The Coastside Fire Protection District is free to contract with Cal Fire. The referendum petition was ruled invalid. The 13 page opinion is being faxed to my office.

Ginny McShane
CFPD Director

Michael Niece, 65, director of Coastside Catholic Worker, plans to surrender shortly to the San Mateo County Jail for a ten-day sentence, reports the Chronicle.

“I’d rather get this over with now,” Niece said quietly to his attorney after Judge Carl Holm of San Mateo County Superior Court gave him about a month to get his affairs in order.

Holm ultimately ordered Niece to surrender Saturday. He will be eligible for the sheriff’s work program, meaning he will probably serve his time picking up trash rather than sitting behind bars.

Niece was also given two years’ probation and was directed to continue counseling. The judge also told him to stay away from the victim.

Niece was taped offering a needy client $500 for sex. Coastside Catholic Worker is now closed.

A many who happened to see a teenage girl nearly buried in a landslide at Esplanade beach in Pacifica dug her out with his bare hands, reports KTVU.

The landslide, reported just after 3 p.m. Saturday at Esplanade Beach, buried the girl up to her chest in dirt, according to North County Fire Authority spokeswoman Angelina Ciussi.

She was rescued by Keller, who saw it all happen from an RV park overlooking the beach. He dug the girl out from the dirt and brought her to safety before firefighters arrived.

“I ran down there and saw that she was buried from her chest down,” Keller told KTVU. “I just kept digging and digging with my hands and my feet. She was breathing but she didn’t say anything…She was dazed and confused.”

The beach has been closed, some RV’s have been located from the cliff, and the hillside is being monitored. Click here to see the cliffs in Pacifica at the California Coastal Records Project.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered a dead body in the back of a car parked at Montara State Beach, when they stopped to a question a man sitting in the front seat, reports the Chronicle.

San Mateo County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith O’Dell approached the lone vehicle just after 11 p.m. Saturday evening after he saw it parked in a small turnout area near Montara State Beach, just south of Devil’s Slide.

O’Dell walked toward the driver’s side to talk to the driver. When the sheriff’s deputy looked into the back seat he saw, “an arm protruding from underneath some coverings in the back seat” according to a sheriff’s press release.

The names of the victim and the suspect have not been released, and there is evidence the crime took place in another county.

UPDATE: The body has been identified as John Alfred Pierre Dennis Jr., 59, a faculty member at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and City College of San Francisco. Dennis was shot to death. Police believe he was killed in is home on Hansom Drive in the Oakland hills. Police arrested Troy Thomas, 43, of Oakland as a suspect in the killing.

A downed power line at about 9:30pm near Seahorse Ranch caused a blackout in in Half Moon Bay and elsewhere on the coast.

The Coastside Fire Department was on the scene when we arrived shortly after 10pm, but had to wait for PG&E, who arrived at about 10:30.

The are more photos after the click. 

Coastside firefighters who worked a full year in 2007 received an average of $155,000 in compensation in 2007, including base pay, overtime, and benefits. Captains received an average of $202,000.

The compensation of the Coastside’s firefighters has been debated for years during the run-up to the votes to consolidate the Coastside districts and contract services to Cal Fire. But the actual figures have not been available to the public until now.

It is still critical that Coastsiders understand the compensation of its firefighters. The CalFire contracts are vulnerable to litigation or a referendum election. Also, the IAFF Local 2400 Officials have threatened recall of current Coastside Fire Protection District board members.

Recently, California Supreme Court determined that the the public has a right to salary information by name for public service employees. I submitted a public information request to the CFPD board and received a list of salaries without names for Calendar years 2006 and 2007.

Notes on the charts

In order to make the compensation numbers comparable, they do not include firefighters who worked less than a full year.

Administrative personnel and a mechanic have been removed from the data so that the only individually identifiable personnel are senior management.

There is no way to tell from the analysis how much of the overtime worked by Coastside firefighters was voluntary.

Benefits are fixed at 53% of base pay. Firefighters can retire at 55 with up to 90% of final salary with lifetime medical. Benefits should be considered as part of compensation for two reasons: (1) workers in the private receive retirement benefits in the form of a 401K plan that is deducted from their gross salary, and (2) many private sector workers, as well as the self-employed, pay all or part of their insurance.

You can download a tab-delimited text file of the original data suitable for importing into Excel or other analytical software from Coastsider.

Highway 92 is now open. It was closed in both directions at 9am today because trees and power lines had fallen in to the road.

Devil’s Slide is closed. When it was closed and for how long is still unclear.

At 3pm today, Devil’s Slide was closed in both directions, according to John Cunliffe at Caltrans. Cunliffe says crews were on the Slide to remove boulders that had fallen onto the road south of the Slide. Other crews are on the Slide dealing with storm water and checking the main monitoring system.

It’s a good idea to stay off the Slide if you can avoid it, or to check the status of the road with 511.org before heading over the Slide.

UPDATE: Lt. Ken Jones at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach told us 5:30pm that Caltrans is on the Slide with heavy equipment, clearing the road right now. They estimate it will take a minimum 3 hours to clear. Be sure to check before you leave.

The traffic signal for the intersection at Highways 1 & 92 will be on “flash” through the Monday (Jan. 14th) morning commute.

Apparently there is a problem that needs to be addressed by the City’s contractor that is involved in the Highway #92 construction project and they cannot address it until Monday.

The Police are reminding motorists to treat the intersection like a 4-way stop sign.  There will be additional police officers on duty to assist during the morning commute times.  Police encourage those commuters that are able to use alternative routes to do so.  Please allow additional time to get to your destination.

Further questions call:
HMB PD/On-Duty Supervisor
726-8286

Sgt Dennis Loubal
HMB PD

UPDATE: Power has been restored to Half Moon Bay and the shelter at Adcock Center has been closed.

Coastsiders are cautioned to shelter in place, according to Half Moon Bay’s Emergency Operations Center. Limited shelter is available at the Adcock Center at 535 Kelly Ave as long as power is out. The HMB Police Dept and Coastside Fire District’s Emergency Operating Center will be at the fire station in Half Moon Bay is long as the power is out.  PG&E has not provided an estimated time for when the power is expected to be restored and it could be out the entire weekend.

Seton Coastside in Moss Beach is open for all medical emergencies, but the Coastside Medical Clinic in Half Moon Bay is closed. The EOC is reporting the grocery stores in HMB are closed.

Sand bags are available at these locations:

• Half Moon Bay City Hall, 501 Main Street, in the open parking lot off Johnston Street


• Half Moon Bay Corp Yard at 880 Stone Pine Road (east end of road)


• Princeton’s Public Works Corp Yard at 203 Cornell Avenue


• Pescadero High School at 350 Butano Cut Off Road

Additional cautions:

• High surf warnings and coastal flood watch remains until Sunday afternoon


• Intersection lights are out - please relate to them as four way stops


• Take care with burning candles - don’t leave them unattended


• Do not use propane or charcoal as an inside heat or cooking source


• Limit driving


• Stay away from flooded roadways, ditches and high surf.


• Avoid downed power lines