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In a long and disturbing phone conversation with BenitoLink on Oct. 3, Andy Hsia-Coron, the activist behind a number of local initiatives including Measure A on the Nov. 5 ballot, said he has been “sidelined” from the campaign. The move occurred after a week in which Hsia-Coron held forth in two public meetings to angrily confront city and county officials.
A planning commissioner told BenitoLink that at one point he felt threatened.
Hsia-Coron initiated the call with BenitoLink reporter Noe Magaña and insisted that the call be recorded. The activist, who previously had declined to speak to Magaña, animatedly discussed topics ranging from his athletic prowess to his being a “direct linear descendant of Moses’ brother.” He mentioned that some people believed he may be a danger to himself and others.
After more than an hour on the phone call, Hsia-Coron began shouting someone’s name and asking if they were okay. A few minutes later, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Hsia-Coron’s neighborhood. Undersheriff Tom Keylon later told BenitoLink that there had been “a misunderstanding.”
The phone call came days after Hsia-Coron addressed local officials at two public meetings and appeared to be in an agitated state.
At a special meeting of San Benito County’s Planning Commission held on Sept. 25, Hsia-Coron told commissioners and counsel that they were violating his constitutional rights by interrupting him to request that he keep his remarks within the topic under consideration.
“Good politics is really theater,” he said, and displayed several “props” to make various points.
Commission Chair Robert Gibson later told BenitoLink that Hsia-Coron had approached him and other county officials before the meeting. Gibson said Hsia-Coron appeared angry and was wearing a hunting vest and carrying a bag, and told Gibson, “I’m gonna go hunting, okay?”
“That’s kind of an odd thing to have a hunting vest and that little bag,” Gibson said. “And then, at some point, he unzipped it, and he started to reach in, and then he stopped. I was just not exactly sure what was in that little bag, so I got a little tense myself.”
Hsia-Coron appeared at an Oct. 1 Hollister City Council meeting where he came to the podium eight times during the three-minute public comment periods for various matters. He complained about what happened at the Planning Commission meeting, criticized the City Council, and commented—frequently going off topic—on the items on the agenda, democracy, and free speech.
“When you go to the microphone, there should be nobody interrupting you for your three minutes because they don’t know what you’re trying to say,” he said. “You might go up and sing a little song, and that’s how you make your point. You might do a little drum thing. You might dance like a Native American. Who knows? That’s your right.”
Mayor Mia Casey, who presided over the Hollister City Council meeting on Oct. 1, told BenitoLink that Hsia-Coron’s behavior surprised her.
“His demeanor was very different. He had never used props, and was rambling when he’s usually very succinct,” she said. “This was not his usual behavior.”
Hsia-Coron is a former biology teacher turned environmental activist who, along with his wife Mary Hsia-Coron, has been behind some key initiatives in San Benito County. In 2014, they led the successful Measure J, which banned fracking, a technique to extract oil and gas, in the county.
Since then, through the organizations Protect Our Rural Communities and Protect San Benito County, he has pushed several initiatives to limit development projects in the county.
The newest of the group’s initiatives is Measure A, which voters will decide on Nov. 5. The measure seeks to require voter approval for changing agricultural, rural and rangeland zoning designations. It would also remove the designation of four commercial zones along Hwy 101 from the General Plan, the county’s blueprint for growth. It would limit the County’s ability to expand the John Smith Landfill. An earlier version of this measure, also authored by the Hsia-Corons, failed in 2022.
Mary Hsia-Coron declined to comment for this article.
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