Politics

In a step toward building the first massive wind farms off California’s coast, three Assemblymembers on Feb. 12 proposed a $1 billion bond act to help pay for the expansion of ports. The bill, if approved, would place a bond before voters aimed at helping...

Neil Kitchens, a Republican candidate who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 30th District State Assembly seat in 2018, has been charged with five counts of election fraud. Kitchens pleaded not guilty at an arraignment June 27 in Monterey County Superior Court, according to court...

True or false: The City of Gilroy owns a tourist attraction business called Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park. That’s false.

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.

The Gilroy Foundation gave out $621,250 in scholarships this year to Gilroy students

Voting has begun in the Nov. 8 general election, as voters throughout California will receive ballots in the coming days—and can drop them off, completed and signed, at authorized locations now through Election Day. Elections officials in Santa Clara County began sending ballots in the...

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen is moving to eliminate the county’s death row, looking to sentence the 15 local men still sitting on it to serve life in prison without the chance of parole instead, according to an April 5 press release.  “Judges...

Bill Monning and Luis Alejo cruised to election wins and form the region's legislative delegation for at least the next two years.

A 48-year-old Cupertino woman who ran for the position of Santa Clara County sheriff in the June 7 primary election has been charged with perjury for allegedly saying she had the law enforcement experience required to qualify for the job, prosecutors said. Anh Colton, who...

The family of Don Gage has scheduled an upcoming funeral mass and a celebration of life in honor of the former mayor of Gilroy, who died March 25 at age 79.  A funeral mass for Gage will take place at 10am April 5 at St....