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After a year of service, Kollin Kosmicki’s role as chair of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors will end at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting. Supervisors will then choose who will preside over board meetings, rule on procedural questions and appoint committees to study key issues.
The board will also choose a new vice chair to replace Supervisor Dom Zanger, who, like Kosmicki, held the position for a year. Along with Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez, the three have formed a majority that has pushed for changes such as making tourism the county’s main revenue strategy, setting up campaign contribution limits, and refusing to certify the petition to recall Velazquez.
The new board chair will also appoint members to more than 30 committees, including the Council of San Benito County Governments, the San Benito County Local Agency Formation Commission, the Public Defender Oversight Committee and the audit committee. They will also consider creating a new committee, composed of Zanger and Supervisor Angela Curro, to study what the board has called the Transient Occupancy Tax Incentive Program, a plan to attract major hotel and resort investments or renovations in an effort to boost tourism and county revenue.
The tourism strategy was one of Kosmicki’s main priorities as chair. During his tenure, the county’s Economic Advisory Committee was renamed the Tourism Advisory Committee, which developed a plan to declare the county as the “Home of Pinnacles National Park.” The board will discuss formally adopting that branding at the meeting.
The supervisors are also expected to approve a new Housing Element, one of California’s key housing mandates, which was supposed to be included as part of the county’s General Plan by late 2023. Today, San Benito County is one of the few remaining jurisdictions in California—58 out of 538— without a state-certified housing policy, costing the county millions of dollars in state funding and local control over certain development decisions, according to county officials.
The 300-page document, which lays out housing policies and plans for the next eight years, was first approved by the supervisors in May. But the Planning Commission rejected it in November after residents claimed they had not been informed about the county’s decision to rezone their properties to meet state requirements. The rejection put the supervisors in a tough spot, as county officials had assured the state that the Housing Element was to be approved by the end of 2025. After it is approved on Jan. 13, the state will take about 60 days to review and grant full certification.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren announced that the county received more than $7 million from the federal government for road safety improvements, including transforming two intersections into roundabouts. Details of the grant will be presented at the Jan. 13 meeting.
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