In December 2024, two new Hollister city council members and a new mayor were sworn into office. Their first major action was to correct the unjust meeting schedule established by their predecessors.
By changing the meeting time to 6pm, they recognized our right to attend our government’s meetings and to make public comments.
In 2025, they enacted a lobbyist registration ordinance, requiring local lobbyists to document their clients and activities. In other words, who these lobbyists work for and what they’re doing is now public information—and public knowledge is public power.
This is the way government leadership ought to behave—not by seeking ways to disenfranchise and exclude the public for fear of public dissent, but by honoring the authority, rights and dignity of the people of Hollister.
This city council stands high in Hollister’s history because our leaders want us to participate. Through their actions, they have demonstrated their unconditional confidence in our judgment, recognizing that public empowerment is the key to accountability in leadership.
They do not fear a strong public. They welcome us!
Our loud message, that any ordinary person can run for office, be competitive, and win—was made profoundly clear to everyone in 2024. Newcomers proved that any common citizen can exert consequential political pressure on established incumbents, who were swept aside when they failed to adapt.
Indeed, competition is virtuous, keeping our leadership in line with the will of the people—and removing those who wander astray.
A new era in local politics has arrived! Populism rules! Even formerly outspoken critics of popular empowerment have taken to learning the language of Populism in an attempt to return to power.
There is not any honest person who can deny our rise to power. It is self-evident, carved into memory, that our “Triumph of the People’s Dignity” is here.
Joseph Howard
Hollister
