Opinion

The Bush Tax Cuts will expire at the end of this year. The lowest tax bracket will increase 50%, from 10% to 15% of taxable income. The top tax bracket will increase only 13%, from 35% to 39.6% of taxable income.

My wife and I attended the candidates night at the Aromas Grange and were not impressed with Art Medina. Mr. Medina said he decided to run for supervisor “at the last minute.” This bothered us as the supervisors’ position is not one you just step into as the learning curve is too steep, particularly now. For a candidate expressing a need for transparency in government, his answers to questions involved “political speak,” were vague in nature, and some were filled with innuendo rather than facts. For instance, he said he “knows someone in the position to know” that there are several large developments ready to be started. He mentioned one that is on board and a couple that have been stalled, or stopped, for years. One project he mentioned is not on anyone’s radar and is probably nonexistent. Transparency?

On May 18, Cheryl Busch, who shot and killed her 19-month-old daughter Donna in November 2008, received a sentence of 25 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder. It seemed about right. In any case, the crime did not qualify for the death penalty under California law according to District Attorney Candice Hooper. As I read that senseless law, if Busch had poisoned her daughter or shot her from a motor vehicle instead, she could have been charged with capital murder. I’d bet most people never heard of some of the death penalty provisions – no one can explain them.

A Yes vote on Measure B is a practical choice to make. There is no organized opposition because the advantages are apparent, the rationale solid and such a change will enhance city government. Voters will elect a councilperson in each of four districts. The mayor will be elected at large and represent all the citizens in the City of Hollister. On the political ladder mayors are the best known to the population and therefore a mayor’s election by the voters provides for greater accountability. Such a change will enhance our democratic process. Mayors communicate the actions of the city council to the public. More importantly, mayors provide leadership in the development of a community vision and advance that vision within the council and staff. This requires an active representative of the entire city, not just a single district.

COG's Directors violate the Brown Act's requirements time and again, year after year, even after the taxpayers sued them to stop, and even after we asked the Grand Jury to do something about it, and even after I got the AG's opinion (not a newspaper association's attorney's opinion) that the JPAs (joint power authorities) had to comply with the Brown Act, and even after the VTA's G.M.'s letter was published in your newspaper (in Hollister even though VTA has no legal standing in SBC), but you ignore it and then write about the Gavilan College Trustee's alleged Brown Act violation one time?