Guest column by Marie Blankley: Mayor ‘hopeful’ as she outlines plan for the future of the city

New mayor says she will work closely with our communication officer to better connect council happenings with the public

Published in the November 25 – December 8, 2020 issue of Gilroy Life

By Marie Blankley

Marie Blankley

As Gilroy’s mayor-elect, I feel hopeful and ambitious. What a road we have ahead. Surprisingly, I’ll begin my term with a new city administrator, a new police chief, a new fire chief, a new finance director, a new public works director, and a one-year new community development director. It’s a new team! Of my three main goals, one is to get the right team together. Members of the right team show ownership of their departments and hold themselves accountable for the efficiency and thoroughness of those they supervise. They work well together under both good circumstances and bad so that we all benefit and thrive.

A second goal is to keep the city council on task, progressing forward on a timely basis to maintain our own efficiency and avoid missed opportunities. As mayor, I’ll work closely with our communication officer to better connect council happenings with the public.

Thirdly, I hope to get Gilroy to a position of financial sustainability. Aligning our spending with our revenue may seem obvious, but instead we’ve been incurring expenses that we don’t have the money to pay for, causing debt to rise and leaving future generations, our children, to pay for it.

COVID-19 has made matters much worse, but the exercise is still the same: start with the amount of income we have and divide it among a list of what we want first, starting with the cost of our workforce and paying down debt attributable to that workforce (unfunded retirement packages), knowing that what’s consumed first compromises other needs.

Over the next four years, I hope to see the following:

• Strong working relationships with our county and state officials. Social services, supportive housing, and transportation are just a few of the needs for which the county and state collect taxes for the benefit of all cities in their jurisdiction. Gilroy’s voice is vital in assisting our representatives to direct those dollars to Gilroy for the critical services we can’t otherwise provide.
• Support of our existing businesses and new economic development that adds jobs, vitality, visitors and, of course, revenue. Specifically:

1. The Sports Park — In 2019 the city council began preparations for a possible site for two ice rinks that would be operated by the San Jose Sharks. We addressed environmental and traffic studies, purchased land as required to mitigate the loss of agricultural land, and amended the sports park specific plan to allow for the construction of ice rinks. What remains is to identify who’s paying for the construction ($40 million minimum) and what the Shark’s management agreement would look like. Negotiations are ongoing.
2. Gilroy Gardens — Slightly more than 10 percent of the land owned by the city around Gilroy Gardens is occupied by the amusement park itself. The other 90 percent sits, as it has since the city’s purchase 15 years ago. The city council recently approved an RFP (request for proposal) that seeks to solicit development proposals for the site that meet the recreation and tourism guidelines of the RFP. The RFP itself is a public document and available for anyone to read. Unlike the existing Gilroy Gardens park that benefits the city through the visitors it attracts and the local jobs it provides, the RFP also seeks rent to the city at fair market value on the land to be leased.
3. Downtown Gourmet Alley — The hope here is to create a pedestrian-only alley between Fourth and Seventh streets with indoor/outdoor dining and shops, rooftop terraces, and attractive spaces, somewhat European style. As the lead, the Gilroy Downtown Business Association has requested the city improve trash bin enclosures and work with PG&E to get utility lines underground. We’re on it. The building owners are responsible to improve their buildings and create the beauty, spaces, and terraces we envision.

• A five-year work plan for our streets and sidewalks. Recently the council passed, and I supported, a motion to hire a consulting firm to access our sidewalks. This will provide a thorough review of sidewalk conditions all across the city and allow us to repair, with the property owners, multiple sidewalks at a time and benefit from economies of scale to reduce the cost to everyone. The condition of many of our streets continues to decline because other needs for money continue to win out. We need $3.5 million annually just to keep our streets from deteriorating further, let alone improve them. By creating a work plan for our streets, we can show the public which streets are scheduled to be repaired when, and the council will know how much money is needed to adhere to that schedule before considering other needs to fund instead.

I’m proud to have this four-year opportunity to lead the town that I love through the bumpy road ahead and onto greater prosperity. Thank you!

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Marie Blankley was elected Gilroy mayor Nov. 3. She will replace Mayor Roland Velasco Dec. 7.