Comments by Barry Parr

CUSD candidates’ forum: Jonathan Lundell

I’m going to ask this question of all three candidates:

1. What experience do you have managing a budget? 

2. What has your pre-election review of the CUSD budget told you about the school district?

CUSD candidates’ forum: John Moseley

In the candidates’ forum and in your campaign materials you say that the new middle school should be a “jewel”.  While I can’t argue with that sentiment, I’d like you to be more specific about what you mean.

What is it about the design for the new middle school that makes it a jewel in your opinion, and why isn’t it possible for Cunha, an historic site next to our historic and genuinely jewel-like downtown that keeps it from being the jewel you speak of?

I’d also like you to tell me how many students live within walking distance (say, a 20-minute walk) of the wavecrest middle school site, and how many live within walking distance of Cunha.

CUSD candidates’ forum: John Moseley

It’s not surprising the big backpacks are a health risk.  As in all things educational, there’s research to prove it:

Hickey conducted a research study on the physically damaging affects of heavy backpacks after witnessing her own children strain under the weight of their schoolbooks. About 70 percent of the middle school students in her experiment were lugging around a backpack that was harmful to their growing bodies. While small kids hauling around 25-pound backpacks is a common sight in elementary, middle and high school hallways, according to Hickey’s computation, only a 200-pound person can safely carry a bag of this size.

My question for all the candidates:  Shouldn’t there be lockers at Cunha?  Will you support lockers at the new middle school?

CUSD candidates’ forum: John Moseley

I’m going to ask this question of all three candidates:

1. What experience do you have managing a budget? 

2. What has your pre-election review of the CUSD budget told you about the school district?

Report to readers: Reviewing the Review

I don’t think it would be helpful for me to speculate about the Review’s motives. Perhaps they can tell us why they did what they did.

The MROSD will discuss redistricting and its Good Neighbor Policy on Wednesday

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Rudy Jurgensen

Public Affairs Manager
650-691-1200

Open Space District Board Adopts Resolution Supporting Proposition 1A

-- Measure Will Prohibit the State Legislature from Taking Local Tax Dollars --

LOS ALTOS, CA - [September 23, 2004] - Last night, the Board of Directors of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) unanimously adopted a Resolution supporting Proposition 1A, which would prohibit the state from taking and diverting funds originally committed to local government to pay for state purposes. Proposition 1A is a Constitutional Amendment placed on the November 2004 ballot by the Legislature as part of the budget package negotiated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, legislative leaders from both parties, local government officials, and community leaders, among others.

“The District is pleased to support this historic measure,” said Mary Davey, the District’s Board President. “Proposition 1A will help protect funding for open space lands and our room to breathe.”

California cities, counties, and special districts provide essential local services such as public safety, medical care, and open space lands and pay for these services and programs with funds from local taxes. Over the past 12 years, the state has used its authority over local government tax revenues to change tax rates and the distribution of tax revenues among local governments. Now, the state is again using its authority to shift $2.6 billion in the next two years from local government funds to the state. Special districts will be contributing $700 million of this $2.6 billion.

State government currently shifts more than $5.2 billion annually in local property tax funds statewide, reducing resources available for local services, and costing local governments more than $40 billion in lost revenues. The financial burden placed on California cities, counties, and special districts has prompted the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, and the California Special Districts Association to support Proposition 1A authored by Senator Torlakson.

Proposition 1A does not raise taxes and will, in fact, help reduce pressure for local fee and tax increases by limiting state reallocation. Proposition 1A will not reduce funding for schools or any other state program or service, and was carefully written to allow flexibility in the event of a state budget emergency.

About Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is an independent, non-enterprise, California special district whose mission is to acquire and preserve a regional greenbelt of open space land in perpetuity, protect and restore the natural environment, and provide opportunities for ecologically sensitive public enjoyment and education. The District is divided into seven geographic wards, each represented for a four-year term by an elected Board member. Created by voters more than 30 years ago, the District has successfully protected and managed nearly 50,000 acres of open space. The public enjoys the District’s diverse and beautiful preserves 365 days of the year. For more information, please visit [url=http://www.openspace.org]http://www.openspace.org[/url]

Rudy Jurgensen
Public Affairs Manager
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
330 Distel Circle
Los Altos, CA 94022
Ph: 650-691-1200
Fax: 650-691-0485

The Los Pueblecitos campaign web site is now online; 95% of the city would be public lands

NOTE:  This budget includes $2.7 million from MROSD, and the Los Pueblecitos petition says that MROSD lands in the city would be turned over to the city.  I asked Oscar Braun about this in email and he wrote: “The mitigation fee schedule in the Summary is just an example of potential revenue streams that the Towncould legally adopt. Obviously, if MORSD lands are detached and transferred to LP, then MROSD wouldn’t pay fees to the town of LP. “

Los Pueblecitos supporters are circulating petitions

Putting the rural lands north of Hwy 92 in the control of a community centered around Pescadero and La Honda is not local control. It’s not even clear whether the majority of residents of District 2 would be north of the 92.

That’s not the only problem with the proposal, but it’s potentially a big one from the perspective of your coastside neighbors.

Los Pueblecitos supporters are circulating petitions

There’s more than a little irony in the fact that El Granada, Moss Beach and Montara don’t get to vote. 

The folks who are proposing this are the ones who opposed MROSD’s annexation without a vote. It would be imposed on many Coastsiders who didn’t want a vote on MROSD.

Having said that, it’s also fundamentally different. MROSD is not a government, and “annexation” only gives it the power to buy land from willing sellers.

Los Pueblecitos supporters are circulating petitions

The mis-naming of the MROSD was my mistake. I fixed it in the text.

The transfer of MROSD land is not exactly a request. The petition says that the MROSD land “shall” be transferred. I have no idea whether or on whom that would be legally binding.

I’m going to post more information the incorporation process.

CUSD’s report card: “Needs Improvement”

I’d like to see more innovation and competition in publicly-funded schools, but not vouchers.

I’d like us to be less stingy with education, and less rigid about the way we compensate teachers: more incentive pay and less emphasis on seniority and meaningless training.

I want more, smaller, community schools.

I’m not a big proponent of reducing class size per se.

I’d like to see less federal involvement in education policy.

I’d like to see the job of teacher made more inviting to smarter, more creative people. As long as it represents a compromise between unions and government, this will never happen.

What I’m really talking about is a degree of flexibility and innovation that is impossible with the current state, federal, union, and taxpayer priorities.

I don’t know the answers to the problem, which is why I’d like to see more innovation.

I don’t know how much more local school boards can do with the hands they’ve been dealt.

Clearing an endangered woodrat’s nest off a lot

It’s a lot more complicated than that.

My sense is that the jury is still out on whether the rats are protected.  But the landowner didn’t wait for the verdict.

There’s a long-standing tradition in development of digging holes that can’t be undug and accepting the legal penalties as a cost of doing business. In the close quarters here on the coast, that’s a recipe for chaos. Landowners’ rights have never been absolute, nor should they be.

Having said that, I don’t have an opinion on the dusky-footed woodrat. But I love a good story (especially one with pictures) and what happened here is an interesting story that’s not being told anywhere else.

Judge implies county’s petition count wasn’t impartial, delays case

Thanks for this report. It really helped clarify the trial, the issues, and next steps.

It seems to me that when a judge suggests that county elections officials aren’t being impartial when they’re counting petitions, that’s headline news.  I was initially skeptical of swingfiddle’s report (first comment on this story), which I also found hard to parse, but the Merc confirmed it in essence.

Having said that, SOB’s case is looking more and more like hand-waving.

