Republic of Gilroy Archives

Open letter to Kate Woods c/o Inside San Benito

To: Kate Woods, award-winning journalist, San Benito satirist laureate, word painter of toxic landscapes, and President of the  Nan Pipestem Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

From: Doug Meier, recent escapee from the soul-sucking confines of Gilroy

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Kate. I relished joining forces with you to fight the good fight against raging stupidity compounded by flagrant apathy compounded by toxic dosages of unchecked corruption. We shined some light on the halfwit incomps running the local creepshow.

Thanks to the Republic of Gilroy and Inside San Benito, the likes of wannabe state assemblyman Iggy Velasquez, the Los Valientes goon squad, and Mainstreet Media tyrant publisher Steve Staloch were exposed for what they are, a dotard mule-train of specious mendicants and complicit willing idiots, instead of congratulated for what they pretend to be.

Out of morbid curiosity I was browsing the Opinion archives of the redesigned Gilroy Dipsack. I discovered that ALL links to my 100-plus columns published in the Dipsack lead to "invalid request" errors. Check it out: you can access any former or current Dipsack columnist except Doug Meier.

I am honored that Dipsack editor Mark Derry would take the trouble to erase me from the Dipsack Opinion page archives. I have now joined Kate Woods on the official Meanstreet Media blacklist! Apparently my posts criticizing Mark Derry's rancid little newspaper puppy mill hit home. Or maybe his wife Jenny Derry, PR flak for the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, demanded my deletion for pulling down her pants and revealing the "Property of SoCal Developers Lobby" tattoo on her ass? 

[at left, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau mouthpiece Jenny Derry, and her husband, Gilroy Dispatch editor Mark Derry (artist rendition)]

I wonder if they'll also erase the editorials I penned as a member of the Dipsack editorial board? Will they attempt to rescind the two CNPA awards (a first place in 2002 and a second place in 2001) garnered by my Republic of Gilroy columns in the pre-blog era?

Kate, you know better than anyone how the creeps run their creepshow with impunity. The fourth estate is on permanent hiatus from Gilroy and SBC. When your Badlands column was embargoed and you were taken off the San Juan and Hollister beats, at least 50 letters expressing the community's outrage poured into the Pinnacle News. Nothing printed in a Meanstreet Media publication before or after generated more honest community outrage against the creepshow than the Silencing of Kate Woods.Then Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton, at Staloch's urging, censored the community's voice as well. He refused to run any more letters objecting to Kate Woods' removal. In his mind this was a public service! 

You were dangerous to them. After Meanstreet's takeover of the original Pinnacle News, as resurrected by Tracie Cone, and the subsequent dumbing down and screwing up of that once-proud weekly, Meanstreet (at the behest of Censorin' Steve Staloch) unarchived your Badlands columns and the investigative pieces you published in The Pinnacle before and after Staloch took over. Just as Joseph Stalin purged all perceived threats to his iron-fisted rule, so Staloch "disappeared" you from his sad little totalitarian empire. Because you always represented the Truth, which they can't stand.

Journalism, as the sackless Paxton would define it, means that no influential local personage, no matter how corrupt, is ever offended, especially if they are on good terms with the publisher.

 

[at left: Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher, creep protector, and Kate Woods, the award-winning investigative reporter whom Staloch censored for insisting on reporting the truth].

 

 

I live in Truckee now, but I'm still devoted to the Bay area, the coast, funky old San Jose, weird wonderful Santa Cruz, the mountains on both sides of the Valley, and the Valley (I still work there, remotely, from the Far East Bay). Regrets? Yeah. I regret that I spent nine years of my life anchored in Gilroy, and that for half of that time I honestly thought that the situation could improve, deluded myself that despite the daily evidence of rampant ignorance, it wasn't really all that bad! Wrong.

OK so the creeps know that I ditched G. Half of the Gilroy school board and the district office slackers who manage low expectations in the Gilroy school district are quite pleased that the GUSD Watchdog doesn't watch them anymore. I suppose they can claim they outlasted me. But you know my response. They can have their unflushed turdlet town and all the floaters who clog it. Anyway, during my time in Gilroy I held the district accountable for its ineptitude. I exposed the rampant incompetence. I helped elect two board members who now hold the school district accountable to tax-paying, home-owning residents who foot the bill for the district's academic morass. And I was a constant thorn in Mainstreet Media's side. I exposed its seamy underbelly. It's on the Internet record and neither Staloch nor Derry can take it down.

Ah, Gilroy. Ever notice that there isn't a single competent waiter or waitress in the entire town? But then the pinnacle of cuisine in Gilroy is the big hot sweaty bbq known as the Garlic fest... and Rib Night at Applebee's.

Gilroy seems to cherish being an intellectual dead zone, a breeding ground for flabby dufus video-game addicts with ambitions to work the checkout line at Target and Wal-Mart and CostCo. "Welcome to Gilroy! Celebrate obesity in soulless deadening cookie cutter subdivisions! Enjoy a fulfilling career in the nail salon industry!"

It's been six months since my family completed Operation Escape from Dipshitville, armpit of Santa Clara County. That right there was a life moment I'll never ever forget: rolling down the cargo door on the Budget rent-a-truck, about 5,000 pounds over limit, bound for the Sierras. Before putting the rig in Drive, I asked my 15 year old son Henry if he had any regrets and he said None! I said Sure? and he said Nope. and I said Then let's you and me get the hell out of this two-bit town, and we high-fived and we wore big shit-eating grins that lasted all the way to the mountains. With the Gilroy housing market in a death spiral -- thanks in large part to the stewardship of a city council / planning commission that bends over for any developer (what RDO?), my grin is wider than ever. Yeah, I got out in time; feel sorry for those homeowners who didn't sell but wish they had. Gilroy, like Stockton, Antioch, Vallejo, Sacramento, and other overbuilt areas, is ground zero in the housing market collapse.

I ditched the scene, Kate, but I still keep tabs on Inside San Benito. God love it. It's the only outlet attempting to give people the truth, framing the news and the politics in San Benito county with honesty, and using humor and undeniable facts to hold the creeps accountable.

[at left: Mainstreet Media brass enjoy a night out after a hard day of censoring dissenting opinions]

It may seem like no one cares, but In SBC there's a healthy undercurrent of outrage and anger against the Beavis' and Buttheads who've screwed things up so badly. Not everyone in Gooberville is a goober! Just remember how many people wrote in when your Badlands column was axed. That outpouring was genuine, heartfelt outrage, not the manufactured claptrap you usually get in your typical letter to the editor to the Hollister Free Pants or the Gilroy Dipsack. (Or is it the Hollister Flea Ranch and the Gilroy Dogfart? I can never remember!)

Kate you are correct when you say that these crappy little newspapers are doomed. It's the nimble independent Internet sites that will expand while the little podunk shoppers-pretending-to-be-newspapers shrivel. There's a market in South SC County and SBC for an alternative weekly that's Internet based and regional, not provincial. I hope you and your Inside San Benito cohorts are in the mix when real community journalism returns to SBC. 

God OKs Christian sinning

These are "fierce theological times," it has been said. You're damn right! Here in the Republic we wield our religion like num-chuks. We're kick-boxing for Jesus. Not that we don't tolerate sin or sinners. Just make sure it's Christian sin done by Christian sinners.

The beautiful thing about Christianity -- besides eternal salvation and having a personal God who looks after us and us only -- is we don't have to think too hard. Everyone knows that thinking hard can lead to doubt and uncertainty and brain cramping. Being soldiers in God's Christian Army, we have plenty of sergeants and lieutenants and generals who've already interpreted the religious source material. We're just here to copy their Cliff notes.

Still doubt creeps in, especially when I glance in the rearview mirror and I see Temptation riding in the backseat of God's Humvee. Yet I shall fear no evil for I've scheduled automatic monthly donations to the Sacred Bleeding Heart of the Eternally Mutilated Martyr Writhing Erotically on the Gruesome Cross. So tempt away, Satan!

Membership in God's special fraternity is a like a shield that deflects evil and makes me righteous, even as I sin. For instance, God has provided the means to pay off my high credit card debt by taking out more credit. Ordinarily, this would be wrong. But I've been getting emails from Christian Home Loans that tell me otherwise. ChristianNet provides "wise Christian counseling" to help me refinance my Bad Credit Home Equity Loan. Now, you may say, didn't Jesus drive the money lenders out of the temple? Didn't he whip them and overturn their tables? Yes, but this is a Christian loan. And "Matthew 6:34 says 'Take therefore no thought for the  morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'"

(Lord, I beseech thee, forgive me if I sinned by not contacting a Christian loan advisor for my previous bad credit loans! I humbly ask for your forgiveness if my last loan consolidation was completed by a Muslim, a Jew, or even worse, a secular humanist!)

But wait. If God permits me to pay off my bad debt by extending me additional credit, are there other behaviors he may condone? What if I were to pay off my credit burden by reaping the rewards of a personal injury lawsuit? Is it possible that God provides for this immaculate scenario? Yes indeedy he do! If I were to trip or slip or fall or become traumatized in a car accident in my soon-to-be-repossessed automobile, God could send me to Mr.  William Lawson, the number one Christian personal injury attorney in the state of Hawaii. Aloha Jesus! "'With your counsel you will guide me' Ps. 73:24." Or I could call the Law firm of McCormick and Murphy, "trial lawyers helping Christians who've been injured."

What other sins might God absolve? It is known that alcohol is a holy sacrament, but may a pilgrim also seek the comfort of an occasional marijuana bong hit without the burden of guilt? Behold Christians for Cannabis, who praise the Lord at 4:20 a.m. and p.m. each day, and all day on April 20. Yes I know that his Divine Grace Pat Robertson says that non-prescription drug use is evil, but could it be that the Lord's Most Holy Messenger was inhaling when he said "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" ( Matthew 10:26)?

God does move in mysterious ways indeed! But if Jesus was one toke over the line, was he also then, a communist? After all, the Reverend Falwell and his cohorts insist that the first leads directly to the second.  According to answers.com, "many Christian communists assert that evidence from the Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the Apostles, created their own small  communist society in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection.  As such, many advocates of Christian communism argue that  it was taught by Jesus and practiced by the Apostles themselves"

Verily, the Internet is a confusing place, a snakepit crawling with corruption. And vice. And other interesting things. And yet because we are Christians we may engage in sin without fear of damnation, as long as we do it in a sanctioned Christian format. We can even participate in pornography in a clean and healthy Christian way, thanks to sexinchrist.com, which provides these guidelines for Threesomes within a Christian Marriage:

• To avoid the impropriety of male homosexuality, a heterosexual  couple should not under any circumstances form a threesome with another man.
• Both women involved in the threesome must be willing to keep within traditional female roles (i.e., not taking on masculine appearance or behavior in or out of the bedroom) and recognize the male as the leader in the relationship.
• If the wife'€™s lesbian sex partner is unmarried, it may be permissible for the husband to have relations with her only with his wife’s consent.
• If the wife'€™s lesbian sex partner is unmarried, but the wife does not wish her to have relations with the other woman, the husband should  respect this.
• If the wife'€™s lesbian sex partner is married, her husband must not have objections to the relationship.
• If the wife'€™s lesbian sex partner is married, the husband should refrain from having any sexual relations with her, and should make  every effort to control his fantasies about her. He should concentrate his attention on his own wife.

Coincidentally, although "We walk by faith, not by sight" (Corinthians 5:7), there is a place in God's marketplace to shop for safe, non-pornographic Christian sex toys, including glass phalluses and hands-free clitoral stimulators and other romance needs, "all the while keeping Jesus at the center of the marriage." Be aware that the pictures of models in the lingerie catalog of My Beloveds Garden are 100 percent chaste: "We have done are [sic] very best to remove the heads of the models so a connection to a face cannot  be made. We have cut our models off at the leg where the lingerie item  end to take away from the viewing the model as a sexual being. We have blurred out cleavage areas, bellybuttons, contouring and muscle tone,  to make the models look as mannequin-like as possible. We have also smudged any areas of a garment that is transparent."

All this proves that with the Lord's guidance, the devout may crawl -- chaste and mannequin-like -- into the depraved seamy underbelly of unholy Internet and emerge clean, as long as they follow the Christian roadmap for remaining metaphorically encased in metaphorical holy prophylactic

But there are deceivers. Oh lord there are deceivers. Because the Lord permits bingo, the thought entered my mind that perhaps the Lord might also permit other forms of gambling. To my delight I learned of the Christian Plate Casino & Resort, at  Landover Baptist Church in Freeport, Iowa, where "Christian leaders who love the thrill of gaming [are] treated to hours of entertainment and relaxation as they increase their weekly tithe up to 25, 50, and in some cases even 100%."

Amen! Gambling wrapped in glad tithings! This really is the promised land! With Jesus as my copilot I made the 2000 mile journey to witness firsthand what could possibly be God's greatest work.

Oh the shame. Imagine my confusion as I drove up and down and across the entire state of Iowa searching in vain for a casino that was never built in a town that doesn't exist! According to Wikipedia, Landover Baptist is a fabrication devised by nonbelievers to parody fundamentalist Christianity and the religious right. It's founder is a dropout of his holiness Jerry Falwell's Liberty College.

Thankfully, the pagan heathen godless deceivers mocking the Lord's word have been outed by Objective Ministeries, which has mounted a full-time campaign to exorcise the blashphemy of the Landover Baptist web site, and to prevent other innocents like myself from being decieved.

Please, support the Landover Baptist Shutdown and help them prevent "the vile and dangerous misuses of the Internet: using it to mock Our Lord  Jesus Christ, His teachings, and His followers."

Go forth and sin no more, unless God says it's OK!

 

Sarsfield wins prestigious award, Staloch kills story

Delicious irony. Much-maligned former SBC District Attorney John Sarsfield received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his efforts to restore openness to San Benito County government.

In a March 13 ceremony in San Francisco, Sarsfield was awarded the SPJ's James Madison Freedom of Information award. He was the only public official in NorCal to receive the award. Thanks to Inside San Benito for providing all the details.

[at left: former San Benito County D.A. John Sarsfield, Freedom of Information award winner]

From the SPJ web site: "As district attorney of San Benito County, John Sarsfield did something unheard of for someone in his position: He sought to prosecute the county board of supervisors for violating the Brown Act, the state law providing for openness in government meetings. Sarsfield launched an investigation after a complaint that the board had met illegally in closed session; the board later cut off his funding in retaliation. The Brown Act lacks an enforcement mechanism, and a DA’s decision to prosecute is entirely discretionary. In other words, it never happens. Sarsfield is being honored for valuing open government enough to put his position on the line by tackling a politically sensitive violation."

As expected, no mention of Sarsfield's award was made in the local newspapers (the Hollister Free Pants and The Pineackle). According to Sarsfield, a Free Pants reporter interviewed him about the award, but the story was killed before it could be published. The irony is perfect: Former D.A. Sarsfield wins the SPJ's Freedom of Information award and the local newspaper chain (Mean Street Media) censors that information.

Winning a prestigious Freedom of Information award was not newsworthy enough for the ultra-happenin' Hollister newspapers. But it did merit mention in the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

... Sarsfield upset the political applecart when he tried to prosecute the County Board of Supervisors for ignoring the Brown Act's prohibitions on private communication and consensus building among board members on matters that involved employment decisions, personnel appeals, contracting, and land use–growth control issues.

His decision didn't sit well in a county where battles over the future of the land have spawned Los Valientes, a secret society that has targeted slow-growth advocates and anyone who gets in its way — including believers in open government. So the board retaliated by defunding Sarsfield's office, forcing the DA to file for a temporary restraining order against the board, the county administrative officer, and the county auditor, a countermove that kept his office operating and the investigation alive — until he lost his reelection bid to the board's chosen candidate in January 2006.

[Hollister, CA: San Benito County seat, Los Valientes base of operations, and home to two feeble newspapers]

Sarsfield's Freedom of Information award does not change the situation in SBC, where a skulking band of weasels (formerly known as Los Valientes) continues to wield its negative influence on SB government, and the local news media enables the situation by ignoring it. But the real puppet masters in SBC are the landowners and development interests who regard it their birthright to profit massively from unrestricted growth -- principles of smart growth and environmental considerations be damned.

Still, if it hadn't been for Sarsfield, and former Pineackle ace reporter Kate Woods, and some watchdog blogging by Brian Conroy at Inside San Benito, we wouldn't know how deeply the weasels have infiltrated the board of supervisors, the SBC Republican party, the SBC bar association, and local city governments. And the puppet masters would be even less accountable.

A debt of gratitude is owed to Kate Woods. Her consistent reporting on the plague of corruption in SBC garnered several awards from her journalism peers. But these journalistic credentials weren't valued by   "Censorin" Steve Staloch, local print media potentate. In February of 2006, Staloch snuffed Woods' investigation of Los Valientes at the behest of Richard Place, a candidate for county supervisor who didn't like the truth that Woods was reporting. Staloch made sure that Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton and Gilroy Dipsack editor Mark Derry kept Woods away from investigative reporting that would embarrass the weasel mob. (See: Mainstreet Media hides the negative truth, All the news that's fit to censor, The Silencing of Kate Woods, and other San Benito Nation postings.) Eventually Woods grew tired of her in-house exile and moved on. Our loss.

"I was truly surprised to get the award," writes Sarsfield. "It was an unbelievable honor. Finally, someone besides you, Brian, and Kate recognized what outrages were occurring in San Benito County, aided and abetted by MSM [Mean Street Media]."

[at left: Kate Woods and the three-headed censoring machine -- MSM publisher Censorin' Steve Staloch, Pineackle editor Mark Paxton, and Dipsack editor Mark Derry]

As reported in a November, 2007 Mercury News investigation titled "Fury on the Range" that leveraged Woods' investigations (read part 1 and part 2 here), Sarsfield paid a personal and professional price for exposing corruption on the San Benito County board of supervisors. But while the Merc's story helped to expose Los Valientes, the paper missed the main issue -- the local newspaper chain's complicity in the corruption and incompetence plaguing SBC.

Final note: When "Fury on the Range" revealed the LV story for the entire Bay area to see, Pinnacle editor Paxton whined: "To use a broad brush to paint the community in terms of good vs. evil, black vs. white ignores that we're considerably more complicated than that." Typical response from the human doormat. Instead of following the story, Paxton stuck his head in the sand. We wouldn't expect anything less from one of Staloch's minions.

It's the way things work in SBC. Don't laugh Gilroy, the same shit is going down in your town. You just don't have a John Sarsfield or a Kate Woods to tell you about it.

 

Help wanted in the district of denial

An uncertain new day has dawned on the Gilroy Unified School District, post-Edwin Diaz.

Superintendent Diaz' mid-year departure (for Pasadena, another low-performing school district) has caused some consternation among the old guarders. Senior curriculum administrators Olivia Schaad and Jackie Horejs, and HR director Linda Piceno have also jumped off the boat mid-stream. It's as if Edwin's departure left them exposed and they realized it was time to move on, before the carefully constructed facade of faux accountability started to crumble.

Trustee Rhoda Bress called the Watchdog to say that with so many executive management positions open, there is a chance to change the direction of the school district, beginning with the search for a new superintendent.

Who knows, she says, this may be a watershed moment in the GUSD.

"There's a real opportunity here for people like yourself to step forward and at least voice their opinions. And be heard." 

The Watchdog is skeptical. Under Diaz, and before Diaz, the district ignored people like myself -- a home-owning, tax-paying, college-educated parent. Someone who expects his school district will provide high-quality academic instruction for his kids.

People like myself... Bress is referring to the ex-patriate community of former GUSD parents who've removed their kids from the district. Too many episodes of inepitude. Like the Brownell middle school science teacher whose idea of a challenging experiment for her "Advanced" class was to have them document the gradual evaporation of water from a test tube. That kind of sorry excuse for a science curriculum epitomizes the problem.

I don't expect the school board will find a superintendent who moves the district out of its state of denial, but least parents like myself are being given an opportunity to vent. Below is the GUSD Watchdog's testimony to the superindent search committee:

I am a former GUSD parent. I removed my kids from this school district several years ago.  They now attend Morgan Hill schools.

I am also a persistent critic and watchdog of this school district. For seven years I have reported on where, how, and why the GUSD has lost sight of the main thing -- academic instruction (just google "GUSD Watchdog").

Initially I gave Superintendent Diaz the benefit of the doubt, and my support. However, as an involved parent, it became clear Diaz wasn't going to do anything about the district's low expectations for academic achievement. Instead he focused on slogans and gladspeak and groupthink. Initiatives and task forces painting positive images became substitutes for action.

That approach meant well, but it has been an unmitigated failure. Just look at the "bold," strategic goals on GUSD web site.

For instance: "All students will be proficient in reading, writing and math." Has this goal been met Not even close. Of all GUSD students tested last year, 39 percent were proficient in language arts and 18 percent in math. As board members Rhoda Bress, Tom Bundros, and Denise Apuzzo, with the help of many other academically-minded parents, have pointed out, the number of below-grade level students increases exponentially as non-achievers are promoted through the system.

This policy of automatic social promotion -- or I should say the unwillingness to change the policy because of who might be stigmatized -- is at the root of the district's academic stagnation. Don't take my word for it. Just ask the teachers who inherit the previous year's academic failures. Just look at the results of the Cal State University's Early Assessment Program, showing that zero percent of assessed GUSD students were ready for college math. Zero percent....

Another bold, unmet goal: "The achievement gap will be eliminated." Has any progress been made here? Ironically, in Diaz' tenure, some narrowing of "the achievement gap" was realized, inadvertently, by the parents of high-performing students, people like myself,  people who looked at the low SAT and Advanced Placement scores at Gilroy High and decided to pull their kids out of this district. Thanks to people like myself, average achievement was pulled toward the low end, and the achievement gap isn't as wide as it probably should be.

Instead of putting the achievement gap problem at the feet of parents and students, where it belongs, the district uses the blame-the-system groupthink of the Stupski Foundation. Yes, the achievement gap is partly an issue of economic disparity. But it's mostly an issue of attitude. It's an issue of whether you think the school is a day care center to nurture your culture identity or whether you think the schools are a culturally neutral means to provide high-quality academic instruction.

One thing is sure. Until all students arrive at school on time, prepared to learn, with their homework complete, there will always be a wide "achievement gap."

Here is the lesson of the Diaz years: Bold, unachievable goals communicated through feel-good slogans are worse than ordinary, achievable goals that make incremental, if barely noticeable, improvements. Because after the initial excitement of the empowering slogans and the bold initiatives has worn off, after it's obvious that the situation hasn't improved, but only gotten worse, then everyone -- parents, teachers, administrators, students, feels even more despondent about the situation.

The kind of public relations this administration excels at -- feel-good catch phrases and happy-speak affirmations; task forces stocked with non-critics eager to sustain the polite facade of accountability: and policy presented as PowerPoint bullets that gloss over the underlying, unaddressed culture of low expectations -- this kind of duplicity only serves to push away parents like myself and students like my kids -- into private schools, into outlying school districts, into home schooling.

What bothers me, and people like myself, is the district's lack of curiosity about the ongoing brain drain. When a business is losing its best talent to the competition, it asks Why? What are we doing wrong? How can we compete again?

Why wouldn't a school district ask the same about the bright, high-achieving, motivated-to-learn students inside the community who don't attend its public schools? I can only surmise that it is because this district isn't interested in serving people like myself, or my kids.

Under this administration, the term "accountability" has come to mean the ongoing validation of current policy, usually from people with a vested interest in the status quo. That is so far from real accountability, which requires acknowledging the constructive feedback of your critics.

