Former San Benito County Supervisor Harold Cerrato passed away this week at the age of 87, according to an obituary published in the Free Lance.
Cerrato was a lifelong Hollister resident and orchardist, according to the statement. Robert Scattini remembers being county sheriff when Cerrato had been on the board of supervisors. Years before that, Scattini recalled growing up in Cerrato’s apricot orchards off Cienega Road, where he had picked crops while still in high school.
“He was a hard worker,” Scattini said. “He was strictly business. But they were good people.”
Cerrato had worked in the fields with his identical twin brother, Frank, Scattini said. He is survived by his brother, his sister Terry Cerrato of San Francisco and his niece Lisa Cerrato of Hollister, according to the obituary.
As a supervisor, Cerrato was involved in a lot of committees, including the water board committee, Scattini said. He was also a great supporter of law enforcement, the former sheriff said.
After finishing his term as supervisor, Cerrato had a brief, publicized run-in with the city code enforcement division in 2003, when he was cited for not getting paychecks to laborers on his farmland and for providing them with substandard living conditions in exchange for their work. The city had been cracking down on substandard housing at the time.
