The County Times has a good short article on Superintendent John Bayless by Julia Scott, covering his departure and history at Cabrillo Unified School District.

Bayless said challenges for his replacement would likely include strict budget management, overseeing construction of the new science and art wing at the middle school and the eventual renovation of the rest of the buildings, and the need to adapt to demographic changes by increasing student access to second language programs.

There will be a free public form on Health Insurance Reform: A Coastside Perspective this Saturday, June 30, from 2 to 4pm at the Depot (near the Johnson House), 110 Higgins Canyon Rd, Half Moon Bay. The event is organized by the American Association of University Women and the Coastside Democrats.

What will it cost you to cover your family? What benefits will be available? Will everyone be covered? How will undocumented workers get treated? Will children’s health coverage improve? Will provider income go up or down? Could crowding and delays increase? How will new health care improvements be funded? Who will pay for prescription drugs?

Panelists will include:

 

• Maya Altman, Executive Director of Health Plan of San Mateo, expert on countywide insurance programs

 

• Claudia Chaufan MD, PhD, Board Member of California Physicians Alliance

 

• State Senator Leland Yee, Senate Assistant President pro Tempore and member of the Senate Health, Human Services, and Appropriations committees

• Jesse Melendrez, HR manager for Nurserymen’s Exchange, will address Coastside employers’ concerns.

   

• Moderated by Richard Watters, Health Care for All Peninsula Chapter

Major Plans explored:

 

• Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal would mandate private coverage for all adults with an employer-financed fund to cover low-income Californians;

 

• Senator Kuehl’s SB 840, a universal, single-payer plan, would eliminate most private insurance coverage;

 

• Senator Perata’s SB 48 and Assemblyman Nunez’s AB 8 would require businesses to spend a % of payroll on employees’ health insurance or pay into a state fund to expand services.

San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is calling on the county Superintendent of Schools to help county school districts follow best practices in construction and capital improvements, saying that managing major construction projects is outside the skill set of school districts [pdf of report].

The prior Grand Jury recommended that the county superintendent convene a blue ribbon panel of district superintendents, construction industry representatives, and architectural and construction management professionals to develop a set of policies and procedures for use by local districts.

The San Mateo County Superintendents’ Association rejected the blue ribbon idea, and instead the Superintendent of Schools established a website that has references to books, articles, and websites related to school construction. 

Meanwhile, school construction fiascoes have continued.  For example, the San Mateo Union High School District had significant cost overruns on its Measure D projects.  In addition, this same District is embroiled in controversy over its current Measure M contracting practices. 

You can see a full list of this year’s Grand Jury reports on their website.

The Half Moon Bay City Council is planning a joint special meeting with its Parks and Recreation Commission for Tuesday at 6pm, with the commission scheduled to meet at 7pm. The agenda includes a discussion of roles and relationships, ideas for the upcoming strategic planning session and direction-setting.  It doesn’t sound too exciting, but if you’re interested in the fate of parks in Half Moon Bay or want to make your views known to the city council, this would be a good meeting to attend. The meeting will be in Adcock Center.

No one has done more to confuse public about the Pilarcitos Creek park site than Half Moon Bay Review publisher Debra Godshall.

First, she devotes nearly two-thirds of her Wednesday column to a rambling allegory about a profligate household head who, against the advice of his attorney, buys a piece of land he can’t afford which happens to be infested with California red-legged frogs. Now you know how Ms. Godshall earned her reputation for subtlety.

After wasting several column inches this way, Godshall raises four points against the park. The first two are irrelevant and the second two are unsupported.

Ms. Godshall says that the city spent too much for the land, and that documents were improperly withheld from the public.  I’m not saying these aren’t important issues, but they’re of no consequence in deciding whether to put a park on Pilarcitos Creek.  Every time they are raised in that context, you can be assured that either the commenter is confused or is trying to confuse you.

The Economist aptly defines sunk costs as that which cannot be undone.  Whether the city overpaid (which I doubt) doesn’t matter now that the city owns the land. Should the last city council have shared more of its work product with the citizens before buying the park? I’m not sure. Does it matter now? No, it doesn’t.

