Capitol Weekly, which covers state goverment, has an article on AB1991 and the Beachwood settlement. It includes some interesting quotes from Leland Yee and Gene Mullin:

Yee said earlier that he agreed to be a co-author of AB 1991 before the settlement was finalized. But he has since witdrawn support, citing two "surprise" clauses in the agreement. The first calls for the city to pay developer Keenan $18 million even if the bill fails, scuttling the settlement. The second is a part of the agreement that lets Keenan build 46 homes on an adjacent piece of property that wasn’t part of the original lawsuit.

"It seems as if this ended up as a Christmas tree with all sorts of goodies under it," Yee said. "If it becomes a developers’ paradise, I’m not interested."

The main author of AB 1991 is Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco. He said that he will continue to push the bill, adding that he offered the bill to help to city avoid bankruptcy; his office did not participate in the settlement talks.

"We volunteered to them that if they engaged in settlement talks and needed a bill, I would have a spot bill available for them," Mullin said. He added: "They could have gone forward with an appeal. They chose to settle…We will fulfill our commit to carry the bill and work as hard as we can to make sure they don’t have to pay $18 million."
...
Environmentalists say Mullin has some alleged ties to the pro-development old guard, but Mullin dismisses these claims. In the early-to-mid 1970s, Mullin said, his divorced father married Dolores Mullin, a longtime Half Moon Bay city councilwoman and one-time mayor. But Mullin notes that he was already in his late 30s at the time, so Dolores Mullin was never really his stepmother or godmother, as some have stated. Mullin’s father died in the 1980, and he said he had little contact with Dolores Mullin after that.

"She was a conservative Republican and I’m a liberal democrat," Mullin said. "We didn’t have a lot of interaction, to say the least."

The County Times also has a very good story on AB1991, which includes these details:

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, also agreed to co-sponsor the bill in response to a request Mullin’s office sent to the entire Bay Area delegation in February, according to Mullin. Her name is not attached to the "placeholder" bill Mullin submitted at the time, but will appear in the final, amended language that includes the details of the settlement.

That language is being analyzed by a slate of legislative attorneys, according to Mullin. It will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Local Government on April 30 before coming to a vote on the Assembly floor.
...
The city’s Architectural Review Committee will, in fact, consider the proposed design of Keenan’s homes — but will only be able to apply the standards in effect when the city fist approved a building permit for Beachwood back in 1990.

I didn’t learn much in business school, but I did learn that if an employee is not behaving in the best interests of the organization, it’s a pretty good bet his compensation program is structured to encourage it.

When you look at MCTV’s budget, you can begin to see why they don’t talk to the community or even listen. MCTV’s not returning my messages, so this is my personal analysis of their tax returns.

Three quarters of MCTV’s income comes from grants from the city of Half Moon Bay and from San Mateo County. The city and county get the money from cable franchise fees and pass it on to MCTV.  Coastsiders pay the franchise fee as a separate line item on their Comcast bills. But it’s not earmarked for MCTV. The city and county could choose to keep the money, or give it to someone else. With the City Council and Board of Supervisors providing three-quarters of MCTV’s revenue, MCTV’s existence depends on keeping them happy.

MCTV’s only other significant source of revenue is what they call "government grants". This appears to be the fees that local boards pay MCTV for taping and cablecasting their meetings. But it’s unclear why MCTV is unwilling to run tapes of meetings they didn’t produce, since the income from taping doesn’t appear to be much more than the expense of volunteers, staff time, and materials. Running these tapes might free up staff time and equipment for something more interesting.

What MCTV calls "direct public support" appears to be what you and I would call advertising revenue.  And MCTV made about $4,000 on advertising in fiscal 2005.

Most startling is that less than 1% of MCTV’s revenue comes from membership dues. If MCTV had to go to the community every year meet its budget, the way that KQED must for example, you could expect them to be a lot more responsive.

[CORRECTION: MCTV’s board is elected by its members.]

