San Benito County’s new supervisors will take their seats for
the first time today as Don Marcus, Anthony Botelho and Jaime De La
Cruz utter their oaths of office this morning at 9:15am.
Hollister – San Benito County’s new supervisors will take their seats for the first time today as Don Marcus, Anthony Botelho and Jaime De La Cruz utter their oaths of office this morning at 9:15am.
Marcus, Botelho and De La Cruz will replace Supervisors Richard Scagliotti, Ruth Kesler and Bob Cruz, respectively. The new supervisors will be sworn in 15 minutes before the Board of Supervisors’ meeting at 9:30am.
Botelho, a 43-year-old San Juan Bautista apple orchardist, was elected in November after beating challenger Anthony Freitas for Kesler’s Dist. 2 seat. Marcus, a 52-year-old commercial building owner, was elected last March for Dist. 1. De La Cruz, a 39-year-old accountant, also was elected in March for Dist. 5 by beating Cruz by 10 votes, although the election is still hotly contested.
De La Cruz will still be seated even though he is facing several felony and misdemeanor charges for election fraud and could be sentenced to jail for up to five years if convicted. Before being arraigned on Jan. 13, De La Cruz must first be booked into county jail. If convicted, he would lose his supervisor and other governmental board positions and the governor would either appoint a new supervisor or allow the board to appoint the position. De La Cruz has repeatedly said he is innocent of the charges.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jquandt @freelancenews.com.
