Gilroy has a lot to offer. What makes Gilroy so special are the people that make up each of my interactions here, from stopping by Camino Coffee for a morning pick-me-up to engaging with our local organizations working hard for causes that improve this community – the people of Gilroy are powerful. It’s through this local activity that we hold the power to have an impact on our neighbors, coworkers and the rest of the Silicon Valley region. This Earth Month, I’m proud of the work our local community is doing to better the environment to improve the lives of all our neighbors.
I sit on the Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) Board of Directors, and I have felt the power of having local control of our energy supply. SVCE is a not-for-profit community choice energy provider that serves 275,000 residents and businesses in thirteen Santa Clara County communities. The Gilroy City Council voted to join this joint powers agency in 2016, and while I was not on the council at that time, I am grateful to my predecessors for seeing the value that SVCE would provide to the residents of Gilroy for many years to come.
Through this local agency, Gilroy has not only had a voice in where our power comes from (clean, renewable resources) but has benefitted from the community reinvestments that SVCE provides. Since our community began receiving electricity from SVCE in 2017, Gilroy residents and businesses have saved over six million dollars on their electricity bills. Currently, SVCE generation rates are 4% less than PG&E. But the value of community power goes beyond the bill savings.
Burning fossil fuels to power our homes and vehicles in Gilroy poses short term and long term risks to individual and community health. The emissions from technology we use everyday, like water heaters and stoves, increase the risk of Asthma, stroke, susceptibility to respiratory infections, and other extreme conditions. Residents and businesses choosing to transition to electric technologies when their existing, old appliances fail are improving air quality for their home, workspace, and community. While these equipment upgrades are feasible for many, a just transition requires that all community members have access to make these improvements affordably, if they choose. SVCE is supporting Gilroy residents in taking their health into their own hands by providing rebates to customers that upgrade from gas to electric for many major appliances and offers additional funding for customers that meet income-qualifications. In 2023, Gilroy residents claimed $43,500 in rebates from SVCE to make electric upgrades to increase their homes’ health and safety.
The work does not end there; as a board member, I have been vocal about the need to reduce barriers to these home improvements and voted to approve a multi-family direct install program to address these concerns. The Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy, and Services (C.A.R.A.S.), a Gilroy community-based organization that provides rental and deposit assistance to income-qualified residents, engaged with SVCE to provide feedback and insight for the design of the multi-family install program. Voices from Gilroy are embedded in the programs that SVCE builds for its customers, thus having a say on how we reinvest in our community.
Going beyond the customers that have received financial or informational support to make healthy home upgrades, SVCE reinvests in all of Gilroy by sponsoring and attending community events like signing up as the first sponsor of the inaugural La Ofrenda Festival. SVCE has also supported family and youth education event series like the Gilroy Gardens Natural Science Days and Silicon Valley Reads.
This Earth Month, I am grateful that in Gilroy, we have clean energy and local resources to help reduce pollution from fossil fuels to help make our region cleaner, safer and healthier for everyone, and especially for future generations.
To my council colleagues, city staff, and the public I am very excited to be a part of the many changes coming to Gilroy this year. Legislating policy in house often doesn't require budget allocations, and many of the best practices are already open sourced. We have many policies and practices that will continue to be updated to 2024 standards. The entire community was a part of the Gilroy General Plan 2040 process in late 2020. It was approved by the General Plan Advisory Committee, Planning Commission, and City Council, along with a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR). We planned for growth and have detailed plans to address everything inside the General Plan 2040. The General Plan 2040 represents the City of Gilroy’s view of its future, expresses the community’s vision, local control, and guiding principles for development. The Zoning Code Ordinance is the script of how those visions will unfold.
With the 2024-2025 legislative work plan already established, the Gilroy City Council will dive right into many items that need to be completed in 2024. Once the new city council is seated after the November 2024 election, a new legislative work plan will be established. I am in full support of laying the groundwork for a Civic Center Master Plan and building a community center that is for all ages. The focus on a free safe place for our youth to have after school and on the weekends is a top priority for me. The City of Gilroy and Gilroy Unified School District have many facilities that can be used by the community for free. We have the opportunity to develop programming and provide spaces for youth with no barriers now.
Year-to-date my office has worked with our state and federal legislators to secure $5.2 million for project funding that directly benefits our residents from the westside, eastside, and a senior housing project on the southside. I am proud to have worked with State Senator John Laird, SD-17 and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, CA-18 on identifying the Gateway Senior Apartments Pedestrian Crossing Safety Improvements project. Combined the City of Gilroy will be receiving $700,000 to install a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK), high visibility crosswalk improvements, and curb ramps to provide a safe pedestrian crossing of Monterey Road in front of the Gateway Senior Apartments, and build off the recent successes of community based programs that are a benefit to our residents.
