Repost from NPR: by RICHARD GONZALES

As the national economy slowly recovers from the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, San Mateo County, Calif., is still grappling with the fallout. The county lost more than 150 million dollars when Lehman Brothers went under. That loss, combined with California’s overall economic crisis, has forced San Mateo to make deep cuts in spending and personnel. 

Link to PODCAST: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125914096

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Not long before Washington Mutual was seized by federal regulators, the investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, and that collapse is still playing out on main streets across the country. Exhibit A: California’s San Mateo County. Among local governments, it was the single biggest loser when Lehman fell apart.

More than a year and a half later, San Mateo officials are still trying to get some of their money back. NPR’s Richard Gonzales reports.
(Soundbite of train)

RICHARD GONZALES: The train that carries commuters between San Francisco and San Jose runs right through one of California’s most diverse regions, San Mateo County, where Richard Gordon is a supervisor.

Mr. RICHARD GORDON: (Supervisor, San Mateo County) We have an agricultural zone on our coastal area. We have the San Francisco International Airport in our county. We are home to biotech and hi-tech. And we’re also diverse in terms of the people who live here. We go from extreme poverty to extreme wealth.

A representative of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights will appear at the next meeting of the San Mateo County Charter Review Committee. The LCCR won a decision that at-large elections, such as those for the county’s Board of Supervisors, violated the California Voting Rights Act.

The Madera Unified School District case demonstrates that at-large elections can violate voters’ rights:

An injunction in the case is forcing Madera Unified, which is 82% Latino, to change the way it elects its board.

The decision has already begun to reshape school boards, city councils and special districts throughout California. Dozens of jurisdictions have Latino majorities with few, if any, Latino elected officials—the very conditions that led to the ruling that the Madera district’s electoral system had fostered "racially polarized voting" in violation of the California Voting Rights Act.

"I think what we’re looking at is a quiet revolution," said Robert Rubin, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which brought the Madera case. "I think this will sort of usher in the transfer of power from the Anglo community to the Latino community . . . with fair and equitable voting procedures."

The next meeting of the Charter Review Committee will be:

April 7, 2010
5:30 to 7:30pm
San Mateo Main Library, Oak Room
55 West Third Ave.
San Mateo

State Assemblymember Jerry Hill be in Half Moon Bay Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30am for coffee and conversation.  Bring your ideas, questions and concerns about legislative issues affecting the community.  Coffee will be provided by Jerry Hill at no taxpayer expense. He will be at Moonside Bakery & Cafe, 604 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, located in La Piazza.
 
You are welcome to sit down and stay a while or just drop in for a brief chat. No appointment is necessary. For more information, visit www.asm.ca.gov/hill or call Assemblymember Hill’s District Office at (650) 349-1900.

Supervisors Richard Gordon today invited members of the public to a meeting Monday, April 5, to discuss public safety at the Mavericks big wave surf contest.
 
The meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on this year’s event and to provide ideas on how to improve public safety in the future. Following this year’s contest where several spectators were injured due to large waves, Gordon had pledged to invite the public to discuss public safety and offer ideas for improvement.
 
The annual contest is sponsored by Mavericks Surf Ventures. Local, county, state and federal public agencies work with the sponsor to develop a public safety plan. Gordon’s supervisorial district includes the coastal areas nearest the famed surf break.
 
The public meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m.  April 5 at the conference room at the Comfort Inn,  2930 Cabrillo Highway North, Half Moon Bay, 94019

Supervisor Gordon’s office will be hosting Coastside Office Hours on Thursday, March 25 from 10am to Noon at the Sheriff’s Coastside Substation at 500 California Street in Moss Beach.  This is your best opportunity to communicate your needs to the Coastside’s government.

The Pacifica Democrats and the Daly