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Pointing out that an expert consultant’s report had not yet been considered, the San Benito County Planning Commission voted Oct. 20 to postpone until Dec. 16 its consideration of proposed new battery energy storage system (BESS) rules.

A draft BESS ordinance presented to the commission would have included amendments to the county’s zoning codes governing battery storage projects, such as Longroad Energy’s proposed Allium Solar project off Hwy 156.

County Director of Planning and Building Abraham Prado presented the draft ordinance, which staff recommended the commission approve and forward to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors for approval. 

But the commissioners indicated they believed the draft ordinance wasn’t nearly ready for their review yet because expert consultant Mike Nicholas’ report on his review of the draft had not yet been considered by the ad hoc committee of interested parties. 

Nicholas, a retired Kern County fire captain who has worked with state officials on creating BESS project standards, agreed to review the draft ordinance and provide recommendations. 

However, Prado told the commission Nicholas’ recommendations had not been added to the agenda prior to the meeting. Prado then proceeded to give a lengthy review of the proposed ordinance, including changes made at the ad hoc committee’s behest.

He said the staff recommended the commission approve the ordinance and forward it to the supervisors to adopt.

Commissioner Robert Gibson was quick to comment, “The staff recommendation is a little off. The ad hoc requested more time to work on the ordinance. We did not want the Planning Commission to send this to the board because it’s half written. There’s a lot of changes that need to be made to make it a workable ordinance.”

After a brief back and forth between commissioners about setback distances, better maps, and the need for community meetings, Chair Richard Way suggested, “Why don’t we continue this and send it back to the ad hoc committee for further review?” 

During public comment, ad hoc committee member Leslie Austin said she wanted the ad hoc review to continue before the ordinance goes before the supervisors. 

“We need an ordinance that protects people, the environment, wildlife, public funds with requirements that fit different project types that the county can actually administer and enforce,” Austin said, adding that she had been preparing a side-by-side review of the county’s language, research from government agencies and other jurisdictions along with suggested changes and questions needing county council review.

“I began this work to contribute effectively to the ad hoc process and to support the community staff, commissioners, and supervisors in this critical work,” she said. “The document explains each recommendation, its supporting research, and questions about responsibilities and costs. But we also need to understand how the requirements work together, building on the county’s mapping. That means looking at realistic projects and locations and considering land use rules, electrical connections, safety costs, and oversight all together.”

She suggested that the county bring affected residents, climate and environmental groups, and other key stakeholders together to compare options before deciding whether any protections should change. 

“The document is substantially drafted and I’m checking that its recommendations fit together and will deliver it no later than Oct. 28,” she said. “I ask you to please allow enough time afterwards for staff, council, commissioners and stakeholders to review it before the next hearing.”

Long Road Energy spokesperson Laren Cypress agreed that the ordinance needs more work. 

“Some provisions in the current form cannot even be met by an applicant,” Cypress said. “The ordinance requires soil testing on neighboring land that an applicant has no legal right to enter, and it requires a geo-liner under the batteries that would result in rainwater pooling around energized equipment. Things like this matter for the county, not just an applicant.”

She reiterated her warning, delivered several times already, that if the county cannot devise an ordinance the applicant will go to the state for permits and the county will lose control over the process, including “where the dollars for a community benefit or development agreement go.”

“An ordinance that’s strict on safety while still being workable for applicants keeps control out of Sacramento,” Cypress said. “In the same vein, the ordinance now calls for a development agreement, which is fair and reasonable, but a number of the ordinance’s requirements increase applicant costs significantly with no net benefit to safety or the community because they either duplicate what’s already required by other state or federal law or they’re not grounded in informed and established safety standards.”

In other public comments, Green Foothills Policy and Advocacy Associate Manager Jessica Wohlander complimented the staff and the ad hoc committee for their work on the ordinance but also said even stricter standards were needed to protect habitat, species and more.  

Green Foothills is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting local nature and ensuring a healthy environment.

“I really appreciate the protections for farmland that have been included and the fire hazard and floodplain exclusions and the community meeting requirement,” Woolander said. “My biggest concern, though, is that the draft ordinance does not contain any provisions relating to critical habitat, specialist status species, or wildlife corridors. San Benito County contains critical wildlife linkage points between the Diablo Range and the Gavilan Range and the Gavilan Range in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Wildlife movement through these areas is essential for maintaining ecological resilience in our county and beyond.”

John Freeman, who said he has 40 years of experience in the hazardous waste industry and conducts classes on lithium battery handling and shipping, said he is in favor of the Long Road Energy project and subsequent similar projects that may come after it. 

“What I really want to concentrate on is that the project produces local tax revenue for our county,” he said. “These types of projects produce no traffic, no noise, and no pollution. It’s really important that we consider tax implications to this county.”

After public comment, Way said he agreed with those who called for more balance between safety and operational flexibility.

“I’m hearing a lot of people arguing that this could benefit from additional polishing, and I think that’s true,” he said. “We have to be careful to craft something that, as several people have pointed out, is workable and yet also promotes safety. I don’t think we’re there just yet.”

Related stories

Beyond The Grid: Panetta leads federal effort to improve battery storage safety

Planning Commission continues review of battery energy ordinance to August | BenitoLink

Supervisors extend battery energy storage moratorium, draft ordinance released

Allium Solar: County could lose local control over battery energy storage project

Supervisors extend pause on energy storage projects

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After eight months on the job, Ana Cortez was removed as Hollister’s city manager by the Hollister City Council on Oct. 21 amid backlash over her handling of recent layoffs. 

Airport Director Jeff Crechriou, who has been acting as planning director since June, was appointed interim city manager until the city appoints a full-time administrator.

Council members spent two hours in closed session on Oct. 21, after which City Attorney Dayna Louie announced the council had voted 3-2 to terminate Cortez’s contract “for convenience.”

Louie did not immediately respond to BenitoLink’s request to clarify whether “for convenience” means without cause, which would qualify Cortez to receive about $132,500 in severance pay equal to half her annual salary. 

During her report at the meeting, Louie said council members Priscilla De Anda and Rolan Resendiz cast the dissenting votes. 

Ahead of the announcement, Resendiz requested advice from Louie about disclosing all the motions and votes taken during the closed session.

