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On Jan. 6 the San Benito County Board of Supervisors unanimously chose Kollin Kosmicki to be its chair for 2025. Among his duties, he will preside over board meetings, rule on questions of procedure and appoint committees to study issues.
Supervisor Dom Zanger was elected vice chair to act as chair as needed.
The county’s newest supervisor, former Hollister mayor Ignacio Velazquez, was not in the supervisors’ chambers but joined the meeting on Zoom. Kosmicki said that given Velazquez’s absence, it was “appropriate” to postpone the traditional newly appointed chair speech until the next meeting. At that time, he said, he will speak of his expectations and his perspective regarding his role as chair for the year ahead.
In his first decision as chair, Kosmicki appointed members to nearly 30 committees, including the Council of San Benito County Governments (COG), the Public Defender Oversight Committee and the Fire Protection Committee. He also proposed eliminating five existing committees, including Information Technology, County Facilities and the Homeless Task Force.
Kosmicki said the idea behind closing these committees was to maximize “the use of limited staff resources” and allow county staff to “focus their limited time on the county’s top priorities.” For the Homeless Task Force committee, he said, the entire board, not just a couple of supervisors, should be involved in the issue.
His final proposal was to modify the Economic Advisory Committee to focus exclusively on tourism. He suggested changing its name to the Tourism Advisory Committee and reducing the number of members from 11 to seven “to foster a more productive, focused dialog, and to allow for a more realistic and productive path to consensus.”
The supervisors will discuss these changes to the committees in their next meeting on Jan 14.
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