Jim Gillio said he has a “pretty unique background” in his run for District 4 county supervisor. He grew up off Santa Ana Valley Road raised by a single mother, had a career in law enforcement, and now owns a small business while serving on the Hollister City Council.
“My responsibility was the budget, and the police department at the time had a $17.2 million budget, which is a pretty big amount for a single department,” Gillio said.
He was speaking about his time as captain of the Gilroy Police Department. He said his goal was to always run a “very tight ship” and that the agency was “always able to give money back to the city” at year’s end.
Gillio is running for supervisor against incumbent Jerry Muenzer, Chief Financial Officer Robert Bernosky, Community Relations Director Elia Salinas and marketing professional Sandy Swint.
He said through his small business perspective running Central Ag Supply with his wife, he got involved in the Rotary Club and San Benito County Business Council before being appointed to the council last year.
“We’re all very local people and care deeply about our community,” he said.
Gillio wanted to pursue the supervisor role to make a bigger difference.
“I think we need some leadership and some vision at the county board of supervisors so that we can maximize our potential,” Gillio said.
He wants to pursue opportunities for economic development and expand the base of small and large businesses.
“We need to get living-wage jobs in our community,” he said. “We need to work on our infrastructure. We need to provide excellent leadership at the board level so that permeates throughout the county.”
He said he wants his 11-year-old daughter to have the ability to get a job here or start a business here if she desires to do so.
“I don’t want her to have to think that in order to make a good living, I need to leave our community,” he said.
Gillio said his top three issues are public safety at No. 1 along with economic development and fixing the roads. He said the sheriff’s office has been struggling with low resources in recent years.
“I think the first building block is safety,” he said.
Once that’s accomplished, the county can grow economically. He mentioned the county’s recent adoption of a comprehensive economic development strategy as a tool to compete for federal grants that can help with areas like traffic improvements.
“Our roads are in a very, very terrible place,” he said. “We’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars to just bring our county roads up to a livable, usable standard, and we need revenue to do that.”
As a leader, he’d rather plan into the future than micromanage staff.
“We need to look forward and plan 10, 15, 20, 40 years into the future to see what our community’s going to look like.”
Candidate Profile
Name: Jim Gillio
Age: 44
Occupation: Small Business Owner
Political Experience: Hollister City Councilman
To see video interviews with four candidates running for District 4 supervisor, see below. Incumbent Jerry Muenzer has not committed to an interview.
http://sanbenitolive.wpengine.com/election-2018-video-interviews-in-district-4-supervisor-race/
