Bob Dillon’s third bid for city council got off to a quirky
start Saturday, with an airplane trawling a banner across the city
sky.
Gilroy – Bob Dillon’s third bid for city council got off to a quirky start Saturday, with an airplane trawling a banner across the city sky.
The banner – intended to read “Bob Dillon for City Council” – had an up-side down “y” and was missing the “l” on “council.”
Dillon deflected razzing from friends with a bit of humor: “I tell them, ‘That was just to see if you were paying attention.’ That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
The snafu is far more bearable, the former councilman and Dispatch columnist said, than the “principled mistake” he believes cost him the 2005 race. That year, Dillon sought to earn points with taxpayers by refusing to let the city subsidize the nearly $1,600 cost of a ballot statement. The 200-word statement appears in sample ballots mailed to all of the city’s 17,000-plus voters and, for many, is the extent of their knowledge about a candidate.
Dillon said he won’t make the same mistake again, and is planning a “take-no-prisoners” campaign. He kicked it off Saturday by spending $1,000 on two hours of aerial advertising.
“You need to go big or go home,” Dillon said.
Staying true to his reputation as one of council’s most outspoken members, Dillon criticized a recent decision by council to grant pay range increases for City Hall department heads.
“The salient question wasn’t asked: What would happen if we do nothing? I think the department heads are pretty well paid myself,” he said.
Dillon said he would have voted against the salary shift that will add $200,000-plus to the city’s annual budget. At the same time, he supports a proposal to spend $12.4 million on a west Gilroy theme park. Dillon, who started his political career in Gilroy on the Library Commission and has long championed construction of a new library, said he would be willing to delay that project, as well as a $10 million arts center, to finance the purchase of Gilroy Gardens.
“I think we’re going to have to buy it,” he said of the 536-acre site. “First of all it’s a steal at that price, and second of all it’s self defense. If the city doesn’t buy it, it’s going to be developed and that would be too terrible to contemplate.”
Dillon, 60, is one of six candidates who has announced a bid for three council seats. Incumbent councilmen Russ Valiquette and Roland Velasco plan to seek second terms, while Councilman Paul Correa said he does not plan to run again. Also in the race are Planning Commission Chairman Tim Day, Commissioner Joan Spencer, and former Planning Commissioner Cat Tucker, who now serves as a parks and recreation commissioner.
Mayor Al Pinheiro welcomed Dillon’s addition to the pool of candidates. So far, Pinheiro is in a one-man race, though Councilman Craig Gartman has said he is mulling a bid for the city’s top elected position. Pinheiro has already locked up an endorsement from Dillon, most of his council colleagues and a number of other council hopefuls. But Pinheiro does not expect to make any endorsements of his own.
“Bob and I didn’t always agree on the voting, but we respected each other,” Pinheiro said. “That’s the number one key thing for me – that we don’t look upon each other as one better than the other. That way we can work together.”
The nomination period for the November council election begins July 16.
