Decorum, according to one dictionary, is propriety and good
taste in conduct or appearance; the conventions of polite
behavior.
Decorum, according to one dictionary, is propriety and good taste in conduct or appearance; the conventions of polite behavior.
We mention this because decorum has been sorely lacking in the fracas over 5-Day Furniture and whether it can sell furniture to the general public from its location on Luchessa Avenue.
Ugly terms like “idiotic,” “slander” and yes, even the ridiculous “bull-dickey” have been slung by business and government leaders who remind us of hyperactive children throwing sand in a sandbox.
We urge both camps – city officials and 5-Day Furniture representatives – to ease back at least two notches on the rhetoric scale.
The dispute has landed in front of a judge, who should be able to dispassionately sort through the myriad issues and render a fair ruling.
In an expected win for the furniture store, the judge has ruled that 5-Day will remain open until the matter is settled. The city had sought to limit the furniture store to just 12 retail sales days per calendar year.
The heart of the problems is whether 5-Day Furniture’s retail sales violate city zoning for its Luchessa Avenue location. The city granted the furniture company permission to open a warehouse with “ancillary” retail sales. Apparently “ancillary” was not well-defined and, thus, we have the present uproar.
Rather than pleading their cases to a judge on Aug. 4, it would be much better if the city and 5-Day Furniture could save the expense of court appearances and find a way to settle this dispute amicably. The city and 5-Day Furniture have exactly two months to hammer out a compromise. We urge them to set aside personality differences, egos and hurt feelings and do just that.
Both sides have threatened an all-out battle that promises to be costly and nasty. 5-Day Furniture co-owner Hai Tran has vowed to fight the city’s attempt to limit the store’s retail sales.
Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer also seems eager to go to court.
“It will give us a chance to subpoena every record they’ve got,” Springer said. “It will show all of the information they’ve got, and let them prove to the courts that their business model in fact exists and let us do the discovery through their whole business structure.”
But that knife cuts both ways – a court battle might give 5-Day Furniture an opportunity to air its allegations that it has been subject to unusually heavy enforcement via City Hall and the police department not visited upon other businesses – and if the store’s owners are able to prove those allegations, the consequences for the city – read Gilroy taxpayers – could be heavy.
Gilroy has a reputation for trying to land every sales tax dollar it can. Surely there’s a way in this notoriously retail-friendly town for 5-Day Furniture to sell its wares – without a judge telling us how it should be done.
Two months should be plenty of time for everyone involved to decorously come up with a way to do just that.
