Contrary to his March statement that he would run for a third term, Hollister City Councilman Victor Gomez announced on Facebook July 24 that he would not run for reelection in November, and officially declared his decision publicly to the city clerk July 25. He said he decided not to run because there was too much of a conflict with his work on campaigns in Silicon Valley as a lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce’s Political Action Committee.
“The number one reason is my family,” he said. “I noticed over the last eight years the work pulls you away from your children. I have a daughter going into kindergarten in a couple weeks and I look forward to dropping her off at school, picking her up and going to parent’s night. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of the things I missed with my 14-year-old.”
Gomez said another reason he is giving up his council seat is because he will be opening a new political consulting and lobbying firm in Hollister to extend his lobbying work in Sacramento. He said the firm should be up and running by the beginning of 2017. The firm will expand his lobbying reach out to the private sector. Gomez said he is already involved in a number of campaigns, but is not ready to go public for whom at this time. He said his resignation will coincide with his last council meeting on December 5.
Gomez told BenitoLink that his greatest accomplishment over his two terms, was helping the city balance the budget.
“When I came into office in 2008, we had a multi-million dollar deficit,” he said. “That deficit went away my first year in office and we grew from there. And in 2009 and 2010, as mayor, we continued to stay in the black, and have ever since. From my first day in office, I’ve worked toward fiscal accountability.”
Gomez said the second achievement he is most proud of is addressing the needs of city parks, which he said was important to him as a lifelong resident of the city. And the third area he was concerned about was public safety.
“In 2012, Mayor (Ignacio) Velazquez tried to dissolve the Hollister Police Department and contract the services out to the sheriff’s department,” he claimed. “I was the loudest and most vocal voice in making sure we kept our police department. That was a huge win. I think the mayor’s efforts were pretty weak and I’m glad that his desire to dissolve the police department didn’t happen.”
Gomez said that even though he will be leaving the city council, he hopes that it will continue to work toward finding a new mechanism to fund the public roads.
“In the next couple months, I’ll work closely with staff to make sure that we set aside funding for pavement maintenance,” he said. “We also need to wrap up the medical marijuana ordinance. It’s very important that we move forward with a policy that’s going to be acceptable to our community.”
While Velazquez wished Gomez the best in whatever he chooses to do, he said that he never wanted to dissolve the police department.
“The discussion was to see how we could partner with the sheriff’s department to combine forces and strengthen law enforcement throughout the county,” Velazquez said. “It was apparent that the county was not ready for that.”
Velazquez said it is important to remember that when the discussion was going on in 2013, that the city did not have a police chief.
“These conversations were all about ways to look at work more efficiently,” he said. “We were in serious debt at the time and the conversation was ‘how do we create partnerships?’ and one of the best examples of that concept was the partnership with the fire department. It’s important to have conversations and not go back and say something happened that didn’t really happen.”
When asked about Gomez’ contributions to the city as a councilman, Velazquez said: “I fully understand him deciding to move on and do other things. It’s a big commitment and there’s a lot of work that goes into it, and the idea that you can come and just check in for meetings goes away pretty quickly when you find you’re spending a good part of your work week working on the issues.”
Councilman Karson Klauer was a little surprised when he heard that Gomez had decided not to run again for office, but said he was excited for him and his family.
“We didn’t always agree on everything, but you know when you’re working with him one issue doesn’t necessarily bleed into the next,” Klauer said. “He’s always been a great voice for his district, as well as the business community, in general. Many business owners have looked to him as an advocate.”
Bill Avera, city manager, said he the city will miss Gomez dearly.
“He was the first one of a younger generation and he did a lot of good work for Hollister,” Avera said. “His first few years were difficult. There wasn’t a lot of money and there were discussions about an austerity plan. He had a heck of a learning curve and I think he always made the right decisions for the city.”
Avera said even as the city was going through what he described as “miserable years,” the budget was always balanced.
“That’s not easy for a young council person to do and making those hard decision,” he said. “He was a successful business person, which I think helped mold him as an absolutely good council person. He knows 100 percent what his role is up there. I’m going to miss him a lot.”