Work together to save San Juan
Can it get any worse than this?
San Juan Bautista, one of California’s smallest incorporated
towns, faces a calamity of crises.
Work together to save San Juan
Can it get any worse than this?
San Juan Bautista, one of California’s smallest incorporated towns, faces a calamity of crises.
The largest infrastructure project in the town’s history, one to replace a water system that in places dates back nearly to the Gold Rush, is jeopardized by the loss of $3.8 million in federal funds – a loss that some of those associated with the project attribute to the city’s mule-headedness.
The California Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans for a vastly expanded Hwy. 156, an east-west artery of statewide significance that splits the town.
The local school district is nearing state receivership, and counting on a bond measure June 3 to bring its finances back into balance.
The city itself is counting on a sales tax measure identical to one that failed last November to balance its books.
The only regular law enforcement in town, in the person of an unpopular deputy who had become a lightning rod for controversy, was transferred.
And the City Council, abruptly and without warning, fired the city manager in a move widely thought to be intended to insulate council members from criticism justifiably pointed at them over the crumbling municipal water project.
Let’s hope it is, indeed, always darkest before the dawn, because San Juan Bautista’s governmental structure is precariously close to collapse. The next few months will chart a course toward disincorporation or restored vigor.
The very thought of turning the town – San Benito County’s oldest – into an unincorporated enclave is emotionally devastating. But rescuing the town will take vision and leadership. That will demand that the town’s reputation for petty bickering be laid aside in favor of cooperation and a resolve to pay the real cost of keeping the village functioning.
The water project is important not just to the people of San Juan, but also to the entire San Juan Valley. The rich agricultural basin’s continuing health demands that mineral salts found in local water supplies be reduced drastically to keep those salts from ending up in productive soils. The answer, unfortunately, may lie in a special tax district that will allow the town’s residents and the surrounding farms to amortize the staggering cost of delivering potable water.
Caltrans is moving ahead with a highway project that will, unfortunately, cover some of California’s best farmland with asphalt. A better solution exists in the form of a highway that diverts traffic from Hwys. 152, 25 and 156, but Caltrans has produced numbers that it purports to show that the 156 expansion is the most effective solution. Now is the opportunity to work to ensure the larger highway has a lesser impact on San Juan than the current arterial.
The San Juan-Aromas School District, facing pockets of declining enrollment, lowered test scores and justifiably widespread criticism from parents, has elected to stay the course even as its failed finances threaten a state takeover. The district is ripe for wholesale change and it’s time to install leadership capable of embracing a new course.
San Juan’s sales tax solution threatens to duplicate the dilemma faced by the nearby cities of Gilroy and Hollister. Cities looking for salvation through sales tax are finding that reduced consumer spending leaves them short of projections. Further taxation could leave local businesses less competitive. Moreover, sales taxes most heavily extract funds from the poor, who spend the greatest proportion of their income on taxable goods. A better course is to pay the cost of local governance by fairly burdening all residents. The city should consider a special tax district to do so.
San Juan could be a shining example of the power of community policing. The past presence of an affable deputy who was a prominent local presence shows that it can be done. The county Sheriff’s Department should seek to place a resident deputy in town.
Finally, the San Juan Council turned its back on leadership when it is most desperately needed, and for all the wrong reasons. City Manager Jan McClintock was charged with being anti-business. But in her short tenure – about a year – McClintock actively promoted the town’s menu of festivals, lobbied for convenient parking for tour buses, endeavored to secure public restroom facilities, updated the town’s Web site and worked with area parks’ staff to open a countywide visitors’ center in San Juan. Clearly, she showed a more effective devotion to business development than any of her recent predecessors. The council cannot undo what it has done, but it should seize the opportunity to look for effective leadership that recognizes the historic village must further develop the tourism it already depends on in order to survive and, ultimately, thrive.
