On June 1, 2015, the Mayor of Gilroy admitted contritely that he had not done his budget homework before suggesting big cuts in city funding to the Gilroy Welcome Center. He then reversed his position, which magically changed the votes of his three well-leashed city council allies.
Mayor Don Gage did the right thing, but not before causing unnecessary grief and anger that brought to the surface pent up frustration with the mayor and the City Hall minions that appear too often to snap to his heel.
A few days earlier, the mayor told Dispatch Reporter Chris Foy that his idea to cut Welcome Center funds was a“mistake;” that after meeting with center director, Jane Howard, and a local hotelier, he’d seen the light and reversed his position, he told Foy.
When the budget was adopted on Monday, $300,000 a year for two years remained intact for the Welcome Center, which works hard and efficiently to promote Gilroy to the world and by doing so brings tax dollars to the city and other immeasurables that contribute to the general welfare.
That unanimous vote to continue funding deserves a job-well-done to the council. The fact is, three members never wanted the funds cut. They are Dion Bracco, Cat Tucker and Roland Velasco. They deserve credit for seeing the right path. It takes guts to stand up to bullying and a wrecking crew.
But when a mayor who has drawn a huge cumulative paycheck from taxpayers for years as an elected county official, and has sat though more hours of budget hearings than Christopher has garlic, does not do his fiscal homework and then, shooting from the hip, angers many by suggesting drastic cuts to a community asset, it kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?
The mayor wanted to take money from the Welcome Center and help at-risk youth, even though the city shares $2 million in grants to help youth. His explanation did not ring true. His critics are convinced it was mayoral revenge for the defeat of Measure F, a city sales tax increase whose biggest booster was the mayor. He denied it.
Auto dealers ponied up big bucks to pass F, now the mayor is pushing for improved roads for easier driving to the dealerships.
Friends and family of the mayor voted against F but never told him for fear of retaliation, according to several.
During the F campaign, a merchant who was the face of the anti-F opposition and who had a makeshift storage unit at his shop for years without incident, suddenly received a citation for the unit.
The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce opposed Measure F. After it failed, the mayor abruptly ended his practice of attending chamber breakfasts. He also cut off long-time friends and allies who opposed the measure, to their dismay and frustration.
When the mayor demanded cuts in Welcome Center funding, just about everyone figured it was because the center director is related to the merchant who was cited but continued his vocal opposition to F.
It’s a coincidence that kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?
Here is the other thing. When Mayor Gage originally suggested cuts in Welcome Center funding, three council members, Terri Aulman, Perry Woodward and Peter Leroe-Munoz, agreed and voted with him to direct staff to rework the budget to include the cuts. A week later, when Gage explained his unpopular action by saying he didn’t understand the center’s operation and didn’t do his homework, those same three council members flip-flopped, too.
The Welcome Center has been the most visible of many issues that have people unhappy with City Hall and this administration and what some describe as its arrogance. They ask why the mayor and City Hall are so anti-business, why it takes years to get permits, why some departments seem to badger and not help customers, why the mayor and his council allies are so unwilling to compromise, and how one person’s vision and petty likes and dislikes seem so easily to blind or dismiss the views and visions of others.
The very real hope that swelled Gilroy’s collective community pride when local-boy-makes-good Don Gage gave up his comfortable Santa Clara Valley Water District director position to come home and be the mayor again now is sadly deflated. It kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?
*With a nod to William Allen White, 1868-1944.
