Hollister
– Encompassing downtown Hollister and several neighborhoods of
housing tracts, San Benito’s supervisorial District 3 is the most
urban in the county. Three residents – the incumbent, a former
supervisor and a retired delivery truck driver – have stepped
forward, each with their own vision for
the future of the district and the county. While they agree on
many of the issues facing the county, such as economic development,
transportation and a need for accessibility in government, they
have different ideas about how to achieve results. Below are brief
profiles of each District 3 candidate
and some of their priorities.
Pat Loe brings experience and a willingness to work with others
Passing affordable housing requirements and instituting the county’s 1 percent growth cap are some of the accomplishments that District 3 incumbent Pat Loe said the Board of Supervisors has achieved during her nearly four years as a supervisor.
If reelected, Loe said some of her top priorities would be revising the county’s general plan, working regionally for transportation solutions and fostering more public involvement in county government.
San Benito’s general plan, elements of which are more than two decades old, needs to be revised to ensure that future growth happens in desirable areas and that the county doesn’t further become a bedroom community for people who work in Silicon Valley, Loe said. New developments should not be built on prime agricultural land and the general plan should seek to preserve open space, she said. The county needs more mixed-use residential – which is essentially apartments and condos above retail stores – and downtown Hollister should be the core of growth in the county, according to Loe, who is currently board chair.
Local roads, Loe said, do not meet the needs of the county. She said that San Benito transportation planners need to work with their Santa Clara County counterparts and strive for regional solutions for problem roads. San Benito needs to support the controversial Caltrans Highway 156 project, which will widen 156 from the outskirts of Hollister west to San Juan Bautista. Many in San Juan stand opposed to the project, saying it will scar and forever change the San Juan Valley. The crumbling, two lane highway that is used by commuter traffic and freight trucks is in dire need of improvements and supervisors should encourage the project, she said.
The county government is “people unfriendly,” Loe said. If she wins her seat again, Loe said she will continue to try to foster public involvement. For example, during her time as board chair Loe said that she has instituted a policy of allowing members of the public to comment on items that are on the board’s consent agenda. Previously, only board members could pull items from the consent agenda.
“People need to know that they’re being heard,” she said. “They are what makes the community work.”
Richard Place has new ideas for old problems plaguing the county
Candidate Richard Place said that, among other things, board needs to focus on gang suppression and intervention, work on the county’s transportation plan and reinstate its budget subcommittee.
Place, who held the District 3 seat from 1997 to 2001, said that he would work with the state Attorney General’s Office to try to get more funding for anti-drug efforts. Drug dealing, he said, is the No. 1 business that gangs are a part of. If it is harder to sell drugs, he said, it will be more difficult for gangs to fund their organizations. Coupled with gang suppression, the county needs to continue to support intervention efforts, according to Place. In addition to supporting the award-winning intervention program run by the Hollister Police Department, he said, the county needs to get serious about improving the library, which could become a safe and educational place for at-risk youth.
The county needs to work with Santa Clara County to improve highways 101, 152 and 156, Place said. Until San Benito’s overburdened roads are improved, large developments – such as DMB’s proposed 6,800-house El Rancho San Benito – should not be built.
“I don’t believe we should start a traffic jam before we have a solution,” he said.
When the time for building comes, Place said, the county should strive for high-density development. Zoning should be for one house per acre or less, he said, to prevent sprawl.
The Board of Supervisors, Place said, needs to bring back its budget subcommittee that Loe scrapped when she became board chair last year. He said that the board has been “isolated” from budget procedure. Also, the county’s auditing process needs to be reevaluated to see where it might be deficient, he added.
Place said that he has the experience and leadership to accomplish the aforementioned goals and others. If elected, Place said he will work with the City of Hollister and other jurisdictions to get things done.
“I’ll get out of the throne room and travel,” he said.Ron
Stubblefield plans to include the public in local government
Increasing public safety, fostering public involvement in government and increasing the county’s 1 percent growth cap are among the priorities that candidate Ron Stubblefield has if his bid for the District 3 seat is successful.
The county needs to draft a gang suppression plan and work to get grants from the federal and state governments to fund the efforts, Stubblefield said. If elected, he said, he will try to secure grant funds for law enforcement within his first year in office. The county already has the people resources to write the grants, Stubblefield said, they just need to be used.
The county is full of people with a variety of skills and talents, Stubblefield said, and the county should seek to involve them in finding solutions to problems. When groups, such as the Friends of the San Benito Free Library, offer advice and expertise to the Board of Supervisors they should be taken seriously, he said.
“We need to start looking at the public and listening,” said Stubblefield, a former Hollister planning commissioner.
Stubblefield said he is in favor of managed growth that doesn’t outpace county infrastructure, but the 1 percent annual growth cap is too restrictive. It should be doubled to 2 percent, he said, a move he’ll also make during his first year if elected. If San Benito has inadequate housing, according to Stubblefield, new industry will not choose the county as a home. Even with an increased growth cap, he said, growth should not intrude on agricultural land and open space.
Along with providing new housing, Stubblefield said that the county can attract new industry by offering incentives, such as waiving fees and promoting the talented work force that commutes out of the county everyday. He believes thousands of skilled workers would rather work close to home and that should be used to attract high-quality businesses.
Stubblefield, a retired United Parcel Service driver, said that he won’t shrink from the hard work of being a supervisor.
“I know this job takes somebody dedicated to hard work,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”