Real accountability means admitting you have problems, and not couching your problems as "challenges," as this interview committee has done. Real accountability means disclosing how the Stupski Foundation influences policy, and asking whether Stupski's influence is good for ALL students. Real accountability means looking at the lack of proper oversight of the Measure I and J bond funds and demanding detailed, full-disclosure financial audits of bond expenditures by a truly independent third-party auditor.

Real accountability means addressing the policy of automatically promoting non-performers through the system. Real accountability in the next superintendent means finding someone who will say, Enough! Whatever it takes, this culture of low expectations stops with me.

In your search for a new replacement, you should be looking for someone who will address the district's deep, troubling, persistent problems head on, no matter who is offended. That would be a first step to recapturing people like myself, and staunching the flow of bright, intelligent students out of the Gilroy Unified School District.

2006 in rearview

2006. Another year that cemented Gilroy's reputation as a town that doesn't do anything particularly well. Outside of putting on a big hot sweaty barbecue in the middle of summer.

[Trough times in the Republic.]

2006 had its moments of noteworthy achievement and genuine causes for celebration. There was plenty of heartbreak and misery. The disappointing daily newspaper covered all those events. But the R of G isn't satisfied to nibble on appetizers and make smalltalk. Not when the main course of juicy, greasy "parts left out" -- the usual smorgasbord of dysfunction, denial, and demagogeury -- is waiting to be sampled.

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NON-STORY OF THE YEAR: DOWNTOWN PARKING PROBLEM As downtown merchants agonized over the streetscape project that took all year to complete, concerns mounted over the so-called "downtown parking problem." When, and if, downtown businesses begin to attract customers, then parking might become a problem. But parking downtown has  never been a real problem -- not if you're willing to park one or two blocks off of Monterey and walk 100 feet. Ah, but this is Gilroy. "Parking problem" means "I can't park my Dodge Durango in front of the store!" And the idea of parking meters on Monterey Avenue in the old downtown is considered "too strident." Addendum: The real parking issue may be the derelicts in the alleys problem, as noted by employees from a Monterey Street collection agency, who went to city council to defend their right to park all day long in spaces in front of their shop.

[Derelicts in downtown alleys -- a real threat to commerce or just Leadership Gilroy team-building exercises gone horribly awry?]

One woman said that when parking on the alleys "We've been paint-balled, we've been mooned. We had a guy peeing in the alley and then running at our manager with his pants down."

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DIST-URBAN PLANNING IN THE REPUBLIC Lessee... New streetscape in the old downtown, but hardly anyone shops there. Meanwhile, east of highway 101, a gigantic retail megaboxopolis on former farmland east of town continues to expand, exponentially. The retail malls on 10th street have become Gilroy's real economic "center" -- where 95% of the retail and retail jobs exist. But the road over the highway bridge is so narrow and crowded, Gilroy residents can't get here without burning gallons of fossil fuel.  Who planned this mess? Years ago, unimaginative deal-brokers on city council accepted mega-malls without concern for the impact on Gilroy's beleaguered downtown or the problem of east-west traffic flow over highway 101. And even more bland national franchise retail is coming to 10th strret. Westfield Corporation submitted plans to annex 119 acres of farmland east of Wal-Mart -- another 1.5-million-square-feet of mall development that will outsize the current Pacheco complex by a third. "It's a great thing for Gilroy," said county supervisor and Gilroy overlord Don Gage, without explained why malls are "great" for life in Gilroy. Hey Big Don, what happened to the technology centers that would come with annexing the 660 acres of ag land east of town. Or are you defining cashier and stocking positions at Target, Lowe's, CostCo, and Wal-Mart as technology jobs?

[The sterile, bland, soulless retail city on ag land east of town is 100% people unfriendly, hostile to pedestrians, bikers, anyone not engaging in motorized transport. No walkways or pathways exist to break the monotony of parking spaces, light standards, and boring storefronts. Shoppers drive between islands of retail separated by asphalt. Not a single public area or park. No distinguishing feature -- like a hotel or a recreation facility -- to give the place character. At least Gilroy's mall city is consistent with housing developments in Gilory -- also "planned" in ad hoc fashion without sufficient parks or interconnected greenways or open public spaces.]

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WHAT IF THEY BUILT A MALL AND DIDN'T TELL COUNCIL, WOULD IT MATTER? Last Fall, Gilroy's Economic Development Corporation began reviewing the Westfield mall deal without notifying council. Some city council members were miffed that Westfield didn't include them in the initial mall-planning discussions. "If your wife decided to put the house up for sale while you were at work, ... you probably wouldn't want to find out about it from your neighbor," councilman Craig Gartman said. But why should Westfield bother Gartman with the details? He's just a rubber stamp for retail mall projects.

[at left: big thinkers Don Gage, Craig Gartman, and Dion Bracco -- well, big mall thinkers anyway]

"I really don't want to know every time someone walks into City Hall to get information on building a project," Councilman Dion Bracco said -- especially when he'll approve automatically because it means more business for his towing company. "I think it's probably not in [the EDC's] best interest to have everybody and their brother knowing about it," reasoned Councilman Roland Velasco, an associate of Gage who dabbles in real estate. Guess what, Gilroy, it's not a question of if Westfield will build its mall, but when, and how ugly.

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BIG FAT LIAR Leading the NO on Measure A disinformation campaign were some prominent public figures in Santa Clara county. Supervisor Don Gage was the loudest, brassiest detractor, spewing disinformation like a broken sewage main. Measure A threatened Gage's imperial status as lord of the parcels. Currently, it just takes three votes on the board of supervisors to approve subdivisions on unincorporated lands. Measure A would have required a public vote, which would have seriously eroded Gage's power to cut deals on behalf of housing development interests who'd like to build in his district.

[Powerful Santa Clara county overlord Jabba the Hut -- er, supervisor Don Gage -- wasn't going to let Measure A diminish his control of land parcels on unincorporated areas.]

Gage was more concerned about preventing erosion of his power base than preventing erosion on hillsides. That's why he was so eager to promote lies about Measure A, like: "If the farmer wants their children to have a house, they can't pass down their land to build a second home." Horse puckey. Measure A contained no language prohibiting estate sale or inheritance of land. Ranchers and farmers could have built second, third, and fourth homes for other family members. They wouldn't, however, have been able to solicit plans for casinos or gated golf course communities on ag and ranch land, not without a public vote.

---

RUNNER-UP, NON-STORY OF THE YEAR: CHEER TEAM'S HAWAII BOONDOGGLE CANCELED, THEN REINSTATED. Early in 2006, Gilroy high's cheer team entered a competition in which they "won" a chance to perform in Hawaii, at the NFL Pro Bowl half-time show (an event that even die-hard football fans avoid). The cheer team organizers made arrangements for the trip without requesting permission from the school district. After the promises were made to the kids and parents, after the outfits and plane tickets were purchased, only then did they apply for the time off from school.

[Cheer girls react to news that Hawaii outfits won't have to be returned.]

To everyone's surprise, the school board, including Edwin Diaz, showed some fortitude and voted not to approve the trip. Too much lost instructional time for a non-academic activity. The cheer faction was caught off guard. Outraged cheer parents/boosters cried persecution. The cheer girls just cried. The non-crisis came to a head during an October school board session, when the cheer squad faction performed a group tempter tantrum. Maudlin pleas to "not let cheer" die reinforced every stereotype about the stupidity and shallowness of vain vapid bimbo cheerleaders. "Don't let these girls miss out on a wonderful learning experience," one parent begged -- like, watching NFL players strut around with their entourages while the chaperones pound mai tais at the tiki bar? The low-point of the puke-making episode occurred when board member Dave McRae, desperate to be liked, appointed himself the champion of cheer, and proposed that not letting the girls go to Hawaii would damage the morale of Gilroy troops in Iraq who might be tuning to the cheer competiton on cable television .... Yeah, he actually said that. Bowing to the pressure, weak links on the school board -- Jaime Rosso, Jim Rogers, and Javier Aguirre -- joined McRae in agreeing to allow the trip.

---

BIG AS A HOUSE AND STRONG AS A MOUSE... I'M LOVIN' IT! County health statistics reported that Gilroy led the county with highest percentage of overweight students. Gilroy kids tipped the scales with a 31 percent obestiy rating. How come?

[Brownell kids can snack at Popeye's; South Valley middle schoolers get Foster's Freeze]

Unofficially, Gilroy leads Bay area cities in ratio of fast food restaurants per capita. While the rest of California made strides to reverse the trend toward childhood diabetes, Gilroy planners allowed a Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits to open within a block of Brownell middle school.

And, high rates of obesity in Gilroy children go with the Gilroy demographic. Dr. Elizabeth Mendoza-Levy, pediatric site director at Valley Health Center in San Martin, said the morbidly fat factor is common with "a large low-income Hispanic population ... I have children that are 11, 12, 13 years old and are 100 pounds overweight, and it's really frustrating because there's so much stuff that they snack on."

---

OOPS, DID I SAY TEST SCORES IMPROVED DRAMATICALLY? In May, superintendent Edwin Diaz, with the help of his PR machine, the Gilroy Dipsack, announced "big leaps" in API results for Gilroy schools. Unfortunately, the leaps were imaginary.

[In March, Edwin Diaz' held a   party to celebrate big API test score improvements that never happened]

"In the 2001 school year, only one school rated above average or well above average on the similar school ranking, while this year nine of 12 of our schools ranked in this category. The results are significant indeed," gushed Edwin. Then he went on to praise his staff, himself, and the school board: "the Board of Education and I met in a retreat to complete a self-assessment on effectively implementing accountability structures. Improvement efforts like these happen continuously in our district." ... two months later, an API recount revealed that Edwin was wrong, way wrong. Many of Gilroy's worst-performing students hadn't been factored into the scores. "Under the revised information, only two schools received rankings of eight and many dropped to six, in comparison to similar school districts." No matter, Edwin is leaving town for Pasadena schools. The "highly regarded" (according to the L.A. Times) former superintendent won't have to worry about walking the Accountability talk or explaining to Gilroy homeowners in the northwest quad why the new high school is going to be delayed due to lack of proper bond oversight.

---

DIAZ CONVENES MATH SUMMIT WITHOUT MATH EXPERTS  In June the district revealed that 70 percent of GUSD elementary school students hadn't mastered basic math concepts for their grade level. Only 10 percent of graduating eighth graders had the skills to succeed at freshman math. Of the small percentage of Gilroy high grads who entered the California state university system, half needed remedial math instruction before they could take a freshman level math course. NO WORRIES! The Gilroy schools' superintendent -- Edwin Diaz -- vowed to chase the mean old math problem down the academic drainhole. Edwin called for a "math summit" of leading Gilroy educrats to reverse the situation. After weeks of meetings filled with butcher paper and powerpoint presos, Edwin announced that the district would repair the math problem in one fell swoop by extending math instruction time in the middle schools from 45 to 90 minutes. The bold, powerfully positive adjectives announcing the new math plan left no doubt that it would succeed. Just about everyone in the GUSD chain of command could "see" the brilliant logic of Edwin Diaz' new math plan... everyone except the middle school teachers, who were left out of the math summit. The teachers publicly criticized the policy, challenged the legality of the plan and sought compensation for their work days being lengthened. Bad policy, dubiously conceived, poorly communicated, destined to fail, rejected by the workers. So much for Diaz' math summit ... Oh, Magoo, you've done it again!

---

DON'T FLUNK THEM, THEY MIGHT GET BORED, OR WORSE, STIGMATIZED AS FAILURES Ironically the district's math plan announcement and rejection coincided with the revelation of the district's no-retention policy.

[According to Ascencion Solarsano Middle School Principal Sal Tomasello, the district's policy of rewarding abject academic failure with social promotion prevents unmotivated, non-performing students from getting bored.]

Retention? who needs it? According to Solarsano middle school principal Sal Tomasello, even if they can't multiply fractions or read Dr. Seuss, it's always better to pass 'em on to the next level. "It comes down to the philosophy of what do you think is best for the students in terms of retention,' said Tomasello. "When holding a student back, there's always that question -- 'if a student is retained and they're repeating the program, do they get bored?'" 

---

NOT CENSORED, EMBARGOED: In February, without explanation, Meanstreet Media, sole purveyors of local print media, permanently suspended an award-winning reporter's investigation into Los Valientes (LV), a shadow group using tactics of fear and intimidation to cast a pall on Hollister and San Benito county government. The group, now disbanded, was known for frivolous lawsuits and other intimidation tactics against people they didn't like.

 

[Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher, chief censor, and creep protector]

 

Just as award-wining reporter Kate Woods was about to identify the main perpetrators of the LV slime and sleaze machine, Meanstreet Media publisher "Censorin'" Steve Staloch pulled  Woods' weekly column from circulation and exiled her to Gilroy. As Woods described it, she was capped, sealed, put in a barrel, and catapulted over the county border to the Gilroy offices of the Pinnacle, where she was relegated to filing human interest stories that couldn't offend anyone. See The Silencing of Kate Woods (end of the public's right to know)

[A Pinnacle editorial announcing Woods' departure explained that her column was "too political".]
 
The truth is that Woods was silenced for doing her job well, for reporting the truth. She had filed a series of well-researched, attributed, honest reports on the makeup and activities of Los Valientes. This threatened the newspaper ownership's relationship with a local Hollister businessman named Richard Place, who was involved with Los Valientes. Place was a frequent visitor at the offices of the horrible Hollister paper, the Free Pants. Place, and Gilroy Dipsack editor Mark Derry, were in the room when Meanstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch embargoed Woods. Derry accused Woods of writing for the Republic of Gilroy. Not true, but if so, she would have been making only slightly less writing for this not-for-profit weblo than she was making as a salaried Meanstreet Media  employee.   

---

THERE IS NO NEWS BLACKOUT; WE NOW RETURN YOU TO THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWS BLACKOUT. In April, Paxton cut off the flow of reader letters expressing outrage and dismay over the silencing of reporter Kate Woods. At least 50 letters calling for Woods' reinstatement to her SB government beat were published before Paxton decided he'd had enough. In a March editorial, Paxton called readers' complaints "hogwash." Then Paxton refused to print a former Pinnacle employee's response to that Pinnacle editorial.

[When Tracie Cone ran the paper, the Pinnacle's motto was "All the news that fits." With Mark Paxton in charge, the motto became "All the news that's fit to censor."]

"The Pinnacle is taking a break from Kate Woods' Badlands column." Paxton explained. "As much as her razor wit is able to delight or anger readers, we are moving into an election season, and we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various messages the candidates portend." The R of G asked Paxton to elaborate -- Why shouldn't reporting on the Los Valientes political corruption scandal anger readers, especially considering that many LVers hold public office, and other LVers seek public office? But Paxton declined to be interviewed by the R of G, since I had spelled his name wrong and referred to him incorrectly. Similar requests to speak with Staloch and his Meanstreet Media employees went unanswered. So much for accountability in the Republic.

Addendum: Paxton's editorial policy is to not report news that might offend locals. He took that policy to extremes in September, during the great tainted spinach scandal. Here was a national story with local implications that the Pinnacle could capitalize on to gain some recognition. But Paxton  ran away from the story, even though San Benito county is one of the top spinach producers in the country. No reporters were assigned to investigate anything more than how to recover from an e. coli illness. Regional and national papers reported that the source of an e. coli outbreak could be from spinach grown in California's Salinas Valley.  "One of the biggest San Benito stories in years, affecting the entire country, and he won't cover it!" exclaimed Kate Woods.  Paxton told Woods he didn't want to risk putting any local farmers or ranchers in a bad light.

---

NOT CENSORED, PLUTOED -- Hoping to put the Kate Woods censorship episode in a larger perspective, longtime Dipsack columnist/contributor Marty Cheek wrote a thoughtful column that drew an analogy to the censorship of the Smothers Brothers comedy team by NBC television execs in the late 60s.

[Another one bites the dust. Respected local writer Martin Cheek was censored for discussing censorship. He didn't understand that some subjects are off limits, like political corruption, and censorship.]

For his effort,  Cheek was handed back his column. City editor Katie Niekirk (who won't answer my emails, just like her bosses) informed Cheek that Steve Staloch had refused to run it. Another Dipsack columnist, Denise Apuzzo, heard that Cheek had been snuffed by Staloch and asked editor Mark Derry to explain. "I’d be happy to talk to you about Marty’s column and Kate Woods’ original story that prompted Marty’s column, but I can assure you censorship was not, and is not, the issue," Derry told her in email. "There are plenty of opinions that we disagree with." He went on. "Those are never 'censored.' But getting the facts absolutely wrong is a whole different story – especially in a news story." How Kate or Martin's facts were "wrong" Derry has never explained. It should be noted that in five years and 70+ reports filed on LV before she was censored, Woods' reporting proved to be painfully accurate.

---

DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNER OF THE YEAR: Santa Clara Farm Bureau mouthpiece Jenny Derry (the editor's wife) played the "it hurts the farmer" card to help defeat Measure A, the hillside and ag space land-use planning initiative on the November ballot. As instructed by high-priced political consultant Tom Shepard, who was hired to sow paranoia, Derry's brazen misrepresentation of the facts helped create confusion and doubt about Measure A in the minds of voters. (It worked, barely; the measure lost.)

[Although the editor's wife had her "facts" absolutely wrong, she wasn't censored in her husband's paper.]

Derry claimed, incorrectly, that Measure A "will make it very difficult for farmers -- including specifically, organic and ethnic producers -- to establish a new business or expand an existing farm or ranch." Correction: Measure A put zero restrictions on processing facilities or housing for farm employees and it absolutely allowed for the sale of ag and ranch land to organic and "ethnic" operations. But painting Measure A as anti-ethnic farmer was a shrewd marketing move. (Not that the Farm Bureau actually gives a damn about  the little farms.) Jen's other whopper was that farmers "were never consulted" about Measure A. Actually, they were consulted, but their only input was no way are we getting behind that. Everyone knows that farmers aren't much for land use restrictions, unless attached to trillions of dollars in farm subsidies.

---

YEAH HE REALLY DID SAY THAT AND NO HE WASN'T KIDDDING Pretend school board member Dave McRae proved that the best comedy is the inadvertent kind. Weighing in (again) on the insiped Day of Silence debate, Dave McRae maintained that  teaching silently can be as effective as any other teaching method, and that the school district is not in a position to tell teachers how to do their jobs.

"McRae said teachers can still provide an effective lesson without using words and that it will be difficult, nearly impossible, to write a policy demanding teachers talk during class." --  Dipsack report of Feb 8.

One foot stuck firmly in bucket, McRae continued clomping around and making noise while fellow school board members cringed.

"The board member also thinks the real issue is intolerance of heterosexuals, not education... "I don't see a lot of gays and lesbians walking around (in Gilroy)," McRae said." -- same Dipsack report

Those outbursts followed on the heels of McRae's unforgettable school board debate night blunder, when he accused Bob Heisey of making "very insulting" comments about non-whites, even though Heisey didn't make the comments. The comments were made by Bill Paterson, a nice older guy without a malicious bone in his body who wouldn't knowingly insult anyone.

"I don't know if anyone caught that," said McRae, bragging about "catching" the remark Heisery didn't make, "but I did."

---

ALL WE ARE SAYING IS... LET'S SHOOT OURSELVES IN THE FOOT: In March, Hispanic kids at Gilroy High and Gilroy middle schools ditched their publicly funded education to protest immigration bill (HR 4437) and other changes to immigration laws. Students who walked out of Gilroy high classes to wave the Mexican tricolor for illegal immigrant rights were congratulated by high school principal James Maxwell. "You can feel proud that change was a result of peaceful protest," Maxwell said. Not true. Student immigration protesters generated a negative overall public reaction. Public opinion was generally disapproving of the students' cluelessness. But in Gilroy that message didn't come through.

["Homework assignment: Start collecting American flags for the next after-school immigrant rights march. Leave the Mexican flags at home."--  columnist Joe Rodriguez (Lessons for students on protesting, 09-apr-2006)]

As Mercury news columnist Joe Rodriguez, an outspoken defender of Latino culture put it, "Walking out hurts schools because they are funded through a daily attendance formula. Look, most urban schools have become safe havens for illegal immigrants. Why disrepect them?" Indeed, the GUSD provides educational, health, and family services to non-English speakers, champions Latino culture within the school system. and regularly champions Californatzlan culture through special programs like the Latinos Program and special events like Latino Improvement Achievement brunch. Suspensions were threatened, but no high school students were disciplined or suspended for walking out. "They kissed our asses," one student listening to Maxwell's speech was overheard to say.

Addendum: Following the walkouts, the R of G received an email from a veteran Gilroy high teacher frustrated by the culture of condonement and excuse-making that reinforces low expectations and under-achievement, especially among Hispanic youth. One telling comment from the teacher's real-time, front-line observations on culture, racial politics, and public education from the GUSD teaching trenches: "The irony is that [my school district] has bought into the institutional racism theory. This theory completely voids personal responsibility of parents and students and put all of the blame on teachers. I have even received articles in my mailbox ...  on my whiteness and my responsibilities because I am white. With the dropout rates of Hispanics and Mexicans so high, one would expect to hear of at least one parent being threatened with criminal charges....Why are teachers demonized  when it is the district that fails to hold parents liable for when  their child drops out? Who is institutionalizing racism here?"

 

See ya 'round, clown

Did you hear the joke about the Gilroy school board member who thought he'd be popular because he was on community access cable television twice a month, and made stupid remarks to bring attention to himself? But his wacky statements weren't funny, or poignant, or ironic -- just bizarre, made other board members look away. It was like a bad comedy act, painful to watch.

It eventually dawned on this school board member that the happy-go-lucky buffoon act wasn't achieving the desired effect. Just the opposite. It had made him irrelevant. He was outside the main circle of influence, his opinion was unvalued. The damage seemed irreversible and the realization made him bitter.

[McRae was such a liability that when he was absent from meetings, it was considered damage control.]

If he couldn't be popular and important, he decided, he'd at least demonstrate that he wasn't powerless. He'd get close to the big wheel on the school board, the superintendent, who had many critics. He'd be the superintendent's champion, the first line of defense for the status quo. But the superintendent didn't want the clown to bring him down.

You're help is not helping, he told the clown. Unattach yourself from me.

Now the clown was totally rejected, an untouchable, heard but barely acknowledged. So the rejected clown turned into a bully, and took out his frustration on anyone who dared to come before the board and petition for higher-quality academic instruction in the school district -- the worst-performing school district in all the county.

Like a demented dog chained to a post in the yard, the rejected clown barked at anyone -- parents, teachers, other board members -- who dared to question policy or the board's direction. By challenging the advocates of common sense he only made their criticism stick. He only made the superintendent's failed policies more glaring.

The punchline of this story is that in the very last important televised board meeting of his trustee career, the once jovial clown completed his transformation into an edgy bully clown, angrily raving that "the policy is the law and the law is the policy!" and "Minutes are words on paper, written down!" and pounding the table like Captain Queeg or Senator Joe McCarthy.

[Mrs. Stevens, just answer the question! Are you or are you not a member of a parents group? Are you not known to associate with others who belong or conspire to belong to membership in a parents group? And have you not published opinions critical of this school board? Opinions which have been published in newspapers? Aha! Gotcha!]

The topic of discussion in that meeting was whether high school cheerleaders should be allowed to skip a week of school to travel to Hawaii and perform a 15-minute cheer routine at a half-time show. The clown felt strongly that the cheerleaders should travel, but only because some of those who had mocked him in the past felt the cheerleaders should stay in school.

