Council tabs Dispatch columnist, successful council candidate’s
campaign manager
GILROY
A sales-savvy newspaper man and a developer with a knack for history beat out seven other applicants Monday night to be the city’s newest Planning Commissioners.
Benjamin Anderson, a weekly columnist for The Dispatch who prides himself on his outsider status – bereft of connections to developers – has called for less retail, more industrial and slower residential growth, according to his application.
Jim Gailey was the other victor. He served as Councilman Perry Woodward’s campaign advisor during the election and has made a name for himself as a developer with a penchant for historical architecture. This is one of the reasons Councilman Dion Bracco said he voted for Gailey.
“Gailey pushes to keep things authentic and has built homes while trying to make them look authentic,” Bracco said Tuesday of the man he has known for a long time. “We need that mindset downtown, and we needed to make some changes at the planning commission level and not just run (projects) through.”
Councilman Perry Woodward agreed to a certain extent when he said the planning commission should question staff’s recommendations more. That is why, he said, he did not vote for former planning commission chairman Tim Day, who also lost his bid to sit on the city council in November.
“Tim (Day) was of the go-along-to-get-along mold, and voters rejected that,” Woodward said. On the other hand, “(Anderson and Gailey) will analyze critically what comes from staff. They’re not of the mold where they just go along with staff’s recommendations.”
Bracco said somewhat jokingly that part of the reason he voted for him was to show the occasionally vitriolic columnist what the other side of the fence is like – that is, the city’s side.
“Sometimes when you’re throwing rocks all the time and you get on other side of fence, you feel what those rocks feel like when they hit you,” Bracco said while chuckling.
Anderson said Tuesday that he does not plan on knocking any doors down when he shows up for the first planning commission meeting Jan. 3 because he will have to learn the ropes. But he certainly plans on holding his own, he added.
“I’m not going to knock down any doors, but I’m certainly going to hold to the things I brought forward in my application.”
Jim Gailey did not return messages seeking comment as of press time Tuesday.
Councilman Peter Arellano had to recuse himself from the planning commission vote because his daughter, Belen Arellano, applied.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker was the only councilmember to vote for the 26-year-old woman who holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Princeton University. Some councilmembers said before the vote that she symbolized the highly educated and competitive applicant pool.
Aside from Bracco, Councilmembers Craig Gartman and Tucker are both former planning commissioners. Councilman Bob Dillon was a library commissioner.
Councilmembers need the various boards, committees and commissions to provide them with recommendations before they vote on an issue or project. When a development project comes before the council, for example, the body reviews recommendations from the planning and engineering departments along with any up or down votes from the seven-member planning commission itself.
