Editor’s note: The Free Lance requested these guest views on budget management from mayoral candidates.The following was written by Ignacio Velazquez
Having the courage and the vision to steer Hollister in a positive financial direction will be no easy task for the new mayor, but I believe the community is ready to work together to start getting things done. As mayor, I will make sure to work to keep the public involved and informed in the decisions that have to be made to move our city forward.
Many of the current problems that the city is facing are due to the lack of consistency in the mayor’s seat. For too long the job of mayor has been ceremonial based on a rotating selection of current councilpersons. The direction of the city was left to staff members rather than the elected officials that the citizens of Hollister had voted for.
If I am elected mayor of Hollister I will make the tough decisions that are necessary to move Hollister forward in a positive direction. I believe that the role of creating a vision and setting a direction for a city comes from the mayor and council members not staff members. The mayor’s vision has to be bold, but realistic so that the community can buy into new ideas that will bring prosperity in the near future.
As I stated in an earlier article I do not believe that measure E is the answer to our problems. I believe that it will only prolong our economic slump because it lets us put off decision making that can benefit us as the economy starts to turn around. If I could guarantee 100% how the money from measure E would be used I would fully support it, but as we know from the past, no one can guarantee how the money will be used and that is the problem. I would much rather see a 1/2-cent tax dedicated solely to maintaining adequate levels for public safety.
My experience in business over the last several years has taught me many lessons on the differences of staying in business or going out of business. I can remember the tough decisions I had to make in downsizing, while other businesses chose to try to wait things out. Those that didn’t act are no longer around, while those that did act and worked to make the necessary changes have survived to see another day. Hollister is now at the crossroads of moving forward with tough changes or facing the result of more inaction.
Today, Hollister’s financial issues can be solved by reducing our spending by 25%. Of course this is no easy task, but unlike many other cities in deeper financial trouble it is not impossible to achieve either. As mayor, I would work to reduce our spending by 20% and increase our revenues by 5% in the first few years.
Reducing spending can be achieved in many different ways so that it minimizes the impact in our community. One of the best ways is to work with the county by merging or consolidating departments that integrate well together and avoid duplications of services. Not only does this save money for the city, but it also saves the county money, which means monies will be there for other important services such as the library. Another common sense way to save money is to partner with many of the non-profit groups that provide excellent programs for our children, seniors and the rest of the community. As mayor, I would also use private industry to take over some of the services that government just can’t do well or is just too expensive to do for a small city. Privatizing some functions of the city not only saves taxpayers money, but it also creates jobs for our citizens.
The most important job a mayor has is to create a vision, a plan and revenue for the city that leads it to prosperity. I believe that our city and county is a place where people from around the world would like to visit and we should strive to become a destination for those visitors. But first, we need to face reality and understand that we need some well planned growth so that we can capture more of our own sales tax revenue. Businesses will only come to our city when they know that they have enough customers to make them profitable and places for their workers to live. We also need to learn to embrace the Hollister Independence Rally, which will bring millions of dollars of sorely needed revenue to our city. I ask you for your vote as mayor so we can begin to move Hollister forward in a positive direction.
