Hell and high water came to Morgan Hill in 2009, but the city’s
forward-thinking residents trekked on, setting the stage for good
years to come with several pivotal decisions amid the turmoil.
Hell and high water came to Morgan Hill in 2009, but the city’s forward-thinking residents trekked on, setting the stage for good years to come with several pivotal decisions amid the turmoil. Fatigued officials looked on as waves of bad budget news washed over the city from the county, state, and federal government.
Nervous residents changed their jogging and shopping habits as violence against women made headlines time and again, and this fall saw the first homicide in four years in Morgan Hill.
But Morgan Hill can bid adieu to the first decade of the millennium in good spirits, as 2009 was the jumping off point for many good things to come, from downtown development to a new school leader.
CRIME RATTLES RESIDENTS
Crime in 2009
Despite crime being down overall last year, several incidents disrupted routines and yet brought the community together. Harrowing crime rang out in the city throughout the year, unsettling routines and yet bringing the community together. No arrests have been made in any of the year’s top incidents, one a spree of gang violence that ended in a homicide and the other a spree of violence against women that culminated in a rape.
Gang tension
Rising gang tension culminated in a violent crime spree in early October that ended in the shooting death of Juan Arellano, Jr. Police are still investigating the Oct. 3 homicide and the two brutal assaults that preceded it by just hours. Friends of Arellano set up a makeshift memorial at the scene of the crime, in front of an apartment building on Crest Avenue, made of flowers, candles and red balloons.
Safeway attacks
An unknown man attacked three different women in the two Safeway parking lots over a two-week period in March. The man caused minor injuries to two of the women – one he punched and shot with a stun gun and the other he cut with a knife that belonged to the victim, who tried to defend herself.
Police never found or arrested the man, and no similar attacks have been reported since the last incident March 26, a week after the first two attacks.
Safeway shoppers were on edge for months and the store hired extra security guards to patrol the parking lots on East Dunne and Tennant avenues.
The three victims’ descriptions of the assailant matched: about 5-feet, 10-inches to 6-feet tall, weighing about 200 pounds, in his 20s, and of unknown race.
Early-morning rape
Before daybreak Dec. 15, an unknown male pulled a female jogger off Mission View Road in northeast Morgan Hill, held a knife to her throat and raped her. He then ran off, and she sought help from workers at a nearby construction site.
The rape is not thought to be connected to the Safeway attacks. The assailant is described as being 5-feet, 8-inches to 5-feet, 10-inches tall, weighing 130 to 150 pounds and speaking English with a slight, possibly Spanish accent and between 17 to 25 years old.
LOCAL DISASTERS
Flood
Evacuations, submerged and stalled vehicles, felled trees and a ranch inundated with thousands of gallons of raw sewage: these were just some of the events that elapsed in a few hours after the biggest storm in decades dumped nearly seven inches of rain on Morgan Hill Oct. 13. The city’s public works department was criticized for not closing Monterey Road since vehicles traveling through downtown created a wake that spilled into businesses. Twenty percent of the city’s roadways were underwater, and city staff said 80 percent of that flooding could have been avoided if the $105 million Upper Little Llagas Creek Flood Control Project were completed.
Cut phone lines
South County residents were disoriented as fire engines perched on hilltops, police scattered around town, banks shut down and stores only accepted cash April 10, when an act of vandalism cut off land line, cell phone and Internet-based communications. An unknown number of suspects cut 10 fiber optic lines in San Jose and San Carlos. AT&T, the owner of the truncated cables, offered a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. The crime is still unsolved, and the reward remains on the table.
Neither city agencies nor medical officials heard of any emergencies that were exacerbated by the lack of 911 service, or any criminals who took advantage of the communication breakdown.
Economy
The Great Recession hit Morgan Hill government hard, causing $2 million to be cut from the city and another $9 million cut from the school district. The city’s financial crunch eliminated 16 positions including one layoff. Meanwhile, the school district laid off 16 classified employees, such as maintenance workers and bus drivers, and several teachers.
BLUNDERS,MISSTEPS AND LAWSUITS
Spy case
The sparring match between local attorney Bruce Tichinin and the city of Morgan Hill entered another round in 2009, with the September ruling by the 6th District Court of Appeals that Tichinin should have his day in court. In 2004, in an attempt to prove a rumored affair, Tichinin hired a private investigator to follow City Manager Ed Tewes. The amateur detective was caught. Tewes has adamantly denied the alleged affair with then-City Attorney Helene Leichter.
Tichinin is suing the city for defamation, saying his business and reputation were nearly ruined when the Morgan Hill City Council adopted a slap-on-the-wrist resolution condemning the detective work. A trial court dismissed Tichinin’s case in 2006; he prevailed on appeal. In November, the city responded with a petition for the California Supreme Court to review the case.
Union woes
The city trouble doesn’t end there. City leaders, after successfully renegotiating labor contracts with the three union groups in March, found themselves hard-pressed to do it again this fall, when budget constraints tightened again. The Morgan Hill City Council looked from reserves to layoffs for a quick fix, but as 2010 rings in, the budget still isn’t balanced – it’s off by $775,000 – and the unions still aren’t budging to give up some $1.23 million in scheduled raises in coming months.
Skate park
Some might say opening an unstaffed skate park across the parking lot from a senior center could be trouble. Alas, the city did just that in June. The Morgan Hill Skate Park’s supervision was cut in January to help balance the beleaguered general fund; the Morgan Hill City Council thought twice when complaints started rolling in about anarchy at the CRC: helmetless skaters; smoking and drinking and other revelry abounded. The park has been staffed since September.
