Public speaks out against comments from Hollister Councilman Resendiz

Several members of the public spoke out in protest of comments made on social media by Hollister Councilman Rolan Resendiz at the council’s Dec. 16 meeting; comments that they perceived as sexual harassment and slanderous.

Later, Councilwoman Honor Spencer requested an agenda item be added to the Jan. 21 meeting to censure (express disapproval of) Resendiz. Councilman Marty Richman said he would co-sponsor the agenda item.

The public focus on Resendiz’s behavior on social media stemmed from his use of a hashtag on Facebook: “#eliasalinasisacuca.” Hollister resident Elia Salinas, who Resendiz named in the hashtag, said “cuca” is a Spanish slang word for female genitalia. But Resendiz told BenitoLink on Dec. 17 that the term was actually a shortcut for “cucaracha,” the Spanish word for cockroach (Resendiz called Salinas, among others, a cockroach at a meeting earlier this year).

Salinas spoke out against Resendiz at the Dec. 16 meeting.

“In my entire life I’ve never been called a cunt,” she said, “so thank you Rolan Resendiz for being the first man or woman to ever call me that. It’s an offensive word and I cannot believe I have to be up here to discuss this with you when you are a member of the LGBTQ community. You have a daughter. How dare you disrespect women by using that.”

Salinas then referred to comments Resendiz made to BenitoLink where he described Richman as being Spencer and Councilwoman Carol Lenoir’s “daddy.” She said Urban Dictionary defines that as meaning pimp, making them “his prostitutes.” She also brought up Resendiz’s past social media claim that Lenoir and Spencer were “wined and dined by developers.”

“You’re saying they’re whores,” Salinas said. “You have absolutely no respect for women.”

Resendiz also denied that calling Richman “daddy” meant he was calling him a pimp. He said Urban Dictionary is “a trashy site” to reference and was akin to using Wikipedia for facts.

Salinas wasn’t the only one to chastise Resendiz for his behavior.

Resident Cathy Morris said she had been to the City Council meeting at which former city manager Paul Eckert had been accused of sexual harassment (Eckert resigned eight days after his hiring). 

“I thought it was over until I went on Facebook and saw Mr. Resendiz and the mayor making it personal,” she said, “by encouraging Paul Eckert to sue their constituents. I personally don’t know you Mr. Resendiz, but from what I understand you’re popular and well liked. You have or had an art business where you worked with children, so I must say I’m really surprised and hope that nobody will ever refer to your daughter or female family members in that manner.”

Cheryl Vaughn Booth, who also spoke against the hiring of Eckert, said since that time she has received threats and name-calling from Resendiz and Velazquez. She said as a nurse in a busy trauma center she does not easily rattle, but does so when people do not perform their jobs professionally.

“There’s no place in our leadership for name-calling and lewd remarks,” she said. “If you cannot act like professional adults then I’m sure the people of Hollister will be more than happy to vote for somebody who can.”

Gavilan College Trustee Irma Gonzalez said what she saw as intimidation and harassment was unacceptable from elected officials. She said Resendiz was delusional if he thought his comments denoted strength.

“It’s the exact opposite,” Gonzalez said. “It’s panic masquerading as strength. The more desperate you become the more outrageous you’re behaving. As with any bully, the louder you yell, the more scared we know you are. Those who have been attacked need an apology and you, Mr. Resendiz, need to be censured.”

She also accused him of stealing her art from a cartoon depicting Resendiz and Velazquez published in BenitoLink, credited to I. Chapa. Resendiz altered and adopted the cartoon as his profile picture on Facebook.

“You freely stole another artist’s work,” she said. “You defaced it and used it as your profile and still have it on your social media account. Every day you continue to do so is more money in my pocket. I asked the city attorney to ask you to remove it and you haven’t. This is not the type of individual this city deserves.”