Then Ms. Godshall goes on to discuss the cost of the park, asking, "What’s the plan to raise the $10.4 million to make it into a real park?"  That’s a misleadingly precise figure, $10.4 million, considering that the city’s consultants delivered an unitemized and unsubstantiated estimate nearly a year ago. Since then, the city has done nothing to figure out what its options are and what they would cost.

Finally, Ms. Godshall states, "If it is possible to develop the land after an endangered species has been found on the property, it will be a first for the Coastside, by the way."  That argument says that Half Moon Bay will never have proper park anywhere.  Perhaps she should ask how the city plans to deal with the endangered species no doubt lurking in its proposed park site on Sewer Plant Road.

She concludes: "We all want and deserve a park, we just can’t afford this one." Compared to what? Until the city costs out the park on Pilarcitos Creek and the one on Sewer Plant Road, how does she know?

Half Moon Bay must have a conversation about the kind of park it wants and what it is willing to spend. The Review has the opportunity to play an important role in that conversation, but it’s getting off to a poor start.

For those of you who support the concept of the City of Half Moon Bay building the Pilarcitos Park on Highway 92, please download the petition asking the city council NOT to sell the 21 acre park site, sign the interest free one year extension offered by the Peninsula Open Space Trust and proceed to obtain the necessary park funds. Click below to download the petition

https://coastsider.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/images/uploads/recreation/hmbparks/PilarcitosPetition.pdf

Coastside Residents. Circulate the petition among your neighbors and friends. Send the signed petitions to: Friends of Pilarcitos Park, POB 3434, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019.

John F. Lynch
Petition Co-ordinator
Half Moon Bay

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can only get video of Tuesday’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting from Coastsider, because MCTV wasn’t at the meeting. Unfortunately, we missed the first 10 minutes or so of the oral communications.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the city council approved mobile home park district zoning for Cañada Cove, securing the homes of residents from changes to property use. The council approved the budget for 2007 - 08. And they modified the plans for a permanent ordinance relating to planning commission appeals, with the modification that non-residents of Half Moon Bay would be allowed to appeal.

The city council noted that the park is called "Half Moon Bay Community Park" and not "Pilarcitos Park", as many folks have begun to refer to it.  Coastsider has been referring to it as "the Pilarcitos Creek park site", because it tells people where the park would be located, it’s not a park yet, and "Half Moon Bay Community Park" is too confusingly similar to "Coastside Community Park"—which is the name of the Sewer Plant Road site (also not a park yet).

Oral communications, first 10 minutes missing [8 min]  | Quicktime |  Flash  |

Council reports, staff reports, consent calendar [23 min]  | Quicktime |  Flash  |

Establishing Mobile Home Park District for Cañada Cove [43 min]  | Quicktime |  Flash  |Docs |

Approval of 2007 - 08 budget [15 min]  | Quicktime |  Flash  | Docs |

Permanent revision to planning appeals, allowing nonresidents to appeal [30 min]  | Quicktime | Flash  | Docs |

Darin Boville has posted an interesting analysis of the Half Moon Bay Police Department budget on his new blog MontaraFog.

Darin shows that the city’s police budget on a per-capita and percentage of expenditures basis is in the top 25% of San Mateo County cities.  That’s surprising when you consider that nearly every city in the county is more urbanized, and Half Moon Bay is being beaten out by places like Daly City, San Mateo, and South San Francisco.

Comparisons are always tricky. After all, smaller cities have to spread the same overhead over fewer taxpayers and smaller budgets. But it’s worth considering that Pacifica, which is more blue-collar (and generally scruffier) than Half Moon Bay, spends 32% of its budget ($197 per capita) on its police department, compared to Half Moon Bay’s 43% of budget and $375 per capita.

Next year, the city plans to spend $4.7 million on its police department, not including its stated desire to build a police station.

Nineteen veteran Bay Area musicians get together Sunday at the Bach to do the charts of Don Piestrup and many other big band composers.

The Studio 6 Big Band is an extension of the former Don Piestrup Band reorganized in 2000 under the leadership of Art Dougherty. The musicians have tackled the challenging and original collection of ensemble materials and expanded their library to include material of many other big band composers. 

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road
Half Moon Bay
$30.  Tickets at the door.
Sunday, June 24
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission