Open Up Sports Complex to Outsiders to Pay for Operational Costs
Dear Editor,
I attended the Jan. 17 Morgan Hill City Council meeting as a representative of the Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League. Pop Warner Football and Pony Baseball representatives also attended to listen and to express their thoughts and concerns regarding the Sports Complex vote which occurred that evening. By a 3-2 vote, the council decided to spend $10 million to upgrade the facility. That was terrific news for local youth sports groups and for the city. However, dissenting opinions by Councilmembers Mark Grzan and Marby Lee introduced ideas which I feel are worthy of added debate. Their objections seemed to focus on two items: the idea of sponsoring a “regional recreational facility” vs. a facility to be used only by Morgan Hill residents, and a concern that unrecovered operational costs might come out of the general fund. While I feel they genuinely believe their dissent is based on fiscal responsibility, it seems intellectually ambiguous to assume that its use, solely by Morgan Hill kids, could pay for operations of the Condit road site. It could not. So, to pay for operations, we must open the complex up to regional use which brings in tens of thousands of out-of-town guests each year. Instead of bleeding general fund dollars, the complex does exactly the opposite. It supplies the general fund with tens of thousands of dollars in the form of the 10 percent Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) recovered by our hotels and the city’s share of sales tax generated by the dozens of commercial venues patronized by visitors. Why then, should I continue to debate these ideas after a vote that went “our way?” Because future debate on the outlay of RDAÂ funds should and must consider the whole picture of Morgan Hill as an attractive, safe and vibrant place to live and visit. And, of course, as Councilmember Carr put it “This is exactly what the voters asked us to do.”
Donovan Mott
Vice President, Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League
Road Safety on Tennant Avenue Needed
Dear Editor,
Respectfully, head-on, all government offices and entities involved in the federally supported American Institute of Mathematics project need to address, evaluate and analyze road safety on the major freeway 101 offramp and thoroughfare to the American Institute of Mathematics, namely, Tennant Avenue now.
They need to implement modern-day upgrades on the very narrow, two-lane, country-designed road, to accommodate the increasingly heavier flow of traffic and global tourism that the prestigious AIM castle is destined to attract. State law-endorsed pedestrian crosswalks need to be considered, so it is safe for pedestrians to cross Tennant Avenue at reasonably installed crossings.
The aforementioned road safety analysis and upgrade needs to be simultaneously planned and implemented with the construction of the castle, on a proactive and immediate basis.
Please, let us not ignore this very important road safety issue now and have a series of road accidents, or worse yet, fatalities, bring us to this point of road safety analysis evaluation and upgrade implementation along Tennant Avenue in Morgan Hill.
Julie Borina Driscoll, Morgan Hill
Classified School Employees Demanding Fair Salary Increase
Dear Editor,
The question I’ve had for several months now has finally been answered. Why? Why has the district allowed Service Employees International Union negotiations to be dragged on for seven months, allowed ridicule week after week through the local newspaper, allowed the local newspaper to chastise the board of education for not doing their job and call the superintendent’s behavior childish? The support employees have lost all loyalty and respect for a district that considers them less valuable than other employees.
Mr. Peter Mandel’s letter to the editor, “Making Sure We Can Afford Classified Employees’ Demands,” pretty much answers all my questions. The classified staff in this district earns less than any other support staff in this county. Five percent of our salary is peanuts compared to 5 percent for the superintendent, teachers and administrative staff of this district, not to mention the benefit increase they received totaling $9,000 over a three-year period. Yet, Mr. Mandel needs to be sure that this district can afford our salary demands. The logic escapes me! It is what it is, more of the same behavior this district has exhibited toward its support staff for the last five years. Classified jobs eliminated, 16 days docked one year, 20 days docked another year, no benefit increase for the last five years. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck – it is a turkey.
To be totally honest, there has been irreparable harm done, the district’s support staff has lost all respect in and loyalty to management and a board that has shown total contempt and disregard specifically to the SEIU members. The damage is done; an increase at this point will not undo the lack of morale, harsh and negative feelings developed over a seven-month struggle for equality.
Finally, Mr. Mandel’s statement that the board cares for and respects all the employees in our district seems to be the “politically correct” thing to say but there is certainly nothing in any board member’s actions that support this statement.
Joan Shuyler, San Martin