“I’m asking that you advise us on how to bring this matter forward so that our hard-working employees, dedicated employees, and the citizens of Hollister, California, can have an accurate account of the council’s actions tonight,” he said.

Louie recommended only reporting the action taken “to protect the confidentiality of our closed session.”

No other council members made comments about Cortez’s termination. 

Before the council entered closed session, more than a dozen public speakers, including employees who received a termination notice, spoke out and urged the council to move forward with terminating Cortez’s contract. 

Many speakers also urged the council to rescind the employment termination notices affecting more than three dozen city employees while the city conducts a review of its finances.

Liz Castillo, a senior support service assistant at the Hollister Municipal Airport, expressed the frustration of employees who were placed on paid leave to return to work knowing they might still be laid off on Nov. 13.

“If we come back to work, it’s going to feel like a cloud over us,” she said. “It’s just a super awful feeling to know that it’s still on the table.”

According to a termination notice sent to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521, the employees were placed on administrative leave effective Oct. 14 with an employment termination date of Nov. 13. The notice said the cuts were necessary to address financial deficits.

Cortez last reported a $6.9 million deficit in the general fund and $9.6 million for the water fund in a presentation for a scheduled special meeting and town hall on Oct. 16, which was cancelled. Unions have contested those numbers, saying the city has not provided accurate accounting to justify the numbers.

SEIU told BenitoLink they knew of 37 city employees who received termination notices the week of Oct. 12. Of those, 16 were represented by SEIU and nine by the Hollister Police Officers Association. 

At the Oct. 21 meeting, the council ratified its Oct. 19 decision to rescind the city’s fiscal emergency declaration and request that laid-off employees who were placed on paid leave to return to work. The city also directed staff to meet with unions and department heads on reducing costs.

The council also declared a local emergency related to the anticipated winter storms and flooding and approved the initiation of two General Plan amendments for two proposed commercial projects. 

The first is prezoning and annexing 1.9 acres on the corner of Fairview Road and Hwy 25. It was approved on a 4-1 vote with Resendiz opposed. He said he was concerned that the annexation would lead to the city eventually providing sewer and water services to the Ridgemark community. 

The second property is the undeveloped 4.6 acres on San Felipe Road between the Starbucks and Maple Street. That project is a commercial development including a 7Brews Coffee Shop. It was unanimously supported by the council.

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Five new murals were unveiled in downtown Hollister during the San Benito County Arts Council’s Vision Art Fest tour on Sept. 18.

Major donors for the project included the California Arts Council, Shawn Herrera, Corbin, and Edward Jones, and sponsors included Fernando Gonzalez, Chang So, the San Benito County Office of Education, Hollister Paint Co., A Tool Shed, Paicines Ranch, and other local downtown businesses.

San Jose resident Jessica Kwang said she was invited to attend the tour by a colleague, Alejandra Ramirez, with the Arts Council for Monterey County. Kwang is with the Arts Council for Santa Clara County, an organization called Silicon Valley Creates.

“We wanted to see some murals,” Kwang said. “I’ve seen has just been so vibrant and so culturally resonant. I especially really love the colors of the Philippines.”

Kwang said she has been on a walking tour in downtown San Jose before, but she never really spent much time in Hollister.

Ramirez said she wanted to come and support the project, and see how the building blocks worked out.

“I think the walk was super accessible and easy to do,” Ramirez said.

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One doctor gulped down lunch during a brief break before rounds as others spoke to a reporter about the residency that brought them from southern India to rural Shasta County. They also talked about why they’re considering staying: to invest in a local community facing a critical physician shortage.

“The people have been truly wonderful,” said Dr. Deepika Reddy Bandi, as others added in similar thoughts. “They tell us how much we’re needed. And they thank us for being here.” 

Shasta Regional Medical Center is home to more than a dozen immigrant residents, doctors-in-training who’ve entered the country as part of the J-1 visa program which promotes the exchange of skills between other countries and the United States. 

Their reception from locals, the majority of whom are white and conservative, might be surprising if not for the dearth of medical care that Shasta faces. Many communities in California’s North State, which includes Shasta County, have reached the crisis point. 

Physician shortages in rural communities are common. Across the nation, communities far from urban centers lack the critical population to support thriving medical practices. 

In Shasta, numbers have worsened over the last decade, driven in part by an aging physician population. In response, experts and local policymakers have been searching for solutions to this workforce shortage, drawing on regional expertise, potential university partnerships and state and national data about what works. 

Building the complex web of education needed to train new physicians has been slow. Some politicians have recently suggested launching a private medical school at a local Christian university at a cost of $100 million or more, $10 million of which Shasta County taxpayers might be asked to pay. 

The result has been a deepening political divide over an issue that has historically united much of the population: the need for better medical care. 

That divide now appears to be worsening the healthcare shortage itself. Last year the California Health Care Foundation published a study noting that politics is a significant force behind the county’s failure to secure funding to improve mental health care across the region.

“In Shasta County, local politics and divisiveness mirror national patterns — with direct implications for health care,” the study says, listing that divide as among the top five causes of the physician shortage. 

“This politicization of public health creates additional barriers in a region already struggling with workforce shortages and limited resources.

The pipeline to a physician workforce 

Becoming a doctor takes around a dozen years of higher education including a four-year undergraduate degree, followed by another four years of medical school, which incorporates both classroom work and hands-on clinical experience. 

The title of doctor is used in the next phase, residency, where the trainee provides direct patient care while continuing to work under the supervision of licensed physicians. Those pursuing practices such as cardiology or pulmonology must complete a specialty fellowship before completing final licensure exams. Physicians must pass a state exam to become a board-certified medical doctor, M.D. or doctor of osteopathy, also known as a D.O.

Building this pipeline is key to solving the physician workforce shortage in Shasta and elsewhere. Studies show that where doctors serve residencies influences where they’ll launch their careers. 

That’s behind the push for more doctor training in the North State. Experts hope expanding clinical rotations and residencies will build a pool of physicians committed to staying. 

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Choosing a starting point

Redding City Council member and gastroenterologist Dr. Paul Dhanuka dreams of a full-fledged medical school in Shasta, providing the first four years of medical education and inspiring locals from the greater North State to become physicians.

Dhanuka himself is a transplant to the region who, like his oncologist wife, grew up in India. But he’s lived in Shasta for decades now, raising a daughter who is also on the path to becoming a doctor.

