Lea este artículo en español aquí.
In mid-December last year, Ashley Collick was appointed interim city manager by the San Juan Bautista City Council, replacing Don Reynolds, who had announced his retirement from the position. Collick was chosen from a pool of three candidates and received the council’s unanimous approval.
She inherited three major projects from Reynolds: overseeing the construction of a pipeline to bring San Juan’s sewage to the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Plant, planning a pipeline to bring fresh water from the West Hills Water Treatment Plant and finalizing a fire contract with the city of Hollister.
In an interview on Jan. 7, after her appointment, Collick said that there were “enormous challenges” to her new position but she described herself as “still learning, still discovering and, so far, still interested in the job.”
Five months later, the City Council voted 5-0 on May 13 to offer Collick a five-year contract for the position, with an annual salary of $200,000, two weeks of paid vacation, and a benefits package that includes health insurance.
Collick sat down with BenitoLink on June 24 to discuss the progress and funding for the city’s wastewater and freshwater projects, the state of businesses in the city’s historical district, the impact of regulations, building vacancies, and the balance between history and development.
BenitoLink: What have you learned about the city over the last six months that you didn’t know before?
Collick: I’m not sure I fully appreciated the convergence of all of the challenges the city faces. I had to sort through which was the priority. The really major challenges didn’t get here overnight, and we’re not going to solve them overnight. I think that was my biggest takeaway. I’m still very optimistic about it, but I’m sobered in my thinking.
Where does the wastewater project stand in terms of progress and funding?
We are close to being finished. We’re in the process of testing the pipeline and ensuring it’s functioning properly. And we’ll make that connection soon. Hopefully, we’re going to be done by the end of summer. It’s flipping a switch, but we still need to ensure that we’re checking all our administrative boxes. We have to start the decommissioning work at the wastewater treatment plant. We have to ensure that our industrial users are in line and that our salt management is up and running. So, there’s still work to be done for sure.
When do you expect to break ground on the water project?
We’re about 18 months to three years out, as it takes approximately 18 months to design the project, and we haven’t yet awarded a contract for the design. The focus is currently on securing funding and ensuring we have the necessary resources to break ground. We’re hoping that grant funding will make it through the federal budget process and be appropriated. Fingers crossed on that. We spoke with representatives from Speaker Rivas’ office. We spoke to Senator Laird. So we’re making the rounds. We’re applying for grant money wherever we can find it, and we’re hoping for the best.
Have there been any cuts to expected funding so far?
We had $1.1 million appropriated in the last federal budget from Rep. Lofgren’s office, and that was cut. If federal funding is there, we will cross that bridge when we get to it. But we’re not just going after state and federal funding. We’re going to go after as many grant opportunities as we can find out there.
(Collick later detailed the budget via email: “The total for the wastewater project is $25.2 million. We will be doing a lot of final fine-tuning over the next several months as the project is being wrapped up, so the final number may change slightly. For the water project, the estimated total budget is approximately $18 million, but we still have to develop a lot of details there.”)
Is there any prospect of water bills decreasing, or will they continue to increase?
I don’t think there’s any prospect now, but there are a lot of moving parts. I can’t make any promises about up or down at this point, except that it is very much on my mind. It is also something that the City Council is very concerned with and very aware of.
Since our interview in January, at least two more places on Third Street have closed. How do you approach that issue?
We need to look into why that is and how we can get the tourists back to Third Street. I venture to say that it’s more than just advertising. What is preventing people from venturing down here? And then, when they get here, what keeps them here? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Are there policies in place that are preventing businesses from coming in? What is the barrier? Recently, I have been hearing from businesses that it’s too expensive here. The rents are high. The utilities are high. Those are things that I think we can look at, but I want to look at the bigger picture to really pinpoint what’s happening.
I think one of the things that we want to do, and it’s in our capital improvement plan, is some downtown revitalization. What can we do to be enticing for businesses to come into town? What are our ordinances like? What does our code look like for historic review, and all of these different rules that we have? And is that a hindrance? Are we as business-friendly as we think we are? And is that what the community wants? Those are the kinds of questions that are brewing for me.
What can be done to improve the interface between businesses and the city?
One of the things we’re doing in the new fiscal year is to bring many of our planning and building services in-house. We are moving away from using 4LEAF as our primary contractor for planning, building and inspection. We’re going to retool our code enforcement officer to also be in charge of minor building inspections, and we’re going to hire a full-time senior planner to assist. We’re hoping to bring our permit services in-house as well.
By doing that, we will have more focused attention on our customer service because that has been a huge obstacle. I hope that over the next few months, people will start to feel more positive about the service they’re receiving from us.
What can be done about rundown and vacant buildings downtown that haven’t been done yet?
We’re working with our city attorney on that because I recognize that many of these buildings are located right at the city’s gateway. The city adopted a vacancy policy not long before I came on board, and I need to gain a better understanding of it.
I’m hoping that when the senior planner comes on board, they can work hand in hand with code enforcement and the building officials to work with these owners and get these places cleaned up and filled. I want to find a way for the city to maintain its historic charm while also boosting our economic development, because I think that we can do that without changing the face of the city. We need to get everybody in agreement with what we want for the town and then move forward from that perspective.
Is the fire contract, as it stands, tenable?
I think, from my perspective, San Juan needs stability, and you can’t have stability without fire services, public services and public safety. Is it expensive? It is. It’s absolutely expensive. Are we going to have to find a way to pay for it? Absolutely. We are going to have to work together to figure out the revenues and how we’re going to generate more economic development in the city.
I’m really really hoping that we progress towards the fire feasibility study so that we can talk about a fire district and what that means. Because I think a fire district would help everyone. We’d have equal governance. There’d be an independent board. It’s just a different way of being that I think is probably a great idea for the community moving forward.
But I, for sure, will not be pretending like I have all the answers. We have excellent people that work for the city who can not only balance our budgets but offer us solutions that we should consider as we move forward.
What are some of your goals?
For me, it would be nice to have a stronger recreation department and a strong special event segment in the city. I want to see more events where the town comes together to celebrate their community and their history together. I would like to help develop and build that culture.
I think there’s an opportunity for the city to co-sponsor many of these things and work with nonprofits to make them happen. And by co-sponsoring, the city would take on road closures, for instance, and we would do that at no cost to the nonprofit because it’s now city-sponsored. I think the City Council should explore all those avenues.
My intent is not to be a hindrance, but rather to help open doors and make things more equitable. Sometimes you have to say “no,” and sometimes you have to say things that people don’t want to hear. But I’m hoping that after we get through this first year, there is a solid structure in place and we can work within that structure to find the “yeses” that people want.
Related stories
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.