Four candidates are running for the Hollister City Council District 2 seat: Hani Mayzouni, Sergio Montanez, incumbent Rolan Resendiz and Celeste Toledo-Bocanegra. District 2 covers the western part of the city including R.O. Hardin Elementary School, Calaveras Elementary School and west of the tennis courts at Hollister High School.
Hani Mayzouni, 63, is a director of information technology. He moved to the Bay Area five years ago and has lived in Hollister for “affordability.” He has never held an elected position but decided to run because “Hollister is my home and my family home.”
BenitoLink: How would you bring affordable housing and farmworker housing to Hollister?
Mayzouni: I believe in creating opportunities for people to live in affordable homes to improve their lives. I have worked for a non-profit HUD-certified counseling organization. Hence, I have the experience to help farmworkers become homeowners and strengthen neighborhoods. Through education, workshops, counseling and nonprofit mortgage lenders, we should be able to offer affordable loans to families.
Hollister Police Department is dangerously understaffed. What would you do to help it attract officers and what upgrades do you think are needed to enhance law enforcement?
Police officers have a key role in society. We need to offer better benefits and higher salaries to attract officers. We need to hire the expertise to evaluate and adjust all the policies and procedures. Need to implement better training programs and psychological evaluations regularly.
Residents want high-paying jobs in the city. What kind of companies or industries do you think are needed and how would you attract them to relocate or expand here?
I have been in the technology sector for over 30 years. I can speak the techy language. I will reach out to all tech companies to bring in high-salary jobs to Hollister. I will create a committee to research and study the motivation and goals of each potential company. When I worked for Ernst & Young, we had profiles on each potential company that we wanted to do business with.
Hollister has old water pipes that result in frequent rupture. How would you address this issue?
Need to analyze the current situation of all the infrastructure in the city and align it with the future road map of the city. Hence, allocate funds and resources based on the future of the city.
The Hwy 156 expansion took over a decade to get construction started. How would you ensure this doesn’t happen with the Hwy 25 expansion project?
I am a certified project manager and a certified Agile project manager with over 20 years of project management and vendor management experience. I have led departments, projects and teams. Milestones and checkpoints are essential to successful projects and should be affiliated with penalties and/or incentives.
Sergio Montanez, 45, is an accountant and has been a Hollister resident for 14 years. He lives with his wife, daughter and two sons. He has never held an elected position and decided to run “to take care of the homeless problem that is plaguing our fair city.”
BenitoLink: How would you bring affordable housing and farmworker housing to Hollister?
Montanez: I would urge employers to pay farmworkers more money so that farmworkers can afford to pay for rent. I would not support any government-subsidized rent because such action only encourages landlords to raise rent even more. We should let the law of supply and demand run its course and let rent prices find equilibrium in a free market.
Hollister Police Department is dangerously understaffed. What would you do to help it attract officers and what upgrades do you think are needed to enhance law enforcement?
I would eliminate all vaccine mandates for public employees and police officers in the city. I would promote an increase to the police budget big enough to cover a 10% raise to all on-duty police officers to keep up with the 9% inflation.
Residents want high-paying jobs in the city. What kind of companies or industries do you think are needed and how would you attract them to relocate or expand here?
I would eliminate all mask mandates and COVID restrictions. The lockdowns have been devastating for our local economy. Sixty percent of the business closures during COVID have never re-opened. Mask and vaccine mandates drive away prospective employees and kill businesses. Tech companies are still reeling from the effects of the lockdowns. I would encourage companies to relocate here and never have to worry about being locked down ever again.
Hollister has old water pipes that result in frequent ruptures. How would you address this issue?
I would repair or replace the old water pipes. There is no other way to deal with this problem. We must invest heavily in our infrastructure.
The Hwy 156 expansion took over a decade to get construction started. How would you ensure this doesn’t happen with the Hwy 25 expansion project?
If the Hwy 25 expansion project were to get delayed, I would support a construction moratorium until the infrastructure is in place.
Rolan Resendiz, 42, was elected to the City Council in 2018 and is a seventh grade teacher at Rancho Santana school. He holds a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in political science. He was a recipient of the Gavilan College Community Spirit Award in 2018 and the California Peace Award from the California Assembly. He has lived in Hollister for almost 30 years with his partner of 11 years and an 11-year old daughter. He ran for the San Benito County Board of Supervisors District 3 in the June 7 primary election.
BenitoLink: How would you bring affordable housing and farmworker housing to Hollister?
Resendiz: Previous city councils refused to require developers to make affordable housing a requirement in previous developments. I believe in developing in a responsible and well-balanced manner. As part of the new General Plan committee, I have ensured that, moving forward, all new developments will have an affordable housing requirement in them. The truth of the matter is, who we elect and their position on housing is vital. We should be very clear about people’s position on development before electing them to office. I have always been clear about developing our community in a well-balanced and responsible manner. If we adopt the General Plan that I have had the pleasure of working on in the past couple years, our city will do just that.
Hollister Police Department is dangerously understaffed. What would you do to help it attract officers and what upgrades do you think are needed to enhance law enforcement?
Our police officers need to be fairly compensated and reassured that they are valued and appreciated. During my time on the council, I have approved hiring bonuses and incentives for our police officers who would like to further their education. We have a chief of police who not only prioritizes the safety of our community but prioritizes a positive working environment. It is challenging to compete with neighboring cities and counties in compensation, but we are continuing to increase the wages of our police department to ensure they live comfortably and are able to provide for their families. I believe we want our officers to know how much we value them in our community and are taking every opportunity to prove that.