More than a year ago, Dhanuka approached the president of Simpson University, Norman Hall, who runs the small private Christian school in Shasta. Hall has no experience with physician education, but he quickly picked up Dhanuka’s dream of expanded training options which could also provide increased financial stability for the university. 

It’s the most expensive approach that’s been broached for building Shasta’s physician workforce. But Dhanuka has also gained support from county Supervisor Kevin Crye, a powerful — and controversial — political force in the North State. 

Dhanuka, Hall and Crye believe that building such a university is feasible despite its hefty price tag — and the dozens of physicians that would have to be lured to Shasta just to train the medical students. 

They hope to launch with 100 students who would serve clinical rotations across the region. The school would train students to become doctors of osteopathy, with core rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and psychiatry. 

Shasta has only a few hospitals, and physicians-in-training must meet California standards both in terms of the number of patient interactions documented during each rotation and the specific skills they’re exposed to. 

That standard would be particularly difficult to meet for certain rotations, like pediatrics, with just one local hospital serving a relatively small pediatric patient load. Seriously ill children are flown out for care, often to the University of California, Davis.  

During an almost three-hour long interview in the Simpson University chancellor’s office last month, Dhanuka and Hall said they’re not worried about finding physicians to teach medical school classes and supervise clinical rotations, although they estimate an additional 27 physicians would have to move to the area to meet their need. 

“The reason we have less rotations right now,” Dhanuka said, “is because there has been a lack of vision. Because we have always assumed that we cannot do it, and that has been what has held us back.”

What it takes to establish a clinical rotation

By phone, Dr. Mark Servis called clinical rotations the “rate-limiting step” in the medical workforce pipeline.  

“It’s certainly not easy or automatic,” Servis said of the process.

He’s worked to solve healthcare shortages for decades as part of the University of California system. As a vice dean at UC Davis, Servis oversees undergraduate and graduate medical education and supports continuing medical education programs, including clinical rotations.

Davis has just launched a regional branch of its medical school in California’s Central Coast in partnership with UC Santa Cruz at a cost of about $4.4 million over the next four years. Servis said a similar regional branch campus in the North State would add to the university’s rural and Tribal pathway programs, which aim to train homegrown doctors. 

“A North State branch campus,” he said, “would … take students from the North State, train them in the North State, so that they will practice in the North State — fulfilling our mission as a public university.”

The campus could be based in Redding, Chico or possibly halfway — where students could serve out their clinical rotations at Shasta’s Mercy Medical Center and Butte-based Enloe Medical Center. But basing a program between two cities would likely mean the school would have to provide housing due to the distance students would be asked to travel.

The campus Servis is envisioning would begin by serving between six and 12 students a year. Those numbers correspond with the required six clinical rotations. He noted there are two rotations already, and said he’s working along with others to develop the other four rotations in partnership with local facilities.

For Dhanuka and Hall, that number of placements is laughable and won’t solve the physician workforce crisis. 

Servis agrees training more doctors more quickly in the North State would be ideal, but says a four-year medical school would be challenging to establish from scratch in Shasta. He favors a more incremental and smaller-scale approach.

Experts agree: Clinical rotations are a key challenge

Emmie Johnson is the CEO of the Chico-based Healthy Rural California, a nonprofit started in the aftermath of the deadly Camp Fire with the hopes of improving medical care. About four dozen physicians left the area when the town of Paradise was largely destroyed by the wildfire. 

Johnson said clinical rotations are hard to establish in rural settings — but they’re also one of the most important factors to increase the rural physician workforce long term. 

“There’s all these confounding obstacles, they’re not insurmountable, but it’s real work,” Johnson said by phone. 

She added she feels pretty confident the necessary clinical rotations will soon be in place in the North State, but that’s only because, “a lot of people are working as hard as they can to set up as many high-quality learning opportunities as they can.”

Kathryn Phillips agrees. She’s the associate director of the California Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit focused on increasing medical access across the state. She said the idea that high-quality clinical rotations are easy to establish is not borne out by the research she and others are conducting. 

Statewide, California faces a number of barriers, Phillips said, including a lack of a centralized system for establishing and distributing students into rotations.

“Without compensation or mission-alignment it can be hard to make a case (to facilities) for expanding clinical rotations,” Phillips said.

She’s working with a colleague to assess efforts across the United States to encourage recruitment and retention of specialist physicians in rural settings. One major barrier comes down to “community amenities,” or quality-of-life factors, such as housing stock and school quality.

“It can be difficult to go as a new person into a new community,” Phillips explained. “Will you make friends? How will you be perceived? Will your partner find a job?” 

In Alaska, for example, some rural communities sell physicians on access to nature and hunting.

Rebecca Baer is the president of the Shasta Economic Development Corporation. Informally, her organization has long played a role in physician recruitment through its First Friends program, working to draw prospective physicians by helping line up opportunities for their spouses in rural Shasta. 

Asked if she could bring more 24-hour food options and a better-stocked Indian grocery option to downtown Redding to improve quality of life for residents at Shasta Regional, Baer lit up with her trademark energy.

“I’d love for our community to find a way to make that happen,” she said. 

“Medical services is our largest industry in Shasta County,” Baer noted. “It is both an industry and a necessity for quality of life.”

Her collaborative approach is the kind that almost everyone Shasta Scout spoke with for this story said is key to closing the gaps in the current physician workforce pipeline.

‘I fell in love with this place’

Another such collaborative effort has come from Shasta Public Health Officer Dr. James Mu. Last year, he declared a public health crisis due to the local physician shortage. Phillips, of the California Health Care Foundation, said that declaration had a real impact because it hadn’t been done in California before. 

But more than a year later, Mu noted that Shasta remains in crisis with many having to leave the county on a regular basis for healthcare. 

Mu, whose predecessor was fired for enforcing state COVID mandates, said Shasta should apply every possible solution, including welcoming clinical rotations from UC Davis — and supporting a Simpson-run medical school. 

“That will increase the odds of us having extra physicians,” Mu emphasized.

Noting his own experience of having moved to Shasta from L.A. for his residency, Mu said he believes exposing physicians-in-training from other regions of California to the beauty of the North State is key.

