This community opinion was written by resident Robert Bernosky. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. BenitoLink invites all community members to share their ideas and opinions. By registering as a BenitoLink user in the top right corner of our home page and agreeing to follow our Terms of Use, you can write counter opinions or share your insights on current issues.
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Let me begin by saying I am a big believer in vaccines, I am not a fan of Dr. George Gellert, our public health officer that resides in Texas, and I am a supporter of Supervisor Peter Hernandez, hopefully soon to be Congressman Hernandez.
Readers of this article hopefully acknowledge that many in our community are very and truly scared about COVID and seemingly will sacrifice everything until it is beaten down and gone away. Some are seemingly not so scared, are skeptical, and just want to live through the presence of COVID in our lives until it goes away or becomes akin to the flu, as some are predicting. This article is not about COVID, vaccines, or mandates.
This article is about the January 25, 2022 meeting of the Board of Supervisors, where I witnessed our county government at its worst.  Item number 3 on the agenda had to do with public health and COVID. The Board of Supervisors set public policy and appropriates funds, so the matter is very important.
Hearing reports and expert testimony, asking questions, getting different points of view, and having dialog is what Supervisors are supposed to do when on the dais. However, Supervisor Bob Tiffany, filling in as chair of the meeting, muted Supervisor Peter Hernandez’ microphone as Hernandez was asking questions of Dr. Gellert (who despite living and working 1700 miles away, was politely answering each question).
Peter was not arguing against vaccines, but was acting on the often confusing and conflicting guidance from the CDC, if not the FDA. Supervisor Tiffany later explained he was just trying to move the meeting along, but he could have used verbal cues to do so, and has seemingly never protests bad behavior of fellow Supervisor Kosmicki. Just the one whose opinions and philosophy he disagrees with.
The silencing of a fellow supervisor for having a contrary position or being skeptical should not be tolerated. There is some background to this. As stated at a meeting of the supervisors in December when Supervisor Bea Gonzalez was made Chairwoman for a second year, the public would suffer if Supervisor Tiffany was elected Chairman, as he would use the heavy hand of government via the gavel to silence those he and Supervisor Kosmicki opposed. Supervisor Tiffany did exactly what was predicted the moment he was handed the gavel.
It should not matter what camp you are in. Politics is all about different points of view. We have reason to be skeptical of our public health officer and Supervisor Bob Tiffany, as the former went on the local evening and morning television news and made claims about a young patient that were false, and the latter, my supervisor, refused to believe the real facts and dismissed my protest about the false claims used to promote their narrative. Overall, 2021 could be marked as a lot of animosity towards the public and Supervisor Hernandez by Supervisors Tiffany and Kosmicki on display.
As a reminder, when Supervisor Hernandez and I sat on the Hollister School Board together, we found millions of dollars of funds in developer fees and other accounts that were being withheld from all schools in the County by being skeptical of the information that those and many elected before us were being given. We also were able to get employees acting badly in the worst way with children out of being in a position to do so, even though many elected and administrators before us had the same information. Imagine if we were silenced then.
The silencing of a member, executing his duties as a representative of those who elected him, of an elected body, should not be tolerated. Just on its face, it denies constituents the right to representation, and sends a signal to the employees of the county, especially the Chief Administrator, County Counsel, and Public Heath Officer that they can ignore the silenced County Supervisor. You know, cancelling him, and the constituents in their district become irrelevant to San Benito County. This has to cease.
The Board of supervisors previously took the step of reducing public comment and other similar actions to reduce public participation, and now they are obviously silencing those on the dais that have a different opinion from theirs, while also accepting one supervisor (Kosmicki) demonizing others from the dais. This, too, has to cease.
Supervisor, city council, and especially school board seats have become more and more important to our society. Cancel culture has migrated from social media platforms to local government, and we must put a stop to it. Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Unaffiliated, differences of opinion and skepticism about government must be tolerated to enjoy a robust community. Please join me in doing so.