Resident Fred Mancezo told Resendiz, “Our women should not be degraded. And as council members, you should be upholding higher standards. I am in your district, sir, and I did vote for you. Believe me, I will not vote for you again. Or you, mayor. You guys need to stand up for your people. Of all people, Rolan, you should be standing up for women because of who you are and the fight you had to go through. But you want to sit here and call women ‘cuca.’ That is unacceptable.”

He told Resendiz not to hide behind hashtags and to stand up and talk to the people.

“I have a daughter and this puts rage in my body,” he said, “because there’s no way I’d allow an individual to speak to my daughter that way. You want a hashtag, I’ve got a hashtag for you. It’s called ‘Recall Rolan.’ Everybody has a voice and I hope they stand up tonight because these girls [high school students in the audience] deserve better than you.”

Resendiz told BenitoLink that for Salinas to make his “cuca” comment about women is disingenuous. He said he has been vocal about her and Richman’s involvement in special interest groups and he meant it as a reference to his cockroach comment.

“Elia Salinas is a cuca; it means she’s a cucaracha, in Español,” he said. “I’ve never heard it referred to as what they’re saying it is. I would never use that type of language.”

He said his comments had been taken out of context and exaggerated.

“For Marty Richman and Elia Salinas to say I’m calling him a pimp and calling women whores and prostitutes is a far stretch and it’s just not who I am,” Resendiz said. “This is retaliatory because Marty Richman and Honor Spencer are the ones asking to censure me because I filed a complaint with the City of Hollister against them a long time ago for the harassment I’ve endured under them.”

He referred to Spencer allegedly saying in a closed session that she would “kick his ass” and Richman allegedly told him “fuck you, and the horse you rode in on.”

“She has a serious problem. She’s very angry and retaliatory,” he said. “Marty Richman has a personal agenda against the mayor and myself. And all the people who spoke out against me never really cared for me.”

Resendiz said the council members were in the San Benito County Democratic Central Committee “that [former councilwoman] Mickie Luna is on. They’re using that as a political machine to forward her agenda and her candidates,” he said. “She was in the back [of the chamber] with Leslie Austin, who was the chair…along with her husband Wayne [Norton], who just wrote that nasty article about me.”

BenitoLink reached out to council members following the meeting.

“Mr. Resendiz and his comments are offensive and what is disturbing is he feels and stated that it is okay to cyber bully members of our community because of what they do,” Spencer said on Dec. 17. “His hatred for members of our community, whatever they do for a living, is very sad.”

Lenoir responded: “I was raised understanding that in order to get respect you need to give respect. Freedom of speech does not give you the right to publicly slander a person.”

Richman also told BenitoLink on Dec. 17 that he was prepared to bring up the censure if Spencer hadn’t. He said he wanted to co-sponsor it to assure that it was put on the January agenda. He said Resendiz was lying when he said Richman and Spencer were trying to shut him up.

“We cannot censor him,” he said. “He apparently doesn’t know the difference between censure and censor. There’s no intention to censor Mr. Resendiz. He can say whatever he wants. There’s no intention to shut him up. But we can censure him to separate ourselves of the relationship between what he says and the policies of the city.”

Richman said Resendiz’s claim that he would not use “cuca” in the way it’s been described because “…he is a Mexican-American and he’s gay. That’s nonsense. He knew exactly what he was doing. He used Spanish because he knew there was a double meaning.”

He continued: “In addition to being anti-female, he’s a coward by not admitting what he said. And he did not address the fact that he implied that councilmembers Lenoir and Spencer were prostitutes and I’m their pimp by using the term I was their daddy. He knows what those terms mean because he considers himself hip. So, he’s a coward, in addition to all of his other problems.”

Velazquez did not respond to BenitoLink’s request for comment.

Editor’s Note: It is normally BenitoLink’s policy not to include explicit language in articles. However, in this article, covering statements made by elected city leaders, we decided to let the explicit language stand, based on its newsworthiness to the community.