Guest View

City council meetings are the heart of local government. They are officially noticed by the City with a published agenda to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be aware of what’s being discussed and to witness live or recorded meetings and/or participate as...

There was an opinion piece in the March 19 Dispatch that led the reader to believe that the Gilroy City Council is ignoring a plan that could end homelessness. That is a misleading statement. What the opinion leaves out is that the Gilroy City Council...

California enters the new year with its existential issues still unresolved, and a new one—an immense budget deficit—threatens to make dealing with them even more difficult. California has made very little progress, if any, on narrowing its shortage of housing, its levels of homelessness and...

Gilroy has made strides to plan and promote housing opportunities for our workforce that are typically more affordable. This is needed more now than ever before.  The State recently released new income guidelines: a Santa Clara County household of one whose income is $92,250 is...

A few weeks ago, my family and I joined the Fourth of July celebration organized by the Freedom Fest organization. As we enjoyed the parade and the beautiful weather, we met many community members and friends, all sharing in this beautiful, nearly 150-year-old Morgan...

Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a two-part series. Why are some communities unable to maintain their historic character and quality of life in the face of a rapidly changing world, or lose the features that once gave them distinction and appeal? How...

President Joe Biden is right. The massive tax cuts under the Trump administration turned out to be nothing more than a giant giveaway to the world’s largest corporations.  Mega corporations like FedEx, Nike, General Motors, Ford, Chevron and dozens of others have paid nothing or...

With our nation’s democracy facing existential threats, California’s duty to protect and empower every eligible voter in the state has never been more urgent. Although we often lead the nation with innovative laws designed to defend voting rights, thousands of eligible voters continue to...

Fair warning: This column will be about workers’ compensation, a topic that’s very complicated and totally lacking in sex appeal, but one that involves many billions of dollars and potentially affects millions of workers. Work comp, as it’s dubbed, has been in effect for more...

This has been a year of labor unrest in California, a state in which unions represent a relatively small faction of the state’s workforce but wield great political power. The most obvious example is the protracted strikes of actors and writers in Southern California’s iconic...