CAMPAIGN 2018: San Benito County District 3 and 4 Supervisor races

Too many cars on the road, and not enough money to do something about it – that’s what candidates for two San Benito County Board of Supervisor seats are saying.

Whether it’s District 3 with Peter Hernandez and Patricia Loe, or the more rural District 4 with Jerry Muenzer and Jim Gillio, San Benito County’s crumbling, congested roads are the problem.

Loe is no newcomer. In fact, she was Hollister’s first female mayor. She says her history working with the state on Highway 25 will help get the ball rolling to fund the new four-lane widening project.

“With Highway 25, the expansion project, I know the people to talk to, I know who to work with in
Sacramento,” Loe said.

Car after car travels from Hollister to the Silicon Valley and back. Loe says the Board of Supervisors must get that highway widened from two to four lanes, but also solve the issue by bringing jobs here.

“They’ve said in the past that we cannot bring jobs into San Benito County because of the work
force. Well that’s dramatically changed. The workforce now is getting on Highway 25 and going North every day,” Loe said.

Hernandez, a businessman and current school board member, says supervisors need to see the big picture. He says supporting local businesses is a good way to build a tax base.

“We don’t have enough business development. Our downtown is ghost town, and there are too many
cars on the road and not enough to get them off the road.”

He also wants to focus on tourism – getting people to spend money so the funds are there to fix infrastructure issues.

“If we even had a marketing strategy to highlight the beautify that we had. We are literally the gateway to Northern California and Southern California,” Hernandez said. “There’s no reason why we can’t capitalize on that market.”

District four includes just about the whole county south of Hollister. Jim Gillio, a Hollister councilman, says their rural roads have been ignored.

“Our county roads are deteriorating. We’ve let them deteriorate for a long period of time to the
point where it’s getting very expensive to fix them.”

He believes there needs to be a greater effort to find jobs, so people don’t have to leave. Gillio says he’s already working to bring in 200 manufacturing jobs.

“Local small business, and bring more regional business and living wage jobs into our community to
get people off our roads and live and play in their community.”

The incumbent is Jerry Muenzer, who refused to speak with us for this report.

His campaign page says jobs are already here, citing the unemployment rate drop from 19 percent to five percent during his time in office.