Guest View

By Carol Holzgrafe Luck—sheer luck—brought me safely through November’s horrific Camp Fire in Paradise. Preparation eased life afterward. Before moving to that forest of 100-foot trees, I lived in Morgan Hill, reporting for The Times. Once, I was assigned to the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)...

As part of a nationwide protest through Families Belong Together, we, the members of SURJ South County (Showing Up for Racial Justice) are hosting a rally, march and day of action on Saturday, June 30, 9 to 11am along with local civic leaders, community organizers, activists and concerned citizens, at the Community and Cultural Center (17000 Monterey Road) in Morgan Hill.This movement is to let the Trump administration know that we do not agree with their policies and efforts to separate families at our borders. We also want to let immigrant members of our community know that we stand behind them and will do whatever we can to support them.This president believes that our country can inflict the trauma of separation on children without recourse. We need him to know that we stand with all families in America. Our members are rallying and marching until we no longer have a President Trump because we believe every child is a gift to this world with limitless possibilities.We are appalled by the actions taken by our government. These families have been through so much to reach our borders. They deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. As a country we need to do better than this.Our members intend to speak up as much as possible about what we see as the unraveling of America right now. Among our group are immigrants who came to this country and were welcomed and made to feel at home. We want that hand extended to others, especially those in need of a safe harbor. Isolating children from adults who care for them is the worst torture we can imagine.We feel it’s important that voices from communities both small and large—rural and urban—will be joining with those across the United States who are also protesting the federal government’s atrocities against families along our borders.We will also be registering voters, because we want to remind people that America is supposed to be a democracy and we all need to use our voting voice.Many of us are parents of children as young as those being ripped apart at our borders. We can’t and won’t stop thinking of the more than 2,000 children separated from their families by the Trump administration. We are horrified at the lack of plans in place to reunite the children with their parents. This all happened on our watch. History has its eyes on all of us.Our rally is a start to ask: What are we going to do to correct this injustice? What can we as a community do to fight against centuries of injustice and to prevent further injustices from occurring? Our families will stand together with the families affected to say “¡Ya basta!. Enough!'Join us.This guest view was written by SURJ members Katie McGinty Ruiz, Gemma Abels and Jenny Kirchoff. For more information about the June 30 rally, visit facebook.com/events/445428659203124

Open letter to Mayor Steve Tate,On April 30, 2015, an article appeared in the Morgan Hill Times reciting “a lengthy April 28 e-mail blast” outlining various aspects surrounding City Ventures’ approaching acquisition of an existing “Purchase Option” related to 95 East Third Street or, as you all coin it, “The BookSmart Site.”Essentially your remarks provide a diversion from the issues germane, while attempting to do a great job of confusing a general reader. The fact is, the City of Morgan Hill RDA acquired the Purchase Option on the Book Smart Site for $1.7 million and has agreed to sell it to City Ventures (with additional covenants) for $100,000. That’s a $1.6 million dollar loss!Many local residents are very familiar with what they perceive as the past squandering of RDA money (with seemingly no oversight).What is necessary to define upon reflection is: Why the City Council is now willing to throw away $1.6 million of taxpayer money. I really do not believe this is what Governor Brown had in mind when dismantling the RDA statewide.Your email also noted the city “is committed to assisting the impacted businesses” but has “absolutely no obligation” to do so. The $1 million relocation package you describe is funded by leftover RDA cash. Why don’t you let the community know that the “leftover RDA cash” is TAXPAYER MONEY? The City Council seems to treat it as if it is MONOPOLY money!Under the existing agreement, City Ventures will be handed for $2.1 million (option sale price of the site plus the purchase cost of the property) what was once, according to various newspaper accounts and City Council commentary, an asset worth about $3.7 Million.Did anyone—the City Council, staff, or whoever was representing the City of Morgan Hill in this “transaction”—attempt to encourage City Ventures to pay a portion of its net profit from sales proceeds (it is indicated that they will be building “condominiums and townhouses”) up to the $1.7 million original option price? In the Asset Management industry, when we sell a property at a below-market price and/or a “deep discount,” we generally require a percentage of proceeds as a “kicker” in nearly all circumstances.For the Morgan Hill City Council to GIFT City Ventures a $1.6 million dollar equity stake in this property at taxpayer expense is a blatant slap in the face of every taxpaying resident. Add to that an additional $1 MILLION of relocation expense (although you claim it includes tenants of Granada and Downtown Mall as well), the cost for another boondoggle in the downtown now escalates to $2.6 million! And, add to that the proposed repair of Fourth Street, and the rework of Third Street—who knows the total cost.It is the City Council’s fiduciary responsibility that the sale of the Book Smart option to City Ventures be placed in abeyance, or cancelled outright, unless and until the total amount of $1.7 million which the city expended for the purchase option is recoverable under ANY option sale.If the property is appropriate for the planned improvements and the financial feasibility of the project is acceptable to them, then guess what: City Ventures will go along with a participatory agreement.Regardless, the City Council of Morgan Hill must, and I believe is required to safeguard and judiciously protect taxpayer assets.Richard KhanMorgan HillKhan is a banking, mortgage and finance professional who has served in various capacities in commercial finance, commercial real estate lending, asset management and consumer finance.

Most Bibles begin with the words “In the beginning.” However, the more recently published Hebrew Bibles offer a different translation: “As God was beginning to create…”   A few lines later, we read that the sun, the moon and the stars are created on the fourth...