Editor’s note: BenitoLink’s 2024 Primary Election coverage can be found below. Assembly District 29 candidates did not respond to BenitoLink’s questions. Lea este articulo en español aquí.
Two candidates are running for the San Benito County Board of Supervisors District 5 seat: incumbent Bea Gonzales and challenger Ignacio Velazquez.
Supervisors serve a four-year term and the district covers north county between Hwy 25 and Hwy 156, the Hollister Municipal Airport and downtown Hollister.
Bea Gonzales, 61, was first elected in 2020 and formerly was a teacher at Gavilan College for seven years, Aromas-San Juan Unified School District for over 12 years and Heald College for four years. She has also served on the Hollister School District Board of Trustees and the Hollister Parks and Recreation Commission.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Gonzales: I am running for re-election because there is still much work to be done. When I was elected in March 2020, I ran against a 16-year incumbent, who had neglected District 5 and become complacent in his role as supervisor. Lots of work has been accomplished since I was sworn in in January 2021,such as changing the county’s Medi-Cal provider; hiring a new public defender; approving the Capital Improvement Project of the San Benito County Free Library Expansion; improving local roads such as Fairview Road and Union Road and other main arteries; replacing the county counsel with outside attorneys who won’t pose a conflict of interest—as has happened in the past. I was also instrumental and partly responsible for replacing LAFCO’s legal counsel; we are also working on replacing San Benito County’s Council of Governments legal counsel.
However, there is still lots of important work that needs to be done! Getting re-elected is crucial, so I can finish the job that I started in bringing change and major improvements to our county which will benefit—not only county staff—but it will benefit the entire community as a whole!
Which issues are most important to your district and, if elected, how do you intend to handle them?
The most important issue is getting the State Highway 25 project approved and started! For decades, other elected officials (including my opponent) have not been diligent enough to commit to a firm Highway 25 Route. Or, they have stymied the project with their political whims and self-serving interests. Currently, Caltrans is working with San Benito County to help us resolve our commuter problem on Highway 25 from Gilroy to Hollister. I also voted to hire the new lobbyist with the county who has promised results to improve Highway 25 amongst other problem areas in the county. However, we also need elected officials who will remain committed to the Highway 25 Project before Sacramento and Caltrans will commit to our county for a definitive project.
Currently there is no project established, designed or approved or aligned for State Route Highway 25! Construction on that roadway is well over 10 years away due to past elected officials who placed their personal interest ahead of that of the local commuters!
We cannot allow local elected officials to put their personal interest in front of the community’s best interest! We must elect leadership who will serve the community and not compromise the community priorities. We must not tolerate local elected officials putting their personal biases and plans for a political future as a priority over that of the community’s best interest!
What are your solutions to increase revenue in the county?
The solution to increase revenue for the county isn’t a single solution. We must be open-minded and look outside the proverbial box at all ideas that are brought to our community to increase the county’s ability to raise revenue. We must pay heed to the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of San Benito County and their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy report. Both the City of Hollister and the County of San Benito have invested in the EDC in the past. It is money wasted down the drain if neither municipality follows the advice of the EDC. The EDC promotes economic growth and development Countywide!
However, with the inclusion of the second Amazon warehouse facility, the electrical grid in that portion of town is at maximum capacity currently. Therefore, we must first plan for and build the infrastructure to expand the PG&E grid. We must ensure that that situation is remedied prior to advertising economic opportunities in SBC. We then must think globally and entertain ideas from outside our area that will entice business to want to relocate and build here in SBC. We must incentivize priorities to entice companies.
What is your strategy to expand the San Benito County Free Library in order to meet the community’s needs?
As a supervisor, we have accepted a $15 million grant to improve and expand the San Benito County Free Library. The $15 million dollar grant consists of $10 million in grant monies, and a $5 million match from the County of San Benito. As a supervisor, I voted to ensure that the county utilize $5 million in ARPA funds to match the needed grant funds, so the county general fund would not bear the brunt of the necessary expansion. In December 2023, an RFP was issued to commence the library project. Furthermore, I am a lifelong SBC Free Library Supporter! Prior to 2006, when I was a school board trustee at Hollister School District, I advocated for the library and was instrumental in receiving funds dedicated to the SBC Library from Hollister School District specifically to purchase $10,000 in books. I have been a staunch supporter of the SBC Free Library under the leadership of County Librarian Nora Conte for over 15 years. I have been and will continue to be very supportive via every vote in front of the Board of Supervisors regarding the Free Library and funding potential. I will continue to fight for the library! I frequently refer to our library as the “Little Library that Could,” synonymous with ”The Little Engine That Could,” as in “I think I can! I think I can!” Our local library has found ways to provide services with the limited space and the limited funding that it receives, yet still meet the needs of our community.
