Editorial: With one exception, county voters were decisive

With one exception, county voters were decisive in their decisions on Election Day.

Although candidates in a Hollister School District race will have to wait for a final vote count expected at mid-week, the remainder of the races included lopsided or comfortable victories.

In the most prominent race on the ballot, Hollister voters elected Ignacio Velazquez as the city’s first at-large mayor with a comfortable 10-point margin in the four-person race.

Hollister residents wanted to choose their leader and ensure city officials know where the buck stops, because their passive approach to governing – and reliance on senior staff officials to set a direction – hasn’t worked.

Historically, the mayor hadn’t been chosen by the entire electorate and severely lacked any mandate to act like a mayor, to lead and set policy and hold others accountable for their failures, to represent the electorate. 

Now the city has its elected mayor. People wanted a change to the system and they wanted a change in leadership. They wanted someone new to city politics, someone with a personal stake who would fight for Hollister’s best interests and focus on improving the economy.

Velazquez fit the bill. There are a host of reasons why he has potential to succeed as the city’s first mayor in these deeply troubling economic and fiscal times, and voters recognized his upside. 

He is an outsider to a city government that all too often considers the good of the unions before the good of taxpayers. He is a businessman with a conservative approach to spending and budgeting. He is willing to wake the council from its leadership hibernation and stir things up, and this is a city that needs a lot of stirring and waking. We wish him luck and support his efforts to rid Hollister of wasteful spending and focus on economic development efforts.

In the other major city race, voters were less decisive in their support for Measure E as they were for Measure T five years ago, but it was a comfortable victory, nonetheless. Although some voters were unwilling to support extending the 1 percent sales tax another five years – likely due to irresponsible spending over the past five years with the Measure T money – most of them also understood the severity of the recession’s impact on government coffers and the magnitude of prospective public safety cuts. 

Voters, though, also appeared more reluctant in their support this time around – a sign this is probably the city’s final opportunity with the additional tax revenue, and that council members should start planning now for the transition away from it.

In other local contests, there was a divergence in messages sent in races for the San Benito High and Hollister School District boards. With the high school, voters sided with a person they know and trust, Steve Delay, who spent a career in the district and served part of the prior term after an appointment. In Hollister, voters weren’t so sure whom to trust. Considering the elementary district’s shaky finances, poor academic performance and questionable decisions on priorities for reductions, it came as no surprise that newcomers were leading a tight pack of candidates vying for the four open seats.

It also didn’t come as a surprise that in another countywide race on the ballot, incumbent Ernest Rivas finished in a distant fourth among four candidates seeking three open seats on the health care district board.

In the state and national races – such as those for president, Senate, Congress and Assembly – local voters once again displayed their Democratic leaning.

Kudos goes to Robert Bernosky, a Republican from Hollister, for unsuccessfully running against Democrat Assemblyman Luis Alejo for a second time.  Bernosky put in a valiant effort, but realistically had no chance in this heavily Democratic district.