Moonlighting a few days a week
San Benito County Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz is usually quick
to return phone calls. While he can be prone to speechifying and
he’s produced a few conspiracy theories that leave us skeptical, he
is nothing if not hard working and responsive to his
constituents.
Moonlighting a few days a week
San Benito County Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz is usually quick to return phone calls. While he can be prone to speechifying and he’s produced a few conspiracy theories that leave us skeptical, he is nothing if not hard working and responsive to his constituents.
But those constituents may find they have to wait more than a few minutes for return phone calls a few days a week. You see, De La Cruz is moonlighting.
The supervisor now works two to three days a week as a substitute in the Hollister School District.
De La Cruz cited two reasons: he is trying to support a family on a supervisor’s salary of $43,000 per year and finding that it’s tough to make ends meet. In fact, it qualifies the De La Cruz family for many low-income programs.
The second reason: he likes it.
He was quick to cite “the benefits” of substitute teaching. When it was noted that substitutes are non-benefited employees, he made it clear he wasn’t talking about insurance and paid leave. It’s a more intangible benefit that brings him to the classroom each day.
“I love the work,” he said Wednesday. “It’s just fun to teach kids. Maybe someday some will be leaders.”
Like San Benito County supervisors, substitute teachers are not likely to be candidates for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” In the Hollister School District, they earn a whopping $125 per day.
For the record, De La Cruz said he loves his supervisor’s job as well, and still devotes several days a week to doing what he’s always done: listening to constituents and speechifying.
Emergency?
Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting included lots of holiday props and mirth, but it also contained a genuine emergency.
Longtime County Clerk John Hodges is riding off into the sunset, where he will be a full-time cowboy. Joe Paul Gonzalez was elected to the seat. But there’s a gap between the former’s departure and the latter’s arrival. And payday falls in between.
Thus, Hodges sought an emergency resolution that would lead to somebody – anybody – being authorized to sign paychecks for county employees.
Mission accomplished, but not until someone observed that, since Gonzalez was elected way back last June, the problem might have been anticipated before it became an “emergency.”
Letters, we got ’em
The letters you read in The Pinnacle are the ones that are signed, address topics of general interest, don’t libel anybody, and stick to the old brevity rule. But we get a steady trickle of unsigned letters, and they make for some interesting reading from time to time.
We got two this week. The first was from someone who once worked in the sheriff’s department who has some issues with the sheriff and undersheriff. Imagine that; a disgruntled former employee.
The second was considerably more interesting.
“I am writing you because an interesting story is developing in Hollister,” the secret pen pal wrote. “There is a subdivision called Lemmon Acres which is situated on Carey Way and Lemmon Court, off Santa Ana just west of Fairview. It is unique because the parcels are one acre in size, and because the residents seem to be having a contest to determine who can grow the largest and lushest lawn.”
But rather than suggesting a five-part series on lawn care, the writer expresses dismay at the profligate waste. Noting that the lawn lizards’ water bills are “astronomical,” the writer claims that some homeowners are petitioning the Sunnyslope County Water District for lower rates because they have large lots.
That’s like someone driving a Hummer suggesting they pay less for gas than the greenie in a Prius because their vehicles use more.
Our guess: this one is going to go down in flames with the water district and down in the books as the funniest thing ever to come up at a water district meeting.
Notebook is compiled by Pinnacle publisher Mark Paxton, with contributions from staff as noted. His e-mail address is
mp*****@pi**********.com
.
