After eight years of fighting to protect San Benito County from
overzealous developers and maintaining its quality of life,
incumbent District Four Supervisor Ron Rodrigues said he is ready
to do battle for one more term.
After eight years of fighting to protect San Benito County from overzealous developers and maintaining its quality of life, incumbent District Four Supervisor Ron Rodrigues said he is ready to do battle for one more term.
Rodrigues, 70, said he is running for re-election to continue his efforts at reining in growth and in preserving the small-town quality of life that many residents came here to enjoy.
“I think our Board has taken the right steps to try and curb the growth,” Rodrigues said.
As one of the original architects of the 1-percent growth management plan, Rodrigues said he does realize growth cannot be completely elinimated and that it would not be best for the community.
“You have to have a certain amount of growth in the community or it will die,” Rodrigues said.
But he said the 1-percent cap is not unfair when people consider that the statewide growth averages at about 1.5 percent.
Rodrigues said even if something goes wrong with the 1-percent growth management amendment, there is another ordinance in place that would send any proposed subdivision of more than 100 homes to a vote of the people.
With the election looming larger on the political horizon, Rodrigues expressed optimism come Tuesday.
“I feel that the people I’ve talked to have supported me ,” Rodrigues said.
But the reception he has received from the public has not been all positive lately, he said.
“From some of the people I’ve talked to in Ridgemark, there have been some negative responses there toward the Board,” Rodrigues said.
Most of the negative reaction he has received has come from the concern among Ridgemark residents who wanted the Board to approve a measure placing the upkeep and maintenance of the roads in the gated community under a County Service Area.
“But I think that we were looking after the best interest of the entire county,” Rodrigues said. “We didn’t want to put our tax dollars in jeopardy.”
He said the placing the roads at Ridgemark under a CSA could be financially disastrous for both the county and homeowners.
“Because if we were sued by any group at Ridgemark or any individual at there, then we’d have to go out and defend those people in Ridgemark in court,” Rodrigues said.
As part of a CSA, the homeowners would ultimately be responsible for the cost of the litigation which could easily run up to several hundred thousand dollars.
“The cost of that would be placed on their property tax, and if they couldn’t pay that for some reason, they would lose their homes,” Rodrigues said.
He said it was ironic that he has received some criticism on a road related issue, because one of the things he has focussed on the most has been fixing local roads.
“The conditions of some of our roads is deplorable,” Rodrigues said. “We’ve been working on the roads since the floods of 1998 and 95.”
