Opinion

Gilroy, this may be our last chance to celebrate Independence

On Monday, the Gilroy City Council will appoint the city’s new mayor. Within weeks, it will fill a council vacancy and consider a general plan in a community that is deeply divided over how big and how fast Gilroy should grow.The process highlights some flaws in the City Charter-defined procedure, which prescribes that one of the remaining council members be named as mayor.Three of the council members, Peter Leroe-Muñoz, Dion Bracco and Roland Velasco would have to give up the last three years on their council terms to serve less than a year as mayor, then run for office again two years earlier than they would have had to otherwise.The three remaining members—Cat Tucker, Terri Aulman and Perry Woodward—all have terms that expire in 2016. Of those three, Woodward seems the most ambitious of the bunch. He ran for mayor before and dropped out when Don Gage entered the race.Woodward, who says Gilroy shouldn’t listen to outsiders, led the effort to raise campaign contribution limits from $250 to $750 and maximum expenditures from $26,000 to $53,000. That, paradoxically, is likely to increase the influence of special interests, such as out-of-town developers, over the concerns of average Gilroy homeowners, for whom $750 is a big check to write.Woodward also chaired the commission that voted to abandon compact development, add 5,300 homes on annexed farmland and make Gilroy one of the county’s largest cities. Not everyone in Gilroy wants to see that happen.If residents are unhappy with the choice of the next mayor and the policies he or she espouses, the timing of Gage’s resignation leaves them little recourse. They can’t exercise their right to recall the mayor or the appointed replacement councilmember because the earliest possible recall election date would be the date of the next regular election. So the appointed mayor and the newly appointed swing vote (the current councilmembers voted 3-3 on the annexation) will serve for the majority of 2016.This is obviously a watershed moment for Gilroy, and the critical decision is being made following a series of political and legal maneuvers. A chair’s been pulled out of the circle and the music has started.Passing a new general plan under these circumstances, and over the objections of the Planning Commission, could well taint the document that will shape the city’s future over the next 25 years and beyond.Gilroyans should pay close attention to who will be named mayor on Jan. 4, as well as the process to fill the empty council seat and the growth options in the new general plan. The stakes are very high.

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