The San Benito County Board of Supervisors formally suspended negotiations with the City of Hollister for the renewal of a contract for fire services.
The 3-2 vote at the board’s April 22 meeting followed the Hollister City Council’s rejection the previous evening of the terms of a counter offer submitted by the county and the City of San Juan Bautista. Supervisors Mindy Sotelo and Angela Curro voted against the motion to suspend negotiations.
Now, the county is set to embark on the process of establishing its own fire department to serve unincorporated areas and San Juan Bautista, if that city’s leadership agrees to such a partnership.
The supervisors also voted April 22 to suspend its participation in a Fire District Feasibility Study, which has been led by the City of San Juan Bautista.
Supervisors Ignacio Velazquez and Kollin Kosmicki during the meeting expressed frustration over what they characterized as Hollister officials’ refusal to budge from an offer that they know the county cannot afford.
The current contract is set to expire in December, after the Hollister City Council in March approved sending a 270-day notice for termination. Negotiations between the county, Hollister and San Juan Bautista for a new contract started in late 2024.
Velazquez said that financial challenges are only going to increase in the near future, and the county has to move on if they’re going to find a solution they can afford. For now, that means beginning the process to establish a county fire department.
“I’m looking forward to working with the Hollister Fire Department in the future. We just can’t afford what’s being asked of us. It’s going to create a bigger failure down the road. I don’t think we should go on with the negotiations,” Velazquez said.
The City of Hollister has provided fire protection through a contract for the county and San Juan Bautista since 2013. The contracts were renegotiated in 2016 and 2019.
County supervisors have said they cannot afford to pay what Hollister is asking; Hollister officials have complained that the county has not been paying its fair share under previous contracts.
For the 2023-24 fiscal year, the county paid $2.2 million for the services and San Juan Bautista paid about $260,000 into a fire budget of almost $14 million. Hollister was left to contribute the rest.
Hollister’s latest offer, approved by the council April 7, asks the county and San Juan Bautista to jointly increase their payment to Hollister for fire services by $3.9 million in 2025-26—bringing the total cost shared by the two entities to about $6.5 million for the first year of the new proposed contract.
On April 17, the county and San Juan Bautista submitted a counter offer in which the county would increase its annual rate to about $3.4 million for 2025-26, increasing 3% annually throughout the five-year contract—among other provisions.
San Juan Bautista in the April 17 proposal offered to increase its cost to $418,279 for the first year, increasing by 11% annually through 2028.
The Hollister City Council rejected that proposal at the April 21 meeting, leaving its previous offer the only one on the table.
A key sticking point in the negotiations is the level of staffing at Hollister fire stations. Hollister officials have insisted on minimum staffing of three per engine. The county and San Juan Bautista have offered to reduce minimum staffing to two per engine.
Hollister officials and other observers have said that less than three staff could compromise firefighters’ and residents’ safety.