“I had an opportunity to come up for the residency position and I fell in love with this place,” Mu said. “The air is clean, none of that L.A. smog, rent is reasonable, I could have an apartment with my dogs. Just one visit changed my mind.”

This reporting is part of a collaboration with the Institute for Nonprofit News‘ Rural News Network. Five nonprofit newsrooms were involved: Barn Raiser, Carolina Public Press, Mountain State Spotlight, Oklahoma Watch and Shasta Scout. The series was edited by veteran investigative editor Dee J. Hall, co-founder and former managing editor of Wisconsin Watch. Support from Ascendium Education Group made this project possible.

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Oct. 12, 2026 11:55 a.m. We have updated wording in the story related to the number of hospitals in Shasta.

Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.

MENDOCINO CO., 10/9/26 — Teal yard signs for Measure D, with a white ambulance on them, festoon the south coast. When Linda Carricaburu posted a photo of one in a Point Arena Facebook group, she added a warning: “If this proposition D does not pass, we may not have Emergency care available to our area.” 

The ambulances will keep running, said Bronwyn Golly, who runs Coast Life Support District, the ambulance service for the coast from Irish Beach south to Timber Cove. 

“If Measure D does not pass, it will not instantaneously halt operations,” Golly said in a phone interview Oct. 8. “We are funded through our fiscal year, and what we will have to look at is basically a change in our service model.” 

Now the district keeps two ambulances on duty around the clock, each with a paramedic. Asked whether a failed vote could mean one ambulance instead of two at some hours, Golly said, “That’s definitely something that could happen.” 

“This isn’t going to happen November 4th,” she said. “But it’s going to require us going back to the drawing board.” 

On the south coast, a second ambulance matters because one call can take a crew away for hours. The nearest full hospital is in Santa Rosa. “It’s two hours to definitive care on average,” Golly said. She told county supervisors Sept. 15 that a single hospital run takes a crew five to seven hours from start to finish. 

Golly has worked for the district for more than 20 years and grew up in Point Arena. “My family and friends live in this community, and I care very much about this district,” she said. As a public official, she said, she can explain the measure but can’t campaign for it. A committee of supporters is doing that. 

What it costs a household 

Measure D would raise the district’s ambulance tax from $61 to $101 per “unit of benefit.” A single-family home counts as three units, so its bill would go from $183 a year to $303, $120 more. The tax would rise with inflation each year after that. The district’s separate urgent care tax stays as it is. 

If Measure D gets less than the two-thirds vote it needs, the $61 tax stays in place. Golly confirmed that. 

“That $40 is a big ask,” Golly said. She said the district built the number by looking five years ahead, including federal cuts it expects under HR 1, 2025’s federal budget law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” 

The biggest federal cut is a Medi-Cal program in which the district sends public money to the state and gets it back with federal matching dollars. District budgets show it brought in $517,554 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, and the district paid in $230,360 to take part. This fiscal year’s budget counts on $510,000 in and about $250,000 out. Golly told supervisors Sept. 15 the program is set to end in 2029. 

She also said the district now needs about $200,000 in donations to balance its budget. This fiscal year’s budget counts on $191,764 in donations. People gave $189,692 the year before. “We can’t continue operating relying on donations,” she said. 

“We’re a service” 

Golly said she has been out talking to people about the measure, and someone in one of the groups called the district “a really poor business model.” 

“I mean, it is,” she agreed. “But we’re a service. We’re not a business.” 

She said a single ambulance transport costs the district about $4,000, counting everything it takes to keep crews ready. Medi-Cal pays $118.20 for a transport, plus $3.19 a mile, according to the district’s billing review. Private insurance may pay the full bill. A rural district doesn’t run enough calls to make up the difference the way a big city service can, she said. 

People ask why the coast doesn’t just bring in a private ambulance company, she said. Her answer is that no company would make money doing it. That’s why residents pushed in the mid-1980s for a district of their own, paid for with a local tax, she said. The Legislature created it in 1986. 

District residents pay a lower ambulance rate than visitors, under a board resolution. Golly said that when a resident’s insurance doesn’t pay, the district writes off the rest, because residents’ property taxes already support the service. Visitors don’t pay property taxes, thus pay a higher fee. 

The district says its calls have climbed since COVID. Golly said that’s from the jump in 2021 and 2022, more people working remotely from the coast and more visitors. The ballot argument for the measure says emergency calls have doubled. The district’s billing reports show a smaller rise in billed runs: 521 from July 2019 through March 2020, and 629 over the same nine months of 2025-26, about a fifth more. But billed runs leave out calls where paramedics responded, and no one went to the hospital. 

The district ended the fiscal year June 30 ahead: its unaudited year-end report shows it took in $266,150 more than it spent, and its cash rose to $957,547 from $706,936 a year earlier. But that surplus rested on money the district says it can’t count on. Donations brought in $189,692, and the Medi-Cal program brought in about $287,000 after the district’s own payment. Without those two sources, the district would have spent about $211,000 more than it took in. 

Keeping people home 

Golly said part of what the passage of D would buy is room to try things that keep people out of the ambulance altogether. She described paramedics visiting patients at home to check blood pressure, look at a wound and talk with their doctor at the local clinic, instead of driving them over the hill. 

“It’s better for us,” she said. “It’s better for the patient, that they don’t have to figure out how to get a ride home from the hospital.” 

Medicare pays an ambulance service only when it takes a patient to an emergency room, she said, not when a paramedic treats someone and leaves. 

Election Day is Nov. 3. 

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Days after the city declared a fiscal emergency, a proposal for the city of Hollister to seek a concessionaire to operate its water utilities for 30 years drew heavy criticism and questions from both city employees and the public. 

At the Hollister City Council’s Oct. 5 meeting, after City Manager Ana Cortez unveiled the concessionaire proposal, the council requested a study session before making any decision. 

Cortez told the council that contracting with a concessionaire to provide water, wastewater and sewer services would bring money into the city, which she said is needed for the city to avoid bankruptcy. 

The public, however, criticized the proposal by saying the city has already increased water rates with the aim of stabilizing the department. 

Cortez previously identified deficits in the potable water department as one of several reasons the city has spent through the general fund and reserves. 

Rodrigo Aguilera, who works for the water department, went as far as accusing Cortez of trying to “abolish” the union representing most city employees, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

“The heart of our union is the public works [department],” Aguilera said. “You’re trying to get rid of all of us. That’s very disrespectful.”

