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Around The Glen
WGNA elects same board members
Nearly all candidates who ran for positions in the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association have won their uncontested seats.
The association announced on May 18, the results of its 2001-02 election.
Former association Vice President John Gibbs will replace J. Michael Gonzales as president, Helen Solinski will serve as first vice president, Sharon Fierro will be second vice president, Jim Gardner will be treasurer and Margaret Hardy will be secretary.
Five candidates ran for the four elected board member positions. Winners include Larry Ames, Vern Ladd, Cathy Marshall and Jim Spence. Spence, who ran for the District 6 city council seat last spring, is the only candidate who has not served on the association's board. Harold Schapelhouman, who was recently appointed to the board by outgoing president Gonzales, was not elected to the board.
The nominating committee to oversee next year's board election will include Ames as chairman and members Gonzales, Kris Cunningham, Linda Herschbach and Ann Leever.
Gibbs must appoint between two to four additional board members.
Ames, a member of the 2001 nominating committee, said the votes were counted by League of Women Voters representative Betty Daniels and her friend, Lavon Doll. The association received 67 valid ballots postmarked by the May 9 deadline, Ames said, which was twice the amount needed for a voting quorum. The association has 640 members, 375 of whom are eligible to vote, and 10 percent of those must vote for an election to be valid, he said.
The new board members will be installed at the association's next board meeting on June 13.
--Kate Carter
City, county agree to share agency funds
The San Jose City Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last week approved an agreement to end years of dispute about the allocation of San Jose Redevelopment Agency funds.
The May 22 settlement gives the county more money for its facilities and programs, and gives the city the county support it needs for plans to use redevelopment money in neighborhoods and business districts.
"What this deal does is make the city, county and redevelopment agency partners," mayoral spokesman David Vossbrink said. "This bill is based on what we have in common."
"This totally changes the relationship that we had before with the city," county counsel Ann Ravel said. "We've set up a whole mediation process to deal with our disagreements."
The county will receive approximately $44 million in redevelopment agency funds between 2001 and 2004--twice what it receives now. If the state legislature extends redevelopment bonding capacity beyond 2004, the county will receive 20 percent of redevelopment bond or excess property tax--called the tax increment--proceeds. Ravel said the county anticipates receiving about $225 million between 2004 and 2014.
The county agreed to pay the city $5.5 million to cover unresolved funding disagreements. In addition, the county and city agreed to resolve disputes through mediation, before litigation, and push for an extension in California's redevelopment laws that will benefit both.
For over two decades, the two governments have been in conflict over their interpretations of redevelopment money, which is collected by the agency from increased property taxes as a result of agency-funded improvements. The county has claimed it deserves a greater share of those funds, while the city has maintained--and the courts have twice upheld--that the majority of the funds belong to the redevelopment agency.
Since mid-1999, Mayor Ron Gonzales has negotiated with various county board supervisors to reach an agreement on the conflict. Part of the urgency to reach an agreement was to avoid challenges by the county of plans Gonzales has for using redevelopment funds.
His Strong Neighborhood Initiative program would allocate $100 million of redevelopment money for improvements to 20 city neighborhoods--including areas in northern Willow Glen--beginning next spring. His recently approved Neighborhood Business Clusters program will allocate $5 million of redevelopment money for improvements to six city business districts--including one on the corner of Southwest Expressway and Fruitdale Avenue.
In addition, the state's approval of extending redevelopment after 2004, would be more likely if the city and county were unified in their support of it.
--Kate Carter
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
