GILROY
–– An optimistic crowd of Gavilan College supporters was
rewarded for hours of watching and cheering when the $108-million
bond measure passed in a come-from-behind victory.
GILROY –– An optimistic crowd of Gavilan College supporters was rewarded for hours of watching and cheering when the $108-million bond measure passed in a come-from-behind victory.
While Yes on Measure E supporters seemed to think the passage of a $108-million bond was a sure thing, voter approval of the measure hovered below the required 55 percent for much of the evening before receiving 56 percent of the vote in Santa Clara County and 59 percent in San Benito County.
“Folks realize community college and they really have an interest in maintaining these facilities,” Gavilan President Steve Kinsella said. “And it really is up to them, we can’t rely on the state for facilities funding.”
Measure E earmarks $68 million to renovate and upgrade existing Gavilan facilities on the nearly full Gilroy campus. The remaining $40 million is earmarked for expanding the Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Benito County campuses.
As many as 30 people crowded into the kitchen and family room of Kinsella’s Morgan Hill home, lounging in their socks out of respect for the Chinese tradition upheld by Kinsella’s wife Linda. Eating hors d’oeuvres and drinking sodas and cocktails, the group was in high spirits throughout the evening, cheering even when 1 percent of Santa Clara County precincts showed that 55 percent of voters favored the bond.
Approval rates in San Benito County remained right around the needed 55 percent of the vote most of the evening, while those in Santa Clara County started at that level, dipped to 53 percent and stayed near 54 percent until close to the end of the vote count.
Gavilan’s next step will be to establish a citizens oversight committee. The college started the process of recruiting members but has had no respondents, Kinsella said.
“Then, it’ll be getting the master plan together,” he said. “We will have to deal with the power system first and upgrading the entire system and we can work our way forward from there.”
The bond will cost property owners about $15 for every $100,000 of assessed property value for the life of the bond over the next 25 years.
The biggest threats to Measure E may have been an abundance of bond measures on the ballot and an expected record-low voter turnout.
Asking voters for money on the same ballot as two statewide bonds and a countywide library bond were “the scariest thing about this,” said John Baker, vice president of student services. “Every one of those is an additional cost to my family.”
Baker was largely responsible for organizing Yes on Measure E supporters. Five days a week, between 25 and 30 volunteers called voters in all three Gavilan areas. Baker also organized precinct walks and mailers. When Baker arrived at Kinsella’s home Tuesday evening, the Gavilan administrators, staff, students and trustees in attendance chanted, “Baker! Baker! Baker!”
Deb Smith, president of Gavilan’s board of trustees, was one of the volunteers who spent multiple nights on the phone.
“I was just really pleased with the response that I got from a lot of people,” she said.
In the course of her phone calls, Smith said she spoke with residents who have children in Gilroy schools and Gavilan graduates. The main reason “yes” voters approved, she said, was because they wanted to keep their money local.
Jesus Badillo, who voted at Brownell Academy Middle School in Gilroy on Tuesday afternoon, agreed.
“Anything for schools’ upgrades and keeping it safe, I believe in it,” he said. “It provides better facilities for people that go there and I’m all for that.”
Badillo, a construction worker, said he and his coworkers may benefit from Gavilan projects, as well.
First-year Gavilan student Kevin Moyles said he sees the need for upgrades on campus, particularly improved lighting.
“I think schools can always use more money,” he said. “The main reason I’m here (voting) is just for Measure E.”
First-time Morgan Hill voter Scott, who declined to give his last name, said he didn’t vote two years ago because there weren’t many issues on the ballot that he felt an interest in.
Also, the 20-year-old West Valley College student said this time around, he was more knowledgeable about the issues.
“Since more of the issues affect me, I have studied them,” he said. “I know more about the propositions on the ballot.”
Measure E, he said, is important for education and for the area.
“I honestly think they need (the bond money),” he said. “I’ve taken a class or two at Gav, and I believe they could use the money to make the campuses nicer, to provide better facilities for the students. That could also attract more students. (Gavilan) costs less than some of the other community colleges around, like Evergreen, De Anza, and they probably don’t have a big budget for improvements.”
Bethany Maricle, a regular voter, said she didn’t feel she could support Measure E.
“I understand the need for facilities, but I just wasn’t sure about voting for something that would have to be paid for later down the road,” she said. “I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I think we have enough debt. I think we need to find another way to assist our community colleges, because they do provide a valuable service.”
Kinsella said he was happy with the way Measure E was advertised to voters.
“We had enough money to get the word out and the things that we focused on were just basics, the minimum, and that’s what we went after,” Kinsella said.
Yes on Measure E raised $152,000 from supporters. The Associated Student Body contributed a large portion of that – $30,000 – as did the bond underwriter, The Lew Edwards Group, which contributed $25,000.
Yes on Measure E owes Lew Edwards a bonus of $15,000 for the passage of the bond, in addition to a $30,000 fee for running the bond campaign. The bonus will come out of already-raised funds, Kinsella said.
“We didn’t spend anything we didn’t have,” he said, “because I didn’t want to be fund-raising after the vote.”
Lori Stuenkel is a staff writer for The Gilroy Dispatch. Dispatch staff writer Marilyn Dubil contributed to this report.