It was a contentious, if silly debate, a perfect platform for the clown. He was aware that time was running out on his school board career. He was aware that the television camera was transmitting every moment. He was aware that, like the cheerleaders, he too was a misunderstood performer. In this final, great redemptive moment of his career, he would show all the critics!

His angry clown eyes narrowed, focused on a parent in the audience who he felt didn't respect him.

"Yes or no, are you a member of a parents' group?" he demanded of the parent, who had advised the board that, in a school district, instructional time shouldn't be sacrificed for dubious week-long field trips with no educational merit.

"Excuse me?" replied the parent.

"Just answer the question!" yelled the clown, triumphantly looking around the room.

"Yes, I am a member of a parents group." replied the parent.

The clown smiled. He had cornered his enemy with mental gymnastics. Now the clown lunged for the kill. "Did you... publish opinions about the school board?"

"Uh... yes." admitted the parent.

"There, you see!" shouted the clown. He had destroyed her with an incredible comeback! Career vindicated!

As he cast his vote in favor of sending the cheerleaders to Hawaii, he could feel public opinion swinging in his favor. When the final vote came in, 4-3 in favor of the cheerleaders, he could feel the love of the cheer people who crowded the room. He half expected them to carry him out on thier shoulders, cheering. He half expected them to invite him to Hawaii. But having used him to get what they wanted, they wanted nothing more to do with the clown.

It was a riveting, if disturbing, performance. Those who watched had to admit that the clown had at last become funny and poignant and ironic, in a borderline psychotic sort of way.

.... and that is the sad history of former Gilroy school board trustee David McRae, who recently completed a four-year run on the Gilroy school board.

Unless you count his decision not to run for re-election last November, McRae left the board without making a meaningful contribution. He forged no working alliances, sponsored no needed reforms, led no important committee, championed nothing important. Occasionally he advocated on behalf of teachers, parents, and students, but only if they were working against common sense policies or complaining unreasonably about being held to minimum acceptable standards of behavior.

The R of G criticized McRae harshly during his school board career. McRae: send in the mimes details how McRae embarrassed himself and the school board with his comments regarding Day of Silence. School board buffoon (unreported, 2005) documents MCrae's propensity for idiotic commentary.

McRae's one quality as a board member was his ability to forget the stupid things he said and did to others, to forgive himself and assume that everyone else forgives him too. All the times he suffocated intelligent discussion with non sequiturs, all the times he bullied parents who were challenging the culture of low expectations in the GUSD, all the times he obtusely denied the reality of academic stagnation, especially evident in high school achievement test scores, the high school dropout rate, the number of graduating seniors moving on to college careers -- it's all miraculously forgotten now that Dave is off the board.

It's that oblivious quality that I almost admire. It's what allows McRae to see no irony in posting a comment to this web site, to use this forum to announce his tour schedule to his "fans."

I thought I'd add my upcoming shows so that my fans that read your site might know where they can see my comedy.

January 11th  Sam's Restaurant, Tiburon 8PM

January 25th Morgan Hill Playhouse 8PM

January 30th  TommyT's Pleasanton 8PM

February 6th  750 Pub Stanford 9PM

The Republic of Gilroy is interested in seeing Dave McRae perform, just to see if he re-uses any of his school board material. Good luck with your comedy career.

Ducks insulted by Diaz comparison

Don't subscribe to the Gilroy Dipsack anymore. Haven't for months. Never will again.

If my kids were still in Gilroy schools, the Dipsack might  be interesting for its high school sports reporting and the Gilroy Unified School District press releases. But since they aspire to do more than stock shelves at the mall, I had to take my kids out of their hometown school system. They attend Morgan Hill schools, where students can be proficient at grade level, or above -- and a high school diploma isn't a liability on a college application.

So the Gilroy schools and the Dipsack are irrelevant to me. In fact I would pay Meanstreet Media, the perpetrators of the "daily disappointment," to not toss their free weekend issue in my yard on Friday morning, just in time for me to throw it into the recycling bin on the curb.

Somehow this morning the damned thing escaped the curb and found its way into my house, along with the real newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News. Someone mistakenly opened up the damn thing and there was Bob Dillon's mugshot. And I cringed.

[at left, Bob Dillon... Oh how the mighty has fallen. From pre-eminent councilman with an inside track on the mayor's job, to mouthpiece for the future of Indian Gaming in Santa Clara county, to the lowest, most unseamly position of all: retreaded Dipsack columnist.]

It can't get much more pathetic for our former hero, Bob. Right now I'm reading his Dipsack-sanctioned prose, thinking, "My God, there must be some meaningful work for Dillon to perform in town -- selling cars, clearing tables, greeting people at Wal-Mart -- anything but this!"

In today's edition, Bob defends the Dipsack editorial board against criticism (no doubt fighting to suppress his gag reflex) from a passel of offended GUSD principals. Apparently they objected to a Dipsack editorial that employed the term "lame-duck" to describe Superintendent Edwin Diaz, who has decided to move on -- that is, escape -- the academic mess he nurtured in Gilroy, the worst-performing school district in Santa Clara county.

Eliot elementary school principal Diane Elia, speaking for her peers, protested much that "The term 'lame-duck' suggests that the leader referred to no longer has power in the eyes of those looking to him for direction."

[GUSD principals Diane Elia and Sal Tomesello sqawked over a lame-duck call]

Diane, you are correct. Lame duck is not a fair term. Specifically, the "duck" part is an insult to ducks everywhere. For Diaz, and for Jackie Horejs, the GUSD asst superintendent who has already flown Diaz' coop, the word "lame" by itself is an entirely sufficient descriptor.

"Lame," as in all slogans; no action and ineffectual and zero credibility.

The only people looking to Diaz for "direction" are those who view the public school system as a day-care service for the chronically underachieving and unmotivated. Gilroy parents hoping for an acceptable academic experience, stopped looking to Diaz for direction several years and a hundred broken promises ago. Instead, they're busy extricate their kids from the GUSD schools, or have already done so.

Strolling through the revamped, nearly-empty Gilroy downtown, I noticed a Dipsack headline through a display case outside Sue's Coffee: "Leadship vacuum at GUSD." According to the first three paragraphs of the story, Edwin Diaz' and Jackie Horejs' departure is cause for alarm. Impossible. You can't create a leadership vacuum where a vacuum. You can't make in a void.

The deafening silence that followed the announcement of Diaz and Horejs' departure was the sound of nobody particularly concerned. Call it apathy. Only 8 percent of Gilroy students are proficient in language arts, and only 17 percent in math, and only 25 percent of Gilroy high school grads are ready for college English, and zero -- ZERO -- percent are ready for college math. The departure of two ineffectual administrators is not going to make the academic situation in the Gilroy public schools much worse.

Who is going to miss Jackie Horejs, the PowerPoint queen? A six-figure administrator paid to develop bulleted slides for board meetings doesn't need to be replaced. Just eliminate the position entirely. Considering that Horejs deferred all difficult curiculum decisions to costly educational consultants like Douglas Reeves, her departure is a net gain. 

[at left, Diaz, the lame duck superintendent of Gilroy schools, demonstrates how he will flap his wings during take-off]

Let's be straightforward about why Diaz is moving on: Following the November school board election, Diaz looked at the revised board, recognized that his sycophant support had dwindled to just two trustees (Jaime Rosso and Javier Aguirre), foresaw that at least three trustees were ready to hold him accountable for the deplorable academic condition of the Gilroy schools, and wisely decided to jump off the train before it pulled into Blametown.

Edwin may be ineffectual, but he isn't stupid. He realizes that the polite school board tolerance for his failed academic policies has dried up. He definitely doesn't want to be here when the scandal over the construction cost deficit on the new high school finally blows up. Let the next superintendent break the news to voters that another bond measure will be needed; Edwin will be crafting "bold" new slogans in some other school district. 

Fly away, Edwin. Mr. Dillon was right to describe you as a lame duck, even if principals and ducks are offended by the comparison.

As he flaps his wings in search of better pond water, the RofG allows that Diaz was better than his predecessor, David Alvarez. That is, he showed up for work, didn't abuse his credit card accounts, and wasn't diddling any female office staff. (To know more about the GUSD's Alvarez years, see these R of G reports from 2003: Think Gilroy schools have it bad? Try Calexico and Former Gilroy schools chief Alvarez surfaaces in Calexico.)

If Alvarez can fleece several California school districts and still land the superintendent's job in Calexico, then Diaz should do very well for himself in his next gig. After all, they belong to the same brotherhood, CALSA (California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators), a well-connected, behind-the-scenes organization that makes sure Latino superintendents are retreaded throughout California and the west, no matter how badly they screw up, so they can fulfill the prime directive, "closing the latino/latino achievement gap," and subordinate all other academic goals to that main goal.

Diaz made "closing the achievement gap" his mission in Gilroy. Sounds good in theory; fails badly in practice. Now the abysmal state of academic achievement in the GUSD, and the migration of smart kids out of the district, are Diaz' legacy.

 

Manure spreaders: Don, Laurie, Pete & Jen smother Measure A

[at left: hillside sprawl in L.A. and hillside erosion in Millbrae -- imagery that should have been used to counter the BS spewed by the NO on Measure A coalition]

Measure A, the no-cost, common-sense Santa Clara land use planning measure, lost at the polls on November 7... barely: 51% to 49%.

As a result, instead of preserving hillsides, voters unwittingly preserved the rights of SoCal realtors to build trophy homes on ridgelines, and secured the rights of a few property owners to profit massively from random, sprawling developments on Santa Clara county's unincorporated ag lands.

Give the Measure A opposition credit. They overcame strong public support for slow growth. Heavily funded by SoCal real estate interests, big ranching outfits, and ag consortiums, the NO crowd spread enough disinformation to cast doubt in voters' minds and send Measure A to defeat. A Mercury News editorial commented:

"The failure of Measure A leaves the county's current general plan in place, but its enforcement is spotty. Watch for new pushes to develop the county's open land. the county Board of Supervisors, which must approve development, should take note of that close vote: Measure A's failure means misleading campaigns can work, but it doesn't mean voters want to see building in the hills."

[Powerful Santa Clara county overlord Jabba the Hut -- er, supervisor Don Gage -- wasn't going to let Measure A diminish his control of land parcels on unincorporated areas.]

Leading the NO on Measure A disinformation campaign were some prominent public figures in Santa Clara county. Supervisor Don Gage was the loudest. Measure A threatened his imperial status as lord of the parcels. Currently, it just takes three votes on the board of supervisors to approve subdivisions on unincorporated lands. Measure A would have required a public vote, which would have seriously eroded Gage's power to cut deals on behalf of housing development interests who'd like to build in his district.

Gage is more concerned about preventing erosion of his power base than preventing erosion on hillsides. That's why he was so eager to promote lies about Measure A: "If the farmer wants their children to have a house, they can't pass down their land to build a second home." Horse puckey. Measure A contained no language prohibiting estate sale or inheritance of land. Ranchers and farmers could have built second, third, and fourth homes for other family members. They wouldn't, however, have been able to solicit plans for casinos or gated golf course communities on ag and ranch land, not without a public vote.

 

[Santa Clara county sheriff Laurie Smith was quick to draw the ridiculous conclusion that land development restrictions would bankrupt county services.]

Santa Clara county sheriff Laurie Smith told a whopper when she said "...the intiative threatens funding for basic services like sheriff and fire protection, and limits the county's ability to fund needed road and water improvements." Smith's comprehension of land use planning could fit in a thimble with room left for the trigger finger. Why would she even comment on Measure A? Simple: to pay back political endorsement from her election. But even a sheriff should know this basic tenet of urban development: sprawling housing developments outside city boundaries bring much more cost -- in terms of environmental impact, traffic, extended city services, infrastructure upgrades -- than can be covered by the taxes they generate.

[Santa Clara Farm Bureau flak Jenny Derry also played the daffy "it hurts the farmer" card, as instructed by high-priced political consultant Tom Shepard, who was hired to create paranoia, confusion and doubt about Measure A]

Jenny Derry, the public relations director for the Santa Clara Farm Bureau, told two big whoppers during the NO campaign. The first whopper was that Measure A "will make it very difficult for farmers -- including specifically, organic and ethnic producers -- to establish a new business or expand an existing farm or ranch." Wrong. The measure put zero restrictions on processing facilities or housing for farm employees and it absolutely allowed for the sale of ag and ranch land to organic and "ethnic" operations. But painting Measure A as anti-ethnic farmer was a shrewd marketing move. (Not that the Farm Bureau actually gives a damn about  the little farms.) Jen's other whopper was that farmers "were never consulted" about Measure A. Actually, they were consulted, but their only input was "no way are we getting behind that." After all, American farmers aren't much for land use restrictions, unless attached to trillions of dollars in farm subsidies. Only after deciding not to participate did the Farm Bureau claim that they weren't consulted.

[Pete McHugh: How are farmers supposed to farm without good suburbs?]

County supervisor Pete McHugh spouted the most cockamanie nonsense about Measure A: "The ballot measure threatens the future of south bay farms." Someone needs to ask old Pete to explain what he meant. How exactly does preventing random housing developments inside unincorporated ag land pose a threat to farming and farmers? Especially considering that Measure A was written to support farming by protecting the integrity of ag lands and giving the advantage back to farmers who want to farm?

[Doug McNea, tax-payer advocate, and several land use attorneys advocating on behalf of SoCal realtors, used the sky-is-falling-lawsuits scare tactic to "warn" voters about Measure A]

Doug McNea, Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Association, realized that most voters wouldn't actually examine the language of Measure A, and could be bluffed with the old "invites costly lawsuits" claim -- a scare tactic typically invoked by demagogues desperate to prevent changes to the status quo. Said McNea: "The initiative is very poorly written, it ensures years of expensive lawsuits, making taxpayers liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damage claims." In truth the Measure went through careful iterations, incorporating input from diverse sources. The result was a well-written document that was specific about parcel sizes and building on hillsides, yet open to future refinement, and flexible enough to prevent lawsuits. Note that Alameda county passed and put in place much tougher restrictions -- 320-acre minimum parcels -- without incurring any litigation.

History will record that the lies and disinformation spread by heavily funded real estate development interests worked to defeat Measure A, Santa Clara county's 2006 land use planning intiative. It was a popular cause that was smeared just enough to cast just enough doubt in voters' minds.

Yet land use conservation and intelligent, controlled growth in the county's unincorporated areas still has strong support across the board. Measure A was endorsed by every major environmental organization, as well as the San Jose Mercury News, the League of Women Voters, the Council of Churches, the County Medical Association, the Democratic Party, Republicans for Environmental Protection, the South Bay Labor Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (representing more than 200 businesses) and the list goes on.  Measure A also enjoyed the support of more than 100 elected officials, including Morgan Hill mayor Dennis Kennedy.

The NO on Measure A crowd ran a scare campaign, and they won. But Don Gage, Laurie Smith, Pete McHugh, Jenny Derry, and every other prominent Santa Claran on the NO on Measure A coalition had to lose a lot of credibilty to win this fight.  Yes, the people can be snookered, but the truth will out eventually.

Final thought:

A new form of strip mine is being seen more frequently from our mountain highways and byways. It is the high-elevation, trophy-home development. A high-elevation trophy home is a gigantic, energy-gobbling home (or condominium) that is built to take advantage of the view, and more importantly, to be seen by the public. Trophy homes are the product of uncontrolled egos and greed. To all but the owners, builders, and developers, they are a visual blight on a landscape, much the same as a mountainside trailer park...

-- from "High-Elevation Trophy Home Developments, a New Form of Strip Mining," by Andrew J. White, APLD, CLP (see the full article from Land Use Planning Today here).

 

Equity vs Academic Reform, with Pat on the fence

"Results from Gilroy High School show that we are far away from meeting the academic expectations of the state of California and the federal government. Of all students tested last year, 38.3 percent were proficient in language arts and 17.6 percent proficient in mathematics. Additional proof of low academic achievement includes poor SAT and Advanced Placement scores and the results of the California State University's Early Assessment Program showing that 25 percent of assessed students were ready for college English and zero percent were ready for college math." -- School board trustee Rhoda Bress, nailing the GUSD's main issue: the perpetual decline in the GUSD's overall academic performance.

Gilroy school board elections results, the positive: Denise Apuzzo -- an academics-first parent who knows precisely why this public school system fails to educate its students -- was elected by the voters. Tom Bundros, another academic reformer, retained his seat. With boardmember Rhoda Bress also pushing academic reform, the school board is very different than the one Bundros joined four years ago, when he was the only boardmember discussing academics.

[Apuzzo's election means superintendent Diaz can no longer ignore parents demanding academic reform]

More good news: Jim Rogers, the board's designated napper, who only regained consciousness when the status quo was being threatened, retired (eight years too late). Dave McRae -- aka, The Thing That Wouldn't Leave -- also decided to quit (McRae will reportedly pursue a career in comedy -- fitting, since his school board career was a joke!)

The bad news: The three school board members primarily interested in promoting the Equity agenda -- Jaime Rosso, Javier Aguirre, and newcomer Francisco Dominuez  represent the Equity Faction standing in the way of meaningful academic reform. They will drink the Equity Koolaid served up by superintendent Edwin Diaz and the Stupski Foundation. (Note: to learn more about how the Stupski Foundation operates behind the scenes to influence educational policy in the GUSD, see District plan for social reform follows Stupski agenda).

[Dominguez seems clueless about academics and other issues facing the district]

Bundros says he has high hopes for Dominguez to be an advocate for real academic reform. He must not have read Dominguez' responses to the Rof G candidate questions. Dominguez' answer to What is the primary function of the school district? is either cagey or just plain dumb: "... to be the provider of public education in our community." No kidding! In answer to What would you do about the district's academic stagnation?, Dominguez doesn't even acknowledge that academic performance is a problem. Not a good sign. Dominguez' answer to How would you ensure financial accountability in the expenditure of voter-approved bond monies? is uninformed bordering on moronic: "In the future we should establish a bond oversight committee composed of Board Members and the community," wrote Dominguez, ignorant of the fact that by law a bond oversight committee must be independent of the school board. Anyway, a GUSD bond oversight committee already exists! It follows that Dominguez is unaware that the district was reprimanded following a grand jury investigation for financial inaccountability in the expenditure of Measure I bond funds (Francisco, see: More accountability laundry: Citizen Jane's bond undersight committee). I guess Diaz forgot to tell him about that.

The unknown: Whether school board president Pat Midtgaard has the guts to challenge the Equity Faction. Will she remain in her role as "Edwina," diligent servant of the ineffectual superintendent? Midtgaard's frustration with baby school board trustee Javier Aguirre, who caved at the recent cheer squad debate, may be a signal that she's ready to support and implement some real academic reforms. But don't count on it. Midtgaard is a lifetime GUSD insider, and her first allegiance is to accommodate the status quo, which means passive-aggressively stiffarming academic reform.

[Aguirre's responses to the R of G's candidate questions, while verbose, avoid the district's academic stagnation issues.]

What's next: The GUSD school board's revamped Equity Faction -- Rosso, Aguirre, and now Francisco Dominguez -- will carefully avoid the reality of the GUSD's academic blight. It's too unpleasant for them to deal with. These people are on the board primarily to be popular and make excuses about academic performance. The Equity Faction will cheer for the fluff in the district's Strategic Plan. And they will lack the intestinal fortitude to support reforms that Bundros and other academic reform advocates in the community are demanding. 

What is required to fix this broken academic system, the worst in Santa Clara county? It will take a board with guts to challenge Gilroy parents who view the school district as a day-care facility. It will take a decisive superintendent whose mission is to put academics first, and tolerate no excuses. It will take time -- a generation of students. It can be done, but not without the necessary reforms:

• exit level testing at individual grade levels, not just at the end of the 12-year cycle (CAHSEE)
• an end to social promotion (passing below-grade level students up to the next grade)
• social contracts between parents and schools that put the onus for homework completion, preparedness, and participation on parents and students, not teachers
• consistent grading scales that reflect actual grade-level proficiency, not proficiency adjusted for economics
• reaching out to families of high-performing students with high academic expectations who have abandoned the district for other public and private school systems (widening the achievement gap)
• attracting, retaining, and rewarding high-quality teachers with real subject matter expertise
• providing real accountability to parents, not phony accountability to the  Diaz/Stupski equity agenda

True, some Gilroy students achieve anyway, despite the system. Yes, small victories are evident -- at Glenview, at Antonio Del Buono, and in the form of honors and AP classes at the high school. But these are exceptions to the harsh reality: Despite all the happy talk from Diaz and the Equity Faction, the GUSD remains at the bottom of Santa Clara county's academic barrel. Until the school district accepts the need for harsh, but necessary, academic reform, the GUSD's academic rating will remain abysmal.

The Ignacio Velazquez Admiration Society

There's little chance that Hollister businessman Ignacio Velazquez will defeat Salinas mayor Anna Caballero in Tuesday's election for the California State Assembly District 28. The district includes Monterey, San Benito, and parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. 

[at left, Salinas mayor Anna Caballero and her opponent for state assembly, Hollister building contractor Ignacio Velazquez]

Caballero, a Democrat, and the current mayor of Salinas, is an experienced public servant, and scandal-free. Velazquez, a Republican, is barely known outside the political wasteland of San Benito County (where he is known for all the wrong reasons), and has never held public office -- unless you count his membership in the political shadow group known as "Los Valientes".

No one expects Republican voters to support Caballero's pro-union politics, but at the very least Caballero has proved that she can do business without smearing opponents and creating lifelong enemies. Velazquez has a different kind of resume:

• Used anonymous mailers and other forms of mean-spirited disinformation to smear advocates of  growth control in San Benito county.
• Added his name as a plaintiff to frivolous, nuisance lawsuits against elected county officials and county employees.
• Mounted five failed petition drives to recall San Benito District Attorney John Sarsfield -- all rejected because they contained bogus signatures.
• Created a trail of inflammatory postings and letters featuring angry, contradictory rhetoric that makes people wonder "What the %$#! is he talking about?"
  

Velazquez has had difficulty getting meaningful endorsements from Republican leaders who matter, however Velazquez does have supporters.

[Santa Clara county supervisor Don Gage and Gilroy councilmen Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman support Velazquez despite his sleazy tactics.]

Despite his underhanded political methods, Velazquez has received the endorsement of Santa Clara County supervisor Don Gage. Gilroy councilman Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman are also among those few Santa Clara Republicans endorsing Velazquez. Their questionable decision to endorse Velazquez is something to consider the next time these three run for office.

But Iggy's main support comes from within San Benito County. The Iggy Velazquez Admiration Society includes current and former Hollister politicos who helped lower the standards for representative government (including mayor/marshal Robbie Scattini who, just to play it safe, has also endorsed Anna Caballero).

Iggy is also popular with current members of the county board of supervisors who share the Los Valientes taint (see Naming the LVers, despite Mainstreet Media and Mainstreet Media hides the negative truth). He has the endorsement of cranks and extremists in the so-called San Benito County Militia (see chief crank Marvin. L. Jones' web site).

[The Iggy Velazquez Admiration Society, San Benito chapter, includes such political luminaries as -- left to right -- illegally elected supervisor Jaime De La Cruz; mayor/marshal Robbie "What does he do here?" Scattini; supervisor Anthony "I know nothin' about Los Valientes!" Botelho; and Harry "What provisional ballots?" Damkar. Not pictured are county planning commissioner Richard Bettencourt, current councilman Brad Pike, and a parade of former Hollister mayors including Tony Bruscia, Tony LaBue, Richard Boomer, Ken Duran, and Cliff Cardoza, all of whom can claim responsibility for Hollister's severe infrastructure problems.]

Velazquez and SB County supervisor Jaime De La Cruz are especially intertwined. Velazquez was De La Cruz' campaign manager in the 2004 supervisor's election, when De la Cruz was elected over Bob Cruz on the strength of provisional ballots that shouldn't have been counted. (Provisional ballots are used to record a vote when there is some question in regards to the voter's eligibility -- e.g., lack of photo ID, name doesn't appear on election rolls, voter info contains inaccurate or outdated information, etc.). When evidence of the ballot-stuffing came to light, the federal government sued the county for violation of the Voting Rigthts Act. but De la Cruz and Velazquez escaped the controversy when the D.A. at the time, Harry Damkar, inexplicably allowed the election certification to stand. (Inexplicably, somebody got to him.)

Velazquez has managed to avoid serious scrutiny in this election only because Caballero took the high road and refused to sling mud back in his direction. She easily could have exposed Iggy's history of sleaze by documenting the De La Cruz election scandal, or by reviewing the history of Los Valientes' shadowy activities. She could have exposed his weird political discourse by reprinting samples of Velazquez' scrambled, contradictory tirades.

She could have taken him to task for his glossy mass mailings blaming her for the murders, rapes, and other aberrant behavior committed by Salinas gangs over the last decade. She could have asked why his name was printed in small, barely visible type at the back of the worst political hit pieces. She could have asked why he prefers anonymous smearing to debating the issues facing district 28 constituents.

The Velazquez style of smear-and-innuendo campaigning has become standard political procedure in San Benito County. Velazquez has crammed all our mailboxes with mailers portraying himself as a wholeseome "leader for our families" who will "fight the culture of corruption in the State Capitol." And how will Iggy fight corruption? With more corruption? By leaving anonymous flyers on the chairs of assembly members?

Iggy will lose this election, yes, but with the help of development interests who want to exploit San Benito county land sprawl and political "friends" in the Republican party, you can bet that this venal opportunist will make another run at achieving political stardom.

 

Measure A: motives of the dedicated opposition

Well-connected, influential people in Santa Clara county are busy covering Measure A, the land conservation intitative, in cow manure. Yet Measure A remains a common sense initiative that prevents random housing developments in open ag or ranch land, and prevents the traffic, infrastructure, and service problems associated with housing sprawl. Measure A keeps hillside sprawl out of unincorporated areas, and preserves the natural beauty of Santa Clara county. Decide for yourself, read the arguments for and against. No time? Read the RofG overview (Measure A ... what it is)

 

[at left, county supervisors Don Gage and Pete McHugh. Both supes' districts include hundreds of square miles of open space in Santa Clara county. Both would lose their power to modify land parcel size if Measure A passes.]

Tired! You get tired of people pretending to be what they're not. Especially in an election season. You get tired of patriarichal county supervisors Don Gage and Pete McHugh pretending to represent the county's best interest. Why has Gage placed his political bulk directly in the path of Measure A? Because Measure A threatens his special jurisdiction over open space in his district (south of San jose to the San Benito county line). Gage'll say anything to defeat this  ballot measure that fixes minimum land parcel sizes in unincorporated areas, without a way for him to adjust them. McHugh, no different.

[at left, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau mouthpiece Jenny Derry, her husband Gilroy Dispatch editor Mark Derr (artist rendition), and Meanstreet Media columnist Lisa Pampuch]

You get tired of Santa Clara County Farm Bureau public relations flak Jenny Derry flapping her gums about how Measure A "threatens farming." It actually protects ag land integrity for farmers who want to farm. In a recent letter to the newspaper, she's painting the measure as hard onethnic farmers and specialty farmers," an even bigger load of drivel. You get tired of her husband, the editor of Gilroy's dying little newspaper, pretending to be fair and balanced as he takes "NO on Measure A" press releases and reprints them as dire-sounding news stores -- "Lawsuit Besieges Measure A," "Measure A May Mean Bankruptcy". You get tired of Lisa Pampuch swallowing the anti-Measure A political disinformation campaign and regurgitating in her column.

You get tired of the same old South valley behind-the-scenes status quo -- the big farming outlets, the big cattlemen from the big ranches, the grape growers, the realtors, and the home builders' associations, and their union contractors -- all of them dressing up south county's sprawl conditions as some kind of selling point.

[at left, prominent political consultant Tom Shepard, hired to create confusion, paranoia, and doubt about Measure A; Doug McNea, disinformation-spreading president of Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Association; and Santa County sheriff Laurie Smith, whose  anti-measure A commentary reveals why cops and firefighters shouldn't quit their day jobs.]

You get tired of people with tracts of ag and ranch land who define property rights as "my God-given privilege to realize massive financial gain in the most lucrative real estate market in American history; screw everyone else in Santa Clara county who has to deal with the sprawl." And you get tired of the councilmen, the county supervisors, and the chambers of commerce sucking up to these people.

You get tired of monied interests with deep pockets hiring expensive political consultants like Tom Shepard, who will sow just enough doubt and paranoia to defeat a sensible land use measure on behalf of everyone in the vally, except those wonderful people who want to be able to build whatever they want, wherever they please, on south county's open fields and hillsides.

                                                                                                                                                                                         

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEASURE A'S DEDICATED OPPOSITION
Liar (or fibber, if you like)	Lie they tell [and why]	The truth they don't want voters to know
Jenny Derry, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau	"Forty percent of county farms are 10 acres or less, so these large 40- to 60-acre minimum lot sizes will make it very difficult for farmers -- including specifically, organic and ethnic producers -- to establish a new business or expand an existing farm or ranch." [Per instructions from their consultant, Tom Shepard, the NO on Meaure A folks are focusing on anti-farmer disinformation. Because farmers are more sympathetic than realtors and developers. Recently, the opposition has introduced the "threat to ethnic farmer" claim,	Pretty funny, Jen. In reality, Measure A protects family farming operations -- no restrictions on agricultural uses or agricultural growth -- no restrictions on processing facilities or housing for farm employyes. Measure A preserves large tracts of ag land for future generations. Measure A allows for the sale of ag and ranch land to organic and "ethnic" operations. Existing parcels, no matter how small, are not required to change anything they are doing. And Jen, since when did the big ag outlets, the wine growers, and the ranchers start to care about the ethnic farmer?
Jenny Derry, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau	"There's no way to improve this initiative. It's very dire for property owners." [The complete thought is "It's very dire for property owners and land developers and realtors and building contractors counting on making a killing on uncontrolled sprawl and monster home development.]	Horse puckey. Measure A is not at all dire for property owners and renders itself inapplicable if it violates any person's property right.
Don Gage, Santa Clara County supervisor	"They never consulted the farmers. They never consluted the Farm Bureau. " [The county's general plan gives Gage and other supervisors the discretion to allow development in unincorporated areas of Santa Clara county, but Measure A would give that power to voters.]	Measure A proponents did involve the farmers, and the ranchers, and the other stakeholders. The initiative was reviewed and modified with their input. What really happened: The Farm Bureau's only input on Measure A was "no way are we getting behind that."  After all, Measure A is aimed at land  owned by the farmers. and American farmers aren't much for government interference, except when recieving trillions of dollars in farm subsidies,
Don Gage, Santa Clara County supervisor	"If the farmer wants their children to have a house, they can't pass down their land to build a second home." [Gage, and all the dedicated Measure A opposition, have been coached by political consultant Tom Shepard to play up the "Measure A is anti-farmer" angle.]	Not true. Measure A contains no language prohibiting estate sale or  inheritance of land. Some farms will not be able to subdivide their lots and sell them in smaller parcels. But they will be able to build second home on their properties, for other family members. They won't, however, be able to build casinos or develop gated golf course communities on ag and ranch land.
Pete McHugh, Santa Clara county supervisor	"The ballot measure threatens the future of south bay farms." [Keeping people misinformed requires the a bility to lie with a straight face, and McHugh is good at it. Notice the interplay of bold yet vague language that creates voter doubt. When voters have doubt, they vote against.]	Hysterical. A wild claim with no basis in reality. As noted above, this measure supports farming, protects the integrity of ag lands, and is an advantage to farmers who want to farm.
Pete McHugh, Santa Clara County supervisor	"The initiative could block construction of the county's proposed wireless communicaions network, designed to provide high-speed internet access everywhere in the valley."  [Somebody told Pete to say this and he bought it. If they told Pete to say, "Soldiers in Iraq will die if Measure A passes," he'd say it.]	Absolutely untrue. The measure obviously exempts reasonable cell phone towers. McHugh should have someone read him the part allowing for "public utility facilites and uses... meeting the existing and realistic foreseeable needs of residents."
Tom Chiala, direcotr of farm operations for George Chiala farms of Morgan Hill.	"I hate the fact that all of these city folks want to save us dumb country folks." [In south SC county, "suspicion of outsiders"-- especially Palo-Alto elitist outsiders from the other end of the countny -- gives any argument legs."What do they know? Hell, down in Hollister, a feller can purchase a parcel as small as five acres for any kind of development, as long as the land's outside the city's 'sphere of incompetence.' "]	In fact, Measure A's support is broad, across city and country folks. It spans the South Bay Labor Council and the the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Former south bay mayors and councilmen -- both Republican and Democrat -- support this land conservation and usage measure. Current city and county office-holders, from both sides of the political fence, support Measure A.
NO on Measure A campaign signs.	"Don't risk Santa Clara County's future" and "Save our hillsides" [The complete message goes like this: "Don't risk Santa Clara County's future ... to anyone but trophy home developers" and "	How does Measure A NOT save our hillsides? By preserving the natural watershed and preventing erosion? Does that harm our hillsides? In fact, the measure specifically "un-risks" the future of undeveloped hillsides and protects against sprawl on ag lands. It prevents haphazard commerical and housing development. It makes it hard to erect mansions  on ridgelines.
Lisa Pampuch, Meanstreet Media columnist	"there's no need for Measure A. Clearly, the county's current general plan is working well to control growth in unincorporated county lands." [An ed board member who actually writes editorials, Pampuch knows when to automatically adopt the Meanstreet Media groupthink. This is one of those times -- both Meanstreet's publisher Steve Staloch and editor Mark Derry have strong affiliations with the Measure A opposition.]	Too much detail in the Measure's actual language, I guess, or too much trouble to investigate. No sense  promoting opinions that might conflict with the seat on the Dipsatch editorial board, or earn the ire of SC Farm Bureau executive director Jenny Derry, the editor's wife.
Lisa Pampuch, Meanstreet Media columnist	"[Measure A proponents] didn't want anyone to look too closely at  the initiative's vague language, which is open to interpretation and will invite costly lawsuits." [the NO on Measure A camp has a contradictory message to sell to voters: (a) Measure A's openness to future refinement is vague and (b) Measure A is too specific and restrictive and an invitation to costly lawsuits.]	How is changing  the minimum parcel size from 20 to 160 acres "vague." It's precise. The goal is clearly stated: prevent random housing and commercial buildout on lands marked for preservation. Will invite costly lawsuits is the best claim to make when you have no other argument.
Doug McNea, president Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Association	"The initiative is very poorly written, it ensures  years of expensive lawsuits, making taxpayers liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damage claims." [Attacking a Measure's language is safe, because hardly any one will actually check to see if you're right.]	Note that Alameda county passed and put in place much tougher restrictions -- 320-acre minimum parcels--without incurring any litigation. Measure  A takes pains to be litigation proof: though specific about parcel sizes and building on hillsides, it is wide open to future refinement: "the County may augment or extend without creating any inconsisency, provided it does not permit parcles, development, use of surface alteration barred by the measure."
Santa Clara county sheriff Laurie Smith	"By reducing county revenues from property taxes and impact fees, the intiative threatens funding for basic services like sheriff and fire protection, and limits the county's ability to fund needed road and water improvements." [To defeat them, always associate land conservation measures with a reduction in fire and police protection and public safety.]	Proof of why law enforcment and fire protection service people should stay out of land planning. This is like saying, "Unless we build houses on hillsides, we won't be able to put build roads and extend infrastructure up to those houses." A basic tenet of urban development: Trophy home developments, serving just a few privileged people, have much more cost --  environmental impact, traffic, extended city services, infrastructure cost -- than can be covered by the taxes they generate. Retail and industry are what pay the bills for city services.
Eminent domain attorney Norm Matteoni	"Measure A breaks up open spaces into a jigsaw puzzle of hundreds of disconnected private parcels with no puclic access.... A change as small as providng for construction of a grannyflat on a singlefamily residence would require an expensive countywide election." [Appeal to potential Measure A litigants who will contact his land use law firm. Matteoni is an attorney specializing in representing clients in eminent domian and land use issues. His endorsement on the NO side of Measure A is his way of announcing his availability to any aggrieved landower thinking about suing the county over over Measure A.]	Measure A does exactly the opposite -- it stiffarms rogue real estate developers and encourages Santa Clara county open space conservation. Measure A allows for reasonable, necessary development on existing parcels. So Granny will still be able to have her own space. Since Measure A allows for expanding existing structures up to 20,000 square feet, granny should have enough room for her own pool, tennis courts, bar, and patio.
Land use attorney Bart Hechtmann	"Measure A's downzoning of ranchlands and hillside properties would  reduce the value of land in unincorporated Santa Clara County by more  than $1 billion." [the word "down" combined with "zoning" creates the illusion of devaluation. And creating a negative illusions is the Measure A opposition's best gambit.]	It's true, the "value of the land" does decrease -- for land owners eager to realize real estate sales of pristine ag and farm land -- exactly the type of litigants that Hechtman and Matteoni's law firm hopes to attract after Measure A passes. How trustworthy is Hechtman? In 2004, on behalf of Granite Rock Construction, Hechtman testified before San Jose city council that wind patterns couldn't possibly be blowing dust from Granite Rock's facility into a nearby housing development, California Colony. The Granite Rock site was frequently upwind of the houses, and many of the residents were brushing off layers of dust from their cars. (See Metro news article)

links:

http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/09/04/daily66.html (SJ Biz journal's endorsement)

http://votenoonmeasurea.com/ (Vote NO on Measure A)

http://www.openspace2006.org/ (PLAN)

Killroy

Gilroy has acquired an unwanted reputation as a place where people are killed by trucks driving too fast and too carelessly on residential streets. In the last four months, three pedestrians have been killed in town.

Two of the recently dead were five-year-old boys walking across wide intersections with excellent visibility in broad daylight. The latest traffic killing occurred this week, when 5-year-old Julio Gonzalez was struck by a Ford F-150 at the intersection of Welburn and Kern avenues, near Rod Kelley elementary school, minutes before the first bell.

As with the death of 5-year-old Brayan Trejo, killed while crossing the intersection of 10th and Church streets in June,  a woman (a Gilroy mom) driving a large truck was too self-absorbed to notice a traffic situation that demanded a high level of alertness. Visual clues to slow down and pay attention were everywhere -- students and parents walking down the street and waiting at stop signs, other drivers inching along carefully. Yet she didn't see.

The tragedy of this little boy's death is that it was so highly avoidable, so incredibly stupid, so damned unnecessary.

People in Gilroy are asking, How could this happen again? What is wrong with the drivers in this town?

How can it be that Gilroy has three pedestrian fatalities in the span of four months, when much more crowded cities in the Bay area -- cities with cars lining both sides of every street, cities with more intersections, more traffic congestion, more cars, and more foot traffic -- have registered none? How can it be?

These tragic deaths -- especially the heart-rending deaths of the two boys -- may not just be a coincidence. It may not be just "one of those freak things that happen."

These tragedies may be the byproduct of Gilroy culture, which values gas-powered locomotion above any other form of transport,. Public transportation? Please: out of the question for anyone in Gilroy. We drive. We drive everywhere, as if our only motivation is to be consumers of fossil fuel products. The concept of walking or riding a bicycle to a movie or the store or the library is to be laughed at, along with the concept of exercise (highest obesity rate in the county). No self-respecting Gilroyan is going to drive anything smaller than a v8 truck or SUV. A small, fuel-efficient car, the kind that might have injured but not killed the little boys, is considered a sign of weakness in Gilroy. 

These tragic deaths may also be a function of poor neighborhood design. I shouldn't say poor design; I mean, nonexistent design. With the one exception of the Glen Loma Ranch project beginning construction next year, Gilroy is a city that builds neighborhoods in ad hoc fashion, without regard for walking trails along perimeters or greenways joining neighborhoods. Gilroy's map shows a city without neighborhood retail centers, a city built to discourage non-vehicular traffic flow, a city that must drive. This haphazard approach to housing development, and the lack of interconnected walking and biking trails, is a reflection on Gilroy values, which say that any property owner should be able to build just about anything as long as it doesn't violate zoning laws. We closely guard the right to design the city badly.

The deaths of the Gonzalez and Trejo boys are certainly related to the need for a corridor to handle the flow of traffic from the subdivisions on the west side to the retail centers on the east side. Something similar to Santa Teresa Avenue, something that moves traffic with a minimum of interruptions, is needed. But Gilroy's so-called "planners" -- its councils past and present, its planning commissions -- have never adequately addressed the need, and they continue to ignore the need still, because it's too late to do anything about it. Thanks to inadequate planning,

So Welburn Avenue -- where the Gonzalez boy died -- has become an inadvertent "expressway" -- one with with stop signs and kids on bikes and young children crossing the busy street without a care, as young children will do. Welburn has become a main artery for people in residential west side neighborhoods to get to the east side of town in a frustrating  pattern of speed up, slow down, stop, speed up, slow down, stop. The same is true of 10th street, where the Trejo boy was run over by a truck driven by a distracted mom.

Gilroy, did your city council seriously consider the overloaded traffic patterns that would be stressed even more with the construction of retail mega-city across the highway? No, they just congratulated themselves for "attracting" generic, soul-less big box retail to Gilroy. Councilman Craig Gartman, in particular, considers this dubious achievement a feather in his cap.

... Now even fewer parents will allow their children to walk to school. Even more Gilroy moms will get behind the wheel of their moving projectile, their 7,000-pound killing machine, and there will be even fewer safe intersections in Killroy. 

Abu Graybar (new Gilroy cop shop)

Happy days in Gilroy! Construction of the new police fortress and detention center on 6th street is nearing completion.

According to an exclusive R of G special report, which you are reading now, Gilroy taxpayers who footed the $29 million construction bill are simply agog over their town's massive new police compound.

"50,000 feet of walled glory!" exclaimed Ernestine Klompf, one of several retirees enthralled by the new structure. "With this kind of soundproofing, we won't even hear the agonized screaming of forced confessions."

"Amazing! It manages to be sterile and awkward looking all at once," sighed 34-year-old Wendy Likely, a technician who still lives with her mom.

"It's like a dream come true," said KrEEh8er, a local graffiti artist. "I see all that square footage of virgin brown wall and it's like the bricks are talking to me, man. I mean, I just wanna tag it."

"Menacing and foreboding, as befitting the Man's oppression palace," upholsterist Marvin 'Jerry' Nordstrom-Saks observed from his Harley. "You can't see what's going on inside, or who's being brought in or who's being taken out. It has a paranoid, apocalyptic, 'Darkness at Noon' quality that makes me want to lock my door, drink Pernod, hallucinate enemies, and clean my gun in my room with the blinds closed. Excuse me I hafta leave."

"It's gonna be like Vegas," chirped Heather Laurel Bayleaf, on break from college, "what goes on in the GPD, stays in the GPD! Woohoo!"

But not everyone agrees that the new cop shop is a great thing.

"I can't even see what that damn police station actually looks like because of that stupid ugly brown wall around everything" complained Marcel DuBois, before being hauled inside for interrogation.

Contrary to rumors, the exterior of the infamous Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, was not the model for the exterior of the Gilroy police facility that has consumed so much taxpayer money while other city services and programs have gone unfunded.

[at left, Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad, Iraq]

As anyone can see from the pictures accompanying this posting, the exterior of Abu Ghraib uses post-colonial British penal architecture, featuring corrugated vertical lines, dramatically offset. "A true Abu Ghraib design would have been much more expensive to produce," commented police liaison William G. Bongmaker. "For one thing, the watchtower of Abu Ghraib is significantly longer and higher and more intimidating with its use of gun turrets and bulletproof glass."

"There just aren't enough funds for us to install gun turrets at this time," he contined. "This means that when hostile intruders attempt to scale the compound walls we may have to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Fortunately we have high tech training quarters inside the facility and plenty of test subjects to practice upon."

[at left, "Abu Graybar" in Gilroy]

"It's satisfying to see the dream come to fruition," commented Gilroy councilman Keg Waffleman. "When terrorists strike the U.S., they'll probably want to hit Gilroy -- the Bay area's future high-tech economic center -- first. Because of my efforts on behalf of the GPD, we're ready. I'm proud to have served on the council that protects and serves the cops."

"Our police station validates the city's vision of itself," said Gilroy Chamber of Commerce luminary C. Jane Whitehead. "It connotes strength and shows that cost is no object where safety is concerned. And this is something we can build on, perhaps extending the wall to the downtown corridor, so that storefronts can also be hidden from view."

[officially approved and annointed document for the new $29 mil Gilroy Police Station: http://www.ci.gilroy.ca.us/police/pdf/police_masterplan_aug_26_04.pdf]

RofG poll results: why the Pinnacle was pulled

It's been several weeks since the Pinnacle News reduced it's print run from 60,000 to 20,000 copies and stopped distributing to Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

The Pinneackle's editor/publisher, Mark Paxton, hasn't provided an explanation. Not considered newsworthy -- just like the censoring of Kate Woods and the censoring of the columnist who tried to write about Woods' situation. And of course Meanstreet Media's capo, Censorin' Steve Staloch, won't comment. Not now, not ever.

The Pinnacle still publishes, and still provides in-depth reportage you won't find in Meanstreet's other fluff-based broadsheets (the Morgan Hill Sometimes, The Hollister Flea Ranch, and the Gilroy Dipsack). A good example is Kate Woods' piece on the Hollister Sewage Saga, which provides cogent details and significant background information that allows readers to appreciate the entire chain of events, not just the most recent development.

For a little while longer, anyway, the Pinnacle remains, still managing to provide an antidote to the gloss-over "journalism" of the other broadsheets in the Meanstreet Media chain. Appreciate it while it lasts...

The R of G asked its readers to speculate on why the Pinnacle is no longer circulating in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

Why was the Pinnacle pulled? (poll results)

• 34.3% felt the Dispatch couldn't compete with the Pinnacle head-to-head. Pinnacle advertisers were opting out of the Gilroy Dispatch and the Morgan Hill Times... now we'll find out for sure whether the Pinnacle cannabalizing sales or whether the other Meanstreet newspapers were doomed anyway. (Word to Staloch: generally speaking, it's getting harder for community newspapers based on the "pathetically stultifying anachronism" model to compete in an increasingly Internet-based media game.)
• 31.4% pointed to the philisophical differences between Censorin' Steve Staloch and the Pinnacle's editorial staff. Staloch feels that media ethics should be optional, not an obligation. But staffers weren't in tune with Staloch's idea that the public has a right not to know disturbing truths about corrupt politicians in San Benito county. By insisting on reporting the inconvenient truth about local people of influence, staff caused "problems" in the newsroom and as a result Staloch is bent on downsizing the paper out of existence.
  
• 17.1% felt that Pinnacle writers used too many big words. And frankly this irritated some folks down at Meanstreet corporate who resented having to look up words in a dictionary.
• 14.3% observed that people in Gilroy don't read, and the Dispatch fits that model much better than the Pinnacle.
• 2.9% felt that readers felt they knew enough already, and the Pinnacle was basically providing disquieting information that made some people -- for instance, San Juan Bautista councilmembers and San Benito County supervisors -- feel uncomfortable.

Response to despicable nemesis

[This posting originally appeared on www.republic-of-gilroy.com on 06 aug 2004. I re-dedicate it to Cynthia Walker, Dale Morejon, Harold Williams, and all the other "neener-neeners" playing out their personal feuds on the Gilroy Dispatch's editorial page. If these adversaries didn't have each other, they'd have nothing to write about. Side note: After reading this satirical piece, a certain Dipsack columnist was dying to know the real identity of Mr. X: "Who is Mr. X? Why does he hate you?" -- arg, it's satire you moron! -- D]

I’d like to congratulate my self-appointed arch-nemesis, Mr. X, on his response to my response to his response to one of my columns, published several months ago, in which I revealed his consistently erroneous logic and frequent grammatical errors.

Congratulations are in order because, after much labor, X has at last exposed his bitter, hateful, and true persona to the readers of this forum.

In previous postings, X has waited until the second or third paragraph to reach into his bottomless bag of insults. But in his most recent missive he is clearly frustrated with his inability to counter my logic with a sensible retort. This time he immediately resorts to namecalling, describing me as “an imbecilic prattler” and “the kind of idiot who gives idiots a bad name.”

X hurls insults like an unhappy toddler hurls food -- with not much aim and purely for effect. In previous letters, X has labeled me “a myopic bore,”  “a mental masturbationist,” “a petard hoister,” and  “a prude, a prune, and a prig.” Well, Mr. X, which is it? Make up your mind! I can hardly be all of these things!

Such childish, school-yard taunting hardly deserves acknowledgement (except to remind X that it takes one  to know one!). I am reminded of my grandfather’s country wisdom: when you wrestle with a pig, the only result is you get dirty and the pig likes it. Not a grammatically sound statement but, methinks, appropriate.

Perhaps, by acknowledging X’s many outrageous slings and arrows, I am guilty of giving a pig pleasure. But if this is the price I must pay for defending my loyal readership’s sensibilities, so be it. That a fringe-dwelling snipe may be awarded a moment of undeserved recognition in the defense of honorable discourse is regrettable, yet unavoidable.

“Over time,” X continues in his latest diatribe against me, “your columns have proven indispensable ... as bird cage lining. Its amazing how the bird always hits your picture first!” Indeed, Mr. X, it is amazing how the not-so-subtle difference between the possessive “its” and the contraction “it’s” routinely escapes your notice.

X also writes that “when our new pup is finally house-trained, your newspaper column will be entirely worthless.” Really, Mr. X? And how do you manage to use my column for both the bird cage and the puppy pen? Have I caught you in yet another lie, Mr. X? Or are you so obsessed with me that you are buying two copies of this newspaper? My editor will be glad to hear that!

I am sure that X would rejoice if my voice were permanently silenced. He probably hopes that as a result of his persistent attacks, I will turn my back on my readership. Rest assured, dear readers, this event will not transpire.

I will continue to take the higher road. In fact, I would defend to the death X’s right to disparage me in his frequent letters. This remains a free country, after all, one that can absorb a sad and depraved little man like sir X, whose tirades against me are representative of the hateful perversity tearing at the moral fabric of our society.

I do feel pity for you, X, but I can no longer in good conscience feed your anger by participating in this disturbing game of insult-and-response. Let it be known that I have permanently closed this book you continue to scribble in. So you may as well concentrate on your other vocations, which I imagine are kicking your puppy, scaring babies, and pulling into parking spaces reserved for the handicapped.

I daresay I’d rather stare at soiled bird cage lining than gaze on another of your hate-filled letters. And I can only chortle at your ridiculous claim that I should give you half my earnings as a columnist, since, as you say, “playing whack-a-mole” with you gives me “an excuse to be a smarmy, pompous ass every week.”

Apparently, X’s mother never told him that when one has nothing good to say, one should remain silent -- if indeed he has a mother -- if he didn’t crawl out of a slimy cesspool of wretched bile.

I imagine that at this very moment X is concocting yet another venom-laced response. I care not. The world knows what you are, X, and I have already moved on to subjects worthy of my readers’ attentions. (Unless, of course, X’s response is so egregious that another correction is required.)

Break out the freak repellent!

Gilroy, Morgan Hill beware.

Like flesh-eating zombies from Dawn of the Dead, political freaks from the badlands of San Benito County have crossed the Pajaro River and are headed this way. Hollister and San Juan Buatista may be unredeemable, politically, yet voters may still rescue the south valley from demented freaks determined to hold public office.

[at left: mutants from San Benito enjoy a night out after filing to run for political office]

Leading this gruesome caravan of toxic pols is Ignacio Velasquez, the face-painter from Hollister. Velazquez is running for state assembly district 28, which includes Monterey, San Benito, and parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

Some Republicans may consider Velasquez' Democratic opponent, Anna Caballero, a dubious choice. But at least Caballero isn't considered a public nuisance and a vindictive schemer. While Caballero has provided biographical information and explained her stances on the Smartvoter.org web site (see California State Assembly, District 28), Velazquez has yet to enumerate his positions. Not surprising. When you spew opinions like bird seed it's hard to write a coherent paragraph that conveys a reasonable position on issues. 

[Voting for Iggy for state assembly would be like voting for a bad accident to happen.]

In Hollister, "Iggy" Velazquez' flamboyant public persona and involvement in the anonymous Los Valientes extortion and intimidation ring are well known. Beginning in 2003, Los Valientes members began filing frivilous lawsuits against the county, claiming 'mass corruption' by officials who supported growth control measures. The county's District Attorney, John Sarsfield, fought back, even though it made him a primary target of the LVers smear-and-fear tactics. Now the state's civil case against Los Valientes accuses LV's membership, including Velazquez, of extortion and civil rights violations for the methods it used to go after political adversaries.

Search the Hollister Free Press Online archives for the details of Velasquez' role in Los Valientes, his involvement in the vote-counting scandal surrounding supervisor Jamie De La Cruz' election to office, his failed attempts to recall D.A. John Sarsfield from office (each petition thrown out for irregularities), and his rantings against anyone standing in his way. The R of G has also exposed the LVers and Velazquez (see "You write what you're told" and "Mainstreet hides the negative truth").

Said Sarsfield in June: "Once Los Valientes realized that I wasn't going to go away, they tried to recall me five times.... The recall drives were master-minded by  Velazquez. But in each case, recall petitions were disqualified.... Iggy's way of getting signatures was illegal. Half were no good."

[D.A. Sarsfield on Iggy and the LVers: ""The irritating thing is they (LVers) thought I would go along with their little jihad"]

"It must be remembered that Velazquez was De La Cruz campaign manager during the ballot stuffing episode that led to De La Cruz' eventual victory," said Sarsfield. "The same tactics used to make sure De La Cruz was elected failed in the recall attempts."

(Gilroyans, take note: Your local God squad on council, Craig Gartman and Dion Bracco, have both endorsed Iggy Velasquez. Count Bracco and Gartman among those who would open the door when the zombie extremist  fear-mongering freaks draped in red, white, and blue come a-knockin'.)

The SBC 2006 Voters' Guide describes Velazquez:

Owner of The Vault restaurant ("where LVers meet") and an electrical contracting company, Velazquez is also a prime LV operative, sometimes even placing his name on lawsuits as a plaintiff when LVs need a warm body (and when Juan Monteon is in jail). A self-aggrandizing social butterfly who wears makeup, Iggy tells stooge Supervisor James De La Cruz what to say and do. Distributes propaganda sheets to county residents defaming people he doesn’t like. Wants the county to build a performing arts center next to his eatery and name it after him. Sued Tracie Cone, Anna Remedios and Kate Woods in 2004 over an LV story -- lost, but dodged court sanctions. Entirely self-possessed, he spent $185,000 in 2001 in an attempt to unseat Congressman Sam Farr. Now running for State Assembly. An embarrassment to the Republican Party, according to leading Republicans in Santa Clara County.

Also representing the proudly brain-addled in this year's local elections are two representatives of the San Benito County Militia Wives -- Reba Jones and Angie De La Cruz -- running for two open seats on the Gavilan Community College Board of Trustes. While its main campus is in Gilroy, Gavilan has satellite branches in Hollister and Morgan Hill. For more on this election, see Smarvoter.org: Gavilan Joint Community College District, Trustee Area 3.

[at left: Marvin and Reba Jones]

I can't speak for the incumbents running in this race, or the other challenger, but this is known: Reba Jones carries the equivalent of the ebola strain of extremist politics. Which is not surprising considering Reba is the wife of the Rabid One, the sputtering street-corner hater "Doctor" Marvin Jones.

The SBC 2006 Voters' Guide describes this feral pair:

"Haling from Kentucky, 'Dr.' Jones is a newcomer to Gooberville (also known as Hollister), but seems to fit right into a culture that embraces the stridently confused. Jones has enlisted his entire family as LV cheerleaders. Never found a minority or immigrant whose civil rights he didn’t love to violate while whistling “Dixie.” Can be observed flag waving every Friday on the corner of Fourth and San Benito as he rallies on behalf of sacrificing young Americans for War in Iraq profiteering. Hates the D.A. Recently, Doc Jones mailed a desperately false hit piece against District 4 challenger Tracie Cone.... [Reba Jones,] wife of Marivin L. Jones. Leader of the so-called Militia Wives Club. So fundamentalistly neo-Con, she makes David Duke seem like Mother Theresa by comparison." 

   

Little is known about Angie De La Cruz except that she is the wife of SB county supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, a semi-literate bumbler with a notorious temper. In 1998, De La Cruz released his notorious temper on his wife. Wife abuse charges were dropped under a diversion program (after all, it's Hollister).

[There is substantive evidence that SBC county supe De La Cruz was elected illegally in 2002. Now his wife, Angie, is aiming for the Gavilan board of trustees]

More recently, following the 2002 SBC supervisor elections, De La Cruz was charged with threatening an officer, as well as a variety of election related crimes. He pled "no contest"  (the same as a guilty plea in criminal court) to a misdemeanor charge of "obstruction" of a peace officer. For sentencing purposes, De La Cruz admitted to a charge of mis-using the voter registration data base. De La Cruz was required to perform 40 hours of community service, re-pay the county for the cost of the investigation, and write an apology to the officer. After one year, he was allowed to set aside his plea (typical in misdemeanor cases). 

This information doesn't necessarily reflect on Angie De La Cruz, but it does provide a perspective on her candidacy.

The incumbents running for re-election as Gavilan trustees are Elvira Robinson, a Hollister lawyer, and Kent L. Child. They seem to have managed to survive their current terms without scandal and without permanently alienating people who might not agree with their views. The other challenger, Dee Brown, has experience in education, and was a candidate for the office of Hollister schools superintendent.

Bottom line: Political freaks from San Benito -- e.g., Velazquez, Reba Jones -- are accustomed to manipulating the political scene with impunity in their mutant political wilderness. In San Benito county, as long as you're committed to the pave-everything-over, pro-sprawl gang, then your bizarre public behavior, slimy relationships, and questionable activities are sure to be overlooked by the local newspaper, the Hollister Free Pants... er, Flea Ranch...  er, Freelance. But those toxic tactics won't fly in Sacramento, where Velasquez would face real media scrutiny. In Sacramento, his inadequacies, his insecurity, his venality, and his incompetence would soon be exposed. Hopefully the SBC extremists known as the Militia Wives won't prevail in the Gavilan College trustees race either. But with voters paying little attention to that contest, Reba Jones and Angie De La Cruz may manage to bring a dysfunctional, disoriented brand of governance to that body.

Meanstreet Media: Pinnacle disappears, Hogpatch and Free Pants labor woes

[update, 05 September 06: The Pinnacle pullout rumor proved true -- circulation to Morgan Hill and Gilroy ended on Aug 26. With the newsweeky's print run reduced from approx 60,000 to 20,000 copies, What next? Ad sales wither, page count shrinks, staff departs, layoffs occur. Meanwhile, Meanstreet Media is looking for another editor to manage the Hollister Free Pants (Dan Fitch decided he couldn't stomach the job). Interested? Respond to this job listing. And be ready to take orders from Gilroy Hogpatch editor-in-chief Mark Derry. Observed a former Free Pants newsroom manager: Meanstreet "is working toward completion of the centralization process (long since done with "lifestyles" and sports, as well as advertising and circulation).... news, too, will soon be assembled at the Disgrace with 'bureaus' in Hollister and Mortgage Hill." Will he apply for the job? "I'd have to be evicted from a refrigerator carton before I'd consider working for those Philistines again."]

Word is that "Meanstreet" Media, LLC, purveyors of bland community journalism -- including the Gilroy Hogpatch, the Hollister Free Pants, and the Morgan Hill Sometimes -- will shut down the Pinnacle News' south valley coverage and distribution beginning in September.

Sources at the Pinnacle -- Meanstreet's free weekly newspaper -- are convinced that the move is designed to resuscitate the Hogpatch's diminishing circulation numbers. As the Hogpatch, the  Free Pants, and the Sometimes become steadily duller and more insipid, and readership shrivels, the overall advertising pie grows smaller. In this time of on-demand media, community news filler is not exactly a growth industry. But put yourself in Meanstreet Media capo Steve Staloch's gucci knockoffs: ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

[Reports are that Meanstreet Media boss Steve Staloch will sacrifice the Pinnacle so the Hogpatch might survive] Instead of raising the quality of the Hogpatch's content, Staloch figures it's easier to cannabalize the in-house competition. He hopes that cut-off Pinnacle readers will be forced to buy the Hogpatch to get their news. Fat chance! The Pinnacle is the only Meanstreet publication committed to reporting the stories behind the news (that is: doing journalism). And it's free. Pinnacle readers aren't going to pay for the Hogpatch.

Under Staloch's stewardship, the Hogpatch has become too freaking boring to read, let alone buy. The Hogpatch is limited to three basic categories of "news": (a) youth sports coverage and (b) profiles of chamber of commerce members, and (c) GUSD press releases. Down at Hogpatch HQ,  running feature on Gilroyans who happen to share the same surname is considered investigative journalism.

With the exception of Heather Bremner's ongoing coverage of the Gilroy education beat, the Hogpatch hasn't run an interesting, informative piece in months. Gilroy city council and planning commission conduct the community's business without scrutiny from the Hogpatch. The editorialists at the paper spend their opinion coin denouncing county and state agencies from a safe distance. Do you really want to know any more than you've already been forced to learn about Cynthia Walker's family?

Anyway, back to the details of the Pinnacle de-circulation rumor. According to one Meanstreet employee who occasionally sends me emails describing life under publisher Censorin' Steve Staloch's regime, The Pinnacle's circulation decrease in south Santa Clara county won't be compensated by a circulation increase in San Benito county. The Pinnacle "won't go to ALL San Benitans," the source says, just to the people who already get it.

The source notes that the Pinnacle doesn't have a mail/subscription department -- which means that "if [San Benitans] don't get the Pinnacle now, they never will. And if you DON'T want to get the weekly 'mag-rag,' tough luck, you're stuck with it... Apparently, the receptionists/ad people in the lobby don't know how to call the distributor to get someone on/off the delivery list.... The advertisers and ad people are up in arms over this dwindling Pinnacle delivery footprint. It will take circulation down from 58,000 to 18.000."

According to a different source inside the Meanstreet nuthouse, Pinnacle reporters are "not allowed to report on San Benito County... no reporting is happening on San Benito politics or policy making. One of the reasons for this is that reporters are ... nearly barred by MSM and its editors from attending city council and supervisor meetings, which would be the only way to truly understand an issue and observe all players on all sides of a controversy."

[According to censored Pinnacle reporter Kate Woods, reporters don't cover meetings anymore] Kate Woods, the Pinnacle reporter censored by Steve Staloch for her honest, forthright, detailed, properly attributed, award-winning reporting on the Los Valientes/SB County supervisors' corruption scandal, has confirmed the newly instituted and extremely ridiculous meeting coverage policy at the Pinnacle. "We are expected now to make 'followup' phone calls after meetings to 'find out what happened.'"

Ah, journalism, Meanstreet style.

News of the Pinnacle's pending demise comes as no surprise to the R of G. As any sacred cow in Gilroy who rubs elbows with Hogpatch editor Mark Derry will tell you, the Pinnacle "just isn't a good fit" ...  the Pinnacle doesn't meet the status quo's requirement for bland, anesthetized, boutique journalism. The Pinnacle also has a history of intelligent, thoughtful opposition to unrestricted development on ag and cattle lands, and support for growth control initiatives, both of which stances don't sit too well with landowners and corporations dedicated to continuing the south valley sprawl pattern -- the same wealthy, influential people, coincidentally, that Meanstreet and Staloch and Santa Clara Farm Bureau executive director Jenny Derry (the editor's wife) are desperate to please.

Meanwhile... folks in Gilroy are still wondering why Meanstreet decided to dump long-time, award-winning chief photographer James Mohs. The R of G checked around some, and although Mohs wasn't known as the easiest person to get along with, his credentials were indisputable, as was the high quality of his work.

The circumstances of Mohs' unceremonious dumping by Meanstreet prompted Mohs to file an unemployment compensation claim with the labor board, which Meanstreet lost on appeal. Mohs received notice that he'd won the appeal several weeks after an April 25 hearing with an administrative law judge at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.

Mohs' case is a matter of public record, if anyone wants to investigate the details. According to Mohs: "The judge's name was Douglas Bird, and the case number is 1788693. The two issues/codes ... heard were 1030/32 and 1256 of the state unemployment insurance code. Mainstreet Media's unemployment account number is 235-2335. I would be curious to know many claims were filed against them over the 30 odd papers owned by the company."

Mohs, who now runs a photography business in Gilroy -- www.IconImagesPhotography.com -- told the R of G:

"I have nothing to hide and frankly would like everyone to know the truth of my separation of employment with the company. I am very proud of my work as Chief Photographer of the three papers since Aug 1997. I started as a stringer in 1993, went to Saturday photographer  when there was no intern, to part-time 'on-call' photographer, to weekend/holiday photographer and then hired as a 'part-time' photographer, then to full-time chief photographer... I won over 20 California Newspapers Publisher Association (CNPA) annual Better Newspaper Contest Awards (they are Emmy's of California newspapers) since 1997,  capturing from 1 to 4 First or Second Place photography awards every year and covering every catagory from Spot News Photo, to Sports to Feature Photo, and Photo Story and design. To the best of my knowledge no photographer in the state has ever won at least one CNPA award for thirteen years straight, and we competed against about thirty other papers in our size category. I found out [in May] I won another First or Second Place award in the photo story catagory for a three-part series on Cattle Ranchers Joe and Kathy Vargas in 2005. "

[Award-winning photography by James Mohs has been noticeably absent from the Hogpatch]

Add "dumping award-winning photographer" to the long list of dubious achievements by Censorin' Steve and Meanstreet Media. Just last year Meanstreet lost a different employee labor dispute and had to compensate veteran reporters who were released because they wanted an increase in their entry-level salaries.

The labor lesson Meanstreet can't seem to learn is the hidden cost of being sociopathically tight-assed: vengeful ex-employees, disgruntled current employees, and labor lawsuits that cost you more than the raises you refuse to pay. Keep in mind that Meanstreet newspaper salaries are abysmally low. A Meanstreet reporter would be lucky to make $30K/annum. That's poverty level compensation for a 45+ hour work-week in the Silicon Valley economy.

Meanwhile, down in "Gooberville" -- Kate Woods' affectionate moniker for Hollister -- the Free Pants reportedly lost another managing editor, the third in a year. According to the Hollister Free Press Online:

Dan Fitch, a professional journalist with an excellent reputation who was reportedly brought in to try to save the little paper is rumored to be on the "outs" with MSM's iron-fisted rule, Steve "Stalin" Staloch.

According to MSM sources, Staloch is in the process of pushing Fitch out of the editorial position at the Freelance. Stalin has never commented to the HFPO on any aspect of his "leadership" at MSM.

If true, Fitch's departure will be a blow to the paper, which is now on its firth editor in three years.

Fitch's defection follows the brief tenure of editor Marcus Hibdon, who, having been forced through the bowels of Meanstreet's publication empire, probably moved back to Montana to cleanse himself. Perhaps, to his credit, Fitch couldn't stomach the idea of writing anti-Sarsfield, pro-Los Valientes editorials to please Los Valientes founder Richard Place and his coterie of right-wing dingbats and cro-magnons -- a past-time Hibdon and his predecessor Canan Knoll eagerly participated in.

Net result: The Pinnacle starts to disappear, sacrificed to sustain the dying troika of the Meanstreet Media newspaper chain. As long as we need obits, a police blotter, and as long as there are mothers willing to write about their children, these papers will have a reason to carry on. But without any truly interesting content, fewer and fewer will pay for the "privilege" of this information.

The question now, after the de-circulation and de-coverage, is how long can the Pinnacle survive as a genuine newspaper? Only as long as certain staffers who hew to the editorial standards established by ex-publisher Tracie Cone remain on staff. And those people aren't exactly feeling loved right now.

[Pinnacle city editor Dennis Taylor]

"I think the market is, and will increasingly be, thirsty for what we are trying to do," Pinnacle city editor Dennis Taylor told the R of G, referring to the investigative pieces that still run in the Pinnacle.

But with Staloch threatening to cut off the Pinnacle's nuts by eliminating delivery to south valley residents, it's doubtful whether the independent weekly paper can sustain enough ad revenue to support in-depth reportage on the stories south valley residents and San Benitans really want to know.

Commenting on the future of community  journalism in south valley and San Benito, and everywhere, Taylor notes that "the key is the younger audience.... An audience where going to the net for news content is first nature.... Covering the issues important to 20-35 year olds -- education, job markets etc. -- with an edgy, witty, humorous feel. Remember where young people get a lot of their news: The Daily Show."

The Daily Show versus the Daily Disappointment. Take your pick.

Big hot sweaty barbecue in Gilroy this weekend

[While the local newspaper and CMAP get busy interviewing the cadre of volunteers who put on the annual Garlic Festival, the R of G found some local Gilroyans who could pretty much care less about the annual big hot sweaty barbecue in the park. You might think I'm making this up, but these conversations really happened, more or less... Enjoy the festival! -- D]

---

R of G Question Man: Excuse me, sir, I represent the local media and I'm doing a survey. Will you be attending the garlic festival this year?

Adrian  (delivery specialist, smoking cigarettes outside First Street Coffee): F*** no I ain't going! What for? To eat garlic gut bombs in a cow pasture in 100 degree heat with thousands of sweaty people and pay too much for beer?

R of G: Wassamatta? You don't like the garlic?

Adrian:  Bro, you don't understand. I love garlic. I love cooking with garlic, but any idiot can put nine times too much garlic on something and call it good food. I've got news for you. Just because you slather so much freaking garlic that you can't taste anything else doesn't make it gourmet.

R of G: So you have attended the festival.

Adrian: F*** yeah I've been to the Garlic Festival plenty! and every time I go I tell them what I think of their food. Last time I was there eatin' on some pesto pasta and this garlic fest volunteer, she says, "So how do you like it?" She's waiting there like a puppy dog for me to give her some praise -- So I look at her and I say, very slowly, "Too ... much... freaking...  garlic!" All these people hear me say that and they all say together: "You can't have too much garlic!"  ... Bull! That's like saying you can't have too much salt  or too much oil or too much bread or too much barbecue sauce.

R of G: Now wait. Do you know what you're saying? You're slamming the sacred Garlic festival foodstuffs. People come from all over the world to sample...

