Politics

The hotly contested races—and the incumbents—attracted the most contributions in San Benito County’s primary election campaigns, according to the latest reports filed with the Elections Office. Nearly $90,000 had been raised through Feb. 15 in the campaigns surrounding Measure K, a referendum on the commercial...

San Benito County voters can cast their Presidential Primary ballots this weekend at the county Elections Office, 9am-3pm Saturday and Sunday. The Elections Office, at 440 5th St., Hollister, has been open for early voting on weekdays 8am-5pm, since Feb. 3, and voting will continue...

Hollister Mayor Pro Tem Honor Spencer and Councilmember Marty Richman on Tuesday voted against censuring themselves for making threatening and obscene comments about colleague Rolan Resendiz in private and in public. The Feb. 18 vote came four weeks after the pair voted to censure Resendiz...

Hollister city council members arrived at Tuesday’s meeting ready for combat. Most of a standing-room-only crowd of 200 showed up to plead with their elected representatives for peace. As the council considered a proposal to formally censure Councilmember Rolan Resendiz for repeated negative social media posts,...

Hollister police are investigating what Mayor Ignacio Velazquez calls a “hate crime” against a council member by prominent local lobbyist and former mayor Victor Gomez. Velazquez announced the investigation in a written statement to the Free Lance before the Jan. 21 city council meeting and...

The public anger that led to the resignation of Hollister’s city manager candidate hasn’t subsided— it’s gone viral. In his Nov. 15 resignation letter, Interim City Manager Paul Eckert said he had been the victim of a “witch-hunt” and warned that he “will likely take...

The Hollister City Council is starting over in its search for a new city manager. After a month of rare consensus, the council is now more divided than ever. Ending two turbulent weeks, the council returned to its familiar 3-2 voting pattern on Monday, Nov....

Brett Miller, Hollister’s assistant city manager and manager of administrative services, is acting city manager. Miller’s appointment Friday afternoon, Nov. 15, was one of the last acts of Bill Avera on his last day on the job before his retirement as city manager. One day earlier,...

Hollister’s Interim City Manager Paul Eckert resigned today, Nov. 14, after just eight days on the job, according to Mayor Ignacio Velazquez. Velazquez said Eckert delivered a resignation letter to the city late Thursday afternoon, one day before City Manager Bill Avera’s retirement and one...

Within days after the Hollister City Council backtracked on a commitment to hire Paul Eckert as its new city manager—hiring him instead on an interim basis—even that appointment was increasingly in doubt this week. Eckert’s job status was to be the subject of another closed-door...