As a prominent business owner in Hollister for almost eighteen years I’ve heard the statement, “Why is your city so stupid?” so often that if I had a dime for every time I heard it I could have retired by now. I don’t read the Free Lance as often as I should because I repeat the question to myself after doing so and my reaction to this Friday’s issue was no exception.
Where else could a police captain commute 90 miles to work in a taxpayer funded vehicle using gas paid for by tax dollars for more than two years before a councilman stepped up to say, “That’s not right”? Chief Miller, the same man that killed our motorcycle rally with his outrageously inflated law enforcement costs thought that it was cost effective. Excuse me? Now Captain Reynoso has to pay the city five cents a mile. Between the wear and tear on the vehicle and today’s gas prices I think it’s a drop in the bucket but the captain still deducts thirty miles a day from the total because other officers are allowed to do so. Did other officers get a two-year free ride on a 90 mile commute? And what happens when Reynoso becomes interim chief? Speaking of which why can’t our city council find one man for the job who cares enough about our city to actually live in it? In three years they haven’t been able to find a police chief. I knew Miller was leaving a year before his official announcements so I know the city council knew too. I won’t even get started on that one; I need to finish addressing last week’s news.
The Airshow that lost $17,683.00 in 2012 wants to move its venue to Fourth of July weekend. Are you kidding me? Our city has a distinction that belongs to us alone of being the Birth Place of the American Biker. There is no completion in that arena but our council has never had the guts to fully get behind our rally. The fact that they would stand behind an event that competes with the California International Airshow in Salinas with its Thunder Birds and forty plus sponsors is ludicrous. The press release I read about this year’s Airshow touts an economic gain of $107,240 with only 2488 attendees. Yet they claim that with upwards of 100,000 attendees at the Hollister Motorcycle Rally we lost money. If I remember correctly Doug Emerson has a degree in mathematics. I’ve got a tenth grade education and the numbers don’t jive to me. Wake up people.
Top the whole thing off with a registered sex offender running for a second term on the board of the San Benito Health Care District and I’m dizzy over the absurdity of it all. Why is this man still on the board much less running for reelection?
I love Hollister. I want to have hope for our city. I’m praying that with two council members seeing the benefits in our motorcycle rally we can bring it and the tens of thousands of dollars it bring s to our bedroom community back. I’m hoping waste will be removed from our budget and common sense will be ruler of the day. I haven’t heard our prospective mayors weigh in on the really important matters with facts and transparent plans to fix the problems Hollister faces but I’m hoping as November approaches we’ll get some real straight forward answers to the tough questions and not just a bunch of mumbo jumbo and political rhetoric.
Charisse Tyson owns Johnny’s Bar and Grill.