Adrian (interrupting): You know what, bro? these Garlic festival people think that they are food experts but they are barely qualified to flip a burger at MacDonald's, OK? What do people in this town know about food except how to stuff it in their pieholes?! People in this town think Johnny Carillo's is fine dining, OK? If you can make a pan fire, at the Garlilc Festival they call you a chef. How many cookbooks tell you to burn the f***ing cooking oil? You know how you can tell a chef at the garlic festival? He's the guy with his f***ing eyebrows all burned off!

R of G: Wow. That's some serious blasphemy. Can I use your name for the article?

Adrian: F*** no. Are you kidding? ... OK, but change my name to Adrian.

---

R of G: Excuse me. Ma'am? Do you live in Gilroy?

Lady (outside of Gap Outlet): Why do you want to know?

R of G:  I'm taking an informal poll for my blog, Republic of Gilroy. You may have heard of it.

Lady at the Gap: No. Haven't heard of your blog. But no I won't go to the festival. In fact I'm leaving town this weekend.

R of G: What is it about the festival that you don't like?

Lady at the Gap: Oh, I'm just not very interested in wandering around in a field of weeds looking at automobile art. Anyway, this is not a festival, it's an elaborate barbecue amid garbage cans and port-a-poddies. It's not even festive. It's desultory. it's dry and hot and a little depressing.

R of G: OK, you sound like you speak from experience...

Lady at the Gap: Oh yeah. I volunteer almost every year. But I can't stand the Garlic Festival. To me it is just another reminder of how I will never fit in here because I'm not from Gilroy. My name is not Filice. I didn't graduate from Gilroy High thank God. I don't attend chamber of commerce mixers... You see you have to be from Gilroy to really get the Garlic Festival. This town is so provincial they actually believe they were the first to discover that garlic is food. Only a Gilroy person cares about Gene Sakahara and Sam Bozzo doing their little routine at the Garlic Festival cookoff. The rest of us are wondering who made these two the reigning local culinary experts? I mean, please. My grandmother had more food expertise in her pinky.

R of G: Well, what can be done to improve the Garlic Festival experience so you'll feel compelled to go back.

Lady at the Gap: You can't do anything. It's entrenched. It's totally status quo. They will not change a thing. You know, it's all about protecting the way it is. The Gilroy Garlic Festival hierarchy won't allow for the possibility that things might be done better.

R of G: For example....

Lady  at the Gap: OK. You see, there are these holy Garlic Festival laws that can't be broken. Like, the festival must be held at Xmas Hill Park. And at the hottest time of the year. People must pay admission to get in. Meanwhile, Morgan Hill and Mountain View have successful festivals in their downtowns, no charge, and the local businesses participate and you can escape into a local restaurant if you get sick of the carnival atmosphere. Here you escape into a beer tent and sit on a hay bale. Whoopee! And the music. Oh my god, it's always Shaboom! ... and the Corvairs. It's always 50s music! No jazz, no reggae, because people in Gilroy wouldn't "get" that. When is this town going to grow out of American Graffitti and sock hops? Do all these Garlic Festival people people have to die before we can move on to the 80s?

R of G: Those are some pretty strong remarks. Can I use your name?

Lady at the Gap: No way. I know these people.

---

R of G: How's it going fellas? I'll bet you're planning on checking out  the Garlic Festival?

Justin (landscaping contractor, drinking  beer at Chili's bar on 10th Street): Ehh... maybe.

R of G: You don't sound too enthusiastic.

Justin:  Well, I'll tell you the problem. The whole thing has become so micromanaged.

Jorge (Justin's buddy, recreation counselor): First, you gotta buy beer tickets. Then you gotta get a wristband. And then you gotta show a driver's license every time you wanna buy a tiny little beer. And you can't buy more than two at a time. It's worse than airport security.

Justin: And then there are cops on horses everywhere. 

Jorge: It was a better back in the old days when it was less controlled. Back in the eighties about 20 people got arrested and there was a big old brawl. Back then you never knew what might happen so you wanted to be there! Even back in the early 90s it was kind of wild but in the last ten years they put the hammer down and now it's very corporate.

Justin: Nobody gets drunk and loud and wild at the Garlic Festival anymore. 

R of G: It's been said that if you're a Gilroy High grad then the festival is your high school reunion. Expatriate Gilroyans come back home for the Garlic Festival. But does anybody else really go?

Justin: You know, I was born in Gilroy, but Gilroy has changed. Here we are sitting in a mall bar on the other side of town fer crissakes. We're not even in Gilroy really. It seems to me that Gilroy is mostly people from somewhere else now. People who moved here in the last 10 to 15 years and did the festival a few times, and they don't really want to do it no more and I can't really blame them. They might be heading over the hill this weekend or going to the grand prix race in San Jose.

Jorge: The grand prix race is going to kill the Garlic Festival.

Justin: No it's not. What do you know? What? You want to go look at people racin' around in the street in tiny little cars.

Jorge: Better than watchin' the same people walkin' around in circles at Gourmet Alley.

R of G: When you think of the Garlic Festival, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Justin: If you grew up here the festival is still fun because you see people who come back into town just for the G Fest, so it's like a big get-together for a lot of us. It's old home week.

Jorge: Yeah. People come back to town for the Garlic festival and they see you and they say, Hey, Why are you still living in Gilroy?

Justin: Like they feel sorry for you. "So you couldn't make it out of Gilroy, huh loser?"

R of G: What else reminds you of the Garlic Festival?

Justin: Mr Garlic. The dude who walks around in the garlic sack dress.

Jorge: I know what you're talking about. Dude looks like he's haulin' around these huge garlic testicles...

Justin (lauging): I know, man, every time I see that old boy walking around I think, that is some serious sack right there.

---

R of G: Excuse me, may I inquiry if you will you be in attendance at Gilroy's annual showcase event?

Skateboarder (at Las animas Skate Park): Huh?

R of G: Will you be going to the Garlic Festival?

Boarder: Why? Are you a cop?

R of G: No. In fact I write a subversive blog -- Republic of Gilroy -- and most people in town hate me.

Boarder: Cool.

R of G: So basically I'm doing an informal poll and was just wondering if you'll be going to the Garlic Festival?

Boarder: I mght go, yeah. How about you? Are you going?

R of G: I don't know. Maybe.

Boarder (showing counterfeit Garlic Festival tickets): Look, man, I can sell you advance tickets right now for half price.

R of G: Wow. I didn't know the festival was selling half-price advance tickets this year.

Boarder: Oh yeah, definitely man. These are  just like the real passes, except cheaper.

R of G (handing over money): Well, OK. It's for a good cause right?

Boarder: Absolutely, man. Hey, if anyone asks you where you got these passes you don't know me, right?

R of G: OK, well.. see you there!

Boarder: Yeah, man. See you at the Garlic Festival Mr. Republic of Gilroy.   

 

 

 

Math Follies

 

[Welcome to Gilroy! It's not the heat; it's the stupidity!] We aren't only about the garlic. We lead the way in other categories, like worst public school system in the south Bay area. Details: Maybe not your kid, but 70 percent of her elementary school classmates haven't mastered the basic math concepts required for their grade level. When your ninth-grader enters the local public high school, only 10 percent of her peers will have the skills to succeed at freshman math. Of the small percentage of Gilroy high grads who enter the California state university system, half will require remedial math instruction before they can take a freshman level math course. But no worries. The Gilroy schools' superintendent -- Edwin Diaz -- has maneuvered himself, like Mr. Magoo, directly behind the elusive math problem! Rest assured that Edwin Diaz Magoo can see a bold yet questionable solution, one that is destined to flail. The GUSD will ignore the education research proving that math concepts -- or any instruction, but especially math concepts -- are best learned in small, not large, chunks. The district will ignore the wisdom of moving all math instruction to the morning, while minds are sharp. The district will not worry whether math concepts are being taught incorrectly in the GUSD (see sidebar), in improper sequence. Not necessary! Under the stewardship of Edwin Diaz Magoo, the GUSD will repair the math problem in one fell swoop by extending math instruction time in the middle schools from 45 to 90 minutes. Wow! But wait, some parents and teachers dare to ask, won't this extra math time eat into other important instruction, like science, reading, and writing? What about the non-remedial kids who don't need extra math? Shhh! Only positive thinking, please! Can you not see that Edwin Diaz Magoo is quite busy driving the GUSD schoolbus in a circle around the academic drainhole. The captain is chasing down the problem. He must not be distracted by second-guessers! Naysayers! Have you not read the glowing adjectives announcing the plan? Do you not see the fawning of the school board nincompoops who exist to validate Edwin's benign nitwittedness -- the amiable boob Jaime Rosso, the information-processing challenged Pat Midtgaard, the babbling clownhead Dave McRae, and the somnambulent fogey Jim Rogers, whose serves on the board mostly to collect district health care benefits? Do you not see how they all ride the bus, blissfully ignorant of the unpleasantness of inconvenient reality?! Behold the beautiful stupidity of Mr. Magoo's new math plan! And how fortuitously its announcement coincides with the revelation of the district's no-retention policy, as reported by Heather Bremner in the Gilroy Dipsicle, our local newspaper. Nobody in Gilroy flunks eighth grade, dammit. Even if they can't multiply fractions or read Dr. Seuss, still we always pass 'em on. "Eighth graders who brought home report cards filled with Fs will still head to Gilroy high school in August, thanks to a system that favors social promotion over retention. This year, 94 students fell into that category, failing to meet even the minimum standard of a cumulative D-average required to participate in eighth grade promotion ceremony... " For those keeping track at home, that's 94 more freshmen going to GHS without a certificate of middle school completion. That's 94 more non-achieving students destined to drive freshman math teachers crazy next year. The district groupthink that rewards abject failure with social promotion is evident in this blithely moronic statement in the same report by Bremner: "It comes down to the philosophy of what do you think is best for the students in terms of retention,' said Ascencion Solarson Middle School Principal Sal Tomasello. "When holding a student back, there's always that question - 'if a student is retained and they're repeating the program, do they get bored?'" ... Yeah, he actually said that. It's a pity Sal, but you just flunked Education 101. But what the heck, this being Gilroy, we'll give Sal another chance. Ya ready, Sal? Pick the outcome that doesn't occur when D and F students are routinely promoted to the next grade: A. the failing students receive the worst possible message about what it takes to succeed in life B. the students' severe learning deficiencies are deferred, passed on to the next teachers in the chain of failure C. the high school math curriculum is dumbed down to accommodate the increaed volume of non-achieving math slackers D. more families of achieving students are motivated to permanently abandon the local public education system and move their kids into private schools (so long and thanks for paying your property taxes!) E. students overcome their learning problems by virtue of not being stigmatized as "repeaters," or worse, "flunkers" (Note to any readers who answered E: you may have a future with the GUSD, please contact the district offices at the earliest possible convenience.) Administrators like Sal Tomasello are the norm in Gilroy -- ready to validate all the wrong turns Diaz takes along the academic policy highway. Born to follow, lemming-like. In this culture of institutionalized ineptitude, just about everyone in the GUSD chain of command can "see" the brilliant logic of Edwin Diaz Magoo's new math plan. It will succeed. It must succeed. The positive adjectives attached to the powerpoint presentation announcing the plan leave no doubt. Moreover, teachers and parents who question the plan are not team players, and if for some reason the plan doesn't succeed it will be their fault. After the school board approved Edwin's brilliant, bold, and brazen new math plan, the teacher's union naturally sought compensation for the middle school teachers whose work days were lengthened. In subsequent negotiations with teachers and union reps, the district's legal counsel, Carol Stevens, lost her composure and began railing at teacher's union president Michelle Nelson. According to observers, Stevens became angry, then petulant, saying she was disappointed and personally hurt at the request for a 3% salary increase, as if she was hearing about it for the first time. Stevens complained to Diaz, who was not at the meeting. He told Dipsicle reporter Bremner that the teachers' behavior was outrageous, rude, and combative. But observers at the meeting reported the opposite: teachers and union reps were calm, circumspect, and prepared to negotiate, while the district's negotiating team seemed unprepared and skittish. Observers say that Stevens behaved like a prima donna determined to be offended. Stevens, along with assistant superintendent Linda Piceno -- she of the Captain Queeg demeanor -- walked out on the first negotiating session. (Kudos to Luigi Aprea elementary teachers Susan Seekatz and Kelley Meloy, Brownell middle school teachers Kristen Shouse and Laurie Avey, and GHS teacher Shawna Morejon, who all dared to publicly contradict Diaz' blame management tactics and risk the ire of HR director Piceno, whose venal tendencies were revealed in the Kristen Porter firing. For speaking the truth, they may be punished with undesirable class assignments and other petty paybacks.) To wrap up this episode of GUSD Watchdog: Bad math policy, dubiously conceived, poorly communicated, destined to fail, prepare to blame the teachers. ... Oh, Magoo, you've done it again!

Two experienced teachers comment on the district's math problem... (these commentaries, from Janet Espinosa and David Finley Clark, originally appeared in the Gilroy Dipsack) We live in a society where mathematics can be the key to success. I have a unique perspective as a retired high school math teacher, a current math faculty member at Evergreen Valley College and a substitute teacher who has taught in all elementary schools in the Gilroy Unified School District. According to research in education, mathematics and linear subjects should be taught early in the day, structures such as reading and language next, and more creative endeavors such as art and music last. In most elementary classroom in the GUSD, math is taught after lunch. Additionally, sustained silent reading, teacher read-aloud, short days, physical education, assemblies, and other activities frequently take chunks of time from mathematics. Math needs to be moved to a dedicated time in the morning. There are some basic concepts which must be mastered as a foundation for more advanced topics and some topics which can be explored but not tested. This is not happening in mathematics. Students in kindergarten are being tested on subtraction before they understand the concept of number value. Students are advancing from first to second grade without knowing their basic addition facts. Students in third grade are not required to know their multiplication facts. Basics must be mastered. We know that students learn at different rates, reach plateaus, and sometimes jump at leaps and bounds. To allow for differences, students progress from grade to grade, but if second-grade basics for math and reading have not been met by the end of third grade, then the students must be held back to reach mastery. Similarly for the other grades, we really need to consider realistic readiness. Middle school is for advancement not for catch-up. If elementary school standards are realistic, instruction is quality, and mastery of basic concepts is required, then students will have much more success. Change with a return to mastery of basics needs to occur in the primary and upper elementary grades immediately. Janet Espinosa, Gilroy ++++ I enjoyed reading Friday's Dispatch about the eighth-grade promotions to high school; but I am also feeling sad because I know some of those promoted will have difficulty in high school because they really don't read well or they have great difficulty in math. It may come as a surprise to many of you but quite a few of these incoming high school students do not know the addition and multiplication facts that you probably mastered before you entered fifth grade. The high school teachers aren't miracle workers. How can they teach any really significant math to those who don't know the number facts? They can't! Is there anything that can be done this summer to help these students before school starts? Lower grade teachers and administrators, are you working on your plans for this coming year to make sure all students master the number facts? It won't help these entering high school this fall; but I hope part of the new extra math instruction period the school board approved for middle schools will include yearly testing of each student individually to see if the student has almost instantaneous recall of all the number facts. For students who have not mastered these facts I hope they will be given daily, individualized teaching of those facts until they are mastered. This should be a high priority and will certainly help them to learn the rest of the math in their curriculum. I also hope the school board will adopt minimum eighth-grade reading and math test scores to be promoted to high school. David Fenley Clark, retired math teacher, Gilroy

Not considered newsworthy

I'm making a list ... of all the news you won't read about in Censorin' Steve staloch's crummy newspapers, including the Hollister Free Lance, the Gilroy Dispatch, and the Pinnacle News (with acknowledgement to Mainstreet Media news reporters like Brett Rowland, and others, who do a fair to good job despite working under unreasonable conditions). This Not Newsworthy list might be posted in the break room at each newspaper, so that employees can know which stories are officially off limits.

For the record, the only media outlets that consider this list newsworthy are Republic of Gilroy and the Hollister Free Press Online.

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Vandals in San Benito county deface the election signs of John Sarsfield (running for re-election as DA) and Tracie Cone (former publisher of the Pinnacle News, running for San Benito county district 4 supervisor).
  

  

[above: if D.A. candidate Art Cantu and supervisor candidate Richard Place's signs had been defaced, you can bet the Pinnacle would have considered it newsworthy]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Supervisor Reb Monaco's character issues, including his participation in polygamous sexual encounter seminars and his resistance to passing a no porn in the workplace ordinance.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy or Hollister: Republican state assembly candidate (district 28) Ignacio Velasquez' public rants and ravings, and his close association with the anonymous extortion and slander klan known as Los Valientes. 

   

  

  [above: Hollister electrical contractor Iggy Velazquez, one of the Los Valientes stooges. Watch out Gilroy, he could be your next state assemblyman]

   

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: The firing of chief photographer James Mohs, who collected 20 CNPA newspaper awards over his nine-plus years at the Girloy Dispatch. Reportedly the Dispatch tried to deny Mohs unemployment benefits, but Mohs won the appeal in court last month, in a hearing at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.

 

Not newsworthy in Gilroy and Hollister: The unreasonable working conditions of reporters slaving for the Mainstreet Media cartel, where policy is to pay sub-livable wages, burden reporters with more stories than they can cover, and never ever pay overtime. Ask for overtime or a raise, lose your job.

Not newsworthy in Gilroy Hollister: A settlement that MSM paid last year to a group of veteran employees, including reporters, who filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the paper. The veterans may have made the fatal mistake of asking for pay increases. Also, not being young and naive about the MSM's editorial policy.

Not newsworthy in Hollister: A report that  Censorin' Steve Staloch vowed that "no way in hell" would his newspapers endorse Tracie Cone, Pinnacle News ex-publisher, in her bid to be an SB county supe. Staloch's remarks were reportedly made before the editorial board met to interview Cone, who is running on a controlled growth platform in a county overwhelmed with infrastructure problems resulting from years of unplanned, out-of-control residential growth.

[above: Censorin' Steve Staloch, Mainstreet Media publisher and permanent obstacle to truthful reporting by the Mainstreet Media cartel]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: District 4 supervisorial candidate Richard Place's history of angry, uncontrolled public outbursts, his battles with the bottle, and his involvement with an anonymous gang of slimy individuals who are facing a $5 million civil lawsuit -- the county's cost to defend against frivolous Los Valientes nuisance lawsuits -- and other reparations to individuals whose civil rights were abused by the LVers.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: The makeup of the Pinnacle News editorial board, which includes Jim West, Richard Place's former campaign manager; a consultant to a major housing developer; and  the county's largest cattle rancher -- all of whom are anti-Sarsfield, anti-Cone and for the removal existing growth control restrictions.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: The fact that when Richard Place was served with a subpoena to appear at a deposition in the D.A.'s civil prosecution against Lost Valientes, he demanded that the taxpayers pay his attorney fees. Just one of many ironies in about Place's greasy legal maneuverings.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: City council's ongoing history of approving haphazard residential housing projects that far exceed the agreed-upon building limits defined in the General Plan and the RDO (residential development ordinance).
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: Whether former councilman Tony Sudol,under SEC  investigation for insider tipping to the tune of $400,000, should be given permission to convert the land occupied by the former Indian Motorcyle plant into a townhouse/condo development called San Ysidro Square.

[above: Tony Sudol, whom the SEC claims  tipped off his brothers prior to Cisco System's acquisitions of Latitude Communications in 2003,  Active Voice (in 2001), CAIS Internet (in 2000), Arrowpoint (in 2000), and GeoTel Communications (in 1999).]

• Not newsworthy in Hollister: SB Supervisor James De La Cruz outrageous claim, in a television interview, that District Attorney John Sarsfield had spent $1 million in tax-payers dollars pursuing the Los Valientes case, when in fact the D.A.'s office has spent just over $100,000 to expose the extortionists and seeks to make that group repay approximately $5 million in taxpayers' money.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Telephone death threats received by Hollister free press online publisher Danny Grannis from people unpleased with the HFPO's LV exposes. At MSM, HFPO does not exist (tell that to HFPO's considerable online readership).
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: Someone unhappy with the D.A.'s pursuit of election fraud in San Benito county snuck into Sarsfield's yard and killed both of the family dogs (necropsy revealed that the dogs were fed antifreeze). At the time, Sarsfield was investigating ballot-stuffing on behalf of supervisor James De La Cruz.
• Not newsworthy in Hollister: District attorney candidate Arthur Cantu's past domestic violence troubles, as reported in the Hollister free press online.

[above, Art Cantu, candidate for San Benito county D.A.'s office and the lawyer for embattled Los Valientes attorney Michael Pekin]

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: Gilroy sacred cow #1 Jane Howard's membership on the editorial board of the Gilroy Dispatch, despite her deep involvement with the Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Clara county board of educaton, and her "undersight" of Measure I bond funds while chairwoman of the Measure I Citizen's Oversight Committee. Now that the school district hasn't enough money to build the new high school that was supposed to be funded by the $69 million Measure I bond, Howard's fellow editorial board members should ask Citizen Jane why she  didn't sign off on the oversight committee's 2003 annual financial report.
  

[above: Jane Howard, perennial Gilroy politico and a member of the Dispatch editorial board, proved to be clueless about how an oversight committee is supposed to safeguard the tax-paying public from wasteful or improper expenditure of school construction bond money]

• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: GUSD assistant superintendent of curriculum development Jacki Horejs' glaring incompetence. Incapable of creating anything but powerpoints for school board meetings, she and co-curriculum "superstar" Olivia Schaad abdicate curriculum development decisions to outsiders, including education consultant Douglas Reeves and the shadowy Stupski Foundation.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy: The superintendent of school's farcical investigation of his own miserable performance -- called the Accountability Task Force -- which not surprisingly found that Edwin Diaz is doing a wonderful job, even as SAT scores of GHS grads continue along an 8-year downward trend.
• Not newsworthy in Gilroy or Hollister: The tradition of censoring political news reporting that might reflect unfavorably on MSM advertisers, Gilroy chamber of commerce "dignitaries," Leadership Gilroy wannabes, Hollister Downtown Association insiders, and Steve Staloch's Los Valientes pals  -- all of whom are granted immunity from negative press.

