A belated Happy New Year to all. Please accept both my apology for being absent for the last quarter and pledge to share every coming Tuesday morning, lunch hour, or evening with you. I've missed talking with you.

In early December and fresh off accomplishing what I thought impossible - the passage of a $170 million school bond, Measure P - Gilroy Unified School District Deputy Superintendent of Business Enrique Palacios castigated my column for not being transparent. Palacios called into question the veracity of my 86 words on Measure P for not detailing how GUSD would do additional things to help raise funds other than saddling Gilroyans with 40 years of debt, which has now occurred.

Can you feel the bit tugging at the corners of your mouth? Too bad you cannot turn your head, as any other horse can, to see who is holding the reins. Palacios implied I misled readers by not telling the story Palacios wanted me to tell. Let's take a look at what I wrote in my column titled, "Editorial Board Strikes Out."

I wrote that GUSD enabled itself via bond language to use Measure P funds to pay off COP debt from the last bond and that the district's leveraging money to the tune of more than $30 million. That was accurate back in October. Today the figure is possibly much higher. Palacios himself uttered that truth only once, in the September 2008 sit down with me. Palacios thinks more transparency is needed - at least on my part, it seems.

When I spoke in opposition to Measure P at the Chamber of Commerce Government Relations Committee's measure forum there was zero mention of COP repayment from Measure P proponents. Neither was there mention at the district's Town Hall meeting at Gilroy High School.

In all of the advertisements I saw or read, or stump speeches I heard, COP repayment was never mentioned. It was however hidden in a nondescript five-page document laid on the literature table at the GRC forum. And Palacios calls out for my transparency. Might I suggest Mr. Palacios install a mirror in his office?

I was transparent about my feelings and facts about Measure P. I wrote nothing that wasn't true. Measure P was and still is, regardless of its passage, a bad idea. A disconnect exists in Deputy Superintendent Palacios's idea of transparency. His office and district didn't tell voters that although Measure P reduced Gilroyans "tax" from $70 to $60 PER $100,000 of assessed property value, this "new and lower tax" will last longer than most standard 30-year mortgages. How's that going to affect selling your property after you own it outright?

I can see the conversation in 2040. "Please, buy my home so I can somehow afford live-in managed care. It's a real dream home. It has all the alternative energy features, fusion electricity, and hover-car hookups, UV reflective roofing and 22" thick exterior walls. This baby still has the original garage converted into underground parking with the auto still in it. Might be worth a ton on iBay. Look to the left, it's got a view-shed of Old City Hall. One thing however, it's still got 10 years left on a 40-year school bond and two others I voted for when I was a kid with kids. Shoulda known better. Maybe you can re-finance that. The school district already has a couple of times."

Not a pretty picture.

So, in the interest repairing my transparent status in the eyes of our local school district, I offer the following detritus: Palacios said the district would attempt to obtain additional "non-bond" funds but refused to specify from where other than a joint-use agreement with the City of Gilroy to build the gym and the aquatics center. We all know the financial woes of that choice of dance partners. Palacios mentioned state funds. There's another bad dance card. With Gov. Schwarzenegger petitioning the federal government for an $8 billion bailout, the band is packing it in.

As I've learned from my time as a planning commissioner, once an issue is approved you support that issue. So, in the interest of Palacios' idea of transparency, Yea Measure P! Yea Christopher High School! Long live GUSD!

Ben Anderson Columnist Ben Anderson is a long-time Gilroyan and father of two fantastic teens. You can reach him at heyben@bdkr.net. His column is published every Wednesday.