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Supervisor Dom Zanger was unanimously elected by the San Benito County Board of Supervisors as its new chair during the first meeting of the year on Jan. 13. He will preside over board meetings in 2026, rule on procedural matters and appoint committees to study key issues.
Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez was elected vice chair and will serve as chair when needed.
One of Zanger’s first actions as chair was to keep the appointments of most of the existing committees, including the Council of San Benito County Governments, the San Benito County Local Agency Formation and the Tourism Advisory and Public Defender Oversight Committees. The only exception was the National Association of Counties, which was led by Zanger and will now be represented by Supervisor Angela Curro.
Zanger also recommended dissolving the intergovernmental committee, which consisted of representatives from the Board of Supervisors, the cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista and the San Benito County Office of Education. He argued that the committee, which he chaired last year, had not produced policy recommendations in years and that forming specific committees for the issues at hand would better respect staff time.
“We ended up having to cancel several meetings because there was just simply nothing on the agenda,” Zanger said.
The board also expanded its Audit Committee from two supervisors—Zanger and Velazquez—to all five. At the meeting, Auditor-Controller Joe Paul Gonzalez explained the committee’s duties and responsibilities.
Several ad hoc committees were also revised.
The fire services ad hoc, created to negotiate a fire contract with the city of Hollister, was dissolved.
The roads ad hoc was elevated to a standing committee, as the county is expected to receive more than $20 million in state and federal grants this year.
And, the board dissolved the San Justo Reservoir ad hoc committee, which was charged with studying the future of the reservoir closed to the public for 18 years because of a zebra mussel infestation. Future discussions about the reservoir are to take place every two months during regular board meetings.
“We need to get input from everybody,” said Velazquez, speaking as a former member of the committee. “All of us want to see this happen. But we need the input because we all have different districts that want different things and we’re going to have to all participate to give ideas.”
Ad hoc committees for the animal shelter, the agricultural element of the General Plan, information technology and housing policy reform will remain in place.
The board also created two new ad hoc committees: one for the library expansion and another one to study the Transient Occupancy Tax Incentive Program, a plan to attract major hotel and resort investments or renovations to boost tourism and county revenue.
The board also approved declaring the county as the “Home of Pinnacles National Park,” which will become the new motto included in the county logo.
In a separate 4-1 vote, supervisors gave a final approval to lowering campaign contribution limits, which had been discussed last year. The maximum individual contribution will be reduced from $5,900 to $2,500 and donations of $25 or more will have to be disclosed. The board, however, delayed the effective date from mid-February to April 19 to avoid changing campaign rules during the filing period for this year’s election and to reduce additional workload for the county registrar of voters.
Starting Jan. 15, the county will no longer have a County Administrative Officer, but a County Executive Officer. Esperanza Colio Warren will remain in charge, but will have a “stronger role,” according to the county’s report, in “policy implementation, budget preparation, and department oversight.”
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