Ten years after losing a race for City Council, Perry Woodward
is running again and promising to whip the
”
out-of-touch
”
body into shape by imposing fiscal sanity and reversing
”
terrible
”
decisions such as the recent sidewalk ordinance that many
residents have decried as unfair and illogical.
Gilroy – Ten years after losing a race for City Council, Perry Woodward is running again and promising to whip the “out-of-touch” body into shape by imposing fiscal sanity and reversing “terrible” decisions such as the recent sidewalk ordinance that many residents have decried as unfair and illogical.
“The problem is that the current council is more concerned with matters of city bureaucracy than with governing our community,” Woodward said, referring to Gilroy’s debt-ridden school facilities and raises for top administrators. “I want a new generation of leadership with more fiscal responsibility.”
The fourth-generation Gilroyan said while he’s nostalgic for the smaller Gilroy and ubiquitous farmland of his childhood, his experience as a commercial real estate lawyer has prepared him for issues such as the Westfield Mall, and his 15-month-old daughter, Sierra, has awakened him to the fact that opening up 660 acres of farmland east of Gilroy for the proposed mega mall could generate tax revenue and buoy the school system’s $15 million deficit.
“We have a huge problem with school facilities and no easy way to fix it,” said Woodward, who attended Glen View Elementary, South Valley Middle School and then Gilroy High School. “It would be irresponsible not to consider Westfield if they want to help out with our schools and be good corporate citizens.”
More traffic and shuttered small businesses worry Woodward, but the moderately conservative 38-year-old said “it’s too premature” to decide on Westfield. Every councilman except for Peter Arellano agrees.
When it comes to raises for the city’s top brass, though, Woodward and the majority of the council definitely don’t agree.
“I have represented all manner of companies, from large NASDAQ, high-traded companies right down to guys running shoe stores, and I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Woodward said, referring to city’s new pay program that ensures bosses make at least 15 percent more than their subordinates and 10 percent more than comparable officials in nearby cities.
City Administrator Jay Baksa has been a proponent of the new pay package as a way to prevent police sergeants from earning more than captains, but Woodward said Baksa’s impending retirement is an opportunity for the city to correct its misguided ways.
“Jay knows a lot about city government, but we need [an administrator] who has good experience running a for-profit business so they understand better how to make the most out of every dollar and control overhead,” Woodward said.
Aside from degrees in political science and law, Woodward majored in economics – “the study of scarcity and allocating resources to different problems,” he said – at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
He earned his law degree from Santa Clara University.
The City Council tried to deal with fiscal woes Aug. 6 by passing an ordinance requiring property owners to maintain sidewalks outside their homes, with the city picking up half the tab, and designating property owners as the chief vanguard against lawsuits resulting from unkempt concrete, even if a city-planted tree cracked the walkway to begin with.
Woodward deplored the whole idea.
“The city’s not going to save money in the long run … because the ordinance doesn’t transfer liability to property owners,” Woodward cautioned, referring to a 2004 case in San Jose that dealt with a sidewalk injury after the city passed a similar ordinance. “Now instead of just suing the city, [the injured party] will also sue the homeowner. This makes the plaintiff’s lawyer more likely to sue because there are two sources from which to collect damages.”
It’s only a matter of time before insurance companies catch wind of the new ordinance and raise homeowner’s insurance rates, Woodward said
“I’m really surprised more people haven’t stepped up to challenge these issues,” Woodward said.
Currently, Councilman Craig Gartman is challenging Mayor Al Pinheiro for the mayor’s seat. Planning Commissioners Tim Day and Cat Tucker, former Councilman Bob Dillon, and Councilmen Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette, are set to join Woodward in the council’s race.
The deadline to file is 5pm Wednesday.
Woodward’s last political go-around in 1997, when he was 28, ended in a loss since “I was perceived as being a single-issue candidate” focused on replacing the police chief who resigned shortly before the election.
If he wins this year, Woodward said he would stop serving as a temporary judge in San Jose to free up time for City Council issues, and he also hopes to cut his commute from Eagle Ridge Drive by opening a law office in Gilroy one day, but for right now most of his clients live in San Jose, and his wife, Rochelle, works as a lawyer there, too.
If his campaign succeeds, though, Woodward’s chief clients will be the taxpayers of Gilroy.