In 2024, we have many public and private partnership opportunities coming before the council. The opportunities for furthering our economic development continues with a hillside adventure and water surf park proposal around Gilroy Gardens, Sharks Ice Arena at the Sports Park, and Gourmet Alley in Downtown. These proposals form the recreation triangle and further our recreation community designation by city resolution. Redevelopment and new construction will create additional hotels, housing, jobs, restaurants, industrial opportunities, and shopping experiences. The City of Gilroy was awarded a $3.9 million grant through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Clean California Local Grant Program for improvements within Gilroy’s Historic Downtown that will break ground soon. Gilroy’s project includes the renovation and beautification of Gourmet Alley between 4th-6th St, renovating these spaces into pedestrian and bicycle-friendly pathways through infrastructure and aesthetic improvements. Santa Clara County Public Health staff funded by a $2.5 million Caltrans Active Transportation grant for East Gilroy has a goal of promoting safe routes to community hubs. I’m very confident that staff will continue to find grant funding opportunities that directly benefit all of our residents.
I’d like to find some common ground when it comes to homelessness, housing, climate action, technology implementation, and most important our human capital or our employees. Many of these issues we can’t solve alone, and we need to leverage partnerships that currently exist as well as be flexible when it comes to new ones. Thank you to all of our current city staff who have persevered through some of the most challenging times in your careers coming out of the pandemic and staffing shortages. You are a key part to the success of our city.
The consequences of failing to effectively and aggressively confront our housing crisis is hurting thousands of our residents, robbing future generations of the chance to call Gilroy home, stifling economic opportunities for workers and businesses, worsening poverty and homelessness, and undermining our environmental and climate objectives. Thankfully millions of dollars in funding have continued to pour into Gilroy to help our most vulnerable address their rent burden. I am proud of the future housing plan that Gilroy City Council, Planning Commission, Staff, and the Public have approved. We commit to advancing the 40 opportunity sites for multi-family homes, downtown expansion district and first street mixed-use corridor flexibility program, 429 corner lots for the middle income housing program, housing for farmworkers program, and our inclusionary housing ordinance. Through incentives, funding, local control, and programs we can offer with other partners, this will further a Gilroy that’s livable for all.
Gilroy places a high priority on providing quality housing opportunities for all residents. The creation of a focused Division within the Community Development Department and establishing the Housing and Community Services Manager position, will enable the city to make more concentrated efforts on affordable housing production, preservation, and protection of residents. The Housing and Community Services Manager will provide a higher level of expertise and lead a division focusing on housing functions. With the division consisting of the Manager and Technician position, the division will implement projects and programs to address housing needs for a diverse community and provide assistance to families and individuals that are experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.
We reached the end of the third year of my Student Internship Program, and I am incredibly proud of what they have accomplished. The work they do is essential to my platform, and I could not do it without them. From the OP-Ed’s they write to defend the defenseless, hold the powerful accountable, and attend meetings on behalf of my office. They are all maturing to make this community a better place. Young people are essential to our civic discourse, and I am proud to have my students lead the charge.
My work making the City Council accountable continues with a publicly available voting record, so that we can all see how your council member voted on issues that matter to you. You can find this on my website at www.zachhilton.com located under the legislative section. In addition, you can try and change the law as you see fit. For the first time in Gilroy history my office created a program called “Their Ought to Be a Law”, where residents have the opportunity to get involved with the legislative process. The local control actions to banning all smoking in Multi-Family Residential (2+ Units) and Public Events came from this program. The Gilroy City Council should not be cloaked in an aura of secrecy, it should be a matter of public participation. Residents don’t feel a sense of community and belonging if they perceive members of the City Council as an exclusive club. We commit to offering transparent paths to leadership positions, along with inviting and seeking different perspectives.
The progress and accomplishments of my office are available on my website under the about section and I will continue to engage with you in English/Spanish. My office sponsored, tabled, hosted a booth, and attended over 100 community events in 2023. Provided free resources, bike lights, bike helmets, and listened to constituents, at events including Chalk Fest, La Ofrenda Festival, Registrar of Voters High School Education Events, Free Bike Repair and Bike Days, Nueva Vida Community Posadas, and School Family Resource Fairs. There were numerous press releases and Op-Eds issued and published to keep the public in the loop. There was endless support and testimonies on many important state legislative bills that decreased the cost and time of much needed affordable housing (SB423, AB821, AB1469).
Locally, we introduced legislation that updated the Gilroy City Purchasing Policy to include wage theft. We worked with Gavilan College Board of Trustees and President in providing a letter of support for the Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program to provide student housing, wrote a letter of support to the Santa Clara County Board of Education in support for the Gilroy Gateway School to remain open for grades 6-12, wrote dozens of letters of support for community based organizations who are seeking grant funding to help our residents, and successfully got state compliance on our Gilroy Housing Element 2023-2031. Secondhand Smoking Prevention continues to be implemented through the city’s website, forms, handouts, signage, and utility bill insert. Code enforcement is working with 552 properties and as of February 279 properties have come into compliance and the remaining properties are being worked on.
We must continue to push forward policies and programs that address climate change. Combating climate change is a part of my values and platform. We used our local control in 2022 and moved forward with EV Charging and Bicycle Parking REACH codes that require one long-term bike parking space per housing unit in multi-family developments. Electrifying and making our buildings more energy efficient with the use of technologies like heat pumps, smart-thermostats and EV chargers is another important step towards lowering our overall GHG footprint. In the future, we need to move towards installing a mix of solar plus battery storage to take advantage of the energy resilience and financial benefits this technology can provide for our city.