Cortez sought council approval to begin accepting proposals from companies to operate the water, wastewater and sewer utilities. 

“We’re at a crossroads,” she said. If we don’t get an infusion of funds in the general fund, then we’re going to Chapter 9 [bankruptcy].”

Councilmember Dolores Morales proposed scheduling a study session to explore the concept, calling for experts in water and sewer services to be included, as well as an analysis of potential water rate increases and the impact on the water department’s finances.

“I think it’s premature right now to make a decision on the procurement process,” Morales said. “I’d like to have the study session to analyze, are there local options? Are there alternative options? Is this the best option for the city of Hollister? What does this mean for our community?”

Councilmember Priscilla De Anda said she opposed pursuing the model but supported having study sessions.

“I personally do not like this idea whatsoever, so to be able to use this as a means for us to get creative and to work together as a community, I think, would be extremely beneficial in us moving forward,” De Anda said. 

Councilmember Rudy Picha also said he supported a study session and said he needed time to conduct his own due diligence.

“I don’t even know what questions to ask at this point,” he said.

Cortez said the 30-year commitment would require the selected contractor to pay the city upfront as much as $30 million for the right to provide services while the city maintains the ownership of the assets and authority over rates, policy and major capital project approval. 

The contractor would take on operations, staffing, maintenance, regulatory compliance, financing and other defined financial risks, according to her presentation.

Cortez outlined three general scenarios she called “stabilization,” “comprehensive,” and “transformation,” whereby the city would receive between $10 million and $30 million. She did not explain how she got to the projections and the “stabilization” scenario is considered the most conservative approach.

“We’ll have to do a lot more homework before we know how realistic it is for us to seek out a transformative partner versus a stabilization partner,” she said. 

The tradeoff, she said, is the 30-year term of the contract, which is unusually long compared to other city contracts, and the cost of potentially ending it early if the city is not happy with the services.

Currently, Hollister contracts with Veolia Water West Operating Services to operate the wastewater treatment plant. In February, the state found eight violations at the plant, some dating back to 2024, ranging from excessive odor to overflow from basins. 

The city blamed Veolia for poor management, while Veolia maintained it had completed all maintenance authorized by the city and met its operations responsibilities. 

Though Cortez hinted at one point that the city might consider a search for a new wastewater treatment plan operator, the council in June unanimously approved a one-year extension to Veolia through Aug. 2, 2027. The city is paying $1.5 million for the services during the extension.

As an example of the concessionaire model, Cortez highlighted the city of Rialto’s 2012 partnership with the Rialto Utility Authority. 

She said Rialto secured $35 million for its coffers, $41 million for capital improvements and $168.7 million for concession-related borrowing under the agreement, though she didn’t explain how.

“They have currently an outstanding balance in their principal of $138 million,” she said.

However, Hollister storm water department employee Frank Garcia with SEIU said that despite what Cortez presented, Rialto’s city council had identified priority project delays two years into the agreement and added that a 2024 water revenue shortfall led to a $5.3 million loan from the general fund to cover the gap.

“My ask is for the council to stop and abandon the procurement process,” he said.

Garcia was among 13 public speakers who opposed Cortez’s proposal.

Public speaker Olivia Martinez said a New York Times article reported Rialto residents saw their water rates increase by about 68% between 2012 and 2016. Martinez added that water rates increased in Bayonne, New Jersey by 28% when a private firm took over operations despite officials promising a four-year rate freeze.

“Companies like Veolia and others prioritize profits over public interests,” Martinez said.

No date or timeframe was set for the City Council study season. 

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FORT BRAGG, CA — When Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2494 on Sept. 18, he said he was siding with science. The bill would have rewritten how California manages its 14 demonstration state forests — including the 48,652-acre Jackson Demonstration State Forest on the Mendocino coast — and Newsom wrote that it risked “the flexibility needed to safeguard our forests for future generations” and that limiting the forests’ purposes “risks the State’s ability to fully demonstrate the best science-based practices.” His message said nothing about the provision that had drawn the most attention in Mendocino County: a path for California tribes to co-manage the forests.

AB 2494 was supported by a coalition of conservation groups, forest activists, and north-coast tribes — Buffie Campbell, who leads the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council and is a tribal citizen of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, testified for it. The bill was opposed by the timber industry and the Rural County Representatives of California. Newsom’s veto delivered the industry’s position.

To see what, if anything, the money says about that decision, MendoLocal.News reviewed a decade of campaign-finance records: state contributions, Newsom’s federal political committees, and the “behested payments” he has solicited from donors for outside charities and causes.

The records show plenty of money flowing to Newsom, but no evidence of a deal. We didn’t find a direct line between money and policies. Instead, we found a tangle of contributors worth watching in the next presidential cycle.

Contributors from timber and forest-products companies, their executives, and the industry’s PAC have given Newsom’s two campaigns for governor about $235,000. The largest share came from Sierra Pacific Industries and its executives, $107,000; Sierra Pacific is the Anderson-based company that says it owns and manages more than 2.4 million acres of timberland in California, Oregon, and Washington, with mills and facilities in Shasta, Placer, and Amador counties, three of the counties that host the demonstration forests AB 2494 would have reshaped.

Green Diamond Resource Company gave $59,200. Zvi Brenner of SB Lumber gave $29,000. A.L. “Sandy” Dean, chairman of Humboldt Redwood and its sister firm Mendocino Redwood Company, gave $15,000, and Humboldt Redwood itself gave $10,000. The California Forestry Association’s political action committee gave $10,000, and Collins Pine gave $5,000. Sierra Pacific, whose contributions make up the largest single share of that total, did not respond to a request for comment.

The industry also gave to Newsom’s national political operation. In the spring of 2023, Newsom created a federal political action committee — a hybrid PAC that raised $23 million and fed his Campaign for Democracy operation, which CalMatters and others have described as groundwork for a potential presidential run. Sierra Pacific put $32,400 into it, Green Diamond $30,000, and the California Forestry Association’s political action committee $5,000 — $67,400 more.

The tribes that fought for AB 2494 gave Newsom nothing. The Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, whose ancestral territory includes north-coast forest land, has spent about $36,000 in state politics but not a dollar of it on Newsom; the neighboring Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, about $44,000 and none to Newsom; the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, which led the testimony for the bill, has no political contributions on record at all.

