Politics

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...

The Hollister City Council meetings are becoming increasingly contentious—and loud. Its most recent meeting Aug.19 devolved into a series of shouting matches as councilmembers went head to head over several seemingly minor agenda items.  The meeting went on for five hours as council members waded into...

The 2020 mayoral field in Hollister already has two candidates: current Mayor Ignacio Velazquez and first-term District 3 council member Honor Spencer. Spencer announced at the Aug. 5 city council meeting that she would be running for mayor in March 2020, and Velazquez confirmed that...