The following organizations and individuals deserve either
CHEERS or JEERS this week:
CHEERS: To the Morgan Hill Police Department for creating the city’s first gang and drug suppression program that began July 8. The goal of the new Street Crimes Unit, made up of Special Operations Det. Mindy Zen and School Resource Officer David Ray, is to crack down on drugs, gangs and prevention efforts by working with local youth to discourage them from becoming involved in criminal activity.
CHEERS: To Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County officials for working with local Hispanic leaders to open the South County Dayworker Center. The safe haven closed in April leaving thousands of laborers in precarious conditions without a place to advocate for them. The closing of the center came as anti-immigrant sentiments are growing across the country and as new studies reveal many “jornaleros” are in danger of suffering from various health problems, including contracting sexually-transmitted diseases. County health agencies must step up to help find a permanent location for the center, either in Morgan Hill or Gilroy.
CHEERS: To Mike Simms, a probation manager at the William F. James Boys Ranch, for working with the Morgan Hill Library, Culture and Arts Commission to turn a small reading room at the facility into a library. We believe giving them books is a worthwhile effort, which often liberates and gives the young inmates a positive activity to engage in while incarcerated.
We admire Simms’ efforts, inviting local library personnel and community leaders to tour the old reading room at the detention center to see firsthand what he envisions for the youth prisoners. We hope Simms will realize his dream and that the new reading room will be up and running this fall. We know the local community loves reading by its support and passion for the new library, so finding books to fill the room’s shelves will not be difficult.
JEERS: To the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education for failing to properly rectify their June 13 violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act. The trustees’ June 27 apology would have been stronger had trustees specified the corrective action they thought was necessary to redress the illegality of the vote and provided the public the opportunity it denied the public by meeting in closed session. Trustees must still formally disclose why they violated the law and provide copies of Nishino’s salary package to the public for close review. We also think justifying their actions, as done by Superintendent Alan Nishino, is wrong. Once government bodies violate the open meetings law, they can’t, unfortunately, undo what they have done. His statements about “curing” the violation don’t make sense. Trustees can’t undo what they did behind closed doors. They must now work extremely hard to regain the public’s trust.
JEERS: To Olin Corporation for deferring until August a cleanup solution for perchlorate contamination on the area immediately south of the company’s former Tennant Avenue factory. The proposed passive monitoring program, which in essence means keeping an eye on the situation until levels reach unsafe parts per billion, means no cleanup will occur soon. The news has left residents who live near the 9.5-mile-long plume wondering about the safety of ground water and upset that the drinking water program started by the company has been discontinued.
JEERS: To the harsh realities faced by military personnel such as Morgan Hill’s Rick Badillo, who often return to their homeland traumatized by the effects of war to deal with difficulties in finding employment and keeping a roof over their heads. The reserve Navy officer returned to an eviction notice on his business on Third Street after serving for 10 months in Kuwait. He must now operate his construction business out of his garage.