Water lawsuit
The city wasn’t alone in its missteps. Despite a Superior Court decision that ruled certain local groundwater charges unconstitutional, the Santa Clara Valley Water District continued to send out bills as the year wound down.
Great Oaks Water Co., a San Jose company, sued the Santa Clara Valley Water District for a full refund of about $4.6 million in groundwater charges the water retailer paid to the water district in 2005-06. A San Jose judge found the charges to be in violation of Proposition 218 because they were not approved by the voters. Based on that ruling, at least one resident refused to pay his bill, claiming he is owed a refund like Great Oaks.
About 12,000 households in Morgan Hill are served by city water, which is pumped from the groundwater aquifer via city-owned wells and purchased from the water district. Last year, the city paid about $2.2 million to the water district in groundwater charges. City Manager Ed Tewes said the city is closely watching the Great Oaks case.
Math castle
After 10 years of snags and hiccups, the American Institute of Mathematics hit another obstacle: a landslide. Three area geologist firms can’t agree on whether or not a square-mile landslide could clobber the castle that the American Institute of Mathematics plans to build as its new headquarters.
If they can come to an agreement, then the 10-year-old plans could finally get the city’s go ahead.
The site for the castle is the southeast corner of Foothill and Maple avenues east of U.S. 101. This happens to be situated at the southwest tip of South Santa Clara County’s largest developed landslide. At issue is whether development there will “reactivate” the long dormant landslide.
This was the latest in a slew of setbacks for the math institute and electronics magnate and institute founder John Fry. In 1998, the city discovered that Fry had begun redesigning the Institute Golf Course without permits. Both the golf course project and the castle-cum-AIM headquarters adjacent to it have been mired in scrutiny from the city and environmental groups since.
At year’s end, the city was still working with the institute to pen a developer’s agreement that would lay out, in certain terms, just what the city expects of the institute.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Businesses close
Two of the city’s biggest sales tax generators, Alpine RV and Courtesy Chevrolet, closed their doors this year: Courtesy Chevrolet in April and Alpine RV in July. Add these to the string of retail closures that rang in 2009: Ross, Mervyns and Circuit City, throwing the city in a lurch. Alpine RV alone, with sales of about $56 million in 2007, generated about $560,000 in sales tax for the city – about 9 percent of the city’s revenues from retail sales for 2008. Sales tax revenue was predictably down this year.
Burnett closes
Amid $3.7 million in budget cuts, the Morgan Hill Unified School District closed Burnett Elementary School, ending a 153-year tradition in Morgan Hill. The move saves the district $400,000 annually in facility and office staff savings.
The 350 Burnett students, and 30 or so staff members, moved to P.A. Walsh Elementary School in the fall. The transition, although heartbreaking for seven-year Burnett students in the spring, was smooth in the fall thanks to district staff, led by Walsh Principal Natalie Gioco.
New superintendent
This year, school trustees got a do-over: controversial schools superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino retired in June and the seven-member board conducted a months long search that procured Dr. Wesley Smith. Smith was chosen for his vivacious attitude and inclusive leadership style, and started his tenure with school site visits and a goal to listen.
Morgan Hill Unified School District’s staff, parents and Board of Education hope Smith will be the breath of fresh air needed after Nishino’s top-down, close-to-the-chest manner left relations strained between the district’s leadership and its unions and parents. Employee and parent morale has already improved under Smith’s leadership, teachers and maintenance staff have said.
Measure A
Another component of Morgan Hill’s bright future is Measure A, an effort to revitalize downtown. The city-born measure scored an impressive victory in May with nearly 60 percent of voters casting “yes” votes. The measure will allow 500 additional units in the downtown area but keep the city’s population cap of 48,000 people by 2020.
Touted as a panacea by organizers, Measure A will allow developers to bypass the complicated residential development control system when applying for residential unit allotments. They’ll be doled out in a first-come, first-served basis instead.
Measure A will allow mixed-use projects, with apartments, townhomes or condominiums atop ground level retail and office space downtown because developers can get all the allotments they need for a project at once, instead of over the course of years, as with most suburban projects. This, coupled with the impending completion of the Third Street Promenade, portends a bustling downtown in the future.
Measure A fared much better than the original version, Measure H, which failed by 10 votes in November 2008.
Health center
As Measure A changes the face of downtown, an urgent care promises to change the state of health care in the city. Morgan Hill’s new urgent care is scheduled to open in early February. The DePaul Urgent Care Center will be located at the DePaul Health Center medical offices building at DePaul Drive near Cochrane Road and U.S. 101.
The DePaul Health Center is formerly the site of Saint Louise Regional Hospital, which moved to Gilroy more than 10 years ago. Saint Louise is owned by Daughters of Charity Health Systems. Shortly after the hospital moved south, an independently owned urgent care on Tennant Avenue closed, leaving Morgan Hill without urgent or emergency care.
Staffed by an emergency room physician and nurse, a radiology technician and a registration clerk, the urgent care center will be open from 3 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Appointments will not be necessary and most insurance plans will be accepted.
Walmart
Down the road from DePaul, Walmart moved in, breathing life into the nearly vacant Cochrane Plaza. The 80,000-square-foot grocer and sundries chain opened in September.
Still to come
Yet to come in 2010 is a possible new dealership and the PGA Tour. Ted Stevens, owner of several auto dealerships in California, has a keen eye on the former Courtesy Chevrolet site, and plans to open Honda of Morgan Hill there in mid-2010.
Less than a year from now, Tiger Woods could be spending a week in South County to compete for the roughly $900,000 top prize in the Frys.com Open.
The 2010 PGA Tour fall series event will be played at CordeValle golf course in San Martin, about six miles south of downtown Morgan Hill.
