The grooming ground for city council candidates is crowded with
well-qualified, educated folks, both old and young.
The grooming ground for city council candidates is crowded with well-qualified, educated folks, both old and young.
Ten people have applied to serve on the Gilroy Planning Commission this year, but there are only two available seats on the seven-member body. The city council will decide on its composition – along with those of eight other boards and commissions – Monday night.
Councilman Dion Bracco said the planning commission consistently draws many applicants because it is the springboard to get on the council. As a former planning commissioner himself, he should know.
“It’s the one everybody wants to get on,” Bracco said. “This time we have a lot of educated people applying … We have a large population here in Gilroy of people who work in Silicon Valley and are very well educated.”
One such candidate is Belen Arellano, Councilman Peter Arellano’s 26-year-old daughter who has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Princeton University. Now she heads the marketing department for Extreme Learning, a company that provides academic support to California schools.
“I may be young, but I feel like this is an exciting and great learning opportunity, and I’ve always tackled challenges,” said Belen Arellano, referring partially to the fact that she was one of three women, in a sea of 32 men, who graduated from her Princeton class.
Councilman Arellano will not be able to vote for his daughter, according to the city attorney.
“When it comes to the planning commission, you’re affecting infrastructure, jobs, housing – things that will affect me for the next 10 to 15 years,” said Belen Arellano, adding that she is not interested in stepping up to the council like her father. She’ll focus on her career for now, she said.
Aside from Bracco, Councilmembers Craig Gartman and Cat Tucker are both former planning commissioners. Former Councilman Russ Valiquette was as well. Councilman Bob Dillon was a library commissioner, and Planning Commission Chairman Tim Day, who lost his council bid this year, is applying for another four years on the commission.
Councilmembers need the various boards, committees and commissions to provide them with recommendations before they vote on an issue or project. When a development project comes before the council, for example, the body reviews recommendations from the planning and engineering departments along with any up or down votes from the planning commission.
The seven-member commission tries to reconcile residential sentiment with staff recommendations before sending the item to the council for a final vote.
James Tubbs hopes he can be a part of that process. Although he has only spent four years in Gilroy, he has worked with the redevelopment agency of San Jose and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to build more than 90 parks and community centers, partly because he holds a bachelor’s in construction management.
“I see Gilroy as a well established generation-based community that is finding itself at the mercy of attracting the younger generation to its community,” wrote Tubbs in his application.
Richard Gullen is another planning commission applicant. He holds a law degree and represents South Valley Community Church as a real estate and business attorney. Fellow applicant Phillip Benjamin has spent the last 15 years as an investment banker. Ted Barrera is a former Soledad City Councilman, Jim Gailey served on the Historical Heritage Committee, and William Wagner has more than two decades of experience as a land surveyor and construction manager, they all wrote in their applications.
Then there is Benjamin Anderson, a weekly columnist for The Dispatch who prides himself on his outsider status, bereft of connections to developers, he wrote in his application. Anderson has also called for less retail, more industrial and slower residential growth.
Councilman Craig Gartman said he never saw so many applicants and that the increase is due to the rapid expansion of the city and residents’ concern with that.
“I think people are becoming more and more interested in the future direction of the city,” Gartman said. “It’s awesome that we have so many people.”