However, now, we must get the city of Hollister to fund its fair share of the library. Over 95% of the patrons are city residents. Unfortunately, when the vote went to the residents for a library capital improvement tax, only county residents got to decide whether to improve the site and services via a tax funding mechanism. Unfortunately, the city of Hollister only contributes a paltry sum to help defray the cost to run and fund the library. However, as supervisor, I have made contact with Hollister City Council to begin negotiations to increase funding from the city toward the library budget.
Public employee retention is an ongoing challenge. What would you do to attract and keep qualified employees?
The county must pay competitive salaries and comparable benefits packages. This past year during collective bargaining, the county offered a fair wage to county employees. However, that must not be the end of the improved benefits to our employees. We must continue to look outside the box to find inventive ways to keep our employees employed locally. Fair wages with cost of living adjustments increases must be the norm, and they must be regularly awarded automatically and not part of the collective bargaining process. Recently, the county of San Benito offered and began employee down payment assistance via Golden State Finance Corporation for employees looking to purchase a home. Ideas and incentives such as this must be offered on a regular and routine basis in order for San Benito County to remain competitive and be in a position to retain its valuable and highly trained employees.
Given the national housing crisis, what are your thoughts on new housing in your district and in the county?
Our county affordable housing shortage is grossly understated! Both the city of Hollister and county of San Benito must be open-minded and work with developers to entice and promote affordable homes in San Benito County! There is a lack of multi-family dwellings and apartment complexes, including duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes. District 5 is predominantly rural. Therefore, I believe any building and development in District 5 should remain within the city’s Sphere of Influence and within existing service boundaries. The county must also avail themselves to more self-help homes. If developers cannot or will not build the affordable homes needed, then we need to partner with local nonprofits and build more self-help homes in our community so more individuals can achieve the dream of homeownership!
Ignacio Velazquez, 58, is the owner of The Vault and American electrical Services. He served as the first elected mayor of Hollister starting in 2012. He served in that role for 10 years.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Velazquez: I believe bad planning at the county is leading us to repeat the same mistakes as were made in the past.
If elected, which issues are most important to your district and how do you intend to handle them?
Roads, traffic and the impacts of over-development. Proper planning with input from the community rather than from special interest groups will lead our residents to be more involved and help create a plan that our community can be proud of.
What are your solutions to increase revenue in the county?
The first issue we have to address is how our money is currently being spent. Allocating for proper road maintenance in the past could have saved us millions of dollars in road repairs and the frustration of driving on dangerous roads. We have a commercial/industrial area next to the airport where we can bring in revenue and also add more jobs for our residents without any additional impacts to our roads and infrastructure. San Benito is a beautiful county that many people would love to visit for its beauty. Building thousands of houses over farmland is not pretty and is not the answer to bringing more tourism, our national park is! We need to be focused on our commercial/industrial zone next to the airport where the infrastructure is already in place and ready to go. We need to stop chasing schemes by developers promising pots of gold and then leaving us having to pay the true costs.
What is your strategy to expand the San Benito County Free Library in order to meet the community’s needs?
The library will be expanding soon, but we also need a facility where our kids can go after school to get help with their school work and socialize with their friends in a safe environment, such as a community center.
Public employee retention is an ongoing challenge. What would you do to attract and keep qualified employees?
We have many good people in our community that have the skills needed to build a better county. We need to do a better job recruiting them, and also making them feel proud of the work they are doing for our community. Working where you live is a great benefit and provides a better quality of life!
Given the national housing crisis, what are your thoughts on new housing in your district and in the county?
I have been very clear on my opposition to this out-of-control growth we are experiencing in our county. Several years ago, when I was mayor, I warned about the impacts of too much growth, including massive traffic issues, impacts on our schools, impacts on our infrastructure and the financial strain it would put on our community. All of the warnings I gave proved to be true and now once again, we have developers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fool our community to get and do whatever they want. Why in the world would we want to sit in hours of traffic on dangerous roads and tax ourselves hundreds of millions of dollars to make politicians in Sacramento happy? Surrounding communities would never accept what is happening in our county and neither should we!
BenitoLink 2024 Primary Election articles:
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