Incumbent Priscilla Hill, the mayor of San Juan Bautista, wants
to keep seat on the City Council. But it isn’t the money that
entices her to run again for the all-volunteer Council. She is
driven by her constituents and a passion to get things done.
Incumbent Priscilla Hill, the mayor of San Juan Bautista, wants to keep seat on the City Council. But it isn’t the money that entices her to run again for the all-volunteer Council. She is driven by her constituents and a passion to get things done.
“I still feel I have the energy, I have the consensus of the residents and I’m still a resident,” Hill said. “I’m not one to sit back and complain if I’m not going to do something about it.”
Hill has typically refrained from making comments during Council meetings, which she attributes to her Eastern U.S. upbringing. However, without being critical of her mother, Hill was raised very English and very old-fashioned.
“I was always taught you be polite,” she said. “You don’t say what you think. You don’t do this and you don’t do that, which is probably why I have always been quiet as I have been.”
But in the last 18 months, with the city up to its neck in major issues, Hill has become more candid during Council meetings.
Despite public opinion, Hill said no one has ever swayed her decision when it comes to voting the issues. But more importantly, she said, everyone is entitled to respect and to their own opinion.
“I will listen and speak to them about their issue, but unless they have something to back up their comments I’ll vote what I know in my heart is the right thing to do,” she said. “I have always, always voted my conscience.”
Hill said her experience on the Council qualifies her for the job more than her opponents.
“I have a lot more knowledge then they have because until you get on Council and learn how it really works, you can dream and you can say, ‘I want to do this and I’m going to do that,’ but it still takes a five-member body to make decisions,” she said. “You don’t do it as an individual.”
Hill said the biggest challenge facing the next Council is following up with the work on the water and sewer system, roads and other aspects of the city’s infrastructure.
“Our sewer water is up to standards,” she said. “Now we’re working on the water, and if everything goes as planned with the grants and everything, we should be well under way with our water treatment system. We have some very old lines in the city.”
San Juan Bautista relies on tourism, and Hill said she would like to see the city do something to help the local merchants.
“Tourism is a major part of our income – a good 75 percent if not more,” she said.
Hill wanted to make it clear that despite efforts by some residents who have sent flyers around town endorsing her along with two other opponents, she is running as an independent.
“I am my own person in this campaign,” she said. “And my husband is my campaign manager.”
When she is not busy as mayor, Hill can be found waiting on customers or working on someone’s bookkeeping inside her combination retail and bookkeeping services shop, Priscilla’s Stuff on Third Street.
“Often I have said, ‘What you see is what you get,'” she laughed, admitting that the many hats she wears does not change who she is inside. “I’m me and I’m not changing for anyone,” she said.
Hill said her door is always open to the residents of San Juan.
“I’m always willing to listen and my telephone number is in the phone book,” she said. “They can reach me anytime or come to my shop.”
