Tuesday night’s election has brought a new freshman class to the
City Council, setting the stage for a shift in power some say will
be a welcome change, but others say will make.
Hollister – Tuesday night’s election has brought a new freshman class to the City Council, setting the stage for a shift in power some say will be a welcome change, but others say will make for a lot of catching-up on the part of the new members.
With three newcomers in the council line-up – Brad Pike, Doug Emerson, and Monica Johnson – the council will have only two veteran members, Pauline Valdivia and Robert Scattini, whose terms won’t expire for another two years. Valdivia said while she is looking forward to working with the new members, there is a lot for them to learn when they take their seats in January.
“They’re going to have a pretty large learning curve, but I think the learning curve is there every day. You really have to take initiative, get into the grind of things, learn the issues every day,” Valdivia said.
Scattini and County Supervisor Reb Monaco both said they thought the
ousting of incumbents Bruscia and LoBue in favor of Johnson and Emerson signaled a general sentiment among voters that a change was needed in the way the city is run. However, they said it will take a while to see what the change means for the council and the community.
“I think people obviously wanted a change, and I think we’ve got some pretty intelligent people coming on board. But until someone sits up there, they don’t know how hard it is, and they’ve got some surprises coming. It’s a full-time job. The city is big-business, and you run it like a business,” Scattini said.
Emerson, the new representative for Dist. 4, said he thinks he was elected for exactly that reason. A retired financial analyst and school administrator, Emerson said his experience with money matters was a definite draw for voters.
“I can just say from when I went door to door, people seemed impressed with the experiences I’ve had. As a (Chief Financial Officer), I’ve heard lots of concerns with budgets. That was probably the biggest factor; I think people saw that as an asset,” he said. “The first thing I’m going to do is really study that budget – are there places in there where it can be tweaked, where revenue can be increased, where we can save money without services being cut? That for me takes first priority.”
The $73 million city budget, approved in July, caused major concerns in Hollister when it threatened to lay off 36 city employees. Most of these employees opted for early retirement, although 12 jobs were eventually saved by a City Council vote. In the end, only one city employee was actually laid off.
Emerson added he felt the voters in his district had become disillusioned with local government, and saw the fact that he was not a politician as a means to change that.
Tony LoBue, the incumbent whom Emerson beat Tuesday, was reached on his cell phone Wednesday while taking down his campaign signs. He declined to comment on his loss or how Emerson would fare in the council Wednesday.
Both Monaco and Scattini, as well as Supervisor Pat Loe, said the toughest issue the new council members will be facing is the sewer moratorium, which the current council has already put much work into.
In 2002, a 15 million gallon sewer spill resulted in the city’s current sewer moratorium. The problem is supposed to be fixed by October 2005 or the city will face a $200,000 fine from the state, and some council members have said it is unlikely they’ll meet that deadline.
Dist. 1 winner Pike, who will take over the seat Brian Conroy chose not to seek re-election for this year, said he doesn’t think the new members’ lack of experience with the sewer problems will set back any of the good work the council has already done.
“I know obviously there’s going to be a change, and it’s going to be a drastic change. But I think there are going to be some things that people in the past have been working on that we’ll keep working on, and we’ll also add some new things. People want to see progress in our community, and that’s our goal – to bring fruition to the kind of projects people can feel good about,” Pike said.
Outgoing District 5 incumbent and current Hollister Mayor Tony Bruscia, however, said he doesn’t think the changes in the way the city is run will be all that dramatic, and the only difference in the new city council will be the amount of information newcomers have to soak up.
“I don’t think it is going to make any big changes, because I don’t think there are any philosophical differences between the new people and the people they’re replacing. I think the biggest difference is it will create a new learning curve. They have a lot to learn about what it takes to run a city, and it will create some challenges for the staff to bring them up to speed on the issues,” Bruscia said, but added he thinks the new council members are up to the task.
Bruscia said he was disappointed at his loss, but realized the economy was in bad shape and the voters may have thought electing new officials would fix it.
“When you really put your heart into something and you work hard and the community doesn’t understand that, it’s always disappointing,” Bruscia said. “But things will get better in two or three years. The moratorium will be done, the sewer will be completed. We’re almost there. I would have liked to leave on a high note, but I can look myself in the mirror and say that I put everything I had into this,” he said.
His replacement, Monica Johnson, said she disagrees that there are no fundamental differences between her philosophies and those of her predecessor. Communication with constituents is one key difference she cited, saying that she plans to keep her Web site, which she said received 8,500 hits during the election, up and running to keep people abreast of what’s happening in the city council. She also said she was ready to step up and take accountability for problems, something she doesn’t think past council members have been willing to do.
“The biggest thing is the budget and thinking we had a surplus and then going into deficit, and everyone was saying ‘Nobody told me.’ If you’re on the council, you have a responsibility to get the information anyway. A lot of us were disillusioned because no one took responsibility for these things, it was always someone else’s fault,” Johnson said.
Johnson beat Bruscia and Martin Deffee for the Dist. 5 seat with 45.8 percent of the vote, compared to Bruscia’s 37.3 percent and Deffee’s 16.8 percent.
Brad Pike won his race with 66.9 percent of the votes, while his opponent Helen Ross received 32.8 percent.
Doug Emerson won the Dist. 4 seat with 60.4 percent of the votes, over incumbent Tony LoBue’s 39.3 percent.
