And the Editorial Board isn't alone in its desire to see the Youth Center building saved from the wrecking ball.

The physical building that housed the Youth Center was determined by the city to be a seismically unsafe building under Article VI of the Gilroy Municipal Code.

Section 6.47 of the Municipal Code states that once a URM building has been vacant for longer than 24 hours, it cannot be re-occupied without a URM retrofit. Often, that retrofit includes demolition and reconstruction, which, at best, is an expensive remedy. The indicator of a building that cannot be occupied due to the URM ordinance is that pesky yellow sticker on the front window. If you look into downtown windows, you'll see the "yellow stickers of death."

Gilroy's 2009-2010 Capital Improvement Budget has $192,000 slated for the demolition of the Youth Center building. The CIB is a budget document that shows costs and timeline for city-borne infrastructure improvement projects. Several city boards and commissions review this document and make their recommendations to Council to either include or exclude the line items in the CIB.

In this year's Planning Commission review of the CIB, I advocated for the Youth Center building to be spared from the big steel ball. Several parents of prior Youth Center clients explained since the youth programs held at the old site had been moved to the Wheeler Center, they were unwilling to allow their children to cross Monterey Road. I was concerned that with the stroke of a pen the city had taken youth programs from families who arguably needed them the most. I wanted the building re-opened. In my view the building had been shuttered prematurely by a paper ordinance that was more stringent than even state seismic standards.

After my research and speaking with several city officials, I determined both the Editorial Board and my wish to save the building are doomed. Reasons why the building can't be reopened are few but frustrating.

Once the city classified the building as URM and vacated it, the building's fate was sealed. Owners in the downtown have been saddled with vacant buildings for some time at the hands of Gilroy's URM ordinance, amounting to many months or years of no income from their buildings. Gilroy won't permit the re-leasing of these buildings without completed retrofits. For the city to allow itself off its own hook would invite multi-million dollar lawsuits from many owners. Like many downtown building owners, Gilroy lacks the funds to retrofit its own building.

For the city to go back and re-examine its decision to vacate would require either a new URM ordinance or the elimination of the existing ordinance altogether. While that might seem good for economic reasons, it would bring with it state sanctions.

The long and short of it is the Youth Center building is done for. The city can't occupy it under their own ordinance, can't fix it because of its empty wallet and seems willing to spend $200,000 at a minimum to demolish it, buy portables, and have those portables placed at a cost more than the city can bear. Ah, the Gilroy two-step: make a rule and then have to play by it.

In the month of June, our City Council met back-to-back to handle Gilroy's business in order to accommodate Mayor Al Pinheiro's overseas travel plans, and has done so for as long as he has held the mayoral seat. If our City Council is ok with decreasing its efficiency for 8.5 percent of a year while our mayor travels we should amend the Charter to eliminate the need for a mayor pro-tem.

Per Section 502 of the Gilroy Charter: "At the first meeting of the Council following the election or appointment of a member to the Council, the Council shall elect one of its members as Mayor Pro Tempore who shall act as Mayor during the absence or inability of the Mayor to act."

There is no reason the city's business had to be handled at breakneck pace when our mayor pro-tem could have stepped up and performed as the Charter dictates he should have. After all, the reason council appoints a pro-tem is the belief he or she will step up.

Ben Anderson is a longtime Gilroyan and father of two fantastic teens. Reach him at heyben@bdkr.net.

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