Next week’s election, though local, is not minor. There are no
minor elections. Out of city councils and school boards come
mayors, from mayors are selected county supervisors, from county
supervisors come assemblymen, from assemblymen, state senators.
It’s a food chain.
Next week’s election, though local, is not minor. There are no minor elections. Out of city councils and school boards come mayors, from mayors are selected county supervisors, from county supervisors come assemblymen, from assemblymen, state senators. It’s a food chain.
The only disappointing thing about Tuesday’s upcoming election is that there are no right-wing extremists running. Sigh. No foaming-at-the-mouth, rabid, anti-zoning law, private property zealots. No when-you-pry-it-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands gun nuts. No loony tunes abortion-is-murder fanatics. No one like me. Alas. Maybe in two years.
For mayor, we can choose between a nice moderate businessman, Al Pinheiro, and the considerably left of center Guadalupe Arellano, and two apparently nice ladies who didn’t realize that you need to serve a couple of years on City Council to be taken seriously as a mayoral candidate in this town.
For Council, the situation is a little more complex.
We have one really decent businessman, Dion Bracco. Third generation Gilroyan, grew up selling vegetables for his grandparents, worked as an auto mechanic, and then opened his own thriving tow-truck firm: local boy makes good, certainly the best choice on the slate. I would be more enthusiastic if he foamed at the mouth, but, hey, you can’t have everything.
Then, in a thoroughly moderate pack, we have Roland Velasco, Russ Valliquette, and Mark Dover.
Velasco, in addition to being the grandson of the sweetest woman alive, Jennie Velasco, is an incumbent. He speaks little, so he doesn’t anger anyone. He seems to be everyone’s second choice, so he may well, in this open election, get first place.
Valliquette is on the planning commission, which most voters view as a plus, except for those right-wing extremists who are so far around the bend that they think that zoning laws are an automatic infringement on private property.
Dover is an appealing candidate, because he told the city attorney where to get off. I like a man who can distinguish between legal opinion and truth. Unfortunately, Dover advocates joining the Open Space Authority, and I seriously disagree on that issue.
First, for every $100 a local taxpayer pays to the OSA, we can expect to get $20 back in parks. It’s not cost effective for Gilroy.
Secondly, by the nature of a regional authority, we will be giving up local control of our open space and investing said control in a board whose members are largely from North County. Having battled the Joint Powers Authority for years, I know that such Authorities view South County as their impoverished and ugly stepchild. They will not give us the level of funding and services that they give to our more populous neighbors to the north.
Moreover, and more importantly, such Authorities are remarkably well-insulated against political action. It’s awfully difficult to try to get them to follow the will of their constituents, rather than the will of bureaucrats, much like trying to stuff a genie back into a bottle.
Finally, when I look at the map of South County, I see thousands of acres of Mount Madonna County Park, and thousands of acres of Henry Coe. I see more land being added to these parks regularly, including the recent addition of Gilroy Hot Springs to Henry Coe. I see big city parks and little city parks within easy biking and walking distance. In short, I see plenty of parks, erratically maintained.
I also can’t help but think that the reason I can’t afford a couple of acres of hillside on the outskirts of Gilroy is because thousands of acres are tied up in parks. Supply and demand is a fairly well-proven theory.
As for the rest of the candidates, I see a reason not to vote for them every time I see one of their campaign signs. On every sign for Paul Correa, Bruce Morasca, and both Arellanos, is a union emblem, indicating that they bought their campaign signs from a union shop. There are no union sign shops in Gilroy, just three or four small independent businesses.
Ironically, in return for the union endorsement and the union campaign contribution, every member of Gilroy First! took their business out of the city, putting the unions first and Gilroy last. Positively Faustian.
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and a former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every Friday.