Buffie Campbell, the council’s executive director, said the veto landed as “quite the shock,” coming from “the only California Governor that has ever offered an apology by executive order … for the genocide of the Original People of these lands.” Newsom’s apology and the Truth and Healing Council it created “was a platform to provide healing,” she wrote in an email to MendoLocal.News, “but there can be no healing when the voices of the Original People are not heard and are still not at the table.”

The tribes that do fund Newsom are a different set, and their interest is gaming, not forests. Tribes that operate casinos — the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and others — have given roughly $1.07 million to Newsom’s two campaigns for governor and $157,000 to his 2023 federal PAC, and Newsom has directed some $4.57 million more from them in behested payments to charities and inaugural funds he favors, including $2.75 million from Graton and about $1 million from San Manuel. It is a large sum — nearly $5.8 million in his orbit — but MendoLocal.News found no record that any of these tribes took a position on AB 2494. Their money reflects the casino industry’s long investment in California governors.

Asked about the role of contributions and behested payments, the governor’s office, responding on background, offered a general statement rather than one specific to the veto. Behested payments “do not influence policy decisions,” the office said, describing them as “a lawful, bipartisan tool” used by officials of both parties “for decades” and publicly reported through the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. The office said it discloses donations “beyond what state law requires,” and referred a reporter to the governor’s veto message.

Environmental organizations gave Newsom’s campaigns next to nothing — though several are heavyweight California donors. The Sierra Club, its foundation, and affiliated committees have put more than $1.7 million into state campaigns and ballot measures since 2001; of that, about $1,500 reached Newsom’s campaigns — a $1,000 California Sierra Club PAC contribution to his 2018 run for governor and $500 to his 2010 race for lieutenant governor. (A local Sierra Club chapter gave $5,000 in 2025, but to Newsom’s Proposition 50 redistricting committee, not a campaign.) The Natural Resources Defense Council, which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in California, gave Newsom nothing as an organization; the only NRDC money in his accounts — about $5,000, across 16 years — came from a handful of its staff in personal contributions, most of it from a single California advocacy director. A search of federal records turned up no environmental money at all in his 2023 political action committee.

Melodie Meyer, a conservation attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), which sponsored the bill, tied the veto to Newsom’s ambitions. “Governor Newsom values his personal ambitions above the safety and health of Californians and their public lands,” she wrote, arguing the veto allowed the timber industry “to suppress the people’s demands for statewide forest management reform.” She disputed the veto’s science rationale — the bill, she wrote, would have “codified the importance of forestry research,” listing “a living laboratory for ecological research” and “climate resiliency and adaptation” among its purposes — and noted the message “was silent with regard to the bill’s tribal co-management and traditional knowledge provisions.” “We are now back to square one,” she wrote, “with CAL FIRE’s top priority being to manage these forests for commercial timber harvest.”

Where the timber industry spends heavily is the Legislature. Companies such as Trinity River Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products route most of their political money — more than $80,000 each — into the California Forestry Association’s political action committee, which has given about $900,000 in state contributions since 2001 and spreads it across lawmakers of both parties, tilted toward moderate Democrats. Its recipients include Mike McGuire, the north-coast Democrat whose state Senate district takes in Jackson and who is leaving the Legislature at the end of 2026 to run for Congress, and Brian Dahle, the timber-country Republican Newsom defeated for governor in 2022.

Assemblymember Chris Rogers, who wrote AB 2494 and whose district takes in the Mendocino coast, said he was “very disappointed” and would “continue to work on this issue next year.” Mendocino County had asked for the bill through its state legislative platform, he noted, and it would have aligned the demonstration forests with Newsom’s own “30×30” conservation goals. “One of the main tenants [sic] of the bill was bolstering tribal co-management,” he said — the provision the veto message did not mention.

None of this suggests a “contributions for a veto” type deal, and the campaign-finance record neither confirms nor contradicts Newsom’s stated reasons for the veto. What it shows is active donors that could provide valuable backing in the future. Newsom leaves the governor’s office in early 2027, and has all but positioned himself to run for president. If he does, the clearest test will be a public one: whether the timber money that has followed him this far follows him into a national campaign.

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Facing a wet El Niño winter that has already prompted a local emergency declaration, San Benito County is missing its emergency services manager and two other staff responsible for the county’s emergency response.

Currently, emergency services manager Kris Mangano is on “extended” executive leave as the county navigates emergency preparedness and management.

The recent presentation of an emergency services gap report by Tony Coletta of Jacob Green and Associates, a public sector consulting firm that is contracted to provide “on-call” emergency services, found a need for improvement in Office of Emergency Services staffing and capacity, which Coletta said should be an immediate priority.

Emergency management leadership responsibilities are currently under the leadership of CEO Esperanza Colio Warren, with the assistance of County Counsel Gregory Priamos. 

Colio Warren said the county engaged the services of Jacob Green to provide on-call emergency services due to Mangano’s absence. In addition, emergency services’ two staff members responsible for emergency management have resigned, but Colio Warren said the county hired a temporary employee who is assisting with daily activities and phone calls. 

Mangano would report to the new department director and the OES/EMS division, Fire and Dispatch contracts would all operate as a new department and under a new director.

The gap report from Jacob Green was meant to assess the emergency management program, identify opportunities for improvement and develop a workplan for strengthening program capabilities.

The report found more regular updates are needed to assist the county’s preparedness planning. It also said the county should assess its primary, alternate and mobile emergency operations capabilities.

“Our process is founded and grounded in both state and federal standards,” Coletta said during his presentation of the assessment. A big part of the process, he said, is “collecting and analyzing all sorts of data.”

The POETE (Plans, Organization, Equipment, Training and Exercises) acronym was used in the assessment, which calls for:

• Five preparedness plans
• Leadership and operational organization
• Primary and alternate Emergency Operations Center (EOC)/equipment capabilities
• Training for key personnel and EOC team
• Discussion and operations/based emergency exercises

Jacob Green also addressed authorities and applicable grants.

Of seven program areas and 17 findings, one was a strength—leadership and organization. “The county has significant, exceptional leadership,” Coletta said.

Areas that are not well documented and in need of enhancement are training, exercises, authorities and grants. To provide more context, Coletta said that while training may have occurred in the past, his firm did not have sufficient documentation of it.

