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A recent Hollister School District agenda revealed that San Benito County Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki has been paid to provide communication services to the district. Kosmicki and School District Superintendent Erika Sanchez brushed off any potential conflict of interest concerns.
Kosmicki, a former journalist, said there is no “real” crossover between the two public agencies and that he has recused himself from “a couple” of county items that involved the school district “out of abundance of caution” to ensure there are no questions over potential conflicts.
“I’m a county supervisor and I’m allowed to do other work,” Kosmicki said. “I do it in my spare time.”
At a July 28 Hollister School District Board of Trustees meeting where the latest contract with Kosmicki was approved, Sanchez said it’s not a conflict of interest because he is a private contractor and that it would only be a conflict of interest if Kosmicki served in a school leadership role such as being on the board.
“If a supervisor were to also be a vendor and then attempt to get a contract under that umbrella as a supervisor, that would be a conflict of interest,” she said.
At that meeting, a public speaker who identified himself as Neil Dickson said he had concerns of potential conflict of interest and asked if the services had been put out to bid and if there were other vendors who were considered.
“I’m questioning the award of that contract,” he said. “I want to know the background of the award of the contract.”
Sanchez said this last contract did not go out for bid. She did not say if other vendors were considered.
Kosmicki said was approached by the district to provide those services and that he could not remember when it began but that it has been “a few years.”
Sanchez said the district has been contracting this work for six years, but it is unclear when Kosmicki started. She did not responded to BenitoLink’s request for clarification before publication.
The Hollister School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved on July 28 a $25,000 contract with Kosmicki for “assistance” with news releases, videos and web content for the upcoming school year.
Kosmicki told BenitoLink the contract is for writing positive stories of activities happening at the school sites such as graduations, and occasionally reviewing news releases.
The two previous contracts BenitoLink found in the district’s website dating back to March 2025 between the school and Kosmicki were agendized under an item titled “Consideration and Approval on Ratification of Contracts under $15,000” within the consent agenda, which is generally approved without discussion.
For those contracts, the district only provides the name of the vendor, the date, the amount and a short description of the services. No copies of the contracts are included in the agenda when the payment is under $15,000.
Kosmicki said if there are any potential issues that arise he could recuse himself from participating in that discussion and not vote.
Kosmicki most recently recused himself on Dec. 2 at the Board of Supervisor meeting from discussing and voting on an non-monetary agreement allowing San Benito County Behavioral Health to provide prevention and education services to students referred to the county for the 2025-26 school year.
At that meeting, Kosmicki said he was recusing himself because the school district was a source of income of more than $500 for the past 12 months. He said the item had returned to the board because he intended to abstain or recuse himself from the item on Nov. 18 but realized he had not.
While the contract states Kosmicki “shall receive no assistance, direction, or control from the district,” he said he has no discretion and only produces content the district requests.
“I’m very proud of the work I do for the school district and I just do what I can to help the district inform the public and families of school district happenings,” he said.
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