Mayor Ignacio Velazquez sat down with the Free Lance in mid-December for an interview, a year after the local businessman was sworn in officially as the first elected at-large mayor in Hollister’s history.
Asked about the 2013 motorcycle rally – the event revival on which he campaigned in 2012 – and the mayor said the event was “highly successful.”
“It’s something we knew could happen if we all just work together. It succeeded, I think, beyond most people’s expectations. I think it’s only going to get better, year after year,” he said.
He said he hopes the Hollister Downtown Association will take the reins of the rally for next year – following the HDA’s deal with Worldwide Dynamics to administer the event. The city, with the help of North Carolina-based consultant group Worldwide Dynamics, ran the 2013 motorcycle rally. The rally made a profit of more than $140,000 for the city.
“We’re looking forward to working with them this next year,” he said of the HDA. “They know the downtown. They know the city. They know all the nonprofit groups. And our goal is to make sure we are spreading the wealth to as many people as we can here locally.”
One of the questions that came following his election victory was his ownership of downtown businesses, namely The Vault, and whether his ownership represented a conflict of interest if the motorcycle rallies are financially successful, as the rally was this past year.
Velazquez has largely recused himself from council decisions related to the rally, although he has gone back and forth on his involvement over the past year. Last December, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees ethics rules at the state and local level, sent a letter to Velazquez that said the committee found no “conflicts of interest” for the mayor based upon the documents he had provided to the committee.
“I think, last year, what was important to me was making sure the rally happened. So, I was willing to step back from The Vault and doing things there so we got that worked out,” he said. “The rally went so well that I didn’t have to be involved this year anymore.”
One of the first initiatives the newly elected mayor took on was transparency. The city council agreed to allocate $20,000 of general fund revenue a year toward a newsletter that would be mailed quarterly to voters about happenings at the city.
“It will continue,” Velazquez said about the print newsletter. “We’re working on updating the website (in addition to the newsletter). We’re finding ways to update the public. The public has a right to know what’s going on. I’m a great proponent of transparency, so I will do everything I can to make sure the public is informed, no matter what the issue is.”
In addition to the greater transparency, Velazquez also talked about shaking up city government. Three top administrators, including the city manager, administrative services manager and the city engineer, have been replaced. The city attorney was let go earlier this year, and the city council is looking to find a permanent city manager. The council approved a resolution last week to replace the outgoing city attorney with members of the L&G law firm, which largely represents agricultural and other interests in the city.
“There’s always going to be hiccups down the road,” he said, referencing the staffing changes. “Overall, I sense a very positive mood from the staff at the city. We’re beating what we expect as far as revenues. What we’re becoming is more of a city that is providing better services.”
The mayor looked for various ways to provide better services, including the possibility of consolidation of multiple government agencies. The Hollister Fire Department took over county fire services back in June after the county board of supervisors approved a contract with the city not to exceed $1.1 million per year. The mayor called the initiative a “major success.”
“We’re trying to work with the county on a lot of different ideas, but not only the county – but any government agency, school districts, to see what we can do to pull resources to get the most bang out of every dollar we have in the community,” he said. “The fire department proved that we could provide better service. We cut response times almost in half in a lot of places, and we didn’t spend anymore money.”
Another initiative Velazquez hopes to take on is the Highway 25 revitalization to make downtown Hollister more pedestrian friendly. It came about after local leaders lobbied and won permission from the state to take over part of Highway 25 that turns into San Benito Street downtown. Doing so will allow the city to bring in new businesses to the downtown area and the city hopes to begin that process either in January or February, he said.
“We’re going to be seeing the uptick, I think, in the next year or two as we get the downtown highway back on San Benito Street,” he said.
He also said he wants to do more to clean up the city’s parks and “take back” the parks from gangs – all with an eye on the budget.
“Everybody’s clear that our overall goal is to get us within our means. We’re not to make excuses; we’re cleaning up our budget,” he said.
As to whether he would run for reelection in 2014, the mayor did not hesitate to answer.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I had a great experience this year. I had a great council to work with, great staff. The change in the community this year is something that I never expected would happen that quickly. A lot of that goes to people like our (Police) Chief Dave Westrick, our Fire Chief Mike O’Connor and those that are out in public. It’s not the way it was anymore. Now it’s our community.”
