Politics

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.

Temporary road would allow closure of Nash Road near San Benito High School campus

“Bennie Benitoite” will soon be coming to local parks as the new mascot for the parks and recreation commission.

Arturo Medina, whose District 2 board race was at the forefront of allegations over political threats relating to a proposed county-city fire contract, called a Hollister councilman’s claims about his campaign adviser a “distraction.”

City Councilman Doug Emerson contends that the brother of Supervisor Robert Rivas threatened to have his sibling reverse a vote for a $3.4 million fire contract if the Hollister official did not prompt a cancellation to San Juan Bautista’s recent town hall meeting over the proposed merger.

San Benito County's latest effort to close down medical marijuana dispensary Purple Cross went up in smoke last month – at least for now – when a judge recently denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the controversial nonprofit to close immediately.

With the Hollister City Council last week officially placing an extension to the Measure T sales tax on the November ballot, the new executive director of the San Benito County Business Council attended the meeting and offered three terms under which the organization would support the idea.