Stiff competition from the presidential debate and playoff game
didn’t keep nearly 50 San Juan Bautista residents from attending an
election forum Wednesday night, where 15 local candidates spoke
about casinos, infrastructure, education and growth in San Benito
County.
San Juan Bautista – Stiff competition from the presidential debate and playoff game didn’t keep nearly 50 San Juan Bautista residents from attending an election forum Wednesday night, where 15 local candidates spoke about casinos, infrastructure, education and growth in San Benito County.
San Benito County Board of Supervisor candidates Anthony Botelho and Anthony Freitas started off the forum. Each candidate spoke for several minutes about how to bring revenue into the county by establishing controlled growth, working together to get Hollister’s sewer moratorium lifted and traffic issues surrounding highways 25 and 156.
Four of the six San Juan City Council candidates spoke about the city’s ailing infrastructure and public safety issues, along with their views on the widening of Highway 156. Six candidates for the Aromas/San Juan school board promised a better education for residents’ children by creating more extracurricular activities and modifying the district’s educational system, and brief presentations were delivered by San Juan treasurer candidates and one of the two city clerk candidates.
Almost half the audience left the forum after the supervisor and city council candidates spoke when moderator John Hopper took a short break. The remaining school board, city treasurer and city clerk candidates addressed a much smaller crowd.
After Freitas and Botelho outlined their platforms, questions were posed to both about the possibility of an Indian casino and their stance on the issue.
Botelho said he’s opposed to a casino being built in the county, and that after talking to hundreds of his constituents he feels much of the public is also opposed.
“People need to know how (the candidates) feel about the casino,” Botelho said in an interview after the forum. “It’s a very core issue at this time and people have a right to know.”
Freitas declined to take a stance without more in-depth research, he said. He likened his wait-and-see stance on the casino to a judge in a courtroom – that if he made a decision to send someone to jail without hearing from both sides he wouldn’t be fair.
“I’m studying it thoroughly,” he said in an interview after the forum. “Don’t people want a supervisor that’s going to make good, sound judgments?”
While both Freitas and Botelho said they wished they’d had more than the five minutes to express their views, both said they were able to briefly touch on the most important issues affecting the county.
“We have to sit down and create a general plan revision that’s long overdue of how to have responsible growth,” Botelho said. “We have to create jobs and bring business into the county so people don’t need to drive 100 miles a day to get decent wages, and we do have to have a plan to protect our rural character. We don’t have these in place at this time.”
Freitas also focused on growth, stating he wants to see controlled, managed growth within the county. But to do that he said highways 25 and 156 need improvements so businesses will be able to thrive and people will be able to easily traverse both highways when traveling in and out of the county.
“We can’t keep taxing people on their land and houses – we need revenue by bringing businesses in here and more jobs,” he said.
In an interview after the forum, Freitas said if Highway 25 were widened into four lanes and Highway 156 was made safer by widening the shoulders, adding rumble strips along the sides of the road and providing better lighting, many of the county’s traffic problems could be mitigated.
“People are scared to drive on 25, so they’re using 156, which creates a problem,” he said. “But we do not need to make four lanes on 156 – then we can keep the San Juan Valley the way it’s been for years.”
The majority of city council candidates said they considered the city’s dilapidated infrastructure to be San Juan’s No. 1 – specifically the aged sewer system and roads.
“When people come to a historical town they don’t want to walk around pot holes,” said incumbent Dan Reed.
Candidate George Dias focused on public safety, and that he would like to see the city have its own police department instead of contracting through the sheriff’s department.
To afford full-time policing, Dias said the city council would have to “drastically fine-tune the budget,” and although he has a radical plan to accomplish it, he wouldn’t elaborate on it because of the forum’s time constraints, he said.
Growth in the small was one of the most talked-about topics by candidates.
“Hollister let the town grow and it’s in a mess,” Dias said. “Growth is not going to save us, and that’s the bottom line.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety and San Juan Bautista for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
