By JOE BOCANEGRA
Special to the NEWS
The nominations are in.
Tuesday, during their regular city meeting, the San Benito City Commissioners approved of the appointment of members to the San Benito Charter Review Committee.
As first reported by the News, the committee was set up originally during the last city meeting to research on the possibility of amending the city charter. Each commissioner as well as the mayor had the task of appointing one person to the committee, with the city attorney and city secretary to serve in an assistant capacity.
The committee was nominated as follows: Place 3 Commissioner Bill Elliot appointed Lawrence Drake while Place 4 Commissioner Celeste Sanchez chose Gavino Sotelo; Place 2 Commissioner Rene Villafranco nominated Zeke Luna while Mayor Pro Tem Tony Gonzales offered Pete Claudio. Mayor Joe H. Hernandez selected Charlie Wilson.
Now that the appointments have been approved, the next step can begin.
“What happens now,” said City Attorney Ricardo Morado during the meeting. “…is for the commissioners to notify the appointees and to ask them what time it will be appropriate for them to meet together. During that meeting, the appointees will decide who will be the committee chairman.”
The commissioners agreed that the first meeting was to take place sometime next year in January. Before then, each appointee is to look over the city charter and notice anything that they think might need revising.
The proposal to change the charter has generated much interest in the community as one area expected to be targeted for amending is the clause that former City Attorney Jan Cassidy interpreted in 2010 to mean that Hernandez automatically forfeited his office of mayor due to delinquent taxes he owed on his property at that time. In early January 2010, the commission agreed with the clause, forcing him to step down. Hernandez had since sued and was unsuccessful in his bid to regain his mayoral seat until winning it during the May general election.
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