the property tax bills that are now known to have been excessive, must they amend all those tax returns? If so, will the IRS attach late fees and other penalties?“We are going to be screwed,” Fidel Elizondo, 43, said.The nursery worker predicted that he and his wife, a 39-year-old child care worker, will have to pay income taxes on the refund they have received so far as well as any future refund.And while they said it’s good to know they are not alone in the predicament, it would be helpful if someone stepped in to guide them all though the process and answer their questions.“I think that because all of this was through South County Housing, they are responsible enough to point a finger at; hopefully they will step in and find somebody to guide us,” Veronica Elizondo said.Brian and Keysha Weintz, both 50, are in the same situation as the Elizondos, but the news from their income tax preparer had deeper, and potentially more expensive, implications. She told them they might have to amend their tax returns for the past 14 years, since buying their BMR in Los Arroyos in 2002.That isn’t the only thing of concern, they said.“We were kind of upset with the comment (by the county’s assessor’s office) that it is ultimately the homeowner’s responsibility” to know what tax to pay.“We were all first-time buyers,” Brian Weintz said. “Assuming we all had similar paperwork, if there is a tax amount listed and professionals have put together the paperwork, there is no red flag for us to question.”Keysha Weintz said that’s why none of the more than 200 BMR buyers ever questioned their tax rate.  BMR buyers get a good price on their homes in exchange for agreeing to certain conditions, including never renting the house out. Also, they are not permitted to sell the house at market value. To keep the home affordable to lower-income families for decades, resale prices must also be below market rates.And it is the lower sale value of the house that requires it to be assessed at a lower value than market rate homes for property tax purposes.In the case of the Los Arroyos homes, no one notified the assessor that the homes were BMR when they hit the tax rolls over the past two decades or more.The city of Gilroy monitors compliance with resale restrictions, and South County Housing often gave buyers lessons in homeownership and finances, but neither was required by law to alert the assessor—although the assessor’s office has received such notices about other BMRs built in the county, including in Morgan Hill and others in Gilroy, according to assessor Larry Stone’s office.David Ginsborg, deputy county assessor, suggested the homeowners contact their CPAs and the IRS for answers about tax liability from refunds and amended returns.“Don’t start making guesses, get the facts,” he advised.Asked for his opinion, Gilroy CPA Paul Vanni said “A refund of property taxes falls under the definition of “recoveries” in the tax code. Generally, a recovery is treated as income in the year it is received. Therefore, the homeowner would not amend their prior tax returns.”He suggested homeowners review IRS Publication 525, Pages 22-26 at  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf.And Gilroy CPA John Blaettner opined that, “These people are going to pay tax on the refunds, the only disadvantage is if they get a large lump sum amount.” The reality, he said, is that (for years) they saved taxes so now they are just paying it back.