GILROY
– Questions and concerns about a self-described voter education
group and its affiliation with unions have morphed into boycotts
and calls from critics for investigations by the district
attorney.
GILROY – Questions and concerns about a self-described voter education group and its affiliation with unions have morphed into boycotts and calls from critics for investigations by the district attorney.
At least one City Council hopeful is boycotting a Gilroy First! candidates forum scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. And, a campaign manager for another candidate has launched his own investigation into the group that he says may reveal the fledgeling group committed campaign fraud.
Mark Zappa, the manager of City Council candidate Dion Bracco’s campaign, said he contacted the district attorney’s office this week about an apparently fictitious owner of a domain name that was used when registering the group’s Web site. Zappa said he will also fight the airing of next week’s forum on public access TV, Channel 17.
“If it’s not brought up by Council on Monday, then I’ll raise the issue myself,” Zappa said. “This group is as darn near close to a fraud as anything I’ve ever seen. It’s not fair play to ask the city to air their forum.”
One Councilmember, Peter Arellano, is a member of Gilroy First!.
Gilroy First!, which has billed itself as a nonpartisan issues committee focusing on voter registration and voter education, has endured sharp criticism in recent weeks. With three of its members running as union-endorsed candidates, some say the group is nothing more than a partisan organization wanting to endorse a slate of union-friendly politicians without formally doing so.
Last week, a Gilroy First! effort to produce a campaign issues brochure was scrutinized. The group sent questionnaires regarding economic and environmental issues to candidates. The group plans to publish the candidate responses in a brochure it will distribute at Gilroy First! events, including the forum Wednesday. Some candidates not affiliated with Gilroy First! worried they would be throwing their responses into a lion’s den.
Gilroy First! spokeswoman Rose Barry has been defending the group’s image since concerns surfaced regarding the questionnaire. Barry has steadfastly described the group as an “issues committee (as opposed to a political action committee that endorses candidates) that is dedicated to asking candidates pointed questions about issues affecting Gilroy.” Barry also has said the group aims to increase the amount of voter participation so “the mayor and council will know they have a real mandate.”
Gilroy First! has a core group of roughly 20 members. Barry said the group has registered more than 200 voters in recent weeks.
“We are a transparent organization, and we are not trying to hide anything,” Barry said. “We welcome any authority to look into us. The investigations will just help to clear the air.”
Whether or not formal investigations are done on Gilroy First!, questions loom regarding several components of the group, including the genesis of its Web site, its original meeting location, the group’s financial backing and the justification for airing its forum on city television.
The Web site
Philip Bump, a communications manager at the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council (a network of about 100 unions in the region), said he created the Web site.
Bump said Thursday he created the Web site in late spring or early summer after AFL-CIO and Gilroy First! members met regarding mutual concerns over Wal-Mart’s plans to open a Wal-Mart Supercenter east of U.S. 101 in Gilroy. The super-sized Wal-Mart would have a full grocery store that many fear will put smaller grocery stores on the east side out of business.
Bump said his Web design work was done on a volunteer basis as a favor to the group and not during regular work hours.
“They had no phone line at the time,” Bump said. “We are not giving them financial backing, but as an organization we understand they have a vision for what Gilroy should be that we think is good.”
The Web site published the group’s mission statement with contact information relaying callers to an AFL-CIO hall on Almaden Road in San Jose.
Barry said she learned of the group’s Web site only a few weeks ago after speaking with Councilman and mayoral candidate Al Pinheiro regarding his concerns about the candidates forum and the candidates questionnaire.
Pinheiro had claimed the Web site, at the very least, implied the “majority” on the current City Council would have to be voted out of office.
“It’s kind of embarrassing. It’s a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, but the bottom line is the Web site is out of date, and we don’t want something out of date to be online,” Barry said.
On Thursday, Barry confirmed that Gilroy First! pulled the Web site from the Internet.
The meeting place
“The Web site’s domain name is registered under the name Ferdinand Sausalito at 6901 Church St. in Gilroy. However, city records reveal that the Church Street address is owned by Dolores Quintana.
Barry said she does not know a Ferdinand Sausalito and confirmed that the Church Street residence is rented by Local 428, a United Food and Commercial Workers union that is part of the AFL-CIO. The home had been used as a meeting space for Gilroy First!, Barry said.
“Just because we met there doesn’t mean we share all the views of the union,” Barry said. “Our group met at Krazy Koyote probably more times than that residence, that doesn’t mean our views are the same as the employees of Krazy Koyote.”
The group now meets at Barry’s Gilroy residence, something the spokeswoman said was decided on by the group once it was clear the unions wanted to become more partisan as election time approached.
“By late August it was clear to us we needed to make the separation,” Barry said.
For Barry, the separation is proof Gilroy First! has legitimate voter education motives. For Zappa, the split is a little too little, a little too late.
“I guess if I was caught red-handed, I’d change locations, too.” Zappa said. “All of this is proof there is an inextricable link between the union and Gilroy First!.”
Although Gilroy First!’s Web site and meeting place were linked to the union, Bump and Barry categorically deny any direct financial backing of the group by the union.
Barry said she and a member of Gilroy First! who used to be a union worker, Carmen Soto, opened a checking account for future expenses. Barry described the account as having a “few dollars” in it, but monetary donations even from its own membership have not been collected.
The forum
Although Zappa’s candidate, Dion Bracco, is still considering participation in Wednesday’s forum, candidate and Planning Commission Chairman Russ Valiquette will boycott the session.
“I have no problem with the fact they have three members running. I have no problem if they have a partnership with the unions. My problem is with the deceptiveness of it,” Valiquette said. “(The union) is in the background as a silent partner for Gilroy First!. They have a slate of candidates. I don’t know how they can say they have separation there.”
For candidate and Planning Commission member Paul Correa, a Gilroy First! member, the criticism borders on “comical.”
“It’s funny how people are trying to create divisiveness over a group that wants everyone to talk about the issues,” Correa said. “This is a group that crosses bridges. It’s the broadest coalition I think I’ve seen in Gilroy. If a candidate is afraid of that simple concept, then that’s unfortunate.”
City Spokesman Joe Kline admits, however, that when the group initially approached the city for use of the Council chambers and Channel 17 for its forum, the request “raised questions” in his mind.
“This seemed a little different than other groups holding forums because it had members that were candidates. Gilroy First! had gotten lots of press, and it had stated its political agenda,” Kline said.
There is no cost to the group for holding the event and airing it on TV, Kline said. But Kline sought approval from City Administrator Jay Baksa nonetheless before he told the group that the chamber and Channel 17 were theirs.
“Discretion being the better part of valor, I thought it was best to get Jay’s approval,” Kline said.
According to Kline, Baksa OK’d the usage of the chamber and Channel 17 since “technically” there is no difference between the times in the past when a group like the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a forum and candidates were members of that group.
Kline said there was concern that the questions Gilroy First! plans to pose zero in on “a certain few topics” when typically candidates forums are open to all types of campaign issue questions. However, the forum’s question-and-answer session, in which the public can ask questions through a moderator by writing them down or phoning them in, allayed the city’s concerns.
