Politics

The San Benito County Board of Supervisors began the budget hearings Monday by making their first cut of the hearings to the community-based organizations and the Economic Development Corporation.

Councilman Doug Emerson in July 2011 accepted $4,650 for a trip to China – and apparently exceeded the state’s gift limit for elected officials – from a private solar company that requested he speak at a seminar to help recruit investors for California projects.

While the Hollister fire union and city manager have traded public claims in the aftermath of the association’s no-confidence vote against him and Fire Chief Fred Cheshire, some council members stressed the need to keep talks civil and, preferably, behind closed doors.

People ask Sheriff Darren Thompson all the time if the county deports illegal immigrants who are arrested.

Hollister City Council members voted unanimously Monday to support the Westside Promise Neighborhood grant application – after three of them previously expressed concerns about the application at a July 2 meeting – which could inject a half-million dollars toward fixing the economically distressed area of the city.

If John Muir were still alive, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns surmised the pioneering environmentalist would argue that Pinnacles National Monument is a “grand geological library” that deserves the same level of recognition as the country’s most renowned parks.

Richard Place: “I would like to see another motorcycle rally happen here. The biggest problem, of course, is being able to handle the law enforcement for the event. I don’t believe we need the over enforcement that we had during the last few events but with both our departments short handed from budget cuts, it would certainly be a problem just to plan and run the event. If we can go back to the old plan of putting all the bikes on San Benito Street and the vendors on the side street it would be more appealing to the public and better for crowd control. Maybe we can sell the old tee shirts to pay for the extra officers.”

The largest public utility company in the nation is now a partner in the Panoche Valley solar project as part of a move that should add construction clout for the venture expected to break ground sometime in 2014.

San Benito County supervisors reduced the car allowance for appointed department heads from $500 to $350 at last week’s board of supervisors' meeting, while there were concerns from one department head that there should be some exemptions to the allowance.