Out with the old, in with the new. This is what voters decided
to do with the city council, kicking out the two incumbents and
filling the three available council seats with new blood.
Out with the old, in with the new.
This is what voters decided to do with the city council, kicking out the two incumbents and filling the three available council seats with new blood.
Attorney Perry Woodward, former councilman Bob Dillon and Parks and Recreation Commissioner Cat Tucker unseated incumbents Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette, and Planning Commission Chairman Tim Day lost his bid, as well.
Woodward garnered 22 percent of the vote, while Tucker took second with 19 percent and Dillon third with 18 percent.
As the front-runner, Woodward said his victory represented voters’ sentiment that it was time for change on the council, especially after criticism from different corners that the body had become a collective yes man for City Administrator Jay Baksa and Mayor Al Pinheiro.
“Voters wanted change because the council had grown out of touch with residents,” Woodward said at his Eagle Ridge home Tuesday night after telling his wife, Rochelle, that it was OK to pop the champagne at 10:15 p.m., when 15 of the 19 precincts had reported results.
“The council lapsed into a pattern of doing the bidding of city bureaucrats,” Woodward said. “Councilmen forgot that they were elected to represent the people.”
The three victors specifically pointed to voter dissatisfaction with a controversial salary program for the city’s top 42 employees and a proposed ordinance that would make homeowners more liable for injuries sustained on sidewalks outside their houses.
But all three candidates said it was not necessarily a matter of one or two issues, but a general desire to see change.
“People wanted change, and they saw me and the others as people who can bring about that change,” Tucker said from a noisy friend’s house where she celebrated with champagne and cheers.
Dillon agreed.
“I did not think that would happen,” Dillon said of his win. “I just had a bad feeling about it, but I understand the issues and I’m not afraid to say what I think,” he said as ice cubes clinked in his glass of 18-year-old Glenmorangie single-malt Scotch whiskey.
Alicia Reese, 18, cast her first ballot Tuesday night with her mother at St. Mary Church on First Street. She said she voted for Woodward and Tucker, but not a third candidate.
The Gavilan College student who’s Navy-bound said the city should take care of its own sidewalks, which is what Woodward and Tucker have advocated. And Tucker has also taught at St. Mary School, “so she has a lot to bring to our community,” Reese said.
Reese said Woodward represents a new, outside perspective.
This outside perspective and their respective private-sector experiences led the three victorious candidates to oppose the salary plan for the city’s top 42 employees. The plan calls for this group to make 15 percent more than their subordinates and 10 percent more than comparable officials in nearby cities.
At the council debate Sept. 27, Dillon said he’d “be happy to hire ordinarily competent people at a reasonable market price” lest the city’s salaries continually “ping pong” off fluctuating wages in nearby cities.
Tucker said the policy was unprecedented in the private sector, and Woodward called it “ridiculous.”
Steve and Darlene Miller agreed as they exited the polls at El Roble School on Third Street.
The salary program is “goofy,” Steve Miller said, and it bugged him because the private sector is growing more competitive while the city thinks it can guarantee high salaries to people.
Many voters also described Woodward as a family man, and the Millers said Tuesday night that they were setting examples for their teenage children by voting, this year for Valiquette, Dillon and Woodward.
“I want to get Woodward on there because he’s a lawyer, and he’ll balance out what the city lawyer says,” Steve Miller said.
That would have been nice during council’s discussions of the controversial sidewalk ordinance, the couple said.
Mayor Al Pinheiro supported the new salary program and the pending sidewalk ordinance, and for these reasons Woodward said he was surprised Pinheiro hung on to his seat.
“It seems illogical that voters would reject Velasco, Valiquette and Day but then re-elect Pinheiro,” Woodward said. “I hope that Al will do better and take this to heart.”
One thing Tucker took to heart throughout the campaign was the city’s reliance on retail sales tax. Though she and Dillon agreed on preserving open space in the form of Gilroy Gardens, Tucker was the only candidate with a no-compromise stance against the proposed Westfield Mall project east of Gilroy.
“There are many citizens who don’t want the Westfield project and the traffic, which is a big deal to the average citizen,” Tucker said of the planned mega mall, before adding that she will get some sleep then take down campaign signs.
Debbie and Nelson Crocker said they supported Tucker because the current council had grown “a little stale.”
“I just felt like it was time to put some new blood in there,” Debbie Crocker said in reference to her vote for Tucker and her “fresh ideas.”
“She looks at things from a different perspective, from a market analysis perspective, and I think that’s good for the council,” Debbie Crocker said.
For many voters there was not a particular race or candidate that brought them out, but rather a sense of civic obligation.
“It’s our duty,” said Rhonda Cantler, who cast her ballot at the First Baptist Church on Wren Avenue. “We care about our city.”
