THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
JULY 5, 2019 JULY 5, 2019
A supplement to the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times A supplement to the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
Funky feathered friends
Ostrich farm opens to the public
SOUTH VALLEY MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Gilroy GilroyOstrich OstrichFarm Farmbecoming becoming educational educationaldestination destination
| WILDFIREPREPARATION | REALESTATE CALENDAR CALENDAROF OFEVENTS EVENTSP8 P8 | WILDFIRE PREPARATIONP14 P14 | REAL ESTATEP19 P19
GILROYAN IN COOK-OFF P2 | SHOOTING LEAVES 3 DEAD P8 | CHERRIES, CHERRIES P12
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
JULY 5, 2019
Ostrich farm opens to the public ESTABLISHED 1868
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
Sticking their SV Media publication A New neck out
SAN BENITO MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE gilroydispatch.com • Vol. 152, No. 27 • $1
Friday, July 5, 2019
Ostrich farm debuts to the community
Kitchens charged with ‘18 election fraud CALENDAR OF EVENTS P8 | WILDFIRE PREPARATION P14 | REAL ESTATE P19
30TH DISTRICT GOP CANDIDATE PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO FIVE FELONY COUNTS Jaqueline McCool Reporter
➝ Kitchen , 10
Robert Eliason
Neil Kitchens, a Republican candidate who ran an unsuccessful campaign for State Assembly District 30 in 2018, has been charged with five counts of election fraud. Kitchens pleaded not guilty at an arraignment June 28 in Monterey County Superior Court, according to court filings. He has been charged with three counts of procuring or offering a false or forged instrument and two counts of voter registration fraud. In the 2018 race for Assembly District 30, Kitchens ran against Assemblymember Robert Rivas. Kitchens received 37 percent of the vote. He is set to appear at a July 16 hearing to set his preliminary examination at the Monterey
‘WHO SAYS I CAN’T?’ Rob Mendez at practice field with his junior varsity team at Prospect High School in San Jose.
ESPN honors Mendez PRESTIGIOUS JIMMY V AWARD GOES TO HIGH SCHOOL JV FOOTBALL COACH Emanuel Lee Sports Editor
➝ Rob Mendez, 13
Robert Eliason
When ESPN aired Rob Mendez's life story in a Sports Center featured segment on Feb. 16, it forever changed his life. Mendez, a 31-year-old Gilroy resident who was born without arms and legs, was inundated with messages and requests to the point where his best course of action was to hire an agent to help him handle all of the demands of his time and direct him with his career going forward.
The Gilroy High graduate, who is entering his second year as the junior varsity football coach at Prospect High in Saratoga, will receive the Jimmy V Award for perseverance at the 2019 ESPYs, one of the most prestigious honors any sports figure can receive. The ESPY Awards will be televised live July 10 on ABC at 5 pm local time. The Jimmy V Award—named after the late North Carolina State men's basketball coach Jimmy Valvano—is awarded to “a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination.” In 1993, Valvano and ESPN
INSPIRATION Junior varsity football coach Rob Mendez
attended Gilroy High School and lives in Gilroy.
Gilroy salaries rank high in state FIRE OFFICERS AMONG CITY’S HIGHEST PAID Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
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The City of Gilroy’s wages and benefits for its city workers place it among the top 20 percent in the entire state, according to a new report. In her annual report of Government Compensation in California, 2018, State Comptroller Betty Yee reported
that the average salary of Gilroy city employees last year was $67,016, almost as high as one of Santa Clara County’s most affluent cities, Los Altos, at $68,488. An estimate of Gilroy’s median pay for full-time employees, the midpoint in a list of all full-time salaries, is nearly $100,000. Gilroy’s numbers closely match the average of all of the state’s 467 cities included in Yee’s report, with a statewide average salary for all 327,721 city employees of $69,786. Gilroy’s
average health insurance and pension payments, of $18,587 per employee, are slightly behind the statewide average for benefits, at $21,205, according to the report, which was released June 25. Gilroy’s average pay and average benefits payment for all full-time, part-time and seasonal employees is significantly higher than its closest neighbor to the north, Morgan Hill, where the average employee salary it $47,554 and average benefit payment is $9,253.
Gilroy’s staffing level also is leaner, with 440 total employees in 2018, compared to the total employees in Morgan Hill, with 513 employees and 45,742 population, or in Watsonville, with 663 employees and a population of 53,570. GIlroy’s population, as reported in Yee’s report, is 55,928. Morgan Hill staff totals do not include firefighters, because it contracts with Cal Fire for city fire service. ➝ City Salaries, 12
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