Gilroy’s City Council needs more than a breath of fresh air, it
needs a stiff wind to blow through the chambers at City Hall.
Gilroy’s City Council needs more than a breath of fresh air, it needs a stiff wind to blow through the chambers at City Hall.
Though residents elected just one new member to the City Council in November, Peter Leroe-Muñoz, there is reason to hope that a considerable shift is in the wind.
Councilman and incumbent Dion Bracco seemed poised throughout the campaign to step up and deliver some common sense leadership that got him elected the first time around.
Where Bracco and Leroe-Muñoz can start to assert some positive pressure is helping to shape the agenda for the Council retreat. Those agendas in the recent past have been nothing more than glorified regular meetings akin to study sessions.
What is the vision for Gilroy’s future? It would be fantastic for each member of the City Council to engage in a written essay addressing that topic that would be shared with the other members. A pie chart accompanying that vision, delineating how the city’s annual budget should be spent, would be invaluable to the discussion.
What is the vision for Gilroy?
Without an answer to that question and at least some semblance of common vision, the city will continue to bob along like a buoy severed from its anchor addressing each crisis as it comes and, in so doing, remaining ill-prepared to shape a brighter future.
For without the vision, there can be no plan.
Gilroy has a marvelous location. The climate is fantastic. We are still geographically separate. The schools are improving. Our wineries are up and coming. Our retail centers provide a healthy sales tax income base for the city. The arts community is vibrant. We’re building a new library. Volunteerism is in our fabric. The Garlic Festival and the outlets are destinations recognized regionally.
There’s a lot going for Gilroy. And there are challenges. We have a high unemployment rate. There’s a gang problem. Vacant buildings dot downtown. City Hall is closed to the public too often. Public pensions are out of control. There are traffic issues, particularly around schools.
Gilroy is a unique place and requires a unique, well-articulated vision by its leaders to achieve its full potential. That’s the Council’s job. And while we can and should borrow best practices from elsewhere, the vision has to be Gilroy specific.
As Melville wrote in the classic, Moby Dick, “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Hopefully, Council members will insist that the agenda for this year’s retreat isn’t schlock. It should be understood that the retreat, if treated with respect and understanding, should be the most important meeting of the year.
What is the vision for Gilroy?
That’s the question every Councilmember should carefully answer. Cat Tucker, Peter Leroe-Muñoz, Dion Bracco, Al Pinheiro, Perry Woodward, Peter Arellano and Bob Dillon, let’s hear it. Once that’s clear, we – the entire community – can work to turn the vision into a reality.
