Politics

According to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) Side Fund Report, San Benito County owed $3.9 million for public safety unfunded retirement liabilities and the City of Hollister owed $10.8 million for all employee groups as of June 2012.

Supervisors approved reinstating an assistant county administrative officer July 23, with Ray Espinosa set to fill the position when a new county administrative officer is hired. Espinosa has been serving as interim CAO for 10 months.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development approved a grant for $133,000 for the San Benito County Homeless Coalition from its emergency solutions grant program.

San Benito County supervisors expressed their initial concerns about two petitions put forth by a private citizen that could potentially put ballot initiatives on the primary election next June to allow the sale of medical marijuana in the county and create tax revenue from such sales.

The owner of a medical marijuana dispensary that has been operating on Highway 25 in San Benito County has plans to circulate countywide initiatives in regards to the legalization and taxation of medical marijuana, to potentially appear on a statewide ballot in June 2014.

San Benito County will continue efforts to sustain parks and recreation with a possibility of the county creating Parks and Recreation Champions to conduct public outreach.

The Hollister City Council has appointed planning official Bill Avera as interim city manager.

Residents came out to Hollister's council meeting Monday to laud the performance of the Hollister Rally manager.

County management and confidential employees reduced banked vacation time by 10 percent since the last update to the supervisors in December. Last spring, supervisors voted to limit vacation accrual to two times the annual accrual rate for employees.

San Benito County supervisors addressed two closed session items after concerns arose from local residents at a special board meeting Tuesday morning. The items were listed on the agenda as a public employee appointment regarding the assistant county administrative officer in the morning, followed by a public employee appointment regarding the county administrative officer in the afternoon.