Hello Friends and Fellow Obama Supporters:

As many of you may know, I have been extremely active with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for well over a year now. I have traveled as an unpaid volunteer to Nevada three times and to Texas once to phone bank, canvass door to door and assist during the caucuses. I am the Team Coordinator for Congressional District 12, which includes Montara and Moss Beach, and I managed our South San Francisco Obama HQT earlier this year. The more I learn about Barack Obama, the more convinced I am that he will be a truly exceptional president. Our country needs him—now. We need his leadership, his integrity and his wisdom.

But in order for this to happen, he needs to win the nomination. In August, the Democratic National Convention will take place in Denver, Colorado. The delegates to this convention will choose the nominee of the Democratic Party. With your help, I can be one of those delegates, steadfastly representing you and all of the Obama Democrats in Congressional District 12. Details below.

Caucus meetings will be held throughout California, in each Congressional District, on Sunday, April 13, to elect delegates to the Convention. Based on the vote totals in our February 5 primary, Barack Obama will be awarded three delegates from Congressional District 12, two women and one man. I want to be one of those women.

Any registered Democrat who lives in CD 12 is eligible to attend the caucus and vote for three candidates. Anyone eligible to vote can register for the first time as a Democrat, or members of other political parties can re-register as Democrats at the caucus, allowing them to vote for delegates that day.

The doors open at 2:00 pm and you must arrive before 3:00 pm, as the doors will be locked at that time. You can sign in, vote and leave prior to 3:00 pm if you wish. For those wanting to stay, candidates will give one-minute campaign speeches, starting shortly after 3:00 pm. To date, 41 people are running so this will be a very competitive race. Estimated duration for the entire caucus process is about 3 hours, but again, you can sign in, vote and leave.

Coastside Academy of Fencing’s Clarissa Perez and Elizabeth Jug both earned gold medals at the Super Youth Circuit fencing tournament held March 29 & 30 in San Jose. Fencers from all over the country crowded the San Jose Convention Center to fight for medals and national points last weekend. Coastside fencers, coached by Maestro Anthony Joslin, who also won medals include:

Stirling Johnson – 7th womens’ youth 10
Andrew Gleeson – 8th mens’ youth 12
Lotus Lum – 6th womens’ youth 10

The top forty percent of fencers in each category received national points. Aside from the prestige of being ranked nationally, national points help position a fencer better in future tournaments.

Gleeson, Perez and Jug, as well as Julia Garcia all earned national points.
The Coastside Academy of fencing trains athletes from age 7 to adult in the competitive sport of fencing, pairing rigorous athleticism with high standards of sportsmanship.

If you are interested in learning more about the Coastside Academy of Fencing contact Maestro Anthony Joslin at 650-219-5335 or email [email protected].

Sometime last week,my head hurt. I rarely get headaches—and this didn’t feel like a headache.

The pressure was boring from the back of my head through my eye. That’s how I described it. I took Tylenol exra, I took Ibuprofin. I took them alone and together, and while the unusual sensation was mute, the pain never vanished.

A lymph node felt tender to the touch.

On Monday, my forehead showed a small rash—but I’d had that before and it was nothing a little cream from the doc couldn’t take care of.

But not this time. The forehead rash was there the next morning. So was a very swollen, rash covered eye, my right one.

And the pain was worse.

I was baffled. I looked like the loser in a prize fight. I looked beat-up.

All day I wondered what was going on. Did I get hit in the head by something—we had just taken a trip to Vegas for a night-and-a-day—and at one point the take-on fell on my hand. Did it hit my face, too? and I just forgot about it?

While walking around the house, it came to me. "Shingles. I have shingles."

I thought shingles was for old folks, not for me—but a year ago a friend got it on her back, and while describing the terrible experience, she mentioned that there was a vaccine available.

"June, go get the vaccine,’ she said, more than once during our talk. Do you think I did?

Boy, do I wish I did. How could I have not listened to her almost-prophetic words.

"Go get the vaccine!"

