General Plan Update, coordination with Gilroy high on Council’s 2014 goals
Published in the Feb. 19 – March 4, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marilyn Librers
Marilyn Librers
Last month, members of the Morgan Hill City Council including myself met with city staff for the annual day-and-a-half goal-setting retreat to review our goals from last year and also decide on this year’s direction for the Morgan Hill community. The council adopted the new goals at its Feb. 5 public meeting.
Overall, we saw that 2013 was a very productive year for the city. And 2014 is shaping up to be another tremendous year with many exciting goals that all council members have embraced.
City council priorities for 2013 included the support of our youth, stimulating economic development, enhancing community engagement and diversity, participating in regional issues, improving organization effectiveness and transparency, and financing and advocating for infrastructure improvements.
I took the goal of participating in regional issues to heart. When a vacancy on the executive board of the League of California Cities came up, I ran for this position and was elected. I now represent the city of Morgan Hill with 50 other statewide board members who meet quarterly to address statewide issues. Mayor Steve Tate is the president of Cities Association for Santa Clara County. Council member Larry Carr serves as an alternative board members on the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority board to voice the South Valley’s transportation needs. And Rich Constantine is very involved with the Santa Clara Valley Water District. We’ve all taken to heart that Morgan Hill is not an isolated community but a part of Silicon Valley. We’ve branched out to give our residents a voice in organizations that impact our city.
Last year was a successful year fiscally. The city’s budget is stabilizing and Mayor Tate will address that in his State of the City speech this Thursday.
Economic development is another important vision for our city council members. Among our goals in this line is the creation of a community festival that will encourage visitors to discover Morgan Hill by celebrating our diversity, and by bringing arts and culture to our community. It will be similar to the Poppy Jasper Film Festival but on a larger scale. Although this goal is in the idea stage right now, it is something we want to do and if you want to be a part of this project, please feel free to contact me.
The council also made some excellent hires and repositioning of jobs among our city staff team in 2013. The biggest change occurred a year ago when Steve Rymer took on the role of our city manager, replacing Ed Tewes. Andrew Crabtree was hired in summer as the city’s new community development director. Chris Ghione came from the Mt. Madonna YMCA, where he served as its executive director, to become our community services director. Renee Gurza joined our staff as the city attorney. And Maureen Tobin was promoted to the position of communication and engagement manager.
In 2014 the Morgan Hill City Council plans to have a joint council meeting with the Gilroy Council and talk about regional issues and how our communities can support each other. This year, we also plan to continue our emphasis on the promoting the quality of life and development of our young people — and among our great successes is the Youth Action Council made up of young leaders.
One of the big goals for 2014 is updating our general plan, which is the vision for many years to come for our city. The process of getting public comments and engagement through regularly-held workshops is moving ahead strongly under the leadership of Morgan Hill resident Katie Hardt-Mason.
The city is trying to engage the community as much as possible, and in the last few weeks we launched a brand-new Facebook page called Morgan Hill Engaged. I hope you might “like” it and keep informed on what’s happening in your community.
One of the city’s biggest goals for 2014 is street maintenance. We have many issues with street maintenance, including the problem of potholes. Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient funds to repair all of our streets. Streets that aren’t repaired when needed only get worse, so it costs more to repair them when we do have the money. We’re trying to strategize some ideas to address the worst-case street repairs in our city, with a primary goal for upgrading being the city’s section of Watsonville Road.
We are fortunate as a city to have so many residents who are engaged in the leadership and visioning process of local government to add to the quality of life in Morgan Hill. All the members of the Morgan Hill City Council encourage even more engagement and involvement in the democratic process of our city government.
Mayor Steve Tate and the other council members including myself invite you to join us at the State of the City Address, which will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday Feb. 20 at the Community and Cultural Center. This is a wonderful opportunity for you, as a citizen, to learn more about what is happening in Morgan Hill and discover ways you can get involved with making our great city even better.
