At 72 years old and one week removed from being struck by a car while walking his dogs on La Crosse Drive, Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Gino Borgioli was determined to attend the March 6 meeting.
“There’s several items that I think need an experienced board member’s input on, and I wanted to make sure I’ll be able to participate,” said Borgioli in a phone interview Tuesday morning prior to teleconferencing in for the MHUSD Board of Trustees meeting. “You’re probably going to see me the quietest you ever saw me at a meeting, with the exception of a couple of items.”
Borgioli, who is recovering from a concussion, knee fracture and lacerations to his face and hands, participated in closed session, listened in on the first two hours of the public session—casting his vote on a few items—and then posed at least three questions to a legal expert during a board discussion on the Brown Act open meetings law. He then hung up from his teleconference line to rest.
He was one of three MHUSD trustees to participate in the March 6 meeting via teleconference. Board President Tom Arnett was in Texas on business, while Trustee David Gerard was unable to attend and called in from his Morgan Hill residence.
“With the lacerations and everything on my face, I really don’t want to be the talk of the meeting. I don’t want to put attention on me,” said Borgioli, who preferred to call in rather than attend Tuesday’s meeting in person. He said it was only the second time he’s used teleconference since joining the board in 2014. “Plus, I can’t drive and I have locked leg brace,” he added.
Borgioli must use a walker or cane to get around since returning home from the hospital March 2. He also continues to ice his injured knee every hour on and off to help reduce the swelling from the accident.
At about 4:30pm Feb. 26, Borgioli was crossing La Crosse Drive from Vineyard Boulevard with his two Dalmatians when he was struck by a vehicle. Borgioli briefly lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. One of his dogs, 5-year-old Mortie, was struck by the same vehicle and was taken to an animal hospital, where he had internal bleeding. Mortie and Borgioli returned home the same day. The younger Dalmatian, Finn, avoided any injury.
“If the dog would not have pulled through, this would have been that much more worse on my father,” said Gino’s son Scott Borgioli, the oldest of three siblings. “I think my dad would have definitely been declining in health because that dog means the world to him.”
Scott Borgioli wanted to also thank the Morgan Hill community for their “outpouring of love and concern” for his father after learning he was the one involved in the pedestrian-vehicle accident.
The driver of the vehicle that hit Borgioli and Mortie on Feb. 26 “has no charges pending in the collision, and impairment was not suspected at all in this case,” according to Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Troy Hoefling.
