Betsy Dirks and Dom Zanger are in a run-off election for the Board of Supervisors District 1 seat. District 1 covers the north part of San Benito County. Dirks was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, filling a vacated seat in October 2021. She and Zanger were the top two vote-getters out of six candidates in the June primary.
Dirks, 45, was born and raised in Eureka. She graduated from high school in Castroville and attended Gavilan College and CSU-Chico. She holds an associate degree in liberal studies from Gavilan College, a bachelor of arts in journalism from CSU-Chico with a minor in psychology. She also has a clear, single subject credential in English literature. Dirks is married to Jeremy Dirks, Christopher High Principal in Gilroy, and they are raising two children.
BenitoLink: You’ve likely received input from residents about the landfill expansion project and have read the draft environmental impact report. In your mind, what is the right decision regarding the landfill?
Dirks: As a sitting Supervisor I am not able to take a position on the landfill at this time. I have heard and listened to the concerns from county residents. I have made every effort to meet with and arrange meetings with the landfill operator for the residents of the community. I have had a meeting with Don’t Dump on San Benito. There are valid concerns regarding issues around the landfill. I will be weighing and looking at all of the facts.
The Landfill operates out of an Enterprise Fund; currently no money comes from the general fund to operate the landfill. In fact, the Enterprise Fund is a revenue-generating fund. I can assure you and the residents of District 1 that I have heard all the concerns and will take them into consideration for my final decision. I voted no on a transfer station—this led to no out of county waste coming into the County as of April 1, 2022, due to the fact that the current landfill agreement guarantees 15 years of landfill space to in-county residents and we are at that capacity. I have read through the environmental impact report and am waiting to see what the final comments are. This is an important decision that needs to be weighed from all angles as this decision will affect future generations of San Benito County.
What would be the best way to attract revenue to the county if Measure Q is passed? What would be the best way to attract revenue if Measure Q is defeated?
Measure Q is bad public policy. If Measure Q is passed it will devastate the economic foundation of the county. Currently, the majority of our revenue is property tax and this is based on 1978 Proposition 13 and our county only receives about 11 cents on dollar, so we start off very low compared to our neighbors in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.
The County needs to grow our revenue base so we have the ability to provide services. It is imperative that we diversify that revenue. Measure Q effectively takes away our ability to diversify. We will lose out on potential revenue generating growth. It will be too risky for businesses and corporations to come to the county, as they would have to get their business voted on every time. It is a risk companies will not be willing to take. We won’t be able to provide basic services that we are required by the state to provide—specifically in the areas of public safety and the roads. Further, we won’t be able to provide services we all have come to expect and deserve, such as parks and the library. We will continue to have to provide more and more with less and less.
When you look at all the entities that are No on Q, it should make people really think twice about how they vote. Both the San Benito County Democratic Party and San Benito County Republican Party, along with The Farm Bureau, have aligned together to vote No on Q. We are at a turning point where we need additional revenue to not just survive, but to thrive.
If Measure Q is defeated then, we as the Board of Supervisors and our residents can and will plan our future. The way we grow matters and we will have the ability to grow in ways that enhance San Benito County. We can follow a thoughtful plan with strategic intent to enrich the lives of all residents of San Benito County.
My hope is that we create an opportunity for innovation and allow the existing businesses in San Benito County to continue to flourish. This will continue to provide much-needed jobs and careers so that we don’t have people leaving the county on a daily basis for work. This in turn will help alleviate the traffic that we currently experience. I want to live in a county that will capitalize on all its assets that make it unique and inviting, while also providing a safe community with infrastructure that supports its residents.
Growth seems inevitable, but what are some indicators that a community is growing at a sustainable pace?
Growth that is thoughtful and sustainable should be the goal of any community. A sustainable pace would make sure that infrastructure and services are able to be maintained and enhanced as growth happens, to accommodate additional traffic and services needed for a safe and healthy community. Previous boards did not keep up with this policy. The growth we have seen in the last six years should have happened over the last 15-20 years. California was in a recession and once the building moratorium was lifted, then all the agreements that had been made prior to these events, went into effect. The result is where we are today.
The issue of growth is complex, but there are ways forward by working together as a community with all jurisdictions collaborating toward the same goal—providing a safe and healthy community. The county, the city of Hollister and the city of San Juan Bautista need to work together to ensure public safety, transportation and traffic solutions are a priority in any plans for growth.
The Civil Grand Jury report paints a dismal picture of the Behavioral Health Department, citing high vacancy rate, long wait times for patients and incorrect document filing. If elected, what will you do to improve the department?
I think the Board of Supervisors needs to take this grand jury report extremely seriously as it relates to the Behavioral Health Department. It is my goal to ensure the Behavioral Health Department is going to operate at its highest level of efficiency and we are making strides forward in accomplishing this goal. I am currently an alternate on the Behavioral Health board.
I’m looking forward to taking a continued hands on approach to make sure residents are provided robust and dynamic care in all aspects of mental health, including awareness and outreach. I understand this is a life-and-death situation for a lot of families and I’m actively working on providing avenues to make Behavioral Health a model department within the county.
If elected, what is your plan for outreach to your constituents?
An overarching achievement during the short time I have been on the Board of Supervisors is voting for and supporting the hiring of a Public Information Officer for the County. Having official and coordinated communication to all residents will go a long way to build transparency and trust.
