The cancellation or curtailment of the salmon season could have an adverse effect on the San Mateo County Harbor District, reports the Examiner.

The district — which oversees operations for Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay and Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco — estimates it could lose as much as $300,000 in revenue if the salmon season is canceled. The loss would only add to the current $900,000 deficit, an amount that would normally narrow to about $200,000 as the spring fishing season picks up, Harbor District General Manager Peter Grenell said.

An increase in the deficit could lead the district to put off capital projects that have already been approved.  The district has been aggressively seeking the right to build on the portion of El Granada’s Burnham Strip that it owns.

The Point Montara Fire Protection District board of directors met on Thursday morning, March 23 to consider consolidation and outsourcing of fire services from Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District. Point Montara currently buys fire services from Half Moon Bay and is in the process of negotiating a consolidation with the larger district.

At the meeting, outgoing HMB Chief Pete Bonano said that the San Mateo County Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) did not object to the outsourcing of fire services by the consolidating districts.  He also noted that he had already been approached by South County Fire Authority and California Department of Forestry about providing services.

After a short, amicable discussion, the Point Montara board passed a motion to accept Chief Bonano’s recommendation that HMBFPD investigate outsourcing of fire services, that consolidation should continue and that the Consolidation Committee should draft an request for proposal for outsourcing the fire services.

By Lorraine Feather

I live in El Granada; my husband and I have two dogs.

Most of the people who live here and have dogs, are very considerate. They keep their dogs leashed while walking, and fenced in their yards. If a dog should break free and run up to us when we’re walking ours, they call the dog back immediately with an apology.

A minority of people seem unaware that there is a leash law, or maybe they think that because this is a semi-rural area, the rules don’t apply. They let their dogs run in the street, which not only endangers the dog but causes an uncomfortable situation for those of us who are out walking our dogs on leash. The leashed dog is obviously at a disadvantage anyway, being restrained, and may begin to snarl even if the other dog is initially friendly, which can cause an incident.

In an email sent today at 1:46pm, Half Moon Bay Interim Fire Chief Pete Bonano announced he would be leaving the department soon: “Due to issues involving my personal life - NOT due to any issue relating to this Fire Department - I’m not able to continue much longer as the Interim Fire Chief.”

Bonano said that Mike Preston, retired Chief from the City of Newark, would be his most likely replacement and said he’d remain in place until Preston could take over.

This announcement comes less than 24 hours after the board meeting where his recommendation to outsource fire services was discussed.

NOTE: You can now download the five-page list of deficiencies noted by the San Mateo Fire Department in the Half Moon Bay department’s fire prevention programs [PDF] from Coastsider.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Point Montara Fire Protection District will discuss Chief Bonano’s recommendations at a special board meeting, Thursday, March 23 at 10:00am. The meeting will be at the Sheriff’s Substation, at California St. and Highway 1, Moss Beach.

Tuesday night, after a night of public interviews on Monday, the Half Moon Bay City Council reaffirmed its decision to select Jeff Allis and Linda Poncini for the two at-large positions on its planning commission.

That’s the boring part of this story.

The important, and interesting, part was the difference between a public interview of the candidates and the private telephone interviews that some city council members said they made before the previous vote on February 22.

In a small, crowded room in the Adcock Center Monday night, the city council interviewed ten candidates over the course of two hours. The questions were routine, and so were the responses for the most part. But we got to know the candidates, and some interesting patterns emerged.

I didn’t think the two candidates selected were the strongest. But they weren’t the weakest. And they weren’t most pro-development of the candidates, either. And I wouldn’t have known even that much about either of them if they hadn’t been interviewed publicly.

Linda Poncini would not have been selected this time without the votes of David Gorn and Jim Grady, who abstained during the last vote.

At least one candidate, Bob Feldman—a recent arrival in Half Moon Bay—appeared to be unfamiliar with the deep political chasm he was attempting to traverse. While he wasn’t familiar with planning per se, his intelligence and engagement came through.  Tuesday night, Jim Grady nominated him for one of the at-large planning commission slots.  While only Marina Fraser voted for him, he was later selected for an open seat on the Architectural Review Committee. And that’s something else that would not have happened if there had been no public hearings.

The council did the right thing in holding public interviews. And although it was painfully clear that there is still plenty of unhappiness at the table, they won a couple of minor victories and showed why it’s a good thing to operate in the open.

