UPDATED: Former Gilroy mayor and current Santa Clara County
Supervisor Don Gage will run for mayor, but he said he does not
intend to run before Mayor Al Pinheiro’s term ends in 2012 and will
fight against a growing recall effort targeting Pinheiro.
Former Gilroy mayor and current Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage will run for mayor, but he said he does not intend to run before Mayor Al Pinheiro’s term ends in 2012 and will fight against a growing recall effort targeting Pinheiro.
Gage dismissed speculation he was trying to force Pinheiro out early. In fact, the two have actually agreed that Gage will lead the campaign against any recall, he said.
If voters recall Pinheiro before his term ends in 2012, the city charter requires the council appoint a successor until voters can elect a permanent replacement in the next municipal election.
Whenever his race does occur, Gage said he will run to end what he sees as the council’s continual and childish infighting. It would be a return to his hometown political scene after more than a decade in San Jose.
“What’s happening right now makes me sick. It’s disgusting,” Gage said Tuesday of the council’s ongoing squabbles – often prodded by outsiders – and the glacial pace with which the body struggles through budgetary and growth issues. All of this affects morale at City Hall and sets a bad example, he said.
“Morale at the city sucks, and everyone on the council, like anyone else, has personal problems, but they’re not working as a team,” Gage said. “All that does is make people pissed off at the politicians and then they don’t vote. This has got to stop.”
As for the incipient recall campaign led by local conservative activist Mark Zappa, City Clerk Shawna Freels said she had not received any notice or petition from him to review. Forcing a ballot measure requires about 3,700 signatures from the 18,500 or so registered voters here. But before Zappa can start gathering names, Freels must first review the petition under very specific state election codes. Those rules allow the mayor to pen a formal rebuttal that would appear on that petition, Freels said.
If Zappa gathers enough signatures within a 120-day window – which he has said won’t be a problem – then Freels must certify them before the council votes whether to call a special election. A denial from the council would prevent nothing, though, because an “apolitical” county election official will just call the election if there are enough signatures, Freels said.
Paying for that election would be “very costly,” though Freels could not say how much exactly until she heard back from county officials later this week. Earlier this year, her office reported that placing a measure on a recent ballot would have cost about $75,000 for printing and review costs, but that measure would have piggy-backed on another election. Holding an isolated, special recall election when no others are occurring bumps the price up.
There has never been a successful recall in Gilroy, but Zappa – who was involved in a successful recall more than a decade ago in Morgan Hill – enjoys tacit support from a unanimous police union that recently criticized the mayor in a mailer to residents. Although a divided 56-member Gilroy Police Officers Association approved contract concessions last month with the council to save $1.1 million through furloughs and other cuts, both Zappa and the POA have fingered Pinheiro as belligerent toward police and ignorant of public safety issues.
Gage championed public safety back in the 1980s and early ’90s, when the city was half its current size, as a councilman and then mayor from 1991 until 1997, when voters elected him to represent Almaden Valley, Santa Teresa, Blossom Valley, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill and San Martin on the county level. The former accountant – who grew up on a small farm outside of town and still lives here with his wife – also advocated youth programs.
“But back then, everyone acted like adults, and there was no whining or crying on the council,” Gage said.
In what some see as a head start, Gage, 64, recently announced plans to relocate some abandoned county trailers down to Gilroy to re-open the shuttered youth center he helped create as a councilman. Former Gov. Pete Wilson eventually honored Gage for his role in the center at Sixth and Railroad streets, but the city closed it down last year because the building is not up to state earthquake codes. A temporary site exists in the Senior Center near Sixth and Hanna streets.
Pinheiro – who said Gage has consistently “proven to the community how much he loves Gilroy” – called the recall effort a “sad day for Gilroy” and labeled criticism from Zappa and the POA as personal and political attacks lacking merit. Once voters fully understand the magnitude of the city’s finances and the council’s desire to maintain services, Pinheiro said voters – 54 percent of whom elected him in 2007 – would vindicate him in any recall.
As for his thoughts on Gage, Zappa said he’d have to talk to the Republican first and ask him what his ideas for Gilroy are.
“I haven’t agreed with all the stuff he’s done,” Zappa said, referring to tax issues he did not go into full detail about. “He’s a nice guy, and I’ve known him for a long time, but I would like to see what he stands for now.”
