City Councilman Doug Emerson contends that the brother of Supervisor Robert Rivas threatened to have his sibling reverse a vote for a $3.4 million fire contract if the Hollister official did not prompt a cancellation to San Juan Bautista’s recent town hall meeting over the proposed merger.
Emerson in a letter to the Free Lance claimed that Rick Rivas, who managed his brother’s 2010 campaign for the District 3 supervisor seat, told him he would need to have the April town hall meeting in San Juan canceled – or else his brother, Robert Rivas, would change his stance on the proposed fire contract between the county and Hollister.
That April 24 town hall meeting was held by the City of San Juan Bautista, while Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter and Fire Chief Fred Cheshire spoke, along with San Juan area Supervisor Anthony Botelho. Emerson alleged that Rivas perceived the town hall as a campaign event for Botelho. The incumbent Botelho is running in the June primary against Arturo Medina, whom the Rivas brothers have supported in the District 2 race.
Robert Rivas initially in an April 3 board meeting supported talks with Hollister on a fire contract over discussions with Calfire to extend a nearly 60-year relationship. The county has considered nixing that relationship in light of rising tensions between the state agency, which operates out of the Fairview Road station, and the San Juan Bautista volunteer department.
Hollister had made the case it could give the county a better deal, and so the negotiations ensued that led to last week’s 3-2 vote against the proposed city contract – with Botelho and Supervisor Jerry Muenzer supporting it. That city deal would have added eight firefighters to the Hollister department at a cost of around $3.4 over three years – about the same cost as Calfire’s proposal.
Emerson in his letter said Rick Rivas had called him about four weeks ago and told him Botelho was holding a campaign event – further noting that he looked into it and concluded it was, indeed, a town hall meeting.
“Rick insisted that the meeting was a campaign meeting because the meeting was so close to the election, and told me that if I didn’t get the meeting cancelled, the final vote on the contract would probably change,” Emerson wrote.
Emerson in an interview stressed that Rick Rivas never directly stated his brother would change the vote.
“I think the words he said were, ‘It’s very possible the vote might go the other way,’” Emerson recalled.
Rivas in last week’s board meeting reversed course on his stance, siding with the opposition to the Hollister fire deal, but Monday said it had nothing to do with his brother or allegations from Emerson that his vote was used as leverage.
He stressed that his brother advises “a number of people” on campaigns here – among the many he listed off included his own in 2010 and Botelho’s in 2008 – and called him “one of the most political” people in the county. He said he was not involved with the conversations between Emerson and his brother. The councilman contended that Rick Rivas, who could not be reached immediately, made the same threat one day prior to the town hall and also to a high-level Hollister staff member, whom Emerson would not name.
“I had no idea, anything, about the conversation,” Robert Rivas said. “Quite frankly, I don’t really care.”
The supervisor said between the April and May meetings, he had met with all of the involved parties and other interested residents.
“The bottom line is, my vote is because I felt in the end this was absolutely a raw deal for San Benito County,” Rivas said.
He said he supports the notion of consolidation, considering the county’s small size, but maintains concerns about the city contract because it “relies so heavily on the passage of the Measure T extension (on the November ballot).” Hollister officials have acknowledged the potential for thinner resources if city voters reject the sales tax extension that generates more than $3 million in annual revenue.
Rivas said the fire vote has nothing to do with his often contentious relationship with Botelho. Rivas and his brother have campaigned for Medina against Botelho, which Botelho has called “unquestionably unusual.”
“My vote on the fire contract and my involvement between Anthony and Arthur Medina don’t have anything to do with each other,” he said.
The communication left a bad taste with Emerson, who is holding out hope for revived talks between the county and city on a fire contract.
“I don’t like politics like that,” he said. “I do things wrong and make mistakes, but I don’t try to do stuff like that.”
Botelho, meanwhile, said he was asked to take part in the town hall. He suggested the idea came from the intergovernmental committee, on which Robert Rivas sits. Rivas denied that the intergovernmental committee called for the town hall.
“It wasn’t my idea at all,” Botelho said. “There are 100 types of meetings I’d rather be at than that one.”