More Mainstreet media censorship: Dispatch smothers Cheek

   

[at left, Martin Cheek, a respected local writer and  columnist. Cheek has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. He recently produced a "video poem" entitled We All Must Fall. Now Cheek can add "smothered by Staloch" to his list of accomplishments.] Dark days for truth in reporting. The public's right to know sordid truths about elected officials and candidates for office lies buried under six feet of slime and muck. The creatures patrolling the slimy muckhole where the truth lies imprisoned include the local newspaper monopoly's publisher, Steve Staloch, and Hollister businessman Richard Place. Place is a candidate for San Benito county supervisor. SB District Attorney John Sarsfield has identified Place as the leader of  "Los Valientes," an anonymous organization that emulates the intimidation tactics of the Ku Klux Klan. Staloch and Place's willing dupes include Pinnacle News publisher Mark Paxton and Gilroy Dispatch editor Mark Derry. In late February, these four men conspired to permanently censor writer Kate Woods' award-winning political reportage on San Benito county politics. Woods "Report from the Badlands" was deemed "too political" and she was charged by Derry with writing for the enemy (me -- it wasn't true). To appease Place, Staloch also pulled Woods off any controversial Hollister and San Benito stories -- her beat for most of the last decade. (Details: see Kate Woods silenced) Unbelievably -- unless of course you are a resident of San Benito county, then you understand perfectly well -- Paxton's editorial explanation of Woods' silencing during an election season was that "we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various mesages the candidates portend." Wow. That is either an incredibly stupid statement to be ignored or a direct threat to freedom of the press that should make us shiver. What is Paxton saying? That Woods' political commentary isn't earnest or intelligent enough for a podunk Hollister paper? Is Paxton saying that Woods' CNPA award-winning investigative reporting is an editorial liability? [at left, Mainstreet Media publisher Steve Staloch.] Now "Censorin' Steve" Staloch has struck again. The R of G has learned that Staloch halted publication of columnist Martin Cheek's column about Woods' censorship. According to Woods, who read Cheek's column before it was submitted and rejected: "it was a thorough commentary about censorship, since it has been such a scorching hot topic in the Pineackle lately, and yes, he interviewed me on what happened with the Richard Place censorship  management meeting. Marty was going to compare what happened with me with what happened to the Smother Brothers [when NBC TV execs censored the comedy team's political commentary in the late 60s]." According to Cheek, Staloch gave no explanation for cutting his column. "I didn't speak directly with Steve about this situation. Katie Niekerk, the lifestyle editor, told me the column I wrote about Kate Woods was a 'no go.' She had forwarded it to Mark Derry and he gave it to Steve. Steve sent me an  e-mail saying he wanted to talk, but we haven't spoken to each other yet." Why did Staloch smother Cheek? Simple. To discourage any other Mainstreet Media writers (including reporters at the Dispatch, the Hollister Free Lance, and the Morgan Hill Times) from writing about Woods or Los Valientes. [at left, Pinnacle editor Mark Paxton, enabler of Staloch's news blackout of the Los Valientes political scandal.] Slapping Cheek reinforces Staloch's message to all employees: stories about Woods' censorship or the Los Valientes scandal are off limits, will be gagged. Don't bother. (see the Hollister Free Press Online for current, honest up-to-date coverage) Staloch's intimidation tactics are working. After he learned that I knew his column had been pulled, Cheek was eager to make sure I understood that he holds no ill will toward Staloch. "...  it was only the column that I wrote about Kate  Woods and the Smothers Brothers that was cut. I'll still be writing my column every week. It's just that I can't write about something so  sensitive to Mainstreet Media. As for Steve Staloch, I hold no animosity toward him." No one inside the Mainstreet Media compound will talk to the Republic of Gilroy about the silencing of Kate Woods or Staloch's decision to pull Cheek. Pinnacle editor Paxton told me several weeks ago that he would explain everything. "The issue is considerably  simpler than most people understand," he assured me by email. I haven't heard back yet. Looks like the R of G is going to have to force the issue. Internet Addendum: the Smothers Brothers Brothers Tom & Dick Smothers co-hosted the controversial variety program THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS SHOW/CBS/1967-69 that poked fun at Middle America, the military, the police (Officer Judy), The Silent Majority, and government at large (Pat Paulsen's wacked-out jibes and editorials aimed at President Lyndon Baines Johnson). Network censors had a field day cutting what they considered unacceptable comedy skits from the program. Segments that got the censor's axe included a special 1968 Mother's Day message which ended with the words "Please talk peace" (referring to the Vietnam War); Harry Belafonte singing before a backdrop of disturbing images from the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago; an interview with Dr. Benjamin Spock, at the time an advocate for draft evaders; and the cancellation of the performance in 1967 of folk singer Pete Seeger (blacklisted from TV for some 20 years) who was scheduled to play the song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" about a WWII soldier killed because of a stupid order from his commanding officer. Afraid to insult the political powers, CBS refused to allow  the song (he did, however, perform the song on a later episode). The     country at the time was itself "deep" in the Vietnam War. In October 1968 CBS executives began to prescreen all of Smothers Brothers their programs. After several tumultuous seasons, the program was canceled (the Smothers Brothers called it being "Fired") and left the air in June of 1969. The CBS network justified their cancellation by referring to network policy that "Prohibits appeals for active support of any cause" (even if it was "peace"). TRIVIA NOTE: The CBS network would not allow singer Bob Dylan to sing "John Birch Society Talking Blues" on the ED SULLIVAN SHOW in 1963. Dylan then refused to appear on the show

LOCAL PRINT MEDIA CENSORSHIP OF THE LOS VALIENTES STORY After Kate Woods was silenced, the Pinnacle News assigned reporter Melissa Flores to cover the Los Valientes story. Flores has obediently made sure not to report developments in D.A. John Sarsfield's civil case against LV lawyer Michael Pekin and SB politicians who have been identified as LV members. Flores understands that the Los Valientes corruption scandal -- which includes county supes Anthony Botelho and James De La Cruz; candidates for office Richard Place, Ignacio Velazquez,  and Arthur Cantu; and LV nuisance lawsuit filer Michael Pekin  -- is out of bounds. Like so many journalists these days, she dutifully avoids controversy. Editor Paxton refuses to run any more letters from readers complaining about Woods' removal and has penned a couple editorials telling readers to get over it.  Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to report the seamy political scandal the Pinnacle ignores. The Hollister Free Lance covers the Los Valientes story ... from the LV viewpoint. In fact, Los Valientes itself may be an outgrowth of an anonymous "Citizen's Voice" column that used to run in the Free Lance. This makes sense when you realize that Richard Place is a former editorial board member and an associate of Steve Staloch. Place was in the room when Staloch and Paxton killed Woods' column and banished her. That conversation took place at the Free Lance offices, where Place feels at right at home. The "Free Pants" dedicated opposition to SB District Attorney John Sarsfield isn't stopping the D.A.s plan to take depositions in the LV case. Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to counter the "free Pants" biased coverage of this seamy political scandal. The Gilroy Dispatch doesn't cover Los Valientes, except to occasionally reprint slanted articles from its sister publication, the Hollister Free Lance. Dispatch editor Mark Derry's policy is to avoid the story. So Dipsack readers do not know that Ignacio Velazquez, a Hollister restaurant owner and a known supporter of Los Valientes' Klan-like tactics, is running for office in the District 28 Assembly race, and could represent Gilroy at the state capitol. Since "Iggy" Velasquez is an associate of Richard Place, he's therefore off limits and Derry knows it. To know more about Velazquez' character, read the collection of Iggy rants apppearing in the Hollister Free Press Online. TV & NON-PRINT MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE LOS VALIENTES STORY While print media coverage has been snuffed, the Hollister Free Press Online continues to report the sordid details that Staloch's newspapers aren't reporting, or are mis-reporting, including Los Valientes' origins, their methods, their motives, their embattled legal counsels. This independent media outlet continues to report truthfully and is keeping the public informed about nefarious deeds by elected officials and their cronies. The price for honesty, as HFPO editor Paul Grannis recently learned, includes receiving phone calls from Los Valientes associates who are "valiant" enough to issue death threats anonymously.  KION (Monterey) and KSBW (Salinas) television stations have also reported the Los Valientes story, including D.A. Sarsfield's ongoing battle with SB county supes who don't want to be investigated, and the Kate Woods censorship story. When KION reporter Joel Moreno attempted to interview Staloch to question his relationship to Los Valientes and explain why he gave the order to censor Woods, Staloch "bravely" went underground. Known Los Valientes associate Anthony Botelho wasn't so smart -- he denied, on camera, any knowledge of or involvement with Los Valientes. Botelho may sing a different tune under oath, when D.A. Sarsfield takes depositions in the Los Valientes civil case. That is, if corrupt SB supes don't find a way to prevent that from happening.

GHS administration condones student walkouts

 

The email at right, from GHS assistant principal Greg Camacho-Light to all Gilroy high teachers, contains the school administration's response to the students who walked out of classes to protest an immigration bill (HR 4437) and other changes to immigration laws. The message was read to all students by principal James MaxWell (en Ingles) and Mani Corzo (en Espanol).  One GHS teacher reported that the tone of Maxwell's message was conciliatory bordering on apologetic. After the message was read, a student was heard to remark, "They kissed our asses." Suspensions were threatened, but so far no high school students have actually been suspended for walking out. ["Homework assignment: Start collecting American flags for the next after-school immigrant rights march. Leave the Mexican flags at home."-- SJ Mercury News columnist Joe Rodriguez (Lessons for students on protesting, 09-apr-2006)] The high school's message was non-neutral. It was pro-illegal. Students were congratulated for demonstrating and told they had affected the outcome of legislation. "You can feel proud that change was a result of peaceful protest," GHS principal Maxwell said, congratulating the students who walked. Not true, Jim. Those student immigration protests during school hours generated more negative opinion than positive support for illegal immigrant rights. Hispanic kids ditching their publicly funded education to wave the Mexican tricolor on behalf of illegal immigrant rights... hmm, what's wrong with this picture? As Mercury news columnist and outspoken defender of Latino culture put it, "Walking out hurts schools because they are funded through a daily attendance formula. Look, most urban schools have become safe havens for illegal immigrants. Why disrepect them?"   The student protestors did inadvertently touch off a badly needed debate regarding immigration policy. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, over the last five years, the number of illegals crossing into the U.S. from Mexico has doubled. Let's be clear about why an estimated 2.3 million Mexicans took up illegal residence in the U.S. between 2000 and 2005: Because Mexico's economy sucks, compared to ours. And the U.S. offers free public education and practically free health care services. Those students who walked might be surpised to learn that many older Hispanics are in favor of stricter controls on illegal immigration. They know why Cesar Chavez fought against illegal immigration (a fact conveniently not mentioned by protest organizers).  Chavez knew that unchecked illegal immigration leads to more, not less, poverty and inequity. Chavez was for stricter immigration laws as a means to prevent the exploitation of an illiterate underclass. But a lot has changed since Chavez, especially in California public education policy. Nearly 40 years have passed since the massive Chicano student walkouts in East L.A. challenged unfair treatment in that school system, controls are now in place to prevent unequal treatment of non-English speaking Hispanic immigrants. Today the Gilroy school district provides educational, health, and family services to non-English speakers, and champions Latino culture within the school system.

Text of GHS principal James Maxwell's message to students who walked out of classes to protest immigration laws. ---Original Message  From: Gregory CamachoLight Sent: Wed 3/29/2006 9:27 AM To: GHS Staff Subject: Urgent....Monday - Tuesday situations Dear Staff, the following message will be read by [GHS principal] Jim [Maxwell] and [assistant principal] Mani [Corzo] (in Spanish) at approximately 10:30 this morning. Please have all students quiet and listening to the message.... This is a message from the Gilroy High School Administration. Events of the last couple of days have been both inspiring and disheartening. Monday's protest denouncing recent proposed federal legislation was part of a national movement that actually influenced a major Senate committee. The Senators heard the voices of many, including your own. Those of you who participated in Monday's protest, indeed, made a difference. What was disheartening was that for every student who participated, some took advantaged of the opportunity and cut class. And to make matters worse, yesterday's protest resulted in rock throwing, a fight and some arrests. This behavior put a bad mark on an otherwise inspiring moment. No longer is this a peaceful protest to right what many feel is a wrong, but instead the peaceful protests are being high-jacked by others who want to take advantage of the opportunity to do harm. As a school, we can not tolerate this kind of behavior, and as a student who has pride in what they do and believe in-neither should you. For the safety of all of the members of our GHS family, consequences are resulting from yesterday's walkout. You can feel proud that change was a result of peaceful protest, but any more walkouts will only lead to others taking advantage of the situation and drowning out your voice. And so, any student leaving campus without a passport or proper note will receive an appropriate consequence of Saturday School or suspension. We do not want to silence your voice. We want you to be heard. If you have any ideas on how we can have a serious dialogue and discussion about these and other issues, and learn more about civil disobedience and protest, please talk with your teachers or drop off your ideas at the front office. Thank you.

Immigration protest walkouts at GHS are particularly galling to many teachers inside the facility who can't help but note the many special activities and events catering to Latinos.

Ironically, at the same time of the protests, the emails below also appeared from GHS Latino advisor Jose H. Hernandez, detailing two Latino-only events with high visibility at GHS, even interferiing with classroom instruction time.

-----Original Message-----

From: Jose Hernandez
Sent: Wed 4/5/2006 5:00 PM
To: GHS Staff
Subject: Contacts

Does anyone have any connections with an author, artist, athlete, or high official that is Latino and might be willing to do a presentation for the Latinos Program? I'm trying to find anyone "famous" that could come to campus on el Cinco de Mayo. Please let me know if you know of anyone that I might be able to contact.

thanks,

José H Hernández
Gilroy High School Science Teacher
GHS Latinos Program Advisor

-----Original Message-----

From: Jose Hernandez
Sent: Tue 3/28/2006 4:36 PM
To: GHS Staff
Subject: Latinos Improvement/Achievement

You've received a list of the 133 students who were nominated by you. There will be a short celebration during BRUNCH in the College and Career Center on Thursday March 30th. Please release the students on this list at 9:45am and remind them to come celebrate their success. You are welcomed to join us and in the next two days you will get the certificates for your students.

thanks,

José H Hernández
Gilroy High School Science Teacher
GHS Latinos Program Advisor

-------

 

 

McRae: Send in the mimes

           

I'll bet the other school board trustees wish that Dave McRae would take a permanent Day of Silence. McRae, who dabbles in stand-up comedy, has lately been making a fool of himself at school board events. The R of G interprets McRae's recent attempts to speak "boldly" and cozy up to superintendent Edwin Diaz and board president Pat "Edwina" Midtgaard as a sign he intends to run for re-election in November. But McRae has only managed to embarrass himself and the board. McRae can't even ingratiate himself with the incompetent people running Gilroy's public ed system. l Profiles in irrelevance: Above left, Milton Waddam, an employee of the dysfunctional InTech corporation, in the cult comedy Office Space. Milton's personal space and personal identity become increasingly marginalized as the movie progresses. Above right, David McRae, of the equally dysfunctional, but real, Gilroy school board. McRae's career as a school board member has been marked by a similar downward spiral of self-inflicted irrelevance. Last week, McRae admitted talking about Day of Silence in private conversations with other board members. He also confessed that the board had routinely discussed Day of Silence in closed session. McRae seemed to be unaware that both activities can be considered Brown Act violations. McRae's outbursts forced Edwina Midtgaard to do damage control, and basically deny everything McRae said. (Per Edwina, board members have never discussed Day of Silence was never discussed informally or in closed session.) Earlier in the week, McRae made a stunningly stupid remark while weighing in (again) on Day of Silence. This McRae comment is important to remember, because it reveals the school board member's ignorance of fundamental, education 101 concepts. "McRae said teachers can still provide an effective lesson without using words and that it will be difficult, nearly impossible, to write a policy demanding teachers talk during class." --  Dipsack report of Feb 8 That's right. He said it and let's not forget it, especially if he decides to run again. According to McRae: (a) teaching silently can be as effective as any other teaching method, and (b) the school district is not in a position to tell teachers how to do their jobs. From McRae's perspective, the most important thing is to pre-empt any possibilty of lawsuits from mimes who might want to teach in the GUSD. He didn't stop at mimes. He went on, one foot stuck in a bucket. "The board member also thinks the real issue is intolerance of heterosexuals, not education. "I don't see a lot of gays and lesbians walking around (in Gilroy)," he said. "I don't see a lot of discussion about it." -- same Dipsack report So let me get this straight... if we can just get more gays and lesbians "walking around" town in, say, rainbow-colored clothing on Wednesdays at 3 p.m., then the board can get back to the business of education? ... These most recent public outbursts follow on the heels of McRae's unforgettable debate night blunder on Dec 12, when he accused Bob Heisey of making "very insulting" comments about non-whites. But Heisey didn't make the comments. The comments were made by Bill Paterson, a nice older guy without a malicious bone in his body who wouldn't knowingly insult anyone. Said McRae about the comments made by Bill Paterson, which he attributed to Bob Heisey: "Of all the comments that night from all 4 candidates, that was the  only one that shocked me or offended me. It seemed a very uneducated  thing to say." McRae couldn't resist adding: "I'm not even sure any other Board Member caught that, but I did." (For more, see School Board Buffoon)

What  is Day of Silence? Day of Silence is a media event (see Day of Silence Web Site hosted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) that uses passive disruption, like encouraging students and teachers to remain mute in class, to gain attention. Cute, but do these tactics actually raise awareness about anti-gay hate crimes? Or are they just annoying? It's hard to be sympathetic to a cause that interrupts instructional time, already in short supply. One thing Day of Silence has accomplished is to provide Day of Truth advocates with a platform for rationalizing their homophobia. How about directing all this energy to supporting and defending the actual victims of verbal and physical abuse,and holding school district's accountable for proving that victims of harassment and abuse are protected, not ignored, and that the guilty are identified and punished? The real story is how the  GUSD doesn't support victims of abuse -- see this GHS grad's story, printed last year in a letter to the Dispatch: "Four years ago when I went to Gilroy High I was not protected, I was not protected by the principal and I was not protected by the security  administrator. I was so unprotected, that when it came to protecting me the security administrator put the expulsion of other students in my hands alone.He told me that I could choose to expel those who harassed me - and there were many - but that he would let them know I had made that decision. "When I and others originally reported complaints of sexual and verbal harassment, he let them know it was a female who reported them. He let them know it was me. I'd like to tell the people of Gilroy that this is where it ended, but this was simple child's play  compared to the actions that came next. "When I and other students began receiving death threats mailed to our front doors by  anonymous sources, we, of course, brought these letters to the attention of the principal. The letter I received spelled out how the people writing it would come get me, drag me behind their cars, show me what real men could do, and make a scarecrow out of me and my friends  before they would kill us. The letters were intense, and I can honestly say they affect those of my friends who received them to this day "When we brought these terrifying letters to the principal, nothing happened. While other students at Gilroy High were being expelled for smart  comments on school shootings, a death threat mailed to my home, was  simply cast aside. Four years ago Gilroy High shafted me, a GATE and  honors student, because it could not handle the changing world. This silence has affected me for the last four years and coming together  with my thoughts now makes me realize the pain I've held because of it." Is Day of Silence legit?  Students are within their legal rights to engage in mute protest during classroom time, but the school district has the legal right to discipline teachers who use instructional time to hold a political protest. As employees of the school district, teachers have no legal footing to bring personal political agendas, no matter how earnestly felt, into the workplace. Moreover, a policy demanding that teachers speak in class has no bearing on existing policies covering acceptable conduct, non-harassment, and non-violence. The Gilroy school board, led by Edwin Diaz, dithered over this widely accepted legal conclusion regarding Day of Silence for more than a year before tentatively getting behind it.            For background info see the R of G June '05 report on Day of Silence: While Edwin waffles, Day of Silence advocates keep talking.

Year of the Cow: Unreported stories of 2005

Moo. It's February. The Republic of Gilroy wishes you belated new year's greetings. The dank month of Feb is a good time to consider the significant stories that were ignored in 2005. Why were these stories ignored or barely reported? Lots of reasons: (a) the trend toward fluff over substance in community newspapers; (b) the assumption that people don't have the attention span to read longer, investigative stories; (c) overworked, underpaid reporters too burdened with filling the daily fluff-hole to report the story behind the story; (d) a media monopoly -- Mainstreet Media LLC -- owning all the local papers and eliminating healthy editorial competition between papers; and, most significantly, (e) too many danged SACRED COWS -- Dipsack advertisers and other Gilroy "players" who are permanently off-limits (unless, of course, they become involved in a sex scandal or get themselves arrested). 

Sacred cows may be off limits down at the Dipsack, but in the Republic of Gilroy, sacred cows are always fair game. So let's have a barbecue!

Here, then, are the R of G's top unreported stories of 2005. Not surprisingly, half involve our underperforming, inaccountable, excuse-making, mediocre-and-proud-of-it school district. I'll start at the top of the list and work my way down, so check back. (And no, I'm aware of the good trends in Gilroy -- the downtown building and streetscape renaissance, community parks, the trails master plan, GUSD teachers who've achieved academic success despite the system, and other good things. But the R of G isn't Gilroy's cheerleader -- that's a job I leave to the experts, namely the local newspaper, the chamber, and certain elected officials named Craig Gartman and Pat Midtgaard.)

• The Dipsack: sacred cow sanctuary
• Council loses its rudder (Bob Dillon loses election)
• Racial prejudiced disguised as Equity (Aguirre "elected")
• Dave McRae, school board buffoon
• American idiot -- still a hero in the provinces
• Accountability task farce
• Financial undersight of school facilities bond
• GUSD repels bright kids
• Indian casino backers
• Notorious for unintelligent design

---

Free Press editor reproached for being reasonable

Gilroy High's student newspaper editor, Chris Morsilli, wrote about the CAHSEE exam recently. In a January 03 Dipsack column titled "Simple: Pass or Don't Graduate," the GHS senior reasoned that:

"If passing the CAHSEE is required for graduation, why should students who do not complete this requirement be allowed to participate in the graduation ceremonies even if they fulfill all other graduation requirements?"

Careful, Chris, remember that you're white and in the small segment of GUSD students performing at or above grade-level proficiency. In this school district, that combination of attributes makes you elitist, "not a good fit." Kind of like Bob Heisey. In this district, you would have to be co-dependent in some way for your opinions about the CAHSEE to be considered valid...

"Beginning with their sophomore year, each student has four opportunities to pass the CAHSEE. Students are given more than ample opportunity to pass the test, which most students pass on the first attempt and do not even find to be overly challenging. All the material tested is basic middle school and freshmen level grammar and mathematics. It's not as if the student has to write a paper on quantum physics or solve calculus problems."

Whoa! Chris. Whoa! Don't you realize? This kind of flagrant honesty is counterproductive to superintendent Edwin Diaz' Strategic Plan! As Edwin might say, how does this attitude help us narrow the achievement gap?

[at right: Free press editor Chris Morsilli works on the GHS student newspaper -- as a successful white kid, his pass-or-don't-graduate CAHSEE stance will earn him the school district's elitist tag]

Chris, the school board is dedicating many many hours to the CAHSEE/graduation ceremony issue, working hard to make it much more complex than it needs to be. The last thing the district needs is for a graduating GHS senior who has been privileged enough to fulfull all his coursework to take a definite stance on behalf of common sense...

"Personally I do not understand why there is even a debate over whether or not students who fail to pass the CAHSEE should participate in the graduation ceremonies. They are not graduating, so why should they be recognized as if they are. It seems to me that this situation is pretty cut and dry.... Passing the CAHSEE is a requirement to graduate from a high school in the state of California; if you don't pass you don't graduate, and if you don't graduate, you don't participate in the graduation ceremony."

Now you've done it. Now you've touched the main nerve. Sure enough one of our local champions of mediocrity, a Mr. Alan Johnson, has written into the Dipsack to complain about your remorseless attitude. "There was no mention which college Chris would be attending," says Johnson, "but after reading his latest article, I suggest he postpone his graduation plans and stick around to help those that don't pass the California High School Exit Exam."

Having put Morsilli in his place for having college aspirations, Johnson leaves Morsilli with his bit of advice: "Someday you might be stranded along the roadside with a flat tire on your 2006 white-and-blue Mustang. The tow truck you called for assistance slowly passes by. You heard someone laughing and yelling out the window: hey aren't you that guy that denied me the opportunity to graduate with the rest of my class?"

Johnson's message to Morsilli: Snob! How dare you presume to go to college and leave your CAHSEE-failing peers behind?

... No, Chris, I don't get it either. But, then, this is Gilroy. As a graduating senior, by now you should understand  that you are in a school district where the low achievers and the non-achievers are served first. The "haves" already have enough.

