Safe Communities- Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their neighborhoods. Fire & Police are the only public service that stands ready to protect us 24/7. As a current 24-year Bay Area Firefighter/Paramedic, I understand the service needs in Gilroy, CA. I value the work that our Fire & Police are committed to each shift. Gilroy received historic investments supporting programs and community based organizations from the County’s 2023 budget adoption. The South County Youth Task Force is doing a great job and their latest bold strategic plan has a focus on getting to the root causes of youth violence, gun violence, and providing positive pathways for our youth. I support the South County Youth Task Force as a priority program for violence prevention and funding for an analyst position that will help achieve the goals by allowing the data to tell the story. When visiting neighborhood groups the topic of safety always comes up. While sometimes the request is for more police patrols, their perception of safe communities is clean streets, smooth streets, and the absence of empty lots. The physical environment is the biggest factor in perceived and real safety of community.
Our residents deserve to feel safe walking on any sidewalk in Gilroy. I support repairing sidewalks, adding more trees for shade, and enhanced lighting. The burden of replacing sidewalks should not be with the homeowners who were not a part of the decisions to place trees that would do so much damage to the public sidewalks. 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 a bike/ped trail extension on the westside, San Ysidro Park on the eastside, and an enhanced crosswalk for senior housing on the southside. We have sponsored, tabled, hosted a booth, and attended over 150 community events in 2023/2024. Handed out free resources, bike lights, listened to constituents, and provided free bike helmets, including Chalk Fest, La Ofrenda Festival, Registrar of Voters High School Education Events, Free Bike Repair and Bike Days, Community Posadas, and School Family Resource Fairs.
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 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. Their Board of Directors are made up of electeds from each community, and I have been our appointed Gilroy representative since 2021. We recently approved $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 SVCE'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 SVCE, consultants, and local community based organizations in getting some of this funding for our residents.
Gilroy faces significant climate risks including fire, flooding, and extreme heat. Severe flooding and wildfires have historically and recently caused serious property damage and economic challenges for local residents—a community that is also grappling with health issues caused by rising temperatures. Gilroy’s location at the edge of Santa Clara County along the Highway 101 corridor and in between two large landscape blocks has resulted in high sprawl development that threatens vital farmland and lands that are critical for conservation goals. Gilroy continues to be pressured into expanding their boundaries by developers and local electeds who want to build expensive single family homes. Those of us that want to prevent sprawl, value smart growth, know sprawl would be costly for our city which can't afford to provide urban services to these new developments will continue to speak up. Through local control we can preserve the existing city services and resources by not expanding our city limits.
Local Economic Development- I am pro-business and supportive of local economic development. I support the streamlining of commercial building development and business permits to cut down on the time it takes to open a business in Gilroy. If a business meets all the objective standards established by the Gilroy City Council, then the application shall be deemed complete in 30 days, which enhances our local control. After completion of the building checklist, the business should be allowed to open, and not prevented from opening their doors based on subjective findings. I voted to fund many of our specific plans, including the Downtown Specific Plan. When specific plans are updated every 5 years, they stimulate the local economy by keeping up with current demands, and keep us competetive with current grants. When we provide a quality education for all, high quality of life, and develop beautification projects, it will attract businesses and jobs to Gilroy. When we remove barriers to opening businesses quickly, then local jobs of all incomes will be more readily available. Everyone should have access to jobs that pay a living wage, and the ability to expand their skills. As Chair of the Gilroy Bicycle Pedestrian Commission I drafted our Downtown Bicycle Parking Program, which resulted in those decorative bike racks and the Dero bike repair station that you see in the Historic District. I've helped many developments and businesses plan their bike parking for customers and employees. I've built out the Dero bike repair station network to 8 stations around Gilroy.
In 2024, we have opportunities for furthering our economic development with a recreation based park 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 create additional hotels, housing, jobs, restaurants, industrial opportunities, and shopping experiences. These initiatives were brought forward by the community (Gilroy Economic Development Partnership comprised of representatives from the following organizations: Visit Gilroy/ California Welcome Center Gilroy, Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, Gilroy Gardens, Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, Gilroy Downtown Business Association, Gavilan College) in 2020 and all three have been moving along at different stages. I was appointed to the Gilroy Economic Development Partnership (GEDP) as a member of the City Council in 2021 and served for two years.
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 Rubén 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.
Housing for All- We are in a housing crisis and the dream of owning a home is not a realistic opportunity for everyone. We need to continue to promote all housing options and solutions that benefit everyone. Gilroy must continue to promote the development of more housing for all income levels while looking at creative policies and funding through our local control to make them more livable, bikeable, and walkable. I support Gilroy's accessory dwelling unit (ADU) program in single-family and multi-family residential lots, while having the additional option for junior accessory dwelling units. As more residents want to age in place, having the option to move into a smaller unit on your property while being able to rent out the larger home, allows income and stability for you to stay in your neighborhood. The building of ADU’s in multi-family developments like in single-family lots provides additional needed housing by infill. Our housing crisis is not going away soon, while our unhoused population continues to rise. Around the Downtown area there are many examples of 2-5-unit complexes and these types of units are needed for the “missing middle" income earners.
