Politics

The city of Gilroy is preparing for torrential rain this winter as the threat of a record El Niño storm looms. Across California, the cyclical weather phenomenon is expected to bring as much as two times last winter’s rainfall.

Gilroy residents can learn more about a possible half-cent sales tax measure to fund countywide transportation at a public meeting Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. at Gilroy City Hall.The first in a series to be held in the county throughout the month, attendees will have an opportunity to provide input on the transportation projects and programs that have been identified through the Envision Silicon Valley process, an effort started last year by Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority.Under the aegis of Envision Silicon Valley, Gilroy and the 15 other jurisdictions of the VTA identified approximately $47 billion in transportation projects they want to see funded through a possible sales tax measure for the November ballot.“This is a good opportunity for people who want to know more and talk with the VTA and see the plan,” said Mayor Perry Woodward, who is a member of the VTA Board.“If there is a project that folks want to see on this ballot measure, that isn’t on it, or something is on it they feel shouldn’t be on it, this is your opportunity to come and be heard.”The proposed half-cent sales tax measure would be for 30 years and go towards easing congestion in the region.“We are sending 12,000-14,000 commuters into Silicon Valley each day to work—five of the seven City Council members included—and the congestion is terrible, and this will help deal with that,” said Woodward.“It’s important from a quality-of-life standpoint for our residents, but it is also important for the economic vitality of South County,” he continued. “If something is not done, and it takes two hours to get to Silicon Valley, then we are like Los Banos or King City, in terms of our travel time. That would be a very negative thing to our economic development.”The potential sales tax measure would help fund projects both big and small, including Phase 2 of the BART extension into Santa Clara and downtown San Jose, as well as road improvements in Gilroy.“It would give us $1 million a year for street maintenance,” said Woodward. “There is always a lot of talk about the need for additional funding for street maintenance and this extra $1 million a year would help fill that missing gap.”According to the most recent State of the Streets Report, Gilroy needs to spend about $3.3 million per year for the city to meet its own target of a Pavement Condition Index score of 70. Current funding level is about $300,000 per year.Other projects identified for funding through the possible sales tax measure include a new interchange at Highway 25 and Highway 101, replacing the temporary intersection that was installed in the 1980s and extending Santa Teresa Boulevard to South San Jose.“So if you were coming from Hollister and you wanted to take a back way and not get on Highway 101, you could take Highway 25 to Santa Teresa and continue all the way into South San Jose. It creates a whole new corridor for regional traffic,” Woodward said.After the public meetings, the VTA board will vote in June putting the half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot. Once there, It would require a two-thirds voter majority to pass. For more information go to: www.vta.org/envision-silicon-valley/envision-silicon-valley

Property owners could soon call Downtown Gilroy home again. And

After 22 years of relying on informal, ad hoc salary

The City of Gilroy held its third public hearing on district based elections on April 7, where the city council reviewed and discussed draft maps submitted by the public more than a week earlier. Extensive public input is designed into the city’s transition process to...

The Gilroy City Council will vote on hiring Gabriel Gonzalez as the new city administrator on Monday, giving him a salary of $210,000 a year and a car allowance of $4,200 a year.Gonzalez, 46, a CSU-Fresno graduate and Santa Cruz native, has had five jobs in the past six years. He was the city manager of Rohnert Park from 2010-2013, then moved to Kansas to be near his daughter and worked as city manager for the town of Augusta for five months. Back in California, he was the interim finance director for the city of El Monte for five months before moving up to assistant city manager there, where he remained for a year.Since July he’s been a management consultant for Management Partners, a national consulting firm.Earlier in his career he worked for six years as the city manager of Mendota and for three years as a manager of the Clinica Sierra Vista, a Central Valley healthcare provider for low-income and rural workers. He was finance director for the city of Arvin for six years, starting in 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile.Gonzalez was acclaimed for his work in Rohnert Park, reducing the city’s debt from $9 million to $2.2 million, according to a report in the Community Voice newspaper. He was said to have cut costs and created a 10-year plan to manage the budget.“One of his favorite mottos is ‘if the money’s not in our bank, we don’t spend it.’” the paper reported him saying.Rohnert Park City Councilman Jake Mackenzie lauded Gonzalez for helping turn the city around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. "He has done yeoman's work; he has guided us through some very real fiscal crises and set us on a good direction for the future," Mackenzie told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on the manager’s departure in 2013.The city’s then mayor Pam Stafford also praised him in that newspaper. “He came in at a time when we knew that what we needed to do is get financial stability, and we're well on our way to that,” she said. “He did a great job.”Former Morgan Hill city manager Ed Tewes, has served Gilroy on an interim basis since September 2015. The city manager before that, Tom Haglund, left after seven years totake a job as general manager of the Tuolumne Utilities District in Sonora, where he has a second home.Gonzalez was picked by a council subcommittee that included Mayor Perry Woodward and councilmembers Terri Aulman and Daniel Harney. The city had been looking since September and pared 29 applicants down to six, who participated in extensive interviews.Gonzalez has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from National University and a Masters of Public Administration from CSU-Fresno.

In reorganization moves revolving around a more concentrated

The cake was out on Monday as the City Council said farewell and thanks to interim city administrator Ed Tewes, who attended his last council meeting on the dias before turning the keys to City Hall over to new administrator Gabriel Gonzalez.