That's why Edwin, and Edwina (board president Pat Midtgaard), and several other board members decided that even though Javier Aguirre was clearly less informed and qualified than Bob Heisey, he was still the best fit to be T. J. Owens' replacement on the school board. Hey, the dude speaks Spanish, OK? He hasn't served on a single GUSD committee, has no background in the issues, but he has MACSA credentials! That he's Latino makes him more qualified to be a GUSD board member than the white guy Heisey who's been deeply involved in the district for years. Appointments based on race and culture are OK if they're made in the pursuit of equity.

Let's just remember how school board Jaime Rosso endorsed Aguirre instead of Heisey. If you can get through it, Rosso selected Aguirre because he's Hispanic:

"... um ... we have many needs in the district ... and I feel that we need to ... um... do more and articulate and communicate and do a better job in addressing as it deals with the lowest achieving kids .. uh ... because for example the English language learner the gap is so huge it's it's it's you know it's other students are achieving at much higher levels than English language learners who represent one third of our student population. Hispanics as a whole are achieving  at about half the rate of non-Hispanics in our district and .. um ...  I feel, as much as I feel that all our board does you know ... tries to be sensitive to all needs and I and I think that we have to address the high achievers as well as the low ... um ... I find that um one of the strong areas that I if I were to say that we have two strong candidates um I would feel that I would love to see the opportunity to have a board member that can um the um um to to the Spanish speaking community and be a strong voice uh that word articulate the needs and communicate so I will cast my vote for Javier Aguirre."

Thanks for the explanation, Jaime. You've helped us all realize that if a GUSD board member can't express himself at an eighth-grade level, why should we expect such skills from graduating GHS seniors?

But back to Morsilli, who wrote: "I feel that the school district needs to stick to its guns and say, if you don't pass the California High School Exit Exam, you don't exit." And the Watchdog endorses that point of view. If I were a graduating GHS senior, I wouldn't want the value of my high school diploma diminished by non-achievers -- just as I would resent it if the most notorious slacker at my workplace who does nothing but surf the Internet and make personal phone calls all day were to receive a big promotion. If I were a Gilroy High alumni, I wouldn't want it to be said that "Anyone can graduate from Gilroy High. All you have to do is show up."

The Watchdog would like to see Morsilli and the Free Press take this CAHSEE controversy one step further (if the journalism advisor and the high school principal will permit it). The Free Press should poll the legitimately graduating seniors at GHS: How many of those who passed the CAHSEE believe that non-CAHSEE passers should be allowed to walk across the stage during the June graduation ceremony? How many believe that non-CAHSEE passers should be given a diploma anyway? How low do you drop the bar? Do you also open up the ceremony to dropouts? Why not... whatever it takes to make sure that equity is served.

Wal-Mart vows to crush dollar stores, garage sales

Wal-Mart bills itself as the "low-cost leader," but maybe not so in Gilroy.

Responding to the "99-cent threat" operating within its Gilroy borders, Wal-Mart corporation announced it will begin competing directly with dollar stores, vintage clothiers, used book sellers, swap meets, flea markets -- even garage sales. Anyone doing after-market discount retail business in Gilroy without Wal-Mart's permission will know Wal-Mart's fury.

[at right: another early morning garage sale does business in Girloy, right under Wal-Mart's nose]

"The Sam Walton family is disappointed that Gilroy city officials would lure Wal-Mart's SuperCenter into Gilroy without disclosing the extent of Gilroy's after-market retail economy," an unnamed Wal-Mart source told the Republic of Gilroy. "We just opened the region's first SuperCenter and from day one we've been bleeding dollars to unfair competition."

[at left: the old Wal-Mart building -- destined to become the region's first Wal-Mart SuperOutlet?]

Wal-Mart is taking the after-market discount threat in Gilroy seriously. The company has announced plans to transform the old Wal-Mart store, on 7900 Arroyo Circle, into the region's first Wal-Mart SuperOutlet. "Even if we can't offer lower prices than a swap meet, we give you more choices, and we also write up our employees for not being cheerful."

Gilroy city officials were elated over news of a possible Wal-Mart SuperOutlet. "We are thrilled and honored to have found a legitimate use for the old Wal-mart building. This is another huge win for the city, and it happened on my watch," said recently re-elected councilman Keg Waffleman.

Everyone knows about Gilroy's hot market for cheap products that fall apart quickly, but Wal-Mart didn't reckon how hot. Ironically, many goods being sold at yard sales and swap meets in Gilroy have often been purchased once before -- at the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. The world's hugest retailer is just now waking up to the economic loss from unregulated resales of its products. This in addition to battling labor unions and lawsuits and spending billions to justify its business practices. 

[The Salvation Army:a legitimate threat to the Wal-Mart brand?]

"It's a matter of survival now." said one Wal-Mart SuperCenter floor manager, furtively smoking a cigarette while listening to the stereo in his car during a 15-minute break. "If they let the discounters win here in Gilroy, we could lose the entire state. If we lose here, the snowball could start rolling. We could lose the whole country.""So Wal-Mart's hurtin', huh?" said one shopper at a 99-cent store in Gilroy. "That's what they get!" The shopper said he was once fired from Wal-Mart for being chronically late to work. Ever since, he has hated the company. "Man, [expletive] Wal-mart, I ain't wearing no [expletive homophobic slur] Wal-Mart uniform."

Standing at the cash register, waiting for the shopper to count his change, the dollar-store proprietor smiled smugly and said he is not surprised that Wal-mart has turned its massive eye on the discount retail after-market.  "I've been waiting for them to notice me for years. I knew it was just a matter of time. Guess what, Wal-Mart? You think 99-cents is ba-a-a-d? Wait 'til you hear about 91-cents!" He and the shopper cackled and traded high-fives.

"They're finally getting some of their own medicine, you know?" said a Gilroy resident who holds, on average, one garage sale every month. She said she resells a lot of Wal-mart product. "Frankly, A lot of it is crap, and once people buy it they don't know what to do with it, so it ends up on a table at my garage sale. Is that my fault?

[left: this Wal-Mart tumbler set was recently sold below at a garage sale in Gilroy, without Wa-Mart's authorization]

"It's pretty funny that Wal-mart is complaining about us not playing fair. They're always telling their suppliers what to do. Well now we're dictating terms to the bully. They don't like it." On one of the display tables was a Wal-Mart tumbler set, still in its original Wal-Mart packaging. "My neighbor gave this to me when he moved. Thanked me for taking it. Now I'm selling it for one-third the original Wal-Mart cost."

[left: Wal-Mart may be losing revenue on resales of items like TV trays.]

The tumbler set was marked $4.50; the price was hand written. A man offered $3, which the woman accepted. "That's $3 of profit that Wal-Mart's never gonna see from me," she smiled. Her husband, or whoever it was watching over the tables, drank from a can and said, "Bar-code this, Wal-Mart," while extending a finger.

But Wal-Mart corporate lawyers may have found an antidote for the garage sale lady and her ilk. The company is considering buying out the inventories of any after-market discount retailer who promises not to sell in Gilroy anymore. Wal-Mart is also exploring the possibility of giving $50 gift cards to any Gilroy resident who agrees not to patronize yard sales, swap meets, dollar stores, and the like for a year.

But some people in Gilroy think that Wal-Mart is over-reacting. For instance, many believe that Wal-Mart shouldn't include the Salvation Army in its list of competitors to crush.

The unnamed Wal-Mart executive mentioned earlier in this story denied rumors that Wal-Mart would be targeting the Lord's Table Soup Kitchen, which distributes meals to the hungry. "They are safe for now," he said. "But we do view the Salvation Army as a legitimate threat to the Wal-Mart brand and we reserve the right to compete with anyone in town who competes directly with us."

Note: Wal-Mart today announced it is working on a series of public education documentaries, titled "The High Price of Low Cost" which will educate the public about the "detrimental effects of the illicit discount economy." The first installment, "Wal-mart vs 99-cent" is about a youth whose life is changed when he stops hanging out at the dollar store and begins a rewarding career at Wal-Mart. The second installment, "Garage Sale Mafia," exposes the nationwide network of garage sale operators undermining the American free enterprise system, and  "Swap Meet Predator" is a seamy portait of slimey man who attends swap meets to pick up chics.

Wal-Mart ambushed by discounters

Wal-Mart, the retail giant. Impervious to competition, right? Not so fast. In the Republic of Gilroy, locally owned discount stores are on a mission to "discount the discounter" and "undercut the undercutter."

"We are going to take you down, Wal-Mart," snarled one owner of a discount operation in Gilroy (he declined to have his identity revealed for fear of retaliation from Wal-Mart). "The playing field is level again and we are going to break you on cost."

[How will Wal-Mart respond to the 99-cent threat?]

Wal-mart has yet to even acknowledge the low-end discount threat coming out of Gilroy, home of this California region's first Wal-Mart Supercenter. The retail giant's all-seeing eye is too concerned with its sworn enemies, the labor unions and attorneys, and too focused on countering class action lawsuits and negative publicity, to notice the discount threat operating below its radar.

Asked to comment on Wal-Mart's alleged misconduct, one discount store owner scoffed. "Ain't nothing alleged about the misconduct going at our stores. Two dudes got shot at D-Mart just a few weeks ago, right in the parking lot. That's some real misconduct if you ask me.

[D-Mart is just one of many discounters threatening Wal-Mart's retail supremacy]

"You got to be tough to shop here," he said, proudly.

The success of discount stores in Gilroy has everyone asking, What's their secret? How do the discount stores manage to circumvent all the labor ailments plaguing Wal-Mart. 

[at left, South Bay Labor pickets the opening of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Gilroy]

"I don't have overtime problems," said one discount store operator, laughing. "We don't stay open enough hours to have an overtime problem,"  He also explained that while Wal-Mart restocks items it sells, most discounters only stock once. "We don't restock, OK? we throw out. We don't waste time keeping track of inventory. That's another way we beat the crap out of the low-cost leader."

 

He went on: "The other thing Wal-Mart does wrong is they make too much profit. Rule number one: Barely make a profit, OK? Labor unions know that we're  borderline profitable and that we may move at any time, so they don't want anything to do with us, which is fine.... for some reason, union employees want to work at Wal-Mart but they don't want to work here."

While Wal-Mart has to pretend that it cares about the local community and its employees, and spends hundreds of millions battling negative publicity, including the recently released Wal-Mart movie by director Robert Greenwald, Gilroy's renegade discounters don't spend a dime on PR. "If someone wants to do a hit piece on us, I would be glad for the publicity." said one discounter. "Hey, just don't think you can shoplift when you're in here because our security cameras do work."

Toughness, single-stocking, and remaining an unlucrative business proposition is the secret to discount store success in Gilroy. And it is how a rag-tag band of 99-cent shps, vintage thrift stores, and indoor swap meets intend to eventually break Wal-Mart's retail grip. "What, you think I'm afraid of some Wal-Mart lawyer? Bring it on, laywer-man! We will go Trafalgar on you," he said, interjecting a surprising reference to the decisive battle of the Napoleonic wars, in which the undersized British fleet, led by Adminiral Nelson, defeated the French navy, whose ships were manned moslty by beggars and other unfortunates press-ganged from the slubs of Cadiz.

"When we get finished with Wal-mart," he vowed, "they ain't going to be selling nothin' but RV hookups in the Wal-Mart parking lot,"

Mike Honda: Indian Gaming Giver

"Indian gambling on tribal land became a significant political issue in California in the last decade. California has more gaming tribes than any other state, with 43 currently hosting some form of gambling. Gaming revenue in California grew in 2002, increasing 17.2 percent from $2.92 billion in 2001 to $3.43 billion in 2002. With huge increases in revenue, tribes have entered the political arena by donating large sums of money to both Democratic and Republican candidates." -- Institute of Government Studies Studies, University of California, Nov, 2004

Our representative in Congress, Mike Honda (representing California's 15th congressional district, which encompasses Gilroy and Silicon Valley) recently introduced legislation that would expedite federal recognition of the Amah Mutsun, a branch of the Ohlone/Costanoan peoples who inhabited the Bay area for at least 1200 years before the Europeans arrived. Passage of the bill (HR 3475) would officially transform Sargent Ranch, a 6,000+ acre area of prime open space south of Gilroy, and other swaths of undeveloped lands on the Santa Clara-San Benito county border, into tribal territory.

[at left, Mike Honda, sponsor of HR 3475, specious special interest legislation on behalf of Indian gaming interests]

The bill's passage would also guarantee Indian gaming sprawl in the South Valley. Keep this in mind: Since 1988 -- and the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which defines how tribes may operate large-scale (class III) gaming casino operations -- federal recognition of Indian tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been closely followed by the development of Indian gaming casinos on supposedly sacred tribal lands.

Now let's examine the politics and potential deal-making around Honda's bill.

A dubious faction of the Amah Mutsun (led by Woodside resident and self-annointed Amah Mutsun tribal chairperson Irene Zwierlein) has signed a treaty with Sargent Ranch developer Wayne Pierce to develop the land if and when the tribe receives federal recognition. Although the agreement between Pierce and Zwierlein doesn't currently call for an Indian gaming casino, it's a good bet that the agreement would change if Honda manages to get his bill through Congress. You only have to know that for the last 13 years Pierce has tried, and failed, to develop his Sargent Ranch holdings. Pierce is more desperate than ever to cash in the ranch (Ranch mired in debt -- 21 Feb 2005, Gilroy Dispatch).

Zwierlien is likely a poser. She claims to be the tribal leader of the "Amah Mutsun of San Juan Bautista," but her claim to leadership is probably fraudulent. As reported by the Dispatch, the document she used to "prove" her leadership contains photocopied signatures (Forgery Claim blurs Tribe's Fate -- 27 Aug 2005, Dispatch). Zwierlein's bogus claim to tribal leadership has made her unpopular with the legitimate Amah Mutsun and the real tribal chairperson, Valentin Lopez. One of Zwerlien's letters containing photocopied signatures of tribal leaders, and addressed to the BIA, requests that the federal government recognize Zwierlein's paper tribe as the real petitioning tribe, "a separate tribe from the other tribe that we left."

Lopez' band, the legit Amah Mutsun, wants federal recognition also, but they aren't interested in Indian gaming operations. The legit Amah Mutsun are dedicated to celebrating and renewing their cultural authenticity. They hold storytelling festivals, basket weaving seminars, and ceremonies honoring women elders. They recently raised a traditional village house pole, an act typical of their dedication to maintaining an historical identity. You can learn all about the legit Amah Mutsun and the ways of local native peoples at this web site: http://www.indiancanyon.org/. The legit Amah Mutsun don't seem to need federal recognition to be a tribe. And they don't acknowledge Zweirlein's claims.

No one believes that Zwierlein is the authentic leader of the Amah Mutsun -- except Zwierlien and our own Mike Honda. He swears that he's not taking sides in the dispute between the real Amah Mustun and Zwierlien's psuedo-tribe, but no matter how much Honda backtracks, there's no getting around the fact that the language of his bill specifically recognizes Zwierlein the usurper: "To require the prompt review by the Secretary of the Interior of Petition No. 120 for Federal recognition of the Amah Mutsun of Mission San Juan Bautista as an Indian tribe, and for other purposes." There it is in Mike Honda's own writing -- his bill specifically acknowledges the name Zwierlein is using to differentiate her bogus tribe from the real tribe.

A few extra words in the bill's language -- of Mission San Juan Buatista -- would give Zwierlien the legal position to negotiate the development of an Indian gaming casino on Sargent Ranch or on other supposedly sacred tribal lands.

And that stinks. But it shouldn't surprise. There are a lot of sharks in the water waiting to pounce if and when Honda's bill is passed. Despite ardent, organized local opposition to "gaming sprawl" (see this Greenbelt Alliance article) in south Santa Clara county's back yard, plenty of people who matter remain quietly eager for casino development. You can wager they'd like to see Honda put Zwierlein into a position of negotiating strength. 

The list of erstwhile casino investors who have positioned themselves to reap the profit from Indian gaming operation buildout includes:

• Kirk Rossmann, one of the founders of Heritage Bank
• Sal Rubino, a farmer whose family has lived in Santa Clara County since 1892
• Joe Giacalone, a lifelong resident of the area who owns an electrical contracting firm
• Pepper Snyder, owner of Sprig Electric
• Gilroy's own Chris Vanni, owner of Hillcrest Ministorage.

These folks recognize that Indian gaming is an enormously lucrative, mega-billion dollar industry. They know full well how it works: A lot of uneducated common folk get crappy casino jobs and a select few investors, tribal leaders, and construction firms becoming wealthy and wealthier.

Rossman has organized the wannabe casino developers under the banner of two investment groups, Game Won and Game Too. Both entities are currently assisting the California Valley band of Miwok Indians (all of five members; based in Stockton) to court local and state officials with plans to build a casino near the San Benito-Santa Clara county line. If Honda's bill passes, and Zwierlein gets to make her deal with Pierce, you can bet that Game Won and Game Two will be waiting to pounce on that opportunity as well.

The labor unions are also licking lips over the prospect of casino development on federally-recognized tribal lands in the area. Labor unions are huge supporters of Indian gaming, which is a labor intensive business. Labor unions are inextricably central to the construction, maintenance, and operation of Indian gaming casinos. Given that 42% of Honda PAC contributions come directly from labor (see opensecrets.org' spage on Mike Honda), it's no wonder that he has introduced legislation that would legitimize Zwerlien's false tribal leadership claim, open up enormous profit-making opportunities for land developers, and expand the labor unions' sphere of influence. (Note that a tribe is not free to develop its own measures relating to unionization. It must participate in the state-wide labor relations scheme established by the State of California in the Tribal Labor Relations Ordinance. So where casinos are concerned, uniformity to the rules of the existing labor unions is required. In other words, labor and Indian gaming are in lockstep.)

Now we can look at the timing of Honda's bill -- why he's trying to rush through Amah Mutsun federal recognition that's supposed to happen anyway.

We know that motives behind federal recognition of Indian tribes have frequently been tied to gaming influence on United States senators and congressman. But that's going to change. In the future, the burden of proof will be on the tribe to prove that it meets all of the criteria.

A GOA report in 2002 found that the seven criteria for tribal recognition have been widely ignored, with many psuedo-tribes like Zwierlien's receiving recognition they don't deserve. The Dodd-Leiberman amendment, introduced in September, 2002, put the brakes on tribal recognitions. The Federal Acknolwedgement Process Reform Act of 2003 made it more difficult for Indian gaming interests to peddle their influence. The point is that the proliferation of Indian gaming casinos and public awareness of the pitfalls of the Indian tribal recognition process are making it much more difficult for Indian gaming interests to work behind the scenes to pbuild casinos on tribal lands, much more difficult than, say, ten years ago.

It's no stretch of the imagination to believe that these same interests have influenced Honda to submit his bill to expedite recongition of the Amah Mutsun. It's no stretch to view Honda's bill as an end-run on behalf of local Indian gaming pushers. It's no stretch to view Honda as a silent-but-willing Indian gaming patron and his bill as specious special interest legislation.

Indian gaming sprawl is new to south county, but it's not an unusual story in California. As a result of the 1988 Indian Gaming act, little-known groups with the barest of genealocial links to local native American identity have petitioned and received recognition as federal tribes, mostly in order to open casinos for "economic development purposes." Once recognized, the tribes act like sovereign nations, free to operate without restriction of whatever state regulations may exist regarding gambling. Call it red man's revenge on the white man for a 150 years of demeaning subjugation known as reservation life. Call it payback.

Just don't call Irene Zwierlein a legitimate Amah Mutsun leader. It's debatable whether she is even an Amah Mustun proper. Responding to a posting on an ancestry message board,  Zwierlein, who gives her email address as [email protected], wrote the following:

"... my ancestors are orginally from
Mexico they came with
Anza and the Portola Expiditions

1769 Census in CA
Manuela Cantua
Julian Cantua in Santa Calrain the 1800
living at the San Ysidro Rancho in the 1900 Census"

So by her own admission, Zwierlein is a Mexican who calls herself an Amah Mutsun. Which is OK. Anyone with ancestral links to people who lived, worked, and died at missions San Juan Bautista or Santa Cruz prior to 1840 are considered legitimate Amah Mutsun. The question remains: who does Zwierlein represent, really?

In a March letter to the Dispatch, the tribal band's true chairperson, Val Lopez, pointed out that Zwierlein  "resigned as chairperson of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, in writing, effective March 18, 2000." He then went on to say this about Zwierlein's pal, Wayne Pierce:

"We reiterate our opposition to Mr. Pierce’s plans to develop any portion of Sargent Ranch and strongly encourage the community to continue it’s opposition to this proposal. We are the Amah Mutsun People of San Juan Bautista, we speak for ourselves, and we will continue to support protection of open spaces and cultural resources in our aboriginal territory."

Again, it doesn't matter what the Amah Mutsun's true leader says about Zwierlein. Mike Honda's bill recognizes Zwierlein as the real deal, as the true leader of the Amah Mutsun. That's what matters.

How dare this diverse assemblage of the scurious connive to bring a casino to our area, you ask? Why not? Just look at the geography, the demographics, and recent history.

South county is close to a major metropolitan area, with plenty of undeveloped land available to build on. Ad hoc big box development is standard practice in garlic town -- remember that Gilroy's city council cleared a path for the Bay area's first super Wal-mart without gaining a single concession to improve Gilroy's ratty downtown. What is it that makes you think Gilroy wouldn't embrace all the tacky pleasures a casino may bring? What makes you think a casino deal wouldn't be one-sided and stupid? Hollister has a history of making atrocious land development decisions, the village of San Juan Bautista is run by a collection of dunces, and Gilroy's town fathers are notoriously anti-green and obstinately proud about doing development  poorly.

Casinos are gaudy, unsavory temples to shlock, greed, and overstimulation. They are criminal magnets. Any economic benefit that might arise is overshadowed by the spectre of low-paying, dead-end jobs, an influx of drug dealers and prostitutes, a general increase in the population of unsavory characters, and a dramatic rise in gambling addiction. But let's face it, many folks round these parts would consider $7/hr to $15/hr casino jobs to be lucrative. They'd be happy. So perhaps this was meant to be. Mike Honda and the labor unions, Wayne Pierce and Irenne Zwierlien, Game Won/Game Too and the California Wiwok Tribe -- they're all just a means for the inevitable Indian gaming casino sprawl that is destined to arrive.

Further readings

• Sweeping recognition reform bill offered (Indianz.com -- also see their news links)
• FindLaw for Legal Professionals: Indian Gaming
• University of California Government Studies: Indian Gaming in California
• Opinion Journal: the rise of Indian gaming casinos, a $10 billion a year industry
• Indianz.com: Congress shouldn't micromanage BIA
• Tribal claim under the microscope -- 02 sept 2005 Dispatch
• Tribe plan San Benito Business Resort -- San Jose Business Journal
• Gaming News: Hollister casino supporters speak out (15 Feb 2005)
• Landwatch Monterey County: Casino politics (21 Feb, 2005)
• Hollister Free Lance artice (reported on Greenbelt Alliance web site): Another tribal development/second Indian group seeks Sargent Ranch deal (17 Sept, 2004)
• Zweirlein speaks out: Tribal chair of Amah Mutsun Indians defends right to develop ranch (09 Nov, 2005 letter to editor)
• Val Lopez speaks out: Local Indians against Sargent Ranch Proposal and Developer and tribal faction leader way off base on claims (letters to the editor)

Shanghaied

Rejected footwear dangles from the oak tree at Las Animas park in Gilroy, overlooking the skate park.

It's a local Gilroy ritual: Tie shoes together and fling them into the branches, and add to the overall affect of forsaken shoes twisting in the breeze.