Editorials

THUMBS UP: Supervisor Anthony Botelho last week received a unanimous and expected approval as this year's board chairman. The San Benito County Board of Supervisors routinely elects the prior year's vice chairman, who was Botelho, to the chairman role, held in 2008 by Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz. We expect Botelho to handle himself professionally and allow for fair opportunities for varying voices to be heard as the county moves forward. We also encourage Botelho to push aggressively for a serious examination of potentially cost-cutting measures and to foster a cautious approach to budgeting in the years to come. San Benito County not only faces a likely hit from necessary state cuts, but officials also, and most imminently, must deal with a declined property tax base that is sure to strike a blow to the county budget.

The following deserve a thumbs up or a thumbs down this week:

And it came to pass in those days, that there was an economic

Although Sgt. James Egan pleaded down from drunken driving and

If we had a dollar for every time a city official has lauded the

There are still two weeks left in 2008 before the entire year is in the history books; even so, I'm ready to announce my first, and perhaps last, story of the year award. The story of the year for 2008 was, and still is, the worldwide economic crisis. In fact, the economic crisis took first, second and third place because its ripples have touched every aspect of our public and private lives.

There are too many questions for comfort in the dismissal of Hollister Sgt. James Egan's drunken driving charge, and it amplifies a need that off-duty officers be held to a higher standard rather a lower one when breaking the law.

In prosperous times, it makes sense to reward dedicated employees. With a national recession, a continually tumultuous local economy and a deficit-ridden general fund budget, the Hollister City Council's decision to approve 4 percent raises – at an additional cost this fiscal year of $516,000 – was fiscally irresponsible and deflates the potential service boost from the Measure T sales tax.