Columnists

On Feb. 2, I attended my first and, I think, last Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education meeting.The meeting started out normal enough with recognition of community members and programs. Then came the open comment period, where several speakers asked for Trustee David Gerard’s resignation, plus a couple who supported him—one saying he was just “talking smack” and it was no big deal (certainly the threshold for acceptable behavior for some can be remarkably different than mine…).Then came the big agenda item which was the public hearing for censure of embattled Trustee Gerard involving his emails from his MHUSD address.The usual administrative readings were followed by questions/comments from the trustees themselves. Trustees Ron Woolf and Donna Ruebusch expressed how they had felt attacked and belittled in the now infamous emails.Not surprisingly, Trustees Rick Badillo and Gino Borgioli offered Gerard their support.It appeared to me that the cornerstone of Badillo’s comments was freedom of speech. I am prepared to accept that what Gerard said was not illegal but if we are to use minimum legal standards to justify actions then we are operating in the basement of behavior.I think we all expect our elected public officials to operate at the highest levels of behavior, and not merely squeaking by on a legal judgment.Then came one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in a public meeting, and I’ve been to a lot: Trustee Borgioli’s comments and alternate resolution for censure. I felt that the atmosphere at the meeting was turning a bit theatrical but this moved it into three-ring circus material.Borgioli had previously asked President Benevento who wrote the current resolution under consideration. The answer from the president was fellow trustees, community members and an attorney.All eyes were on Trustee Borgioli as he read a prepared statement, which I was not convinced he wrote himself from his reading. Then he proposed an alternative resolution which no one had seen and he could not easily describe.President Benevento then asked Trustee Borgioli who wrote the resolution. You would think that what happened next was part of a comedy skit.Trustee Borgioli, now faced with question reciprocity, did not answer for several seconds. I can only imagine how long those few seconds felt as all of the eyes in a packed room were on him.  “Armando Benavides” finally spilled out of Trustee Borgioli’s mouth, and there was a murmur in the room.Apparently Mr. Benavides has been at odds with the three that were supporting the censure resolution. I was gobsmacked.Is Armando Benavides the fourth man allied to the apparent trinity of Gerard, Borgioli and Badillo? He sure seemed to exert some influence over the hearing from his seat in the audience.I left during Trustee Gerard’s very long prepared speech which finally included the apologies many had been asking to hear for so long. That apology rang hollow to me since he was under the pressure of a censure resolution.Apparently I missed an incident later in the evening where Trustee Badillo was requested to be questioned by the MHPD. More theater was created when Badillo moved briskly to the front door past the audience and away from the police. He was met at the front door by another officer, and a chaotic scene ensued in which it was later learned that police received a report that Badillo might have been carrying a weapon (he was not; it was a utility tool on his belt).This is getting ridiculous and I feel that the community of Morgan Hill is now starting to pay for the behavior of Badillo, Borgioli and Gerard.Morgan Hill is becoming a laughing stock with the behavior of the trinity which I now call the “Holy Cow!” trinity.Holy cow! We need a change in behavior at the MHUSD board level now!John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner, Vice President of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

Okay, I don’t think I’m quite done with talking about the new downtown parks.I was at the three new parks’ grand opening this past Saturday, and it was a big deal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of the community’s leaders and volunteers in one place like this before. There were representatives from the Open Space Authority, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Assembly Member Ana Caballero’s office and of course our city council.But I think the most important thing was that the community really turned out, especially at the Railroad Park. Seeing so many from our community turn out makes me believe that these parks are the right ones for us at the right time.If you had ever seen the old empty lot where the new Creek Park is now, you might remember it was overgrown with tree canopies touching the ground and blocking the views.That old lot cleaned up nicely with a wonderful trail that goes from Second to Third Street through the park, passing over a sturdy footbridge that makes you feel like you are leaving the downtown. There is a sculpture of a fox under the canopy of a huge oak tree and the open main area of the park has a couple features for the young ones to climb on. But this park is mostly just for relaxing and hanging out. I’m already looking forward to sitting under the trees on a nice summer day.After initial ceremonies at the Creek Park, a mass of people went up the hill to the Hilltop Park and we were all reminded that this park will be great for exercising. But the view and the slides make it all worth the effort. Children lined up to go down the slide,screaming down one after another. We really got to see and were reminded of what so much of these parks are about—the children.We went to the Railroad Park on Depot Street. As soon as the gates opened, there was a flood of children climbing on the different play features. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those zombie movies where the zombies all climb together to get over a wall or something, but the scene reminded me of that. A tower that looks like the Eiffel Tower looked like it had that swarm, but these were wonderful, happy, screaming kids, alive with joy, that now have a place to play in the downtown.Children playing in the Railroad Park went on through the day and into the evening with the park full again after the Holiday Lights Parade.I went to Sunday brunch the next morning, and from the downtown parking garage I could hear the children yelling and screaming and laughing from my upper floor perch. I could see the brightly colored park and equally colorfully clothed children running about and playing with others.This really reinforced that what was missing in the downtown was that sound of life filling the air and the sight of children being children. We got a taste of this with the pop-up parks, but this is much bigger.I want to make sure that one of our most firmly held goals is to make the sights and sounds of children commonplace in our thriving downtown.Can we work on that together?John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at [email protected].