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In its annual report released June 10, the San Benito County Civil Grand Jury found transparency issues with Hollister’s Independence Motorcycle Rally revenue reports.
The report also found issues with the Sunnyslope County Water District’s implementation of a new sewer rate.
The report also says its investigations were hindered by a city policy that requires the civil grand jury to issue subpoenas in order to interview staff and request documents.
It also repeated previous findings that the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department is short-staffed.
The civil grand jury is convened annually and composed of 19 citizens who are sworn to serve as grand jurors and investigate the operations of various government departments and agencies. This year it looked at the Hollister rally, Sheriff’s Department and Sunnyslope County Water District.
According to the 40-page report, the civil grand jury interviewed Hollister staff and Hollister City Council members as part of its probe into the financial outcome of the 2025 Independence Rally, but noted it could not get concrete information.
“To date, the city has failed to provide the Civil Grand Jury with the true accounting of the costs associated with the rally,” the report states. “When pressed for detailed information on the budget vs. actual revenue, final revenue and expenditure figures were not made available, indicating a lack of transparency.”
Regarding Sunnyslope County Water District’s implementation of a new sewer rate, the grand jury found the public notice period required under Proposition 218 was not held.
“Sunnyslope’s website contains no information on this subject, and there were no discussions of sewer rate changes at recent public meetings of the Board of Directors before the rates were changed,” the report states. “The sudden change in sewer rates, implemented without proper notice, led to customer complaints directed to Sunnyslope’s office and expressed on social media.”
Challenges the civil grand jury noted during this year’s investigations included delays in obtaining information and failure to provide documents because of Hollister’s subpoena policy, which required the civil grand jury to obtain 15 subpoenas requesting documentation and interviews.
It noted that despite the subpoenas, the city sometimes failed to produce requested documents, and some city officials failed to appear for interviews.
“The lack of understanding of the gravity of a court-issued subpoena is surprising and frustrating,” the report states.
With regard to its investigation into the Sheriff’s Department, the civil grand jury found understaffing at the correctional facilities, and that the reception area at the county jail building Curtis J. Hill Rehabilitation Center is not ADA-compliant.
The report also found understaffing in the Sheriff’s patrol units.
Staffing challenges in the Sheriff’s Department has been a finding by the civil grand jury for several years.
It also found that even though the department has had inadequate radio systems, it still has not implemented the new system it purchased several months ago.
The civil grand jury also noted a state report which found incarcerated persons are held in sobering cells longer than 12 hours without hourly safety checks.
The investigated agencies are required to respond to the grand jury’s findings and recommendations no later than 90 days after itsubmits its final report.
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