Editorials

With Hollister's revived motorcycle rally around the corner, it is most important this year to get the event off the ground while laying groundwork for the right model to sustain it for the long term.

Although the district attorney was legally obliged to prosecute the father of a sex-abuse victim on a battery charge - after he was accused of assaulting his daughter's suspected perpetrator outside the courthouse - prosecutors should use a practical approach and apply what amounts to a slap on the wrist.

The case involving a Hollister man who is on the run and suspected of molesting a 5-year-old girl has underscored two major systematic flaws, one locally and one on the federal level, along with questionable judgment in allowing him to be free without bail considerations in the first place.

Back surgery will keep Gavilan College President Steve Kinsella out of his office for a month this spring. But presumably following the surgery and an initial recovery period, he’ll be available on the phone should any need for a critical emergency decision arise.

Local government and business leaders should be putting top-down pressure on Caltrans bureaucrats to quit the bullying and allow an encroachment permit for Walgreens to build a new sewer line under Tres Pinos Road.

It was far too premature of Supervisor Anthony Botelho to wholly dismiss a housing project at El Rancho San Benito before a prospective proposal even hits the table and before a shred of detail is revealed to the public.

The prospective Del Webb senior housing project at San Juan Oaks Golf Club would provide a multitude of benefits to the county's economy, and serves as an example of an ideal development for the good of business and government coffers.

Every day that goes by with minimum economic progress and uncoordinated actions among local business interests highlights the critical need for an economic steering committee - comprised of leaders from the private sector - which works with local governments and potential developers to create prosperity.

The mayor is right: Donating proceeds from the Measure E sales tax to local nonprofit organizations shouldn't be anywhere near the radar for Hollister City Council members. Council members at a recent meeting denied a resolution – inappropriately put forward by Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia, who has ties to the organizations for which the donations were intended – in a 3-2 vote.

Before supervisors think about asking countywide taxpayers to fork over more of their hard-earned money in an attempt to help solve their deficit problems, the officials should examine prospects for a “catch-up tax” that would put the county's sales tax for unincorporated areas on par with that of Hollister.