UPDATED: The CUSD board’s parcel tax resolution [PDF] can now be downloaded from Coastsider.

The Cabrillo Unified School District board of directors voted unanimously Monday night to place a $175 parcel tax on the June primary ballot.

The tax would apply to improved parcels.  Unimproved parcels would be taxed $30. Parcels whose owners are 65 and older would be able to apply annually for an exemption. There are about 8,000 improved and 4,000 unimproved parcels in the district.

According to the ballot measure, the goals of the tax are:

• A "highly qualified and well-trained teaching staff"
• Small classes in kindergarten through third grade
• Lower class sizes in middle school
• Increased range of academic programs a Half Moon Bay High School, including honors classes, science, math, and technology courses, literacy programs and
• Increased staff development time.

Transportation, which was discussed at Thursday’s meeting, is not included in the final version of the measure.

I have removed the link to the video from the February 22 meeting of the Half Moon Bay City Council from the site at the request of MCTV.

As careful as I have been about getting permission to use photos, art and stories on Coastsider, I made a mistake last week. I assumed that you didn’t need permission to run a video of a government meeting from a public access station. In retrospect, that was pretty dumb. I digitized a VHS tape I made from their scheduled broadcast of what was arguably the most significant city council meeting in years because I thought it was important for the public to see what had happened.

Of course, MCTV is doing the work and spending the money to diligently tape and broadcast meetings all over the Coastside.  And they own the rights to those tapes.

I have asked MCTV for permission to continue to offer the video to our readers, but they have declined to give it.

If you want to see the meeting, and I think you should, you should ask MCTV to rerun it. As far as I know, that’s the only way you can see it.

One of the Peninsula’s and the Coastside’s strongest supporters and protectors, Shirley Brey, passed away on March 1, 2006.  We, her sons and daughters, were proud to call her “Mom”.

Shirley was a “supermom” long before the term existed.  As a mother of five children she worked full-time as an operating room nurse, served for 9 years on the Board of the Los Altos School District, played tournament tennis, and did all this without gardeners, housecleaners, au pairs, or prepared foods. 

As a mother, Shirley didn’t just teach us to love and be curious about nature – she lived it.  We went on long camping trips every summer, countless hikes, fishing trips, and spent lots of time exploring tidepools and creeks.

Awareness and appreciation of other cultures and the environment was one of the family values that Shirley embodied.  In the late 60’s and 70’s she took us to Native American Pow Wows, and we danced in the Japanese Obon Festival.  She also took us to the first Earth Day celebration in Palo Alto in 1972.

Of course, she taught us volunteerism and activism. Shirley drove for Head Start, was a Girl Scout Leader, worked in the PTA, and taught Japanese brush painting to fourth graders in the Los Altos School District.  As a member of the school board she was able to hand out junior high school diplomas to all five of us!

Shirley moved to Half Moon Bay 20 years ago, and never let up in her activism and community involvement.  She worked on Senior Housing Rehabilitation, helped to start the Neighborhood Alliance, Half Moon Bay Open Space Trust (HOST), League for Coastside Protection, and served on the Board at the Coastside Opportunity Center. 

In addition to her service to the community, Shirley still found the time and energy to be a loving grandmother to her eight grandchildren.  She had a knack for teaching important life skills to kids, such as tying shoes, hammering nails, painting, whittling with a pocket knife, and lighting matches.  She also spent countless hours cleaning, doing laundry, and babysitting. 

She said she always wanted to be an eccentric old lady on the coast.  We let her know that she could stop trying.  She’d made it.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2006, at 11:00 a.m., at Enso Studio and Meeting Center, 131 Kelly Avenue, Half Moon Bay, CA.  In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Half Moon Bay Open Space Trust (HOST), on the web at http://www.hostlandtrust.org .

Chris Brey

Monday, about forty Coastside schoolchildren who ride SamTrans to and from school will be turned away. Last week an extra bus was added by the nonprofit Coastside Opportunity Center, which operates the buses for SamTrans, to one run in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The Center added the bus when it discovered that students, mostly from Cunha Intermediate School, were unsafely crowding onto existing buses.

