While in crisis mode, inefficiencies must disappear. Old habits
die by necessity. Bold ideas and creative approaches survive and
thrive, because that is what sustainable businesses do.
While in crisis mode, inefficiencies must disappear. Old habits die by necessity. Bold ideas and creative approaches survive and thrive, because that is what sustainable businesses do.
It’s also well past time for a bold perspective in the public sector around here and, in particular, the City of Hollister, whose leaders over the years have promoted the rapid erosion of a once-flush general-fund reserve.
The city is on the verge of washing up on a dry beach if council members don’t act fast, and we have a suggestion to help officials not only ease their path, but also the political ramifications of their impending, inevitable and painful direction with continued deficits and Measure T’s expiration around the relative corner.
They should tap the best and brightest – not to mention caring – business leaders in the community among a plethora of residents who would fit the bill. These council members, and most elected officials, often prove they lack the financial expertise to make bold decisions based on sound, flexible financial projections. They act, by default, just like the bureaucrats whose personal livelihoods depend on their ultimate decisions.
Three of the current council members had the business nonsense last year to approve across-the-board, now regrettable pay raises to city employees who should be more concerned about keeping their jobs than whether similar workers in Santa Cruz are making more money. That decision, which came after the biker rally T-shirt debacle, shows that council members – and the city as a whole – need help that appears conceivable and available.
If our elected council members truly consider constituents’ interests above political consequences, then they would use the best available resources – which is done more extensively on higher levels of governments in cabinets and on broad-reaching advisory boards – in Hollister to solve Hollister’s biggest problems.
The council’s measure of business expertise in all practical purposes ends at Councilman Victor Gomez, who owns the local Papa Murphy’s restaurant. The rest of them should eat their pride and do what’s best for the citizenry they serve. They should promptly launch an advisory think tank comprised of the most savvy business minds in Hollister.
