Hollister City Council to consider bringing back bike rally after seven years

HOLLISTER, Calif. (KION-TV) — After voters in Hollister chose to bring back the city's motorcycle rally seven years ago, the city is still struggling to find ways to make the annual event possible.

It's all about security. Police have been outspoken in the past about not having enough officers to provide security for the event.

Officials studied how other cities in the U.S. are able to put on a similar event to see if it's possible.

During a heated meeting being discussed right now between council the council made no motion or direction and so the future of the rally is still up in the air.

The disagreement was centered around the voters choosing to bring the rally back for the Fourth of July holiday. Chief Reynoso is adamant they just don't have the staffing for it and majority of council agreed.

The Independence Bike Rally first held in 1947, is one of the oldest motorcycle rallies in the U.S.

It gained nationwide attention when the event was last held in 2017 but was suspended due to safety and staffing challenges.

“People come from all over San Francisco, even Oakland, Hayward, Salinas, Watsonville and I heard some come from Oregon," George Dixon event goer said.

City officials recently traveled to Leesburg Florida to study how they can pull off their annual bike rally.

Hollister Chief Carlos Reynoso says it's simple, Leesburg has the staff for these events.

“He does have the personnel he has his own officer 72 of them, and then he can count on the assistance of 11 other cities in within his county and that’s one of the major reason why the event happens," Reynoso said.

According to Hollister police they are under resourced with 39 officers compared to the 50 needed for a city of its size. Finding additional support from neighboring law enforcement agencies has been challenging.

“We’ve always had less staff especially in 2017 when this was held," Reynoso said. "We had the least amount of assistance from law enforcement agencies."

But even after voters chose to have the rally re-established over the Fourth of July weekend, the city hasn't been able to get it done.

“All we do is present them the situation present the fact that currently in this environment with all the police departments in California and departments being understaffed," Reynoso said.

"The challenge that we've had in the past is that, the city council, has approved the event, the voters approve approve the event, but the police chief, stated, to the city council that he can't get enough staff to properly and safely protect the event," Randy Burke Producer of the bike rally said. "So therefore, the city council, has put it on the back burner."

The Hollister city council is holding a meeting right now to review the findings from the Leesburg visit and further discuss re-establishing the bike rally.