It would cost the city between $28,000 and $40,000 to create a ballot measure regarding extending the elected term of Hollister’s mayor from a two-year to a four-year term, according to a report by the city clerk.
“Election costs are notoriously difficult to determine based upon many unpredictable factors,” City Clerk Thomas Graves wrote in a report the the Hollister City Council. In the November 2014 election, for example, the ballot measure cost came to just under $2.08 per voter — totalling $28,894.51 locally.
“Re-precincting” of the city of Hollister and the entire county of San Benito because of the San Benito Hospital District and Gavilan Joint Community College District moving from at-large to by-district elections means “an increase in precincts is an increase in ballot costs,” Graves said. November 2016 will be the first election conducted after this restructuring, he noted.
The cost report was requested by Councilman Victor Gomez, who said “it’s an interesting topic and something we should at least consider.”Â
The deadline to add an item to the November 2016 ballot is approximately 130 days from the date of the election, Graves said, putting it in July of next year.
No action was taken on the report.