But SamTrans has terminated this extra bus.  Friday, after it was told by SamTrans to stop the service, the Center gave students riding the buses the following letter:

Dear Passengers of the Coastside Opportunity Center –

We are very sorry to inform you that late last night, the Coastside Opportunity Center was informed by SamTrans that we may no longer run the additional buses that we added this week to help with the overcrowding issue.  We are greatly saddened that starting on Monday, March 6th we will only be offering one bus with a full capacity of 18 seated and 2 standing passengers for each run of Route 17.  Unless another solution presents itself over the weekend, this will be the case for the foreseeable future. This was a decision of SamTrans and not the Coastside Opportunity Center.  If you have any questions, please contact Jonah Weinburg, Public Information Officer at SamTrans 650-508-6238.

Jonah Weinberg, public information officer at SamTrans, told Coastsider that the additional bus could only be a temporary measure, saying "We can’t guarantee that level of service and there is no funding for additional buses." He also noted that SamTrans is forbidden by statute from providing school bus service.

Ongoing disclosure: Cheri Parr, executive director of the Coastside Opporunity Center, is my wife.

There will be a second special meeting to discuss a proposed parcel tax for the June ballot. The board of the Cabrillo Unified School District is holding a second meeting Monday night (tonight) at 6:45pm at the District office at 498 Kelly Avenue, next to Hatch School.

Based on the discussion at the first special meeting, on Thursday March 2, the parcel tax will be between $150 and $200 per parcel.  Some of the uses considered at the meeting on Thursday were class size reduction, special classes, and middle school transportation. 

A car is stolen on Skyline, storage containers south of Half Moon Bay are broken into, two boats are burglarized in Princeton, a military flare is found at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a warrant arrest for drug possession, a DUI in Princeton, a Montaran is arrested for illegal fireworks, and a DUI is arrested in El Granada.

Click "read more" to see the details.

At the Half Moon Bay City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 22, all attempts to bring about civility in government broke down.  If you haven’t seen the video yet, take the time to do so.  What happened on that night will hang over Half Moon Bay politics for the next two years. 

We’ll be talking about this more, but here are some things to watch for in the movie, along with the times in minutes and seconds when they take place.  I’ve heard different interpretations of this from both sides of the divide before I saw the actual video.  But one thing is very clear here: David Gorn and Jim Grady are very suprised and angry at what happens here. The video is almost exactly one hour long.

Mayor Marina Fraser is presiding. City manager Deborah Ryan outlines the selection process.

David Gorn expresses surprise that no interviews would be conducted, and says that he expected to interview the candidates for the planning commission at the meeting, as it was done by the city council in the past. [6:25]  Naomi Patridge says she interviewed candidates over the weekend [8:00]. Marina Fraser says she did as well.  Jim Grady says he also was expecting to interview candidates at the meeting [9:30].  Fraser says they could wait to interview at-large candidates. Patridge interrupts her to say that she doesn’t want to wait. Bonnie McClung agrees.  [11:30]

This is the first point where the audience becomes boisterous.  It’s muted on the tape, because MCTV uses the council members’ microphones, but it’s clear that a large contingent from one side showed up for this city council meeting.

During the public comment section, Terry Gossett, a resident of Moss Beach, describes the outgoing Planning Commission as "irresponsible and incompetent" and says "all sitting commissioners betrayed the will of the voters for a non-growth agenda". [20:30]

Sofia Freer, an outgoing planning commissioner asks that copies of the candidates’ "Willing to Serve" forms be made available to the audience during the meeting. She’s told they can be found at City Hall.

Jim Grady notes that there is no information the "Willing to Serve" forms of many of the candidates and that he’s uncomfortable voting on these people for the planning commission. [24:30] Bonnie McClung says that the process was emailed to the council members and that Grady should have let the city manager know ahead of time if he was uncomfortable with the process.

Marina Fraser begins the process of individual nominations with David Gorn, who nominates Kevin Lansing. [28:00] Gorn nominates Mike Ferreira. McClung nominates Doug Snow. Patridge nominates Patric Jonsson, and Fraser Tom Roman. Marina Fraser asks for comments on the nominations. There is none.

