Politics

The San Benito County Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau endorsed two of the incumbent supervisors running in the June 5 election, including Margie Barrios and Anthony Botelho, while remaining neutral on the District 5 race between incumbent Jaime De La Cruz and opponent Sonny Flores

Director of Development Services Bill Avera on Tuesday informed the Hollister City Council that the California Department of Finance had disapproved the $140,000 of budgeted payments from the RDA’s successor agency to the Hollister Downtown Association and Economic Development Corp.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has supported allegations that the Gavilan College board violated Brown Act provisions in October of last year when it increased the president’s pay during closed session, but also confirmed the deadline had passed to invalidate the action.

Caltrans has put up a major roadblock to a long-expected transfer of the Highway 25 bypass to the state.

Hollister officials are concerned that annual federal grant funding for municipalities throughout the state – prospectively including the city and county – could be in jeopardy after recent questions arose over the lack of a required public comment period for unspecified changes made to the application process.

The San Benito County Farm Bureau held its traditional candidate forum for various seats, including the three open spots on the board of supervisors.

As a new feature, the newspaper will be posting an audio recording of the public comment period from public meetings. Here are public comments from the May 15, 2012 meeting, when residents had a chance to talk about issues not on the agenda for the meeting.

In this interview excerpt, hear Aurelio Zuniga from the Hollister LULAC chapter explain the group's allegations that the Gavilan College board violated the state open meetings law when it approved College President Steve Kinsella's $42,000 annual pay hike.