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Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who this week was sworn in to his fourth term on the Board of Supervisors, presented his State of the County address at the first meeting of the new year. 

Here is the transcript of his remarks:

Good morning everyone and thank you for attending today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

I would like to first thank my colleagues for their confidence and support in electing me to serve again as your board chair as I pledge to you, the board and the community to put forth a sincere and concerted effort to continue moving the county forward.

Four years ago, when I last served as board chair, we as a county were struggling to get through the Great Recession. Things were not looking good for us financially, but we overcame them by working together as a team.

I will never forget how our staff and employees went out of their way to help us get through the financial crisis. Again, I want to thank all of you for your commitment to make San Benito County a great place to live.

I believe that 2017 is the year that we can finally make the commitment to projects that will make all of us proud!  

I’m excited to see a few projects that were completed last year. Our partnerships with the City of Hollister and San Juan Bautista have shown us that by working together we can accomplish things that we thought were impossible just a few years ago.

A great example of this is the new homeless center that we will be opening later this year.  

I remember a few years ago, when I was on the Intergovernmental Committee, we made the commitment to face the Homeless issue as a partnership and find a permanent solution together.  

It took us awhile to find a location, but we kept the partnership together and we made it happen. Thank you.

Another great example of success with our partnerships with both cities is the expanded fire station in San Juan Bautista and soon the new fire station off of Fairview Road.  

All of these projects have not only made us a better community, but also a safer community.

I’m very excited that 2017 offers opportunities to foster greater projects with our partners.

For example:

1) The Technology Educational Center (TEC)

2) Tournament ballparks, like a “Field of Dreams” concept

3) Even the aquatic center

These were ideas made in concert with the City of Hollister, San Juan Bautista and our local school districts.

These projects have been in discussion over the last few years and I would like to thank everyone that has committed to the vision of making our community a place that we can all be proud of calling home.

And I hope that these ideas stay on a path to completion.

The board should take pride in knowing projects like Santana Ranch, the Panoche Valley Solar Project, and the Buena Vista Road project finally got underway which should provide revenue to the county’s coffers in the near future.

I also like to thank the board and the community for their leadership in adopting the implantation of Measure J and especially the adoption of a new County General Plan.

Ray Espinosa, CAO and to county staff members, thank you for your leadership for spearheading major accomplishments like the creation of the new Resource Management Agency and implementation of a new fiscal and accounting system. We look forward to your leadership this coming year.

However, with that said, issues of concern still need to pan out like addressing our failing roads and the impact it has on the public. We need to face this issue head-on. We need to find a way to fund repairs and see if we can work with our partners to come up with a more affordable solution together.

For these reasons, I am directing the CAO’s Office to provide the board with a monthly update of the specific work projects and budgetary expenditures being made by the county to improve our roads.  

Additionally, I am asking that the CAO arrange to have monthly reports from department directors and that these presentations be regularly scheduled and agendized on future board meeting agendas.

I am also looking forward to working out a tax sharing agreement with the City of Hollister that is fair to both agencies and works to benefit the public.

New industries are coming to our community and I want to make sure that we are going to do everything that we can to make it possible for them to locate here and create jobs. It’s time that we look at our permitting process to make sure it is as efficient as possible and easy to understand as possible.

Finally, I am asking that the Board support the creation of an Ad-Hoc Committee to discuss how best to move forward with the regulation and allocation of resources resulting from the legalization of Marijuana with the State of California and to work with the City of Hollister on its best use practices.

Once again, I want to thank my colleagues, staff and all of our employees that make things happen everyday. And my pledge to you is that I will put forth my very best effort to provide strong and transparent leadership in 2017.

To Mayor Velazquez and Mayor Martorana, I want to personally thank you for your partnerships with the county and I look forward to working with both of you this year!