Kevin Lansing is approved 5-0.  [39:40]

The vote is held on Grady’s nomination of Mike Ferreira.  [39:50] Note Grady’s and Gorn’s surprise, which is noticeable even on this tiny video, when McClung votes "no".  Gorn yells, "Whoa" and notes that there was no discussion of Ferreira’s merits. Without missing a beat, Marina Fraser says, "That is correct." Listen to the hubbub from the audience. Gorn: "That’s really tricky. That’s really sneaky."  This is where the meeting begins to break down.  Bonnie counters Jim by saying she does not think Mike is a fit for the planning commission and the audience erupts into applause. Grady withdraws his nomination.

After a long discussion, Fraser moves on to the next nomination. Gorn and Grady abstain. After the vote on Patridge’s nomination (Gorn and Grady abstain), the audience erupts into applause. In response to the vote and the applause from the audience, Gorn yells sarcastically, "Let the healing begin!" [41:50]

After the vote on the members’ individual nominations, Grady says he’s withholding his nomination until a later date.  [42:30]

The nomination of the at-large members proceeds without participation from Gorn and Grady. During the discussion, Gorn, getting no help from the chair, asks the audience to be quiet while he’s speaking. [48:20].

As the voting on at-large candidates begins [54:00], Gorn declares the process a "charade". McClung, clearly distracted by what’s happening, becomes disoriented during the vote first vote.  Gorn and Grady abstain on all votes. During the voting, Gorn has to ask two people in the audience to "Stop making fun of us."  On the final vote, for Linda Poncini, McClung looks very relieved and says, "Finally, yes!"

Grady takes exception to Patridge’s declaration that "You guys attacked me" and Patridge replies.  [58:36].

A note of thanks: Coastsider has been working for nearly two weeks to get this video online. It’s the first video that Coastsider has streamed and we learned a lot by trial and error. But it would have been impossible without the help of several volunteers who helped us encode and upload MCTV’s video of the meeting to our server. Please let us know if you have problems with the video. This video has been tested on Mac Safari and Firefox, and Windows Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The Cabrillo Unified School District board has chartered its middle school advisory committee [PDF of charter].  The committee will advise and assist the superintendent with the construction of the middle school, as well as provide accountability to the project.  The committe will not have responsibility for execution of the project.

In posting on Coastsider, board member Charlie Gardner says,

Currently we have the committee comprised of myself, and Roy Salume from the Board.Dr. Bayless, Mike Andrews (Cunha principal), and Jim Tjogas (maintenance) will serve as adjuncts.

The remainder of the committee will be filled with a certificated (teacher) and classified (administrative), and three (3) appointed community representatives. Currently we have five (5) well qualified candidates.

The board is still accepting applications until the first committee meeting, which will be held at 4:30 p.m. March 16 at the District office. The format will be a brief public interview process, then public selection by the committee.

Ailanto properties (in an ad on page 11a of the February 22 issue Half Moon Bay Review) says, "40 homes can be built on Pacific Ridge without a traffic signal, saving us the cost of constructing this $1,000,000+ public works project".

If that’s true, I would say do it, and donate the saved $1,000,000 to the proposed park purchase.

If 3,000 vehicles pass the traffic light in each direction every week day, that’s 1.4 million cars passing the light every year.  If only 15% stopped at the light for two minutes, that’s 432,000 minutes, or 300 lost days per year. Adding weekend/special event traffic would make this a 365 lost days or a full lost year. This would repeat itself every year.

That’s equivalent to having an idling vehicle running 24 hours a day, 365 days per year forever spewing out carbon monoxide and other pollutants. Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of our environmental efforts, such as Bike to Work Day?

In the past 10 years I have lived on Terrace there have not been any accidents at this intersection. This looks like a "massacre" of environmental common sense to me.

Jerry Steinberg, CE
Half Moon Bay

Don’t be fooled by this morning’s beautiful weather. Another powerful storm is expected to hit the coast Saturday night through Sunday. After a brief reprieve this morning, southerly winds will increase across coastal waters this afternoon and evening. Winds are expected to reach gale force by midnight.

Click "read more" to see the complete report.