Hollister
– Incumbent City Mayor Robert Scattini will face off against
local educator Eugenia Sanchez in what could be a heated race for
the District 2 seat in November.
Hollister – Incumbent City Mayor Robert Scattini will face off against local educator Eugenia Sanchez in what could be a heated race for the District 2 seat in November.
Sanchez, a kindergarten and first-grade teacher in Gilroy, said Monday that she decided to forego a second term on the Hollister School District Board of Trustees to challenge Scattini. She said safety, the city’s gang problem, affordable housing and sewer woes would be among her top priorities if elected.
The state imposed a moratorium on new sewer connections in 2002 after 15 million gallons of treated wastewater spilled into the San Benito River. City officials anticipate completion of a new $120 million sewer system before 2009. Finishing the plant will allow the state to lift the moratorium, which has brought economic development in the city to a near standstill.
“I decided to run for the city council because I wanted to be involved in the decision-making process,” she said Monday. “I want to make this a better place to live and work.”
Sanchez said she thinks she can use her experience on the HSD Board of Trustees and bring the skills she has developed to the city council.
“I think I’m a really good listener and a good collaborator,” she said. “I’m really excited and I want to give voters a choice.”
Sanchez is in the process of forming an election committee and said she will begin fundraising in the coming months.
Scattini, who has spent more than four decades carrying a badge and currently serves as the San Benito County Marshal, said he hopes to continue the work he has started while on the council.
“I want to see Hollister progress,” Scattini said Monday. “This is my home and I want to make it a better place.”
Scattini said it will be up to the voters to decide who will fill the District 2 seat. He also said he had no qualms with his opponent and welcomed her to the race.
Scattini, who will finish his first term on the council this year, announced his plans to seek a second term in June. Among his priorities now and for the future, Scattini listed rectifying Hollister’s sewer woes, preventing gangs and reviving the Hollister Independence Rally. The majority of the council voted to cancel the annual motorcycle event for 2006, citing financial concerns. A fervent rally supporter, Scattini, along with Vice Mayor Brad Pike, voted against the cancellation. Scattini, who was named major by his council colleagues last year, said he would create a subcommittee to start planning the 2007 rally. He has never missed a meeting during his term on the council.
City Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia will seek a third four-year term unopposed in District 3.
In addition to voting on the District 2 and 3 council races, Hollisterites will decide in November whether the city treasurer should be elected or appointed and whether the city’s general plan should be revised to suit developer Pulte Homes’ plans to build a senior community near the Hollister Municipal Airport. Also, an initiative to increase the city’s 7.25 percent sales tax by a penny will likely be on the ballot.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
