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The Hollister City Council identified four areas of interest during its 2024-25 goal-setting workshop on April 22.
City consultant Shawn Spano had two main objectives for the council: establish three to five strategic goals that are important to the city and look at its own organizational, political and overall city climate.
The council members agreed on four strategic goals for 2024-25: Infrastructure; budget, finances and economic development; quality of life including public safety; and community engagement, which includes communication and transparency.
As they discussed the city’s goals, the council members spoke about the possibility of hiring an economic development director to help move revenue-generating projects forward.
Infrastructure
The council unanimously agreed that roads were a priority, citing complaints received from residents.
Councilmember Rolan Resendiz began the conversation by saying that the community’s top complaints include roads and improving the sewer and water lines.
Councilmember Dolores Morales agreed that roads are a priority. Morales and Councilmember Rick Perez said some of the infrastructure changes are already in place such as road improvements.
Councilmember Tim Burns said the city needs to assess its equipment to ensure replacement and maintenance in a timely manner, referring to the sewer system’s broken camera system. At its April 15 meeting, the council unanimously approved the purchase of a sanitary sewer camera truck that will allow city workers to inspect the sewer system to locate problems.
Budget, finances and economic development
The council agreed that their goal should be to reduce expenditures, increase revenue and ensure financial stability. They also agreed to capitalize on the airport for potential revenue and attract more business to the city.
Mayor Mia Casey said improving downtown Hollister could increase economic development, and suggested supporting small business owners by offering entrepreneurship programs.
Bringing in an economic development director could help with “developing strategies to support small businesses,” she said. “Retention is as important as bringing new business.”
Quality of life including public safety
Spano identified the city’s needs for a better quality of life, including a community center, an improved skatepark and a city beautification program.
Burns was adamant that public safety was his No. 1 priority and mentioned the Flock license plate recognition system which places security cameras around the city.
“I think we just need to embrace technology and commit to that because at the end of the day, I don’t know what the current cost for one police officer is, but I know we can do a lot with technology.”
His second concern was the city’s parks and its aging infrastructure.
“We want our people to stay here,” Burns said. “We want to make sure that we have a great city for them to live and play and hopefully, at some time, work.”
Resendiz said the city should focus on being proactive in order to improve the quality of life.
Casey said the residents could benefit from pocket parks located downtown and more programs for youth and seniors.
Community engagement, communication and transparency
The council agreed that to enhance community engagement, the city must inform, educate and engage with residents using several forms of communication including social media, a monthly newsletter and town hall meetings. Council members also called for revamping the city’s website and providing residents transparent access to the city’s budget and financial information.
Resendiz said he’d like to see social media communication be more fun, as a way of engaging the public.
Spano agreed and said he was working with another city that reached a similar conclusion: “It has to be lively. You’re competing with a lot of other outlets that are fun and so you have to compete to keep up.”
Morales said she’d like the city to offer an app for residents where they can access city services.
“A lot of our residents don’t know any of the services we offer,” she said. “They don’t ever call. Some of them don’t know that they can navigate through our website.”
Council climate
After establishing goals for the city, Spano presented an overview of the organizational, political and city climate of the council and staff.
“What I’ve heard from council and council staff is that the council is not always working as collaboratively as they can and that there needs to be more mutual respect,” Spano said.
Spano encouraged the council to collaborate together amid a culture change.
“What I’m seeing is, to put it into a larger package, a culture change here,” he said. “The culture of the organization, the whole thing: council, staff, the community, the implicit norms and rules and work practices are being questioned about what happened in the past, and seeing that these were not as effective as they could be and should be.”
There was one public speaker.
Sherrie Bakke encouraged the council to plan for tourism by hiring a tourism consultant.
“Your preliminary strategic goals, including economic development, public safety, downtown revitalization and sustainability could be enhanced by adding tourism as an objective within all these goals,” Bakke said.
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