It’s good to see Hollister officials showing a desire to share information with the public through a newsletter, but launching a print publication in 2013 is a reckless, archaic way of spending taxpayers’ money, especially after passage of the Measure E tax extension promoted as a savior for public safety.
Hollister City Council members last week unanimously approved the launch of a quarterly print newsletter – OK’d on the consent agenda with no discussion – at an estimated price tag of $20,000 annually plus city staffing costs.
As head planning official Bill Avera explained to the Free Lance, planning department staff members will coordinate editorial content, and he hopes most of it will come from other Hollister employees. While nobody in particular will be charged with overseeing the publication, Avera said, the planning staff is set to hand over stories and other materials to a contractor, who will handle design, printing and delivery of the 15,000 copies. Three of four pages will be in English, with the last page as a summary of the other three in Spanish.
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez pushed forward the idea for a print newsletter and deserves credit for his intentions – engaging the public and improving communication when issues arise that might interest or affect residents. But the result of those intentions – a print newsletter that could end up costing, with staff time, the same as an employee – is sending the wrong message, that Hollister once again remains lagging behind the times when there is such an obvious, modern alternative as an option.
It also reflects muddled priorities at a time when city officials face many more significant challenges ranging from basic (enough potholes around town to make the Moon jealous) to complicated (prospective fire and police consolidation). Officials already have a boatload of projects and problems to address. Why add another cost and complication to the list? We are, after all, at least a decade past the point when it could seem reasonable for a municipal organization to invest in a new print newsletter. Hollister’s murky financial situation makes it even more absurd. Â
It would make a lot more sense to explore the launch of a website, which would carry a minimal cost. Along with a city newsletter website, council members could consider a multi-platform approach involving Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, email blasts, and instantaneous interaction with the public.
Velazquez and others, meanwhile, have argued that those electronic options are great – but not available to all residents, particularly senior citizens and others with lower incomes.
With every passing day, though, that argument loses weight. We live in a world dominated and largely defined by electronic communication. Just about everybody has some sort of personal access to the Internet, or at least the ability to readily gain access. And if not on a personal computer or laptop or tablet or cell phone or television – then there is always the San Benito County Free Library.
If those options are still unavailable to some residents, then the city could print a limited number of simplified newsletters containing key announcements and drop those copies at strategic locations.
Here in Hollister, we seem to be headed backward by launching a 15,000-copy quarterly publication, in print, at a relatively steep price, organized and transcribed by former redevelopment agency employees who are now going to cost taxpayers six-figure annual sums to transcribe and collect the city news.
The online approach is a much more simple and less costly solution, and council members should immediately consider a reversal on the print newsletter.
