Mayor Al Pinheiro loudly trumpeted Gilroy’s budget triumph at
last weekend’s Council retreat and City Administrator Tom Haglund
said,
”
If there are 450 cities in California, 449 are very jealous of
the city of Gilroy.
”
Pats on the back all around for a whopping rainy day fund
Mayor Al Pinheiro loudly trumpeted Gilroy’s budget triumph at last weekend’s Council retreat and City Administrator Tom Haglund said, “If there are 450 cities in California, 449 are very jealous of the city of Gilroy.”
The city’s “rainy day fund” – the reserve balance stood at $21.4 million as of June 30, 2010.
Enviable indeed, and certainly not lost on the city’s labor groups which either have made significant contract concessions or are under forced furloughs which have reduced pay. The problem in Gilroy has not been revenue nor conservative spending plans, the problem for the last 20 years has been hoarding money only to see it spent on public employee pay and benefits.
History lesson: Money in the bank goes to the public employees
Binding arbitration is largely responsible. An arbiter, with all the powers of a king, sees the city’s flush bank account and awards firefighters with over-the-top pay and benefit increases. For the police, the city folds up the negotiating tent early due to the threat of binding arbitration. That’s Gilroy’s history.
A two-pronged approach is needed, and the first step has been taken by beginning a process to scale back city employee salaries and benefits. But the city can’t hoard cash and then tell employees that the cupboard is bare.
What’s needed is a level and long-term approach to employee pay and benefits coupled with a restructuring of priorities and the articulation of a clear vision about where this City Council wants Gilroy to be in 10 years.
While the mayor trumpets the largess of $21.4 million in the bank, Gilroy has the highest unemployment rate in Santa Clara County at around 17 percent. No other cities are envious of that fact.
Bank account envy doesn’t mean much to unemployed residents
Meanwhile, the city is reluctant to fully fund an independent Economic Development Corporation office, squawks about assisting with a loan program to help rebuild the vacant unreinforced masonry buildings downtown, fails to maintain the Christmas Hill Park amphitheater and waits forever to fund planning for the huge impact a high speed rail station could have on our city. But, hey, our bank account balance is really, really impressive. No doubt the next binding arbiter will agree.
This big bank account/no vision equation represents an astounding lack of leadership, one that directly suggests the lessons from our city’s recent history have not been learned.
It’s a shame. Our community leaders who are not public officials have to begin to speak up and demand more from our elected officials. If not, Gilroy will simply go bobbing along and become, not the community we hope for, but the community that just “came to pass.”