For the record: McClung, Fraser, and Patridge voted for Allis.  Gorn, McClung, and Grady voted for Poncini. Gorn and Grady voted for Jack McCarthy. Fraser voted for Bob Feldman. And Patridge voted for David Meir. And everything after the first paragraph is more opinion than news.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the Half Moon Bay Fire Department board there was a spirited discussion of Interim Chief Pete Bonano’s assessment that the problems of the district could best be resolved by contracting out the services of the department.

Bonano’s presentation was not as hard-hitting as his memo.  He did note that “Mandatory inspections are not being done.” However, he was quick to note that the staffing problems had not resulted in problems with emergency response, and that the conclusion of the memo that the fire services should be contracted out is his opinion.

Directors David Eufusia and Lane Lees did not dispute the Chief’s findings, but said that they were nothing new. Eufusia said, “This has been going on a long time” and acknowledged that the situation was a “crisis”.

Point Montara Fire Protection District director Gary Riddell, attending as a liaison, echoed this, saying, “Tell us something we don’t know.”

One clear voice was of an individual firefighter, not a union representative, who noted that the firehouse was under tremendous stress because of long hours and every time one firefighter takes a day off, another’s duty is increased, saying “People are not functioning as a unit.”

What was less clear was what the board intended to do about the ongoing crisis. There was discussion of consolidation with larger agencies in addition to the Chief’s recommended alternative of contracting out services.

Lees noted somewhat encouragingly that “A RFP is not a decision”.

The board voted unanimously for its consolidation committee to draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) for likely agencies, and asked the Chief to informally inquire which agencies might be interested in receiving the district’s RFP.

The Interim Fire Chief of the Half Moon Bay Fire Department is recommending that the department contract out fire services to another agency, while continuing its consolidation with the Point Montara Fire Protection District [PDF of memo]. He cites numerous problems affecting the district’s ability to do its job, and the personnel problems that make the problems so difficult to resolve.

This recommendation will be discussed at tonight’s meeting of the district’s board of directors, at 7:30pm at the Half Moon Bay firehouse, 1191 Main Street.

In a strongly-worded memorandum to the district’s board of directors, Interim Chief Pete Bonano notes that the department lacks sufficient experienced firefighters and staff, the department’s programs are in trouble, and that morale in the firehouse is low.

Bonano writes that three of the district’s firefighters are applying for positions in another district and nine are currently in the Academy, leaving the district with the potential of 40% of its 33 firefighter positions as probationary employees. He further notes that the Fire Inspector has quit, the Fire Chief retired, and one Division Chief has quit.

“I’m very concerned with the Department’s ability to provide a level of service consistent with the Mission of the Fire Service,”  he says, and goes on to cite problems with the Fire Prevention program and say that the San Mateo City Fire Marshal has provided him with a five-page list of deficiencies.

As if this were not enough, “Morale is low, resulting in a culture of lawsuits, grievances and excessive sick leave use. ... While there are many shining stars in the workforce, we have our share of firefighters who are unmotivated, disgruntled and well versed in throwing up roadblocks.”

He says that the district can terminate problem employees, but says it would take a lot of money and many years.

The alternative he recommends is contracting out services.

“I really believe that Board should look deep inside and ask yourself, ‘how can we provide a higher level of service? Could another agency do a better job? Is what’s currently going on in the best interest of the Community? How long is the organization going to bleed before we say enough?’”

A huge cypress fell across Fir Street, just south of Harte, in Montara this morning. PG&E got the call at 8:45am, and discovered that the tree had fallen directly on a utility pole, taking out a main junction for 427 homes, as well as telephone lines.

PG&E expects to restore power by 1pm today.

Carol Keiper, Marine Biologist, will discuss the mighty albatross and other migratory seabirds, where they come from, their amazing migration, and threats to their survival and what we can do to help save them.

This free lecture will be Thursday Evening March 23, 2006 7:00-9:00pm, Point Montara Lighthouse. This is part of a lecture series is sponsored by the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and  Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. For reservations and registration for all lecture series events, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 561-6625, ext 311.

Steven Ruben Suvaco of Half Moon Bay was arrested on a warrant from the Sheriff’s office for annoying or molesting children, an El Granada woman was arrested for spousal abuse and re-arrested the following day for violating a protective order, two juveniles escaped from a probation camp in La Honda, two men were arrested on warrants—in El Granada for drugs and in San Gregorio for driving with a suspended license, and a cabin at Gazos Creek and a boat in Princeton were both burglarized.
See full story for details and more.