Hollister City Councilman Doug Emerson submitted this letter to the editor. Look back for a story on the matter.
On May 8 the San Benito County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 not to approve a contract for The City of Hollister to provide the county’s fire protection services. The vote was 3-2 with Supervisors Jerry Muenzer, Margie Barrios and Robert Rivas voting against the contract and Supervisors Jaime De la Cruz and Anthony Botelho voting to approve the contract. For many who have followed city council and board discussions, Supervisor Rivas’s vote seemed a little strange given the fact that 6 weeks before he support the city proposal to the extent that he made the motion to finalize negotiations with the city.
For me, his reversal was not a surprise at all. In fact, I fully expected him to reverse his position, and here’s the reason why.
About three or four weeks ago I received a phone call from supervisor Rivas’ brother, Rick, who is the campaign manager for Arthur Medina who opposes Anthony Botelho in the June election. Rick told me that Botelho was holding a campaign meeting in San Juan and that Hollister’s Fire Chief, Fred Cheshire, would be at the meeting to advocate for a fire district. This seemed strange and I told Rick that I would look into it. After investigation and found that the meeting was actually a town hall meeting to discuss fire service for San Juan. I further found that the meeting was not initiated by Supervisor Botelho. I called Rick and gave him those facts. Rick insisted that the meeting was a campaign meeting because the meeting was so close to the election, and told me that if I didn’t get the meeting cancelled, the final vote on the contract would probably change. I told him he was ridiculous. The day before the meeting, Rick again called me and repeated the same threat. I later found out that a similar call was placed to a city staff member. What happened? The final vote changed. Supervisor Rivas reversed his position.
Douglas Emerson, Hollister
