GILROY—After 34 years in various local political offices, plain speaking Mayor Don Gage, 70, announced his retirement this week, at the start of Monday’s city council meeting. The one-time farmer, IBM program manager and elected representative said he wanted to spend time with his family, including three daughters and six grandchildren. He served through boom and bust times, watched the city and the freeway grow, and leaves as Gilroy pursues its biggest and most controversial housing project.
His motto could be his oft-expressed sentence: “You get to vote. If you don’t like the job I’m doing, just get rid of me.”
He was a city councilman, a county supervisor and a water board commissioner and served twice as Gilroy’s mayor. He retires with 10 months left in his term. Gage ends his service on Dec. 31.
On Dec. 8, Gage gave the Dispatch an exit interview.
Dispatch: What kinds of calls have you gotten since the announcement?
Some of the calls, people want to know if I’m sick. That’s not true. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m very healthy. The second thing is they think something is wrong with somebody in my family. It’s not. It’s just that when I feel that I can’t give 100 percent to my job as mayor, it’s time to let go. I’m not a career politician. My job as mayor is $1,100 and I probably put 40 hours a week in. I can’t even get three or four days in a row off without having something on my calendar. When you are in politics, your family suffers because you are never around. It’s time for my wife and I to do things we haven’t been able to do because I had no time.
What were your favorite accomplishments?
I think the biggest was to get four lanes on the 101 from two. That was causing people in the south a lot of angst. Getting the courthouse built in Morgan Hill so we could have services here and people didn’t have to travel to San Jose. We’ve been financially sound, even during the downturn. Helping the farmers out at the water district and at the Board of Supervisors. Generally, when people had trouble with public service, I helped them get through that.
What was your biggest challenge in office?
Getting through the bureaucracy. There are so many rules and regulations you don’t know which one to use. If you are going to be in public service, you need to get people to know they don’t just have a job, they are in public service. That means they have to help people, not run them through the wringer.
Why did you choose public service?
I was born and raised in Gilroy and I felt the best way I could contribute was to get involved. Being involved meant to be on decision-making levels. From 1981 on I never lost an election. People supported me because I told the truth, straight up.
What’s your biggest regret?
When the voters turned down getting redevelopment funds. They always compare us to Morgan Hill. Morgan Hill had a redevelopment agency and they got $200 million and that’s what they used downtown. They have a great community center, they have an aquatic center, they have a great downtown. All that was from the 14 percent of property tax they got from redevelopment. If that had occurred for us, I’d say 90 percent of the problems we have, streets, sidewalks, downtown, would be resolved.
Why didn’t voters here go for it back in the ’90s?
Because we had people in this town who felt we shouldn’t have that kind of money and they put it on the ballot and they told everybody that we were going to take their houses from them and give it to developers—we don’t even use eminent domain—and they shot it down. It’s really crazy because it was free money. A redevelopment agency, the city gets about 14 percent of their property tax and with a redevelopment agency you get another 14 percent to use and fix up life and everything else. And they said no.
You apologized to your enemies at the council last night. Did you have many?
You can never please everyone. If you please 50 percent and explain to the rest what you did, they will accept that. The trouble is, that 50 percent won’t be happy with the next thing. They’ve called me a bully, but you have to show leadership. You have to take the bulls by the horn and make it right.
Who should be the next mayor? A Dispatch poll
