As a candidate for mayor of Hollister I’ve been receiving many phone calls on my ideas and views on many of the current hot-button issues, such as Measure E and the dire financial straits that the city is currently facing. I’m also asked for my thoughts on the other candidates running for mayor of Hollister. But the top question I get is – are you crazy? Why would you want to do something where people will just criticize you and dig up everything about your life? The answer is always the same; if I don’t try to do something those same people that complain about everything and everyone will continue leading us down the wrong road. Besides my life has always been an open book. Yes, like most business owners in Hollister and most residents I took a financial beating over the last several years. I struggled to keep my businesses open, I had my pay cut by 60%, I had to fight banks that wanted to close lines of credit and I even had trouble paying my mortgages and property taxes. Tough times to say the least, unfortunately many other local businesses couldn’t make it through these tough times. I will use the lessons I learned over the last few years to help get us back on track. It’s time we work together to support our local businesses so that they can support us.
The first thing I would like to make clear is my full support to whoever wins the race for mayor. All of the other candidates bring good ideas and should be thanked for having the courage to stand up and make a difference. We have all agreed to make this campaign about the future of Hollister and not to destroy one another, which is a rare event in politics and goes to show the commitment each candidate has to the city of Hollister.
As a Hollister business owner I’ve made my opinion very clear over the last 10 years that the City of Hollister was going in the wrong direction and needed to change course before it was too late. The answer to our problems is to start working together and stop saying no to everything that comes our way. It’s time we start making businesses feel welcome in our city. We need to lower impact fees on commercial and industrial projects and, yes, some residential projects so that we can start providing jobs to our residents and sales and property tax revenue to our city. It’s also time we begin to make use of the empty spaces on the upper levels of our downtown buildings. By allowing live-work spaces or art studios on upper floors we will begin to bring back foot traffic to the downtown area, which in turn will bring in more businesses and again more sales tax revenue.
It’s also time we bring back the Hollister Biker Rally for 2013. We need to understand that tourism is the vehicle that will keep our community thriving. With Pinnacles national park, Hollister Hills and the many beautiful wineries in our area, we have what other communities can only dream about. We just need to come together to promote what we take for granted.
On the financial front, the City of Hollister is in serious financial trouble. With that being said, I don’t believe increasing taxes is the answer. If the tax measure was exclusively for the support of the police and fire departments I would be 100% in favor of it. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee how the money would be used so it’s time to get our house in financial order. The city’s own budget report makes it clear by saying, “The use of one-time or short term resources only prolongs the budget crisis.” It’s time that we take a step back and get back to basics and use many of our non-profit groups, such as the YMCA, Hollister Youth Alliance, and many others to help fill the various needs of our community.
If you like to hear more of my views, please feel free to contact me at (831) 905-3720.
