Although the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau took a vote among board members to officially oppose the Measure J initiative on the November ballot, the organization’s Green Committee has taken the opposing view.
The chamber’s Green Committee on Monday took a 4-3 vote in favor of supporting Measure J, aiming to ban enhanced oil recovery methods such as fracking while barring all petroleum activities in rural residential zones near Hollister and San Juan Bautista, according to Andy Hsia-Coron, one of the lead proponents of Measure J.
In taking the vote, the Green Committee is asking the larger chamber group to reconsider its stance against the measure.
Hsia-Coron has expressed frustration at the processes for how the chamber and other organizations – such as the farm bureau and business council – took votes endorsing the opposition’s view of Measure J. Hsia-Coron claims the chamber took a board of directors vote without getting a presentation from the pro-Measure J side.
“It seems like you should involve a broad swath of the membership in seeing how people think, but that’s not what happened,” he said.
Debbie Taylor, executive director of the chamber, responded previously in saying Hsia-Coron is welcome to make a presentation to the group. On Tuesday, she said if there was a recommendation from a committee, the larger board would have to consider it.
Hsia-Coron explained that any member of the chamber who attends the Green Committee meetings could vote on such considerations.