The day of the skin eruption and the swelling and pain around the eye, I went to our Coastside ER in Moss Beach. I told the doc, "I think I have shingles," and when we looked at me in the bright room, he agreed.

Because I had gotten there in the early stages, there was "hope" that it wouldn’t get much worse if I took the meds at once. The time was 8:35 on Tuesday night.

"How late is Long’s open? I asked.

"Nine o’clock. Go…!"

So we didn’t have much time to talk about shingles, I had to get the anti-viral drug, Valtrex.

I’m a writer, not a doc, but apparently if you’ve had chickenpox you may be at risk for shingles. Google it and read about it. (My impression, also, is that shingles can strike anyone at any age these days. It doesn’t just happen to you if you over 60. Plenty of folks much younger are getting it. I’ve even seen is described as an epidemic—until it scabs it is contagious.)

The next morning I got an emergency appt with Dr. Koo at the Peninsula Eye Physicians in San Mateo. Having shingles around the eye can be dangerous. But I was ok. Dr.Koo has seen a lot of patients with my condition—and gave me the support I needed.

In a nutshell, shingles is horrible and extremely painful…the vaccine that I wish I had gotten may stop you from ever having to suffer what I did.

Please get the word out.

June Morrall

Half Moon Bay’s city employees’ union is circulating a letter for its members to sign and send to assemblyman Gene Mullin and other key legislators.  The key paragraph reads:

We strongly urge the legislature to approve AB 1991, which would allow for development infill on land approved for development approximately 17 years ago, while at the same time allowing the City and our members to provide essential City services without interruption.

Click to read the full letter

If you’re involved in our discussions on Coastsider, even if you’re reading and not writing, Paul Graham has written a good description of how to disagree in online forums and how to judge the quality of your disagreement.  This is a pretty sound framework for thinking about what you’re writing and evaluating what you’re reading.

State Senator Leland Yee has withdrawn as a co-author of the AB1991, the bill to guarantee Half Moon Bay’s settlement with Chop Keenan by expediting development of Beachwood and Glencree. When the settlement was announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, Yee was listed as a "sponsor" of the bill (he actually agreed to be a co-author).

Yee says he will not support the bill until he has had more opportunity to study the settlement and its consequences for the property, the city, and state law. He says he could wait until after hearings on the bill, but that he is still concerned about the possibility that the city could bankrupted.

The settlement and Senator Yee’s sponsorship were announced on Tuesday evening at the Half Moon Bay City Council meeting.

I spoke with Senator Yee on Wednesday evening.  He told me that he didn’t know the details of the agreement until he saw the city’s press release on Wednesday. He had already heard from constituents about their unhappiness with his name being on the bill.

Yee acknowledged that he had not seen the settlement before he agreed to sponsor the bill, saying he had been "privy to the essence of the settlement" and had been very concerned that the city avoid bankruptcy.  He did not know that the city had promised Keenan $18 million if AB1991 did not pass or that the settlement included permission to develop the Glencree property.

AB 1991 would allow the development of Glencree (as well as Beachwood) without review by the Coastal Commission, the state Department of Fish and Game, or other state and local environmental and planning agencies.

On Wednesday, Yee described the city’s $18 million guarantee to me as a "fallback plan", saying "there seems to be another alternative" to bankruptcy or the passage of AB1991.

Half Moon Bay mayor Bonnie McClung declined to comment for this story.

If you do nothing else, watch the lawyer’s announcement and imagine yourself in the audience.

We’ve broken out the city council’s discussion as well as the oral communications so you can watch individual presentations. We will post the rest of the city council meeting when it is ready.

• City’s attorney describes settlement [10 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Distribution of settlement to the public [2 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• City council discussion [11 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Sam (unintelligible last name) [6 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Brian Ginna [2 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: George Muteff [3 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Dale Dunham [2 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Jerry Steinberg [1 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Dennis Paull [3 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral communication: Mike Ferreira [4 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Conclusion [1 min] | Quicktime | Flash |