Citizens’ group advocates for at-large Hollister mayor, sales
tax, downtown
After the failure of Measure R
– the 1 percent sales tax increase initiative – six months ago
city services suffered some hits.
Citizens’ group advocates for at-large Hollister mayor, sales tax, downtown
After the failure of Measure R – the 1 percent sales tax increase initiative – six months ago city services suffered some hits.
Now a group of concerned citizens has come up with a new three-part plan that includes re-introducing the sales tax initiative, but gives people more incentive to approve the initiative by switching to a mayor-at-large, rather than having district elections.
“Hollister is in a unique situation,” said Tony Ruiz of Hollister, one of the people behind the movement. Ruiz explained that, with district elections, most Hollister residents have no say in the mayoral seat. “We would like to see four district elections with the mayor elected at large. We’d also like to see time and compensation paid for that position,” he said.
Ruiz’ group is composed of local residents who have spent months studying the new urbanism and smart development movements. The approach both emphasize is more livable, sustainable communities through mixing commercial and retail uses in high-density core areas, much like communities of generations ago.
The three items are the re-introduced sales-tax initiative, an elected mayor and building exemptions for downtown Hollister. Ruiz explained that the three items are connected because an elected mayor would give the city some accountability for their spending. This, in turn, would give the voters someone to hold responsible for the money that is generated through increased sales taxes. The sales taxes are only a band-aid though, true economic development can only come from increased businesses. Exemptions to Measure U – the one-percent growth cap imposed by the city in 2002 – would allow businesses to locate downtown and increase revenue flow for all of Hollister.
The exemptions for downtown would allow some developers to try mixed-use projects in the downtown area. Whereas they might have to wait several years for permits otherwise, the exemptions would give them an incentive to work on some in-fill in the downtown area which could create a move livable, pedestrian-friendly downtown.
Ruiz and his group realize that not everyone would be in favor of electing a mayor at large. There are plenty of arguments against doing so. What if the public elected a bad mayor? Why politicize the position?
But Ruiz explained that there are democratic incentives to having a mayor at large. It invites people more into the process of selecting leaders and in order to run an effective city Hollister needs a full-time or a part-time mayor that can provide leadership and spend time on task. As it currently exists Hollister’s mayor is more of a ministerial type, according to Ruiz.
Under the new process the city could keep district elections, but elect a mayor-at-large. Currently 157 cities in California have elected mayors, and Ruiz is unaware of one that is moving toward shifting to an appointed position, he said.
When the residents voted down Measure R there were many explanations given. One of the largest of which was that the voters wanted to show the elected officials that they were upset because of the sewer rate increases and were not going to vote for another increase. David Huboi, one of the advocates behind the “Yes on Measure R” campaign explained that after the measure failed he noticed that there were a lot more people who were interested in helping.
“I don’t want to say that anyone failed,” Huboi said. “But if we had started the Measure R campaign sooner, I mean there’s no finger pointing, but I think there’s a good possibility of getting a new initiative passed.”
Part of the reason that the first initiative failed might have had to do with a sewer rate increase, which happened shortly before the tax initiative was introduced. But Ruiz believes that with the tax initiative, there are probably 25 percent of the people who are going to vote against it regardless of what it is for. There are an additional 25 percent of the people who will vote in favor of an issue regardless. The remaining 50 percent want to vote for the issue, but need to be convinced.
“If we can provide the resources for accountability, we can convince people,” Ruiz said.
He was surprised to find that people in Hollister are actually more receptive to the ideas he is presenting than he thought they would be.
Councilman Doug Emerson has talked with Ruiz about his three-part plan and sees some validity in most of issues.
“Obviously the sales tax is critical,” Emerson said. “But there is also a lot of logic presented for re-visiting Measure U. It was passed in a crisis and we’re working on a new general plan, so the time might be right to revisit Measure U. I think we have a good city manager, but it might also benefit the city to have another visionary political person, especially with the coming growth, who can hold people accountable and push the city’s vision.”
City Manager Clint Quilter is obviously interested in getting the sales tax initiative before the voters again, but had not heard officially any talks about the idea of an elected mayor.
Whether or not the idea will be brought before the council in an official manner is still uncertain. Machado said that the group has talked to a few of the members of the council about the plan, and while he says it wasn’t warmly received it was reasonably received.
Business owner Jerry Muenzer of Muenzer’s Sporting Goods is very supportive of a sales tax initiative, because he feels it’s the only way that the city will be able to come up with the funds it needs to continue basic services, such as police and fire.
“Basically the city general fund comes from sales taxes,” Muenzer said. “We need that money for the city to continue support.”