“There certainly is due diligence” to ensure training is completed consistent with state and federal requirements, said Coletta.

Immediate priorities for the county, according to the assessment include:

• Updating, maintaining or developing key preparedness plans
• Restoring OES staffing and consider hiring an OES director
• Assessing and bringing to a ready level primary and alternate EOCs.  
• Developing and executing an emergency management training plan 

All of those priorities, he added, will require county resources. 

Regarding the recommendation to hire a director, Priamos clarified that director “should have multiple roles” and would be responsible for emergency medical services, fire contracts, 911 dispatch contracts and every related emergency service other than law enforcement.

As of now, the county will still need to budget for the director, pending the board’s direction, according to Colio Warren. She said she will bring a proposal back to the board regarding salary plans for that position. 

The county is nearing deadlines to obtain reimbursement for the flooding that occurred in 2017, 2023 and 2024. One deadline was Sept. 30, two days after the meeting. 

Colio Warren said that the work to obtain those reimbursements is occurring in-house. 

Documents for reimbursement were never submitted for the floods and it was challenging to track staff time, she said.

Supervisor Angela Curro said staff needs to be aware they need to document emergency-related work on their timecards. She added that it is simple to do so in the county’s system, but “we have to be utilizing the system.”

“The No. 1 thing we need to start with is personnel,” Supervisor Mindy Sotelo said. While she acknowledged the county has a tight budget, she said she does not envision a path forward without bringing in an emergency services director. 

Colio Warren said her next step will be to bring forward the emergency services director discussion, likely at the Oct. 13 supervisors meeting, as well as a plan to address the recommendations brought forward by the Jacob Green presentation.

The BenitoLink Internship Program is a paid, skill-building program that prepares local youth for a professional career. This program is supported by Monterey Peninsula Foundation AT&T Golf Tour and Taylor Farms.

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San Benito High School District officials are facing backlash from students, student-athletes and parents, and the larger community, about their handling of the varsity football program that has led to the cancellation of the 2026 season.

While the district has only stated it is conducting an investigation into “team activities” and that head coach Thomas Sullivan was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month before cancelling the rest of the season on Sept. 21, rumors have been circulating in the community that the turmoil is related to hazing allegations. 

BenitoLink has not been able to confirm any of the allegations which, according to other news outlets and social media, included fighting and Oreo cookies.

Sullivan has hired an attorney, Joseph Cisneros of Salinas, to represent him and Cisneros issued a press release on Sept. 24 saying Sullivan is “deeply saddened by the circumstances that have compelled Hollister High School to cancel its football season,” and adding that “at no time did Coach Sullivan have knowledge of the circumstances that ultimately led to the cancellation of the season.” (See full press release below.)

In announcing the season’s cancellation, the district cited not having enough varsity players to safely continue the season, raising questions about how many players were allegedly involved in any incidents. 

According to a Maxpreps roster, the team had 64 players. 

The peculiar situation of the Balers football team has received attention from Sports Illustrated, USA Today and the New York Post. 

At the school’s traditional homecoming parade on Sept. 24, a 14-year-old freshman told BenitoLink he believed the hazing rumors because it would be hard for someone to make them up. 

“I think it’s wrong and people should not be doing that,” he said. “If it is false, it sucks that the season was cancelled because of rumors.”

Another 14-year-old freshman, David Lujan, called the hazing allegations “disgusting” but questioned why the entire season needed to be cancelled.

Nathan Velez, the father of a school band member, said it’s a sad situation for the students who were impacted but were not part of the alleged hazing. He added that the people involved should face consequences for their actions. 

“They should have known that, but they are kids,” he said. “It’s definitely a lesson learned.”

Gus Gonzalez, from the Hollister High class of 1985, said he likes to keep up with the football team even though he doesn’t have kids who go to the school and can hear the crowd cheers from his home during home games. Gonzalez said those who were involved in the alleged hazing should be removed from the team and players from the junior varsity team should be promoted to finish the season.

“At least fans, parents, cheerleaders can enjoy their senior season,” he said.

Because of the lack of information from the district, a group of community members, including parents and students, attended the Sept. 22 district Board of Trustees meeting to call for transparency. Many others have also taken to social media to voice concerns about how the football season has unfolded.

“Maybe you can’t tell us the details of what’s going on, but it sucks to be at home and to look at them, at their tears and their pain and you don’t even know how to fix it because you don’t even know what’s going on to give them the direction of what to feel because as parents, we are just as confused,” a public speaker said at the district board meeting, according to a video posted by independent reporter Chris Cerney.

According to the same video, multiple members of the cheerleading team also spoke at the meeting, noting the impact the cancellation of the varsity football season had on them. One of the speakers asked the board for transparent communication, for the district to provide other platforms where student groups such as band and cheer can continue to perform, and to include student input when taking action that impacts campus organizations. 

Asked if the district would respond to the community’s call for transparency, Hollister High School Communications Officer Adam Breen said the matter is still under review and that there is no new information to share.

In response to BenitoLink’s Sept. 21 article about the school forfeiting its game against Alisal High, commenter Ruben Rodriguez said he wanted information about what led to the school forfeiting the game.

“The school should not be allowed to keep this from the public,” he said. 

Responding to the same article, commenter Angela Sanchez said on social media she “didn’t really appreciate” that her son was being taken out of class to be questioned without her being notified.

Other parents have been more critical of the district’s handling of the situation and lack of information to the community. 

In a Facebook comment on BenitoLink’s article about the forfeiture to Alisal, commenter Rebecca Matuzek said it was “appalling” the way the district handled informing the families and students of their decision.

“Now speculation going around online,” she said, in an apparent reference to the multiple versions of hazing activities. 

Reactions from the community also include those who say that if students broke rules, that there should be consequences. 

“Every position comes with responsibilities, consequences, and accomplishments,” commenter Jodi Salvador posted on Facebook in response to BenitoLink’s article about the season being canceled. “Let’s address what’s wrong, learn from it, improve, and continue doing better for our kids, our community, and the future athletes coming behind them.”

The mystery surrounding the football program began on Sept. 10 when Hollister High announced it had placed Sullivan on leave. 

The Balers beat Wilcox the next day under interim head coach Chris Cameron, who previously led the program for 22 years. 

