After he was elected to a second term in 2020, San Benito County District 1 Supervisor Mark Medina served as chair of the Board of Supervisors. After quickly implementing a Facebook page for residents to report road damage following the flooding of 2016, Medina has worked to overhaul San Benito County’s planning department. He cites economic development, public safety, repairing roads, and widening Highway 25 as his main goals, while he also continues working as a financial manager for a local business.
On May 25, Medina announced his resignation from the board, effective June 7.
First elected: November 2016
Alma mater: Sonoma State University (accounting and business management) BA 1996
Notable quote: “We need to bring in different organizations: Kinship, First Five, all the organizations that need to come together to create that better environment." (Source: KSBW)
At a Jan. 14 meeting, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors discussed the future of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. By a unanimous vote, they decided to approach the San Benito Health Care District in an effort to stymie the potential lease-sale of the hospital to the Michigan-based Insight Health.
Construction of Riverview Regional Park, the 46-acre recreation zone planned for the area between the Hollister High School campus and the San Benito River, will begin this fall, a year later than originally expected.
For the second time, San Benito County has canceled a town hall meeting to discuss the future of the county’s fire protection services. The meeting—which was supposed to take place in December but was then rescheduled for Jan. 9—has been indefinitely postponed.
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.
In many elections, voters will cast a ballot selecting candidates at the top of the ticket but skip voting on “down-ballot” races—resulting in what election officials call “undervotes.” In the Nov. 5 election, a number of San Benito County races had more undervotes tallied than the margin between the top two choices, which means the undervotes may have determined the outcomes of those races.
