Gilroy Gardens handed the City a check for $130,000, based on profit from last fiscal year during the regular July 16 Council meeting, inciting a dispute between Council members and staff on how that money should be spent.
Staff had decided, without Council input, to put the money in a trust fund to go to improvements at Gilroy Gardens, and mentioned their decision during the Council meeting. But Councilman Perry Woodward and Councilman Bob Dillon objected to the idea.
“Simply put, we bought that park and spent a lot of money on it,” Woodward said. “There are all sorts of things one might do from the profit generated – namely perhaps pay some of our debt back for buying the park in the first place.”
Woodward and Dillon thought the decision was worth at least an agendized Council discussion.
“I never even heard that we had a check coming,” Woodward said. “To just say, ‘We have the money, and we know what we’re going to do with it,’ just seemed a little too hasty for me.”
At the meeting, City Administrator Tom Haglund agreed to agendize the issue at a future Council date, which has not yet been determined.
