If Martin Deffee gets elected to the District 5 seat on the
Hollister City Council, he plans to support infrastructure upgrades
and a more business-friendly government.
Hollister – If Martin Deffee gets elected to the District 5 seat on the Hollister City Council, he plans to support infrastructure upgrades and a more business-friendly government.
Deffee, 41, has worked in what’s now called the county marshal’s office for the past dozen years. He wants to follow the path of former cop Richard Boomer, who served on the council for eight years before stepping down in 2000.
Deffee, who grew up in Santa Cruz, especially supports funding to emergency services, such as police and fire protection.
Even though the marshal’s office handles court security, Deffee still stops about seven to 10 vehicles a day for traffic violations – which he said shows people here break the laws of the road all too often.
“Which is ridiculous to me,” said Deffee, who supports increased traffic patrol, “because it doesn’t take more than seven minutes to get from one end (of Hollister) to the next. I don’t know what clock they’re trying to beat.”
Deffee wants to improve council oversight of city employees, he said. And he believes in smarter growth and higher impact fees to housing developers.
Growth
Growing up in Santa Cruz, Deffee experienced a city’s evolution from a smaller town to a more urbanized area. He said he supports building more infrastructure and increasing funding to public safety departments to match growth in recent years.
Hollister, he said, is in a “flux state.”
“Hollister is in an excellent position to grow and become a very stable community,” he said.
Deffee said he supports hikes to fees developers pay when they build new homes – charges intended to fund roads and parks and other projects to support residential growth. Some larger developers may be turned off by higher fees, but others wouldn’t, he said.
“There will be other developers who will be happy to come in here and build houses to pay the higher impact fees,” he said.
Deffee also said he supports placing a measure on the ballot to consider a “specialized tax” to help support infrastructure deficiencies, such as the sewage system.
City finances
Along with management of growth, Deffee thinks past councils have poorly managed the city’s budgets. Now Hollister’s facing millions of dollars in budget shortfalls for at least the next four years.
He pointed out the city’s long-standing dispute with the San Benito Foods cannery over a sewage debt as an example of poor fiscal management. Hollister and San Benito Foods recently agreed to what council members say is an appropriate debt amount for sewage bills from 2000-2003.
“It strikes me as odd for the cannery to go that long without being billed and created that large a deficit and owe the city that much money without somebody saying, ‘Hmm, maybe we ought to look into this.'”
Deffee said council members haven’t had a tight enough grasp on oversight of city staff. He said his experience in the military and law enforcement – and their emphasis on holding to a chain of command – will help him in that department.
“You can’t just let things sit by the wayside,” he said. “It’s like a cancer. You let it go, you don’t treat it, it’s going to get worse. It’s going to get bigger.”
If faced with difficult budget decisions, Deffee said he would first support infrastructure upgrades – then emergency services. If he has to cut programs, he said programs such as parks and recreation would have to go.
“That’s part of being in a leadership position, making hard decisions and standing by that choice.”
Economic development
Deffee said the city has to do more to support new businesses, such as those in the electronics industry and other manufacturing enterprises.
“The city hasn’t been terribly business friendly,” he said.
Deffee hasn’t taken a stance on a proposed casino off Highway 25. He believes both sides of the argument have good points about potential impacts.
“There’s a double edge sword if there ever was one,” he said.
He doesn’t want to take a position, though, without studying other cities that have experienced similar projects. But if a majority of the public opposes it, he’s against it, too.
“I would hate to see any business, if the local community opposed it, force it down their throats,” he said.
Kollin Kosmicki covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach him at 637-5566, ext. 331 or [email protected].