Gilroy City Council committee assignments have a regional participation, and my position as Director for Silicon Valley Clean Energy allowed me to be a part of developing programs that will benefit all in Gilroy. Safe communities are climate resilient communities. Since 2017, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, or SV Clean Energy, has served our residents and businesses with clean energy while saving them money. In total, more than 93% of Gilroy residents and businesses served by SV Clean Energy have collectively saved more than $5.9 million on their electricity bills over the past five years. And this number will continue to grow as SV Clean Energy is a not-for-profit public agency that reinvests net revenues to the community through competitive rates, unique offers and services, rebates, community grants and scholarships. The Board of Directors is made up of electeds from each community, and I have been our appointed Gilroy representative since 2021.
SV Clean Energy recently launched $12 million of program funding for our Multi-Family Direct Install Program and built into the program are tenant protections referred to as "renovictions". Gilroy has the largest number of 100% deed restricted low-income units at 1,770 in SV Clean Energy’s affordable housing stock. There are many smaller projects 5+ units that could benefit by converting their old gas wall heaters for a heat pump unit that can provide air conditioning in extreme heat. I look forward to working with SV Clean Energy, consultants, and local community based organizations in getting some of this funding for our residents.
I have been serving on the Valley Transportation Authority Policy Advisory Committee since 2023. I have brought funding or collaboration opportunities back to Gilroy through their Transit-Oriented Communities Program and Transit Signal Priority/Transit First Policy. This new program seeks to maximize mixed-use and mixed-income equitable Transit-Oriented Development projects on both public and private sites around VTA transit stations and high capacity transit corridors. VTA secured $4.1million in SMART grant funds for planning, engineering, and equipment upgrades. In 2024, VTA plans to pursue $15 million of Stage 2 SMART funds for further implementation of Transit Signal Priority. Local jurisdictions have the power to improve travel speed, reliability, and overall appeal of public transit by adopting transit signal priority policies that prioritize transit at intersections along VTA’s Frequent Network routes or Gilroy's VTA Frequent 68 route along the Monterey corridor.
We attended many more regional and local meetings representing an elected office from Gilroy, and in my absence, my student interns would take my place in these meetings. I attended every opportunity I got in order to gain professional development and training through both webinars, and in-person training.
The Arts are alive in Gilroy. In 2021, I was contacted by SV Creates (Santa Clara County Arts Council) to build a relationship that wasn’t here prior in Gilroy. From those first initial meetings blossomed into an Arts Círculo held at 6th St Art Studios and around the corner at the Neon Exchange. Today we have a monthly Arts Roundtable, Third Friday Art Walk, Chalk Fest, La Ofrenda Festival, and doors continue to open. The City of Gilroy celebrates the role that the arts and creativity play in helping us navigate a pandemic, amplify the need for racial equity, and highlight the power of the arts to change our lives for the better. The Gilroy Arts & Culture Commission and SV Creates work in partnership to support the arts and creativity in Gilroy as an essential part of our thriving community.
SV Creates partners locally with the Gilroy Arts & Culture Commission and Gilroy Arts Roundtable to include the City of Gilroy with a network of leaders who care about the resilience of our arts ecosystem and its impact to our community. They are conveners, promoters, incubators, and funders of the arts with a mission to elevate Silicon Valley’s creative culture. The City of Gilroy recognizes that the arts and creativity support student success and life-long learning, provide key job skills, and bring joy to our community while strengthening our connections; and values partnering with SV Creates and State-level organizations to promote unified support for the arts.
The annual Downtown Gilroy La Ofrenda Festival brings together a cross section of sponsorships and partnerships from government, education, health, private sector, arts, transportation, culture, non-profits, labor workforce and more. I would like to personally invite you to join us in Downtown Gilroy, and travel to the festival by bike, bus, walk, or drive. This is the best team that I’ve been on and built up by my friend Ruben Dario Villa. We are all unique creatives, festival leads, and high level leaders in our own spaces. The success of this team is that we all gave something into the La Ofrenda Festival | Gilroy’s Inaugural Dia de Muertos Festival & Wellness Fair and expected nothing in return but success of each other and the festival. My dreams for a bike/ped/walk/transit oriented festival have come true with the creation of Cycle, Health, and Transit Plaza. Thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors, and organizations that made it come true.
I continued my professional membership with CivicWell, which was able to provide technical assistance and resources for my legislation. They have an annual conference which I attended as a Gilroy representative. The 32nd Annual Yosemite Policymakers Conference brings together over 100 mayors, city council members, county supervisors, city managers, and other high-level department heads in the breathtaking beauty of Yosemite National Park. This innovative three-day gathering is designed to support local elected officials with tools and partnership opportunities to implement innovative solutions to our most pressing community challenges.
On behalf of my office, my student interns, and my family, I am excited for the challenges that 2024 has to offer and I look forward to launching my re-election campaign later this year. There are still many things to be addressed, and I am taking them head on. Through the power of public participation, I am confident that 2024 can be one of the best years that Gilroy has ever had.