As a supervisor, I am available to meet with my constituents on request. I respond to phone calls and emails on a regular basis. I consider my job to be full-time and am available to talk to anyone at any time. I have a perfect attendance record for all board meetings. I will continue to use social media to provide information. I will provide monthly opportunities to meet so that I can either meet one-on-one or with larger groups to hear about concerns. I will continue to be accessible and will continue to respond to residents when they proactively contact me.
Zanger, 26, was born and raised in San Benito County. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications from UC-Santa Barbara. He has not held elected office before but felt compelled to run for supervisor when he saw changes happening to the county in the hopes of steering the county in a different direction.
BenitoLink: You’ve likely received input from residents about the landfill expansion project and have read the draft environmental impact report. In your mind, what is the right decision regarding the landfill?
Zanger: Plain and simply, the current proposed landfill expansion plan is absolutely the wrong decision. If the expansion goes through, it is estimated that more than 90% of the garbage brought in will be from out of county. This is a problem in and of itself. Silicon Valley is using our county as its garbage can because we allow them to do so. This is all at the expense of our residents. The environmental impact report outlined a seemingly endless amount of reasons we should not go through with the landfill expansion. The environmental concerns alone are in many cases dangerous and unmitigatable. This includes poisoning our drinking water, polluting our neighborhoods, and toxifying our ground due to inadequate containment.
The damage that will be done to our roads from these multi-ton trucks driving in and out of the county, as well as increasing amounts of litter that will result are just some of the reasons that this landfill expansion would be a fiscal disaster for our county. It’s clear that accepting out-of-county trash has not been economically advantageous to us considering most of our roads are falling apart. This is just scratching the surface regarding the consequences of the proposed expansion. The bottom line is that if our leadership goes through with the current landfill expansion project they are allowing Silicon Valley to abuse our community for the benefit of their own and we will end up with a mountain of trash that is projected to tower over the surrounding hills.
What would be the best way to attract revenue to the county if Measure Q is passed? What would be the best way to attract revenue if Measure Q is defeated?
The framing of this question is sort of loaded in and of itself. Measure Q is first and foremost a proposition to give voters the final say as far as re-designating land use in the general plan. Ostensibly, the discussion should be just that. Do we want to allow the residents of our county to have a say in how the county is structured or do we want to allow the Board of Supervisors to make the decisions regardless of what the voters want. There has been so much muddying of the waters around Measure Q, so it bears reiterating what this is actually about. Furthermore, the passing of Measure Q could potentially open up the door to strengthening the county’s economy in terms of agriculture, tourism, viticulture, ect. Considering the majority of the population would vote against implementing more commercial and residential zones in the rural parts of the county, we could lean into these industries in which we already have natural advantages. If Q is defeated the supervisors retain the power to usurp the will of the voters and are likely to continue the housing tract developments and the strip-mallification of our rural areas, thus further eliminating the distinction between our county and the city of San Jose.
Growth seems inevitable, but what are some indicators that a community is growing at a sustainable pace?
It’s clear to every resident of this county that we are not growing at a sustainable pace. In fact, we would fail nearly every metric you could use to evaluate responsible growth. The worsening traffic, the dismal condition of our roads, the rising crime, lack of jobs, an un-unified and incohesive vision for the county, lack of cultural retainment. These are all indicators that San Benito is growing at an unsustainable pace. Over the last several years the Board of Supervisors has paved the way for unprecedented waves of residential growth and the fruits of that are becoming apparent and efficacious to the people and families that live here. If we want to retain any semblance of San Benito County and remain fiscally and civically solvent, then the irresponsible residential growth needs to be brought to a halt.
The Civil Grand Jury report paints a dismal picture of the Behavioral Health Department, citing high vacancy rate, long wait times for patients and incorrect document filing. If elected, what will you do to improve the department?
It was no secret that the current situation at the Behavioral Health Department was a mess. It’s obvious that there is a problem there. However, it’s also an obvious solution. Staffing. Correct staffing will correct the problem. The Behavioral Health Department has operated without a director for the recent past, which is the primary underlying issue. The county is currently looking for a new Behavioral Health director and I’m eager to get involved and be a part of it. Specifically, I intend to work to expedite this process and make sure we as a county are doing everything we can do to fill vacant positions as quickly as possible to avoid situations like this in the future.
If elected, what is your plan for outreach to your constituents?
First and foremost, availability will be a signature of my term as supervisor. I want to make sure that I am more than adequately available for my residents. This includes planned office hours, scheduled meetings, phone calls, etc. It’s crucial for my residents to be able to reach out to me when they have a question and even more crucial for them to get an answer. This is simply a matter of taking the time and doing the work to reach out to other departments and organizations to get those answers.
I actually already began this process of outreach as I have attempted to personally knock on the door of almost all voters in District 1. Meeting constituents face to face and hearing their real concerns has given me a keen understanding of the issues that really affect them. It has also given me ideas and strategies toward solutions as many of the residents in District 1 have amazing insight into the problems that plague the county.
Additionally, it’s my opinion that the majority of county and city elected officials underuse social media as a method of constituent outreach. It can be an effective tool for keeping the public informed and as well as gauging public sentiment on the happenings of the county. After I am elected I intend to utilize social media in this way as a method of outreach to our community.
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