I am proud of the future housing plan that Gilroy City Council, Planning Commission, Staff, and the Public have approved. It will create programs to build rental/owner opportunities like duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexs. Now is where the true work and evaluation will take place. Empowered through our local control, we will implement these programs and follow through with what we have promised to our residents. Approved in 2021 through our local control, we have an objective design standards policy that provides applicants and developers with a clear understanding of the City’s expectations for mixed-use and multi-family residential project design. We have 40 opportunity sites identified in our Housing Element where we will build multi-family units, Downtown Expansion District and First Street Mixed-Use Corridor flexibility program, 429 corner lots for the middle income housing program, housing for farmworkers program, inclusionary housing ordinance, and each program listed here. Through incentives, funding, local control, and programs we offer with our partners, this will allow us to further a Gilroy that’s livable for all.
We have identified programs where the city will go farther with incentives to develop residential units in our Downtown Expansion District and First Street Mixed-Use Corridor. In exchange for this flexibility, the city may require that a certain percentage of units are dedicated to extremely low-income households, farmworkers, persons with disabilities, or other identified groups. We have the current capacity to build over the next eight years and align with our State and region's long-range plan for housing, transportation, economy and the environment, known as the Plan Bay Area 2050. It calls for creating compact walkable communities by promoting high-density housing and mixed-use development near transit stations and in existing urban areas.
The City of Gilroy and Gilroy City Council have made huge steps towards housing for all residents since I took office in December 2020. Data from our Housing Element shows 21% of households are considered extremely low-income, making less than 30% of AMI. Thirty-eight percent of our population is 24 years old or younger and they live, play, go to school, and work in Gilroy. As we implement our next Housing Element, we will need to examine the ways at which the 75% zoning can be the limiting factor as we work towards affordability, equity, and not continue to have communities that are segregated based on incomes and race. The consequences of failing to effectively and aggressively confront this 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.
Quality Education- I will continue to work and collaborate with the Gilroy Unified School Board, South County Cal-SOAP, Gilroy Teachers Association, Gavilan College Board of Trustees, South County Youth Task Force, Nueva Vida Community, School Family Resource Fairs, School Mental Health Week, and Home & School Clubs. We need to support families so that all students have a quality education and safe spaces. As a founding member of the Safe Routes to School Task Force, these programs will continue to provide quality education and life skills to our youth. I’ll promote volunteer opportunities to help with food distribution and work with local groups/organizations to offer childcare for essential workers and families who need it most. I'll continue to support funding for organizations and professionals who offer social emotional support for families and students and build tutoring committees to help students with school work and parents with computer literacy. I will continue to be an advocate and introduce solutions for the digital divide that exists in our community and region.
I have provided the opportunity for high school and college students to intern with my Gilroy City Council Member Office. This program exposes students to City Council operations and the activities of a legislator’s work. These experiences include working with constituents, conducting community outreach efforts, assisting community-based organizations, organizing civic events and projects, database development and upkeep, staffing the office, and other activities. Internships are available to those who are currently enrolled in high school or college. Depending on their high school or college programs, students may also receive different types of school credits for participating as an intern.
Many legislators began their careers by interning. It is an invaluable way to gain a true understanding of Gilroy City Council’s democratic process, as well as an excellent opportunity to make important contacts while serving the community. Interns will gain valuable education and work experience by fully participating in agreed-upon hours of work. All internship work is voluntary and students will not receive any monetary compensation.
Active Transportation- Gilroy places parking minimums on developers and that drives up the cost of housing and commercial developments. We could use our local control to unbundle parking or exchange vehicle parking for additional long-term bike parking you encourage cleaner alternative transportation for residents. This is aligned with our locally adopted Gilroy General Plan 2040 Mobility Element. Not everyone owns a vehicle any longer. Working families need a safe place to store their bikes. If all they have is the option of a car, then that contributes to local traffic and doesn’t keep them in spending in our local economy. They will get in the car and drive somewhere else. Gilroy’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure consists of buses, trains, bikes, scooters, and walking. While there might be portions of our city that are isolated from transit, there are many ways to continue to draw residents towards transit. Gilroy has a fully connected bike network and transit options. Many residents are employed outside of Gilroy, but we have a large population that work, attend school, and are retired in Gilroy. Thirty-eight percent of our population is aged 24 years and younger. They benefit from local transit and rideshare. Gilroy has the vision that the glass is half full, and we have the ability to innovate and adapt to programs that will further reduce our Vehicles Miles Traveled (VMT).
We are actively advancing ideas and projects that promote the concept of free-range people in the City of Gilroy. We advocate for building and planning that considers future generations as well as current residents who don’t own cars. Advancing mobility options reflects what we are teaching the youth in our community through Safe Routes to School and why we are nationally recognized as a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists, as well as recognized by the World Health Organization as an Age-Friendly Community. The City of Gilroy is a Complete Streets and Recreation Destination community by resolution. If you haven’t taken the Gilroy Bike Pledge yet, you still can! See you on the road and I am proud to represent Gilroy on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) in 2024.
Your Concerns- I promise that my office will always be here to listen to your issues, when they come with solutions. I had the opportunity to compete in Speaker of the Assembly & State Assembly Member (AD-30) Robert Rivas's "Their Ought to Be a Law" in 2020 and I promised him that I would pay it forward. I have continued to host the same annual program each year through my Gilroy City Council Member Office. This program offers constituents the opportunity to propose new legislation each year. “Some of the best ideas we work on in the Legislature come directly from constituents like Mr. Hilton, who are seeing problems in their neighborhoods firsthand. When we work together as a community, we produce better solutions that impact us directly,” Rivas said. As I’ve done in the past, I will continue to bring you the decisions and actions of our City Government through social media, coverage in local press, videos, town halls, tabling at events, press releases, email, and my newsletter.