Residents want high-paying jobs in the city. What kind of companies or industries do you think are needed and how would you attract them to relocate or expand here?
By focusing our efforts on economic development by the airport area we can bring in hundreds of new jobs and generate millions of dollars in revenue. Planning wisely, we can have both. This is why I am so adamant about stopping urban sprawl and implementing smarter planning. We have areas already zoned with existing infrastructure in place near the airport for commercial/industrial companies to utilize, rather than taking up more prime agricultural land. We should not build outside of these areas. That is why I support voting yes on measure Q. The people of San Benito County should be able to vote and decide how to develop as a county.
Hollister has old water pipes that result in ruptures. How would you address this issue?
The city has been working on replacing older water lines along with road repairs. In the last year we approved a new infrastructure package of over $30 million to do these types of projects. The city is focused on repairing roads and infrastructure issues such as water, sewer and storm lines. The county recently approved a very similar infrastructure package. Many roads and infrastructure issues overlap with the city and county. Our staff is currently working with county staff to see where it would benefit all residents for us to work on repairs together. This will ensure that we make the best use of available funds for repair.
The Hwy 156 expansion took over a decade to get construction started. How would you ensure this doesn’t happen with the Hwy 25 expansion project?
Hwy 156 took more than a decade because past elected officials refused to commit to moving forward. Since I was elected, we have been moving aggressively to ensure the same thing does not happen with Hwy 25. As a councilman, I sit on the Council of Governments and am directly involved in the decisions that impact the expansion of Hwys 25 and 156. We are currently ensuring that the Hwy 25 project stays on track by working directly with Caltrans and other partners to ensure that what happened with Hwy 156 does not happen with Hwy 25.
Celeste Toledo-Bocanegra, 38, owns Toledo’s Legal Process Service. She was born and raised in Hollister and lives with her husband, Shane, two children and her mother, Yolanda.
She decided to run because “these past two years the pandemic has helped me and many in our community understand how much our local government is one-sided and out-of-touch.”
BenitoLink: How would you bring affordable housing and farmworker housing to Hollister?
Bocanegra: We need affordable farmworker housing as much as affordable housing for all. My 71-year-old mother qualified for farmworker housing because of being a farmworker many years ago with Uesugi Farms. I understand that our farmworkers must be taken care of because of their fixed income at times. However, we must not disregard other individuals in our community who are living paycheck to paycheck. These individuals are often the children of farmworkers themselves. With the state mandating housing in place for San Benito County, I will make sure that we will not approve or pass additional housing unless they include affordable housing. That means innovative housing solutions like condos and co-ops which will allow young people to build up equity to buy larger homes in the future.
Hollister Police Department is dangerously understaffed. What would you do to help it attract officers and what upgrades do you think are needed to enhance law enforcement?
Unfortunately, due to these last two years filled with rioters and organizations who wanted to support the ‘Defund the Police’ or having our very own local representatives marching with such organizations, a bad example was set for any young people looking to law enforcement as a career. Cause and effect. We must continue to educate our community that police officers are here for the well-being of all. We must stand to protect our law enforcement officers when they are put in a life-threatening situation. I have seen in my lifetime law enforcement departments letting their officers take the fall instead of protecting these officers who took the proper steps in becoming educated and well trained. Who wants to work in an environment where you must watch your back from those who are supposed to stand beside you to protect the community as a whole?
Our leaders in law enforcement must stand up like Americans to protect our country and stop kneeling down to the woke community which is doing more harm. Let’s continue to have those one-on-one ‘Coffee with a Cop or Sheriff” events that help address the tension between our law enforcement officers and the community. Let’s open the door to our community members to ride-alongs and not only to those interested in applying to the department. We need resource officers at every public school and more policing in our neighborhoods. Our community is growing; therefore our law enforcement must grow with it.
Residents want high-paying jobs in the city. What kind of companies or industries do you think are needed and how would you attract them to relocate or expand here?
We have plenty of opportunities to bring good-paying jobs to our city but we have one particular individual who is making economic progress and a prosperous future impossible. If this individual is removed from his position (Mayor Velazquez), our community will be able to collaborate effectively for new jobs and new business creation. Velazquez and Resendiz reflexively oppose any economic development for our city, partially because their livelihoods and businesses are based elsewhere. With sound infrastructure, more affordable housing and water, and a smoothly functioning transportation system, we can attract a diverse array of companies and industries but they choose not to come because they understand it is very difficult to create a business here with the obstacles put in their path by Velazquez and Resendiz.
Hollister has old water pipes that result in frequent ruptures. How would you address this issue?
I am not going to pretend that I have all the solutions to our city problems. I will, however, investigate what grant funding is available to us. Especially given the fact that our city and county is being mandated by the state to continue the housing growth. This will include the collaboration with the Board of Supervisors to see what help they may be able to provide.
The Hwy 156 expansion took over a decade to get construction started. How would you ensure this doesn’t happen with the Hwy 25 expansion project?
The city and the county must collaborate to create a plan and execute that plan in a timely manner. This plan must include transparency and continued input from the public. We must include a team, and most importantly accountability if the plan is not executed by the timeframe given. We must also include in every step, oversight of the plan, to ensure a successful outcome.
It is time our representatives show accountability for their actions. Our leaders must protect the people by creating a better quality of life and to ensure our public safety is aligned with the growth of our community. With crime rising countywide and our families at stake, we must present true leadership now more than ever. I wish the best of luck to all candidates and I will continue my activism in making our community better even if not as a councilwoman but as a wife, a mother and a small business owner trying to make our world a better place for all and most importantly our children. Thank you all for your support.
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