Report From Church of LDS and Community Action Board’s Leadership Luncheon

The Leadership Luncheon was hosted by the Community Action Board and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. It was attended by a strong turnout of members of the public, leaders of the community, elected officials, and non-profit organizations.

Hal Hendrickson was introduced as the Moderator and he introduced the Chair of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, Anthony Botelho, who said that his position was  the best job in government. He spoke of the ability of the Board to address the needs of the community. He suggested that the Parks Plan, the General Plan and Planning were projects which make the future look bright for the County and City of Hollister.

Hollister Mayor Ignacio Velasquez said that, as Hollister’s first elected mayor, he has had the ability to work with some great people. He thanked Supervisor Jerry Muenzer who was in attendance as well. He asked, “How do we work together to build our community? What do we want that community to look like?” He noted that currently the cities are working well together, the City of Hollister and County and San Juan Bautista have merged their Fire Departments to provide better service. The Mayor said that they now have twice the number of firefighters and twice the number of fire stations and have improved response times, without costing more money. He said that by working together, more can be accomplished. He mentioned Robin Pollard’s volunteer work in the Community. He told the group that the schools are working to help the community and that“if kids are graduating, it helps the Sheriff and everyone else.” He mentioned that it seemed that there had been a shortage of ideas from the City, but now that it is hard to keep up with all of the ideas from City Council, Supervisors and Staff. He said that the volunteerism is growing in the city and that everyone will soon see the projects. He thanked the group for the invitation to speak to them.

The next panelist to introduce himself was San Benito County Sheriff Darren Thompson. Sheriff Thompson thanked the group for the opportunity to be there. He said that he recognized many in the crowd, some from meeting, some from their booking photos. He shared that the luncheon’s theme “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” was close to his heart. He grew up in Santa Cruz as the son of a minister. When he was 23, he began his law enforcement career. He served 24 years in Watsonville Police Department. To share what has influenced his philosophy of police work, he quoted, Sir Robert Peel who said that, “That police have the duty to serve and the duty to police. The police are the people, and the people are the police.”

Sheriff Thompson listed the Peelian Principles of police work which are:

1. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions and they must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
2. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
3.The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
4. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
5. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
6. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Gary Byrne, Executive Director of the Community Foundation for San Benito County, asked how many people present at the luncheon worked with non-profits organizations. About a third of the group raised their hands.
He pointed out that those were volunteers working to make the community better. He asked what is missing in our village? Who is missing? He noted the thousands of people who commute out of the county to work. He noted that there are 142 non-profit organizations in San Benito County and 44 churches. He asked the group, “What would it be like if there were no Community Food Bank, no Chamberlains, no Emmaus House?” He noted that the non-profits are now doing the job which used to be done by government. He asked those present at the luncheon to, “Think of how much harder the job of the government agencies would be without the work of those organizations.”

He explained that, “The Community Foundation builds on the generosity of donors. They facilitate the funding of non-profits in the community by establishing endowments.” He told of how the original donor to the Community Foundation was a kind person who wished to donate to the community, however, died without changing their will and gave away 46 million that went outside of San Benito County. “What a difference that money might have made to the county!” he said. He told the luncheon attendees that the Community Foundation’s job is to keep the money in the community.

He told another story of how a donor had come to San Benito County in midlife and had a deep love for the community. He came to the Community Foundation to set up a fund and upon his death will leave $5-6 million to benefit the elderly in San Benito County. Byrne said that this will be a gift that will truly keep on giving to his community. He noted the strengths and challenges of the community, he pointed out a group which is working on improving the libraries. He noted that the San Benito County Free Library has a yearly budget for books of $12,000 a year. He explained that libraries, like schools, provide quality of life.

Brenda Weatherly, Executive Director of the Hollister Downtown Association, spoke of the importance of keeping downtown healthy. She said that the Hollister Downtown  Association accomplishes much working with hundreds of volunteers and also collaborating with many other groups, like the Community Food Bank. She listed the DBA’s activities, Light’s On Celebration, the HDA booth at the San Benito County Fair,  and the upcoming Wine and Art Stroll on October 12th.

The first question collected from the audience was, “Aside from economic issues, what is the most important issue facing the County?”  Supervisor Botelho spoke to the importance of education for young people, which, he concluded after considering it, “is probably an economic issue”.

Sheriff Thompson was asked to respond to “What is the biggest adversity you face as Sheriff?” The Sheriff stated,“That’s a moving target.” He said that introduction of Methamphetamines was once the issue, then it was gang activity. It once was black tar heroin, but he said that while there are still those problems, today’s problem is a tool box problem. He said that adversity is intense but the ability to respond is limited by the economic downturn. He noted that since he became Sheriff, he has had reduction of his employees from 82 to 46. He said his biggest adversity is “overcoming the budget”.

Brenda Weatherly was asked, “What can be done to attract and retain more businesses to the downtown?”. She answered that, “We need to have the community coming downtown and using it.” Gary Byrne responded that there exists a downtown plan that is magnificent. To build it would cost 1.5 million dollars “Which“, he said, “is not a lot of money”. He said that when cities have renovated their downtown areas, other problems, such as crime, have been improved.

Mayor Velasquez was asked “What is being done to bring new businesses to the County and City?” He said that the city is no longer saying “you can’t do that, but let’s see how you can do that.” He said that the City is now saying,  “Yes!” instead of “No.”
He said that when the Downtown Plan was done, the old timers told him that there was already a plan. He saw that it was the same as the new plan. He asked them why it hadn’t been implemented before and he was told that it was because of the opposition of some people to different parts of the plan.

Sheriff Thompson was asked about the impacts of AB109 and 1170 on the County? The Sheriff noted that California had 168,000 inmates in state prisons built for 92,000.  The state had been ordered to address this. AB109 sent prisoners back to the jurisdiction where they were sentenced. He explained that certain prisoners are serving terms in county jails, so county jails are housing prisoners for 4, 6 months up to 20 years, rather than the typical short terms of a month to a year.

Board Chair Botelho was asked “How is the county addressing the needs of the Homeless?” He responded that the county has provided help by sharing the Migrant Labor camp, which he said, is pretty much the extent of the County’s efforts, aside from the Community Block Grant Funding which had been awarded. He noted that the need is for a permanent year-round homeless shelter. He said that everyone would be better off with a better solution.
 

The Community Foundation’s Gary Byrne answered a question about teen pregnancies and he shared that he had been aware of a program at a large high school with normally hundreds of pregnancies which had been reduced to 0. He shared that it this was a community problem.

To end the questioning, Mayor Velasquez spoke of the need for youth activities and sport activities. He said he has been speaking to groups to get an idea of what needs to be taken care of first. He noted a complex with a center point for softball, a skateboard park and a BMX track. He said that, “If the community believes that it’s the government’s responsibility, that is a problem. It is up to the people’s response, not the government’s.”
 

Co-organizer Elaine Kovanda thanked the panel, volunteers and creator of the event which began two years ago and Event Organizer, Tonia Sunseri.