Bob Davies will serve as director until the board seeks a
permanent replacement
Hollister – San Benito County Council of Governments officials have announced that local resident Bob Davies will be serving as interim COG director for the next several months while the board seeks a permanent replacement.
“I think he’s more than qualified for this position,” said County Supervisor Anthony Botelho, who sits on the COG board.
Davies retired last year after serving as Commander of the Gilroy/Hollister CHP for 11 years, which makes him uniquely qualified for the job of steering COG for the time being, Botelho said.
“He’s very familiar with the roads and transportation issues in the area,” he said. “And that’s the sort of experience we need to make sure COG stays on track.”
Davies was also a familiar face on COG’s Technical Advisory Committee, so he is well versed with many of the issues the agency is dealing with.
“I spent nine of my 11 years with the CHP on the committee,” he said. “So I’m involved with the history of a lot of this.”
COG directors expect to have a permanent director in place within two or three months, which Botelho said is about how long Davies expressed an interest in working with COG. During his tenure with the agency, Davies will make just less than $7,000.
“We have a lot of very capable people in the COG office,” said Botelho. “But I think some leadership from the outside will be very beneficial for everybody.”
Davies’ day-to-day administrative responsibilities will include keeping the COG directors informed of developments surrounding ongoing transportation issues – like the Highway 25 bypass project – and overseeing office staff.
“I’m hoping we can really focus on making things work at the local level, and not have someone worrying about attending all these meetings out of town,” Botelho said. “We have enough of our own troubles at home.”
Davies will be taking the reins from Tom Quigley, who resigned earlier in the month after heading COG for three years. No official reason was given for Quigley’s departure and he refused to comment, but his tenure at the multi-jurisdictional agency’s helm was mired in controversy.