Red-legged frog sighted at Wavecrest

I’ve been told there is more information about Wavecrest at:

http://wavecrest.sanmateo.org/

...as well as some very wet-looking photos of Wavecrest at:

http://wavecrest.sanmateo.org/wetwavecrest/wetwavecrest.html

The Lost World of the coastside in 1972

You’re right. That was an exaggeration born of my surprise at how empty the fields were to the west of Hwy 1, and trying to convey it at 1am.  It now reads “Half Moon Bay has only begun to sprawl across Highway 1”.

The low-density rural development from the days of the railroad isn’t sprawl. Sprawl is development that is not only driven by automobiles, but designed to accomodate cars ahead of people. A good example would be CUSD’s current plan for a new middle school on the southernmost edge of HMB, instead of downtown.

Judge grants a restraining order in petition count

The following eyewitness account of the hearing was emailed to me by Kathryn Slater-Carter:

I attended the hearing in Half Moon Bay Foundation v. LAFCo hearing in Redwood City yesterday.  It went on from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a break from about 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The court heard testimony from several individuals opposed to the annexation including Terry Gossett, Bob Braitman (currently Executive Officer of Contra Costa County LAFCo and a “for-hire consultant) and Frank Iwama (of Counsel to the Hannig law firm which is representing Braun and Save Our Bay).  Of particular interest, Terry Gossett testified that he had personally “touched” each of the approx. 5,000+ protest forms that were submitted to LAFCo AND that he had altered many of them to add additional information which was available to him from the voter registration roles.  His testified that his group had created a data base from the petitions it had collected.  Bob Braitman gave vague and rambling testimony with much personal opinion and few actual facts.

During the afternoon, David Tom of County Elections gave excellent testimony attesting to the fact that Elections acted according to the Government and Elections code and had done its best to consistently, fairly and openly process the protests that were submitted.  He said it is “highly unusual” to have so many duplicates and altered forms.

Judge Forcum set another court date, July 22, for a full evidentiary hearing on this issue and directed County Elections to count the number of protests where PO boxes were given and deemed invalid.

Interestingly, the judge persevered with this directive despite the fact that County Counsel forcefully made the point that even if all the protests deemed invalid because of changed address information were counted there still would not be a sufficient number for an election. The judge admitted that the evidentiary hearing might be “an academic exercise” but felt that the issue needs a full trial.  He said he found no fault with the elections count but chided LAFCo for taking a conservative interpretation of the government codes detailing the acceptable protest forms.  LAFCo had determined that petitions altered by someone other than the signatory were invalid.

The Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation aka Save Our Bay spent considerable time attempting introduce issues not in its original complaint and attempting to persuade the judge to just stop the court proceedings and call an election.  I was impressed that the judge stuck to the original complaint and did not expand the scope of the hearing.

It was interesting to note that when the judge did set this for trial the HMBCoastside Foundation wanted the trial date set far beyond the time for this issue to be put on the November election.  The judge, consistent with his concern for the vote, set the hearing for 9 am July 22.

Judge grants a restraining order in petition count

According to the certification by the county, 5,340 protests were delivered and 5,340 were verified. Of those 3583 were found sufficient and 1,757 were found “not sufficient” and reasons were given.

But you’re right that 1,757 is 32.9% of 5,340—not 34%.

There were 341 protests found “not sufficient” because they were “not registered”. It’s possible that this includes some of the absentee property owners. It’s impossible to say without more information.

Judge grants a restraining order in petition count

Says the judge, ``The right to vote is the most cherished right we have in this country. We have people dying in foreign countries for this right.’’

That’s true. They’re there because a lot of people in Florida were denied their right to vote in 2000.

The county says MROSD opponents didn’t get enough signatures. Next stop: court

You’re right about the count. I corrected it. I’m looking forward to see how this turns out.

Who has the best cell phone coverage on the coast?

I’ve also noticed that in the last few weeks, message notification has broken down for me.  I don’t get notified of new voice mail messages until 24 hours after they’re left in many cases. I’m not sure if this is an AT&T;or Cingular problem, but it’s a big issue.

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