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After a public hearing, the San Benito County Council of Governments (COG) voted to rescind its adoption in March of a growth projection model by Robert Scales, a civil engineer with Parsons. In a 3 to 2 vote, San Benito County Supervisors Jerry Muenzer, Anthony Botelho and San Juan Bautista City Councilmember Tony Boch, voted to rescind and Hollister Cty Councilmembers Victor Gomez and Robert Scattini voted against. Supervisor Chair Muenzer replaced Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz on the COG, due to a preference by Supervisor De La Cruz to be replaced, rather than voting the will of the Board of Supervisors in this matter.

 

Prior to the decision, Mr. Scales spoke of his concerns about deficiencies in the AMBAG traffic forecasts and Tim Gubbins, CALTRANS District 5 Director, spoke of the CALTRANS concern that using a model other than the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), would place funding of projects in jeopardy. Mr. Gubbins also spoke of his concern that the State would not be willing to re-fund projects it had already given funds for, such as re-doing an Environmental Impact Review, which would need to be done if different figures were used. He wanted to convey to the COG that CALTRANS considers itself a partner, and to warn that any inconsistent models may threaten federal and state funding. He said that the CALTRANS letter probably could have been much stronger in communicating the magnitude of the consequences. 

 

Jeff Gilles, who described himself as a local businessman, told the Council that he believed that a Brown Act violation occurred when the San Benito County Board of Supervisors replaced Supervisor De La Cruz on the COG. Supervisor Botelho responded that he had consulted with County Counsel and Counsel was satisfied that no Brown Act violation had occurred in the replacement of Supervisor De La Cruz. Mr. Gilles suggested a meeting facilitated by Simon Salinas “with all hands”.

 

Kristina Chavez Wyatt spoke for the San Benito County Business Council in support of AMBAG aligning its population figures with those of local organizations and supported COG in improving public participation in the process. She offered the aid of the Business Council to accomplish this.

 

COG Chair Victor Gomez expressed his assurances that there was no intention for COG action to threaten any funding for projects in San Benito County.  Gomez also expressed his opinion that “this isn’t about what transportation funding is going to be in jeopardy. It has nothing to do with that. This is 100% political. This is the “no-growthers, against the pro-business guys.” And either you’re going to take an anti-business-no-growth position on this, or you’re going to take a pro-business-pro-growth position on this. He said, “To take an anti-business position on this is disheartening.” “As a small business owner, of 10 years, I am tremendously concerned about the direction that the San Benito County Board of Supervisors is heading.”

 

Supervisor Botelho explained that it was indeed about the funding of the projects, as the letter from CALTRANS explains, it was about the funding at risk, $122 million in projects with CALTRANS in the County and Hollister. He asked how the adding of the Shore Road Extension has anything to do with business in Hollister. He suggested that, if he had sat back and not backed rescinding the projection, the funding for Hwy 156 would be in jeopardy, “How would business be affected then?”, he asked.