Politics

On the heels of hiring a new president, Gavilan Community College in Gilroy will soon have a new trustee.Two candidates, Danielle Davenport and Rachel Perez, will vie for the only contested seat in the Nov. 8 election for the Gavilan Joint Community College District. Two other seats are uncontested so voters can choose only the incumbent in each.It will mark the first time trustees are seated under the college’s new district election format. Previously, they were elected at-large from the attendance area, which encompasses 2,700 square miles in San Benito County, and Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin and parts of south San Jose in Santa Clara County.Also under the old system, the board had to be made up of two trustees each from the Gilroy and Morgan Hill unified school districts and three from San Benito High School District.In the new election format, representation from Santa Clara County will be slightly stronger than from San Benito County.Four trustees must live in Santa Clara County, two in San Benito County and the seventh can live in either county.Under the new format approved by trustees last year, the attendance area was subdivided into seven Trustee Areas (TAs), each roughly balanced in numbers (24,000 based on the 2010 U.S. Census) and demographic characteristics, including ethnicity.The change was made following pressure from Latino groups that claimed Latinos were at a disadvantage under the old system, a violation of the Federal Voting Right Act.Now, candidates can run only from the area in which they live. Voters cast ballots only for candidates who live in their area.Elections under the new system, like the old, are staggered so that all seats are not open at the same time. This year, seats in TAs 2, 4 and 6 will be filled.Davenport, of San Martin, and Perez, of Gilroy, are vying for the T6 seat. That trustee area is the only one that includes parts of Santa Clara and San Benito counties.Incumbent Jonathan Brusco of Morgan Hill is running unopposed in TA2, while board colleague Mark Dover of Gilroy is unchallenged in TA4.The San Benito and Santa Clara County election offices consolidate the trustees’ election with the November general election under contract with Gavilan College.On June 14, the college board voted unanimously to hire Kathleen Rose as the school’s superintendent/president.Previously she was Gavilan’s executive vice president and head of instruction. Rose held that post for seven years before succeeding the retiring president, Steve Kinsella.Gavilan College has a 2016-17 operating budget of $43.5 million, with another $33 million in Measure E capital project expenditures, federal financial aid monies and the Associated Students fund, according to Jan Bernstein Chargin, director of public information.The college enrolled 8,572 students for the 2016 spring semester. Of those, 71 percent were part-time, 19 percent were full-time and 9 percent were non-credit students, she said.It has a full-time faculty of 207 and 270 part-time teachers and other staff.In addition to its main campus in Gilroy, Gavilan operates learning centers in Morgan Hill and Hollister and will open another in the Coyote Valley in South San Jose.The college started nearly a century ago as San Benito Junior College in Hollister, became a joint community college in 1963 with the addition of south Santa Clara County to its service area and built its main Gilroy campus on Santa Teresa Boulevard in the late 1960s. In 2019 the school will celebrate its centennial anniversary.

Car insurance costs more in Gilroy than in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, according to a recent study.In fact, the southernmost Santa Clara County city has the 17th highest insurance costs in the state.The average yearly premium in Gilroy is $1,882, or 13 percent above the $1,661 average price in California. For comparison, San Joseans pay $1,393; Los Angelenos pay $1,624 and San Franciscans pay $1,783.The study was done by ValuePenguin.com, a site that helps people manage personal finances. Researchers did the study using a 2011 Toyota Camry driven by a 30-year-old to determine the average in 142 California cities for $50,000 to $150,000 of coverage.Craig Casazza, who did the study in the New York-based company, said he was interested in insurance pricing because it’s a mandatory expense for car owners and can be a burden on people’s budgets.Why is Gilroy so expensive?Casazza said he could only speculate. He surveyed 20 companies for each city to determine the prices, but the companies keep their pricing methodology secret.“Generally prices are more expensive where there are more accidents,” he said. Car theft can also play a role.Big cities usually have higher prices, but Gilroy is higher than neighboring metropolises.However, it’s cheaper than Santa Clara at $1,896, Sunnyvale at $1,974, Oakland at $1,976 and Cupertino at $1,970.California’s most expensive insurance rates are in Paramount, near Compton, at $2,373 a year. The cheapest is Fullerton at $1,266.To read the study, go to www.valuepenguin.com.

There were fiery exchanges in the first mayoral debate Tuesday between candidates Perry Woodward and Roland Velasco—and some distinctions made between their policies and hopes for the city.

Like its gaming neighbor San Jose to the north, Gilroy may soon tout in neon lights its gambling enterprise to folks driving on Highway 101.

The ideal of representative democracy is alive and well in Gilroy.

Residents of one of Gilroy’s most beautiful and environmentally fragile areas are fighting mad because PG&E is considering it for a power substation.

The company billed as owning the largest chain of indoor water parks in the world is in talks with Gilroy about building one of its popular family resorts at the city-owned Gilroy Gardens.

The 38th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival has come and gone, and while attendance numbers are down over last year’s, organizers say they should still be on track to reaching $11 million in donations over the lifetime of the event.

Gilroy Police reported an injury accident caused by Pokémon players. From a police report:"On the evening of July 21, 2016, a driver and his passenger were driving around looking for Pokémon in the area of First Street and Wren Avenue. The passenger, who was playing Pokémon Go on her cell phone, spotted one in the cemetery as they were driving by."In an effort to capture the Pokémon, the driver suddenly applied the vehicle brakes to make the right turn into the cemetery. A motorcyclist that was behind the vehicle did not have time to react and collided into the rear of the car."The impact caused the motorcyclist to fall to the roadway and skid on the ground before coming to a stop along the cemetery fence.  The motorcyclist sustained minor injuries and was transported to a local area hospital treatment."The driver and passenger who were attempting to catch the Pokémon were released at the scene. A police report was written for documentation purposes."