Hello Gilroy! What a rewarding experience these last seven years have been. Since elected in 2018, then again in 2020, I have been dedicated to improving Gilroy’s financial stability and building a foundation from which our city services and necessary infrastructure can excel.
Whether deteriorating streets, skyrocketing pension liabilities or lack of recreation facilities—just to name a few of our challenges—the groundwork is done. Our streets are now headed into the fourth consecutive year of better maintenance.
We established a trust to address our growing unfunded pension liabilities and earmark payments that will offset our rising obligations. We brought to Gilroy an athletic giant, Sharks Sports and Entertainment, to anchor our Sports Park as a recreation destination and attract more recreation opportunities and venues.
We are bringing forward a Community Center and Civic Center development plan in the heart of Gilroy, between Church Street and Dowdy Street from Sixth to Seventh streets on property the public already owns so that community and recreation programs have facilities to grow.
We successfully brought more transit services to our one and only transit center and fought against building housing on it, ensuring that our transit center can accommodate the transit growth we need.
We celebrated the addition of a recycled water pipeline, growing services at our local hospital, and the expansion of our sewer treatment capabilities to accommodate future population growth.
We are set to build a new fire station with land and funding from the Glen Loma Development Agreement. Though established in 2005, nearly 20 years ago, only recently did we manage to successfully attain from this agreement the fire station for the city, thanks to genuine and diligent efforts throughout last summer from all parties.
We have an executive team within city staff built nearly from scratch since 2020, a time when all but one executive position was filled by an “interim” employee.
These achievements are all part of building a strong foundation for Gilroy, one from which a multitude of endeavors can better succeed, and one that could not have been accomplished without the dedicated efforts of an effective city team.
As I look ahead at the soon-to-be constructed Sharks Ice Gilroy facility and the new fire station, I am overcome with immense pride for our city staff and for my own role as mayor in making both a reality for Gilroy.
While there is always more to do, Gilroy is better and stronger today than when I took office in 2018, thanks to all who have served on the city council with me. I will be forever humbled to have had this seven-year opportunity to give my all to the town that I love, and I will carry with me that great feeling of a job well done that leaves the next city council with a far better starting point from which to continue to build a stronger Gilroy.
It has been an honor.
Marie Blankley, a certified public accountant, is the former mayor and a former city council for the City of Gilroy.
