It’s truly disturbing that a political scheme driven by personal vendettas and pro-housing special interests has led to a recall attempt on the June ballot.
Despite the absurdity of this entire recall process—an outright scam to fool voters into shifting the County Board back to supporting more massive housing developments in rural areas—we as a community must stand up against this injustice.
This is a real and monumental test for San Benito County voters. This historic moment will help determine one of two distinct directions:
No on the Recall: Respect the will of voters who decidedly elected Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez to his seat—only to be faced with this scam recall effort before he even took office and had the chance to follow through on his commitments.
Velazquez is an unwavering supporter of road improvements while opposing irresponsible, single-family housing developments in the county. This is why he is facing this recall, after all, so developers and their friends can regain control of our community.
Yes on the Recall: Special interests would succeed in tricking our collective community into accepting the old way of doing things—with powerful developers and special interests driving key political decisions on housing, infrastructure and other matters.
This would inevitably lead us down the path of eliminating our rural character and turning San Benito County into another shallow Silicon Valley suburb.
Let’s review once again how this ended up on the ballot so we all understand the lacking credibility of this scam recall group and process.
They blatantly misinformed voters about their reason for the recall, making outrageously false claims about public safety, only to shift their narrative multiple times since then. They had paid signature gatherers ask voters to sign the petition while claiming it was intended to support firefighter pay and jobs, while never mentioning a recall.
They have continued to routinely spread hateful, false messages as their primary strategy heading toward the election.
Let’s also take a look at who is funding and supporting this scam recall effort.
Multiple developers have put tens of thousands of dollars toward the recall campaign. This includes the largest housing developer in the county whose investors donated the largest amount legally possible to try and remove Velazquez.
Former pro-housing politicians and candidates like Mia Casey, Stacie McGrady and Rick Perez have been centrally involved, while recruiting their supporters to follow their scheme and help subsidize developers’ large donations. These failed former candidates are attempting to essentially overturn the 2024 election results because they didn’t get their way.
Let’s also understand what key decisions Velazquez has made during his short time in office.
He negotiated a new fire protection contract that stabilizes those services for at least another five years. He played a key role in helping the county balance its budget.
He supported a multimillion-dollar investment to upgrade public safety communication infrastructure. He pushed forward historic road improvements—such as repaving Shore Road and Union Road—and is committed to keeping that momentum going.
He has supported major housing policy reform to prevent building thousands of houses on farmland while prioritizing affordable housing for existing residents near existing services.
Finally, what happens if the scam recall somehow wins? Gov. Gavin Newsom—not our community’s voters—would choose a replacement.
Were you aware that Gov. Newsom, not our voters, would make this decision? Is this how we want to determine local representation?
All that said, ask yourself again: Why in the world are we doing this? We cannot afford to lose our community’s identity while setting a precedent for special interests to dictate our fate by abusing the recall process. We must resoundingly say No to the Scam Recall.
Kollin Kosmicki
San Benito County Supervisor
