SAN BENITO COUNTY — At its Jan. 6, 2025 meeting, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors elected Supervisor Colin Kozmicki as chair and Supervisor Dom Zenger as vice chair, and approved recommended committee assignments for 2025 after the chair outlined proposals to eliminate or narrow several standing committees.

Supervisor Colin Kozmicki, who led the committee recommendations, said the proposals aim to “maximize the use of limited staff resources” and avoid duplicative conversations between committees and the full board. He told the board he would not submit recommendations for five committees pending a future board decision on whether to eliminate them: the IT Committee, Facilities Committee, Homeless Task Force, Home Loan Committee and Landfill Committee.

Kozmicki also proposed narrowing the Economic Advisory Committee’s scope to tourism, renaming it the Tourism Advisory Committee and reducing membership from 11 to seven members to “foster a more productive focused dialogue,” and said he would return with a proposed bylaw amendment for the board to consider. He noted that committee terms for sitting supervisors in current bylaws are nonbinding and said he would propose removing recently adopted language that prescribes supervisor terms on committees.

The board voted on leadership positions by roll call. The motion to elect Supervisor Colin Kozmicki as chair passed 5-0. The motion to elect Supervisor Dom Zenger as vice chair likewise passed 5-0. After public comment (none was received on the committee slate), the board voted 5-0 to approve the recommended committee assignments as presented at the meeting.

Kozmicki described several specific appointment changes that were part of the approved slate: Ignacio Velasquez as alternate to AMBAG and as a recommended member on several intergovernmental committees; Dom Zenger recommended to fill a LAFCO vacancy; and Kozmicki recommending himself as LAFCO delegate and seeking to remove and replace existing delegate/alternate appointments under the authority he cited from state law. On that point, Kozmicki read from state law, saying it “states that the body appointing a member of LAFCO may remove that member at any time without cause.” (The board cited Government Code §56334 in the meeting.)

Kozmicki ran through a long list of recommended delegations and ad hoc assignments — including appointments to AMBAG, the Behavioral Health Board, Central Coast Community Energy Board, CSAC, MBARD, NACO, the Pajaro Watershed Flood Prevention Authority, the RDA successor oversight committee, RCRC and various local ad hocs (Hazel Hawkins Hospital on hold; Sanitary Solutions ad hoc recommended to continue). He recommended that the Sanitary Solutions and other ad hocs continue as currently constituted.

There was no public comment on the nominations; the board proceeded to a roll call vote on the slate and approved it unanimously. Earlier in the meeting the board also voted to allow Supervisor Ignacio Velasquez to attend remotely because he reported attending from a medical setting; the board approved that remote attendance prior to the leadership votes.

The board observed that Jan. 9 would be the county’s National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter, an informational item presented by the interim county administrator.

The meeting concluded after the votes with a unanimous motion to adjourn.

Ending: The board’s action approved the 2025 leadership and committee assignments as presented; Kozmicki said he will bring back bylaws amendments and any proposals to eliminate or reconfigure committees for formal consideration at a future meeting.