The team then forfeited its next match against Alisal on Sept. 17, less than four hours before the scheduled kickoff. The school cited an “ongoing review of a recent report regarding team activities.”

In the runup to the homecoming game on Sept. 25 against Soquel High, the team’s season was cancelled on Sept. 21 in an announcement saying the school could not “safely field a team.”

While Hollister High students won’t have the traditional homecoming game, Breen said the related activities will move forward as scheduled. 

That included the homecoming parade on Sept. 24, which featured participating school organizations including the junior varsity and freshman football teams, whose seasons will continue. 

The school plans to host its homecoming rally on Sept. 25 at Andy Hardin Stadium, when the homecoming queen will be named.

The Homecoming ceremony typically held at halftime of the varsity football game will apparently not occur this year.

The festivities conclude with the homecoming dance at the Veterans Memorial Building in Hollister, where the homecoming king will be crowned.

Press release issued by Hollister head coach Thomas Sullivan’s attorney

Coach Thomas Sullivan is deeply saddened by the circumstances that have compelled Hollister High School to cancel its football season. His thoughts are with the student-athletes, their families, and the entire Hollister High School community during this trying time.

At no time did Coach Sullivan have knowledge of the circumstances that ultimately led to the cancellation of the season.

While it has been Coach Sullivan’s goal to build a successful football program, his highest priority as a coach has always been the safety, health, and well-being of every student-athlete entrusted to the program. I know that commitment will continue moving forward.

Coach Sullivan is deeply disappointed by the loss of a season that the players, coaches, families, and community worked so hard to move forward. Above all, I know that he remains committed to the student-athletes and to doing everything he can to support them during this difficult time.

Sincerely yours,

Joseph Cisneros

Attorney for Thomas Sullivan

BenitoLink thanks our underwriter, Hollister Rotary, for helping expand the sports coverage around San Benito County. Rotary is a nonprofit organization that conducts humanitarian projects, encourages high ethical standards, and works toward world understanding. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.

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More patients have been heading to the emergency room in San Benito County, driven by the lack of options and a growing population.

ER visits have gone up every year since 2018, and 2025 was another record year with more than 28,000 visits, according to BenitoLink’s analysis of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital’s utilization reports from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information.

For every 1,000 San Benito County residents, Hazel Hawkins logged around 401 ER visits in 2025.

CHART: See yearly ER visits at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital

“We are the only game in town and our town has been growing,” Hazel Hawkin CEO Mary Casillas said. 

From 2019 through 2025, ER visits at Hazel Hawkins went up 31%, versus 4% in California overall, according to BenitoLink’s analysis. Over the same period, San Benito County’s population increased nearly 12%, versus the state’s population decline of less than 1%.

“We have trauma pretty close to daily, whether that is car accidents, or farming accidents, or ranching accidents,” Casillas said. “We certainly see a lot of trauma that you may not see at other smaller hospitals.”

More recently, the ER has had to keep more patients overnight and mental health cases have increased, she said. The ER can be a financial strain on the hospital, she said, in part because some patients no longer qualify for Medi-Cal. Still, she said ER costs have come in under budget and she expects visits to be flat in 2026.

“The ER is one of the most resource-intensive units in the hospital,” Casillas said.

Lack of care

One of the biggest reasons the ER has had more traffic is the shortage of primary care providers. A community health survey found residents viewed primary care as the top priority this year. 

Casillas said the ER is often taking a lot of the county’s “lower acuity patients,” people who could have been treated at a primary care or urgent care clinic.

There were only 21 primary care doctors in San Benito County in 2023, the most recent year of data available, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The shortage is seen in how many San Benito County residents there are compared with primary care doctors. In 2023, there was one primary care doctor for every 3,246 county residents, a ratio that greatly exceeded the neighboring counties of Fresno, Merced, Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.

CHART: See how many people there are for every primary-care doctor in San Benito County and its neighbors

Urgent care is in short supply, too. There are only two urgent care clinics in the county: Hollister Urgent Care, which opened in 2025, and Agile Occupational Medicine’s Hollister center, formerly known as Pinnacle HealthCare.

“If you’re in a larger community, you’re going to have urgent cares, sometimes on every other corner,” Casillas said. “We don’t have that here.”

Kimberly Hill, co-owner of Hollister Urgent Care, declined to be interviewed for this article. Peter Murray, chief executive of Agile Occupational Medicine, which merged with Pinnacle HealthCare in 2023, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

‘Crisis’ in the ER

Workers have also been under pressure. ER visits have gone up during a “chronic staffing crisis,” said Ariahnna Sanchez, a nurse who has worked at Hazel Hawkins’s ER for over 13 years.

Staffing hasn’t increased to meet the higher workload, she said. At times, patients have to wait hours before receiving treatment.

“Some people have to wait longer because of the amount of sick people we have to treat,” she said.

Sanchez said the ER is overly reliant on traveling nurses who work on short-term contracts, typically two to three months. Of the 17 traveling nurses at Hazel Hawkins, nine work in the ER, she said.

Traveling nurses aren’t as familiar with the ER, its protocols or the county’s residents, Sanchez said. As a result, charge nurses like Sanchez, who help run day-to-day operations, aren’t able to take breaks and often have to care for patients instead of tending to their other responsibilities.

“It’s a huge burden,” she said.

Dr. Michael Bogey, who is in charge of the Hazel Hawkins ER, wasn’t available for an interview. Mohammad Al-Hasan, a local doctor who works in the ER, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sanchez said the staffing situation worsened when full-time nurses quit over the loss of benefits following the hospital’s bankruptcy petition in 2023. A judge dismissed the bankruptcy petition in 2024, saying there wasn’t evidence of insolvency, and the hospital lost its appeal of the court’s ruling. 

This year, Casillas said Hazel Hawkins has enjoyed a turnaround in its finances. The hospital brought on a recruiter in February and is now looking to hire full-time ER nurses. It’s also working with the nurses union to create a hiring pipeline through graduate nursing programs.

A new union contract could draw more nurses, too.

In May, the National Union of Healthcare Workers secured a 4-year contract, which restored paid time off and gave its members a year of retroactive pay, among other agreements. Sanchez said she is hopeful that the new contract will shore up the hospital’s staffing.

“We hopefully have a way out of the crisis,” she said.

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