The three candidates running for the Hollister City Council
District 5 seat stated their cases for the job last week to the
Free Lance Editorial Board while discussing major topics such as
economic development, crime and the biker rally.
HOLLISTER
The three candidates running for the Hollister City Council District 5 seat stated their cases for the job last week to the Free Lance Editorial Board while discussing major topics such as economic development, crime and the biker rally.
A major point of agreement for all three during the discussion of five primary topics – and a big point of emphasis – was the significance of the growing gang presence. Although they all acknowledged the problem’s magnitude, their plans to combat it differ slightly.
While both Roy Iler and David Huboi contended that a gang coordinator position would be key for the city, Victor Gomez said he believes resident awareness should be a priority. He also stressed the importance that distributed gang materials be written in both English and Spanish.
Huboi said youth programs are an excellent idea and pointed out that those types of programs are usually among the first to be cut from a budget. He also mentioned he has been working on a water park project to offer kids a positive alternative.
Iler, meanwhile, emphasized three points to help in the gang problem: education, intervention and suppression. He pointed to court-ordered injunctions as a solution to get gang members off the streets.
The candidates had some major differences, too. They all, for instance, diverged on the biker rally.
Although he admitted to being “on the fence” about the issue, Huboi would like to see the rally go back to how it used to be and make it more of a family-friendly environment, while he sees the current rally as a “hard-edged” event.
Gomez noted how he’s against the current layout of the rally – a common point of contention in the community.
“It has turned into a flea market,” he said. “I can understand why, from an economics perspective, why they would want to have it set up like they have it set up now.”
He added that it “shoves the bikers out of the way.” He proposed that maybe the city should charge some sort of admission fee to generate income.
Iler, meanwhile, took the boldest stance and contended that the rally is “a loser.” He said he is completely against it and noted that it never has made money.
“It is sad situation that we’ll be put on the map by a biker rally,” Iler said.
When asked about a push for more open government and to make more information public, the candidates agreed that important fiscal matters should open to the public. They differed, however, on their interpretations of what that means.
Gomez stressed the importance of closed sessions meetings for the council, but he did add that he wouldn’t want to keep people out of the loop.
“There is a lot of productivity when you have closed sessions,” Gomez said. “You move along a lot faster, and there are issues that can be taken care of in five minutes that if you had in an open session, would take hours.” In terms of fiscal matters, he said all relevant meetings should be open to the public.
Iler argued in favor of complete openness for meetings with two exceptions. “I believe that everything should be open, basically except for employment and personnel.” He agreed with Gomez on the fiscal aspect.
“If the taxpayers are paying for it, they should know about it.”
Huboi said he believes “we should have open government.” He also concurred on the idea of openness with fiscal issues and said he believes that closed sessions are important for “sensitive issues” such as personnel.
Huboi also would like to see more people attend city meetings and he wants to look into making the city’s Web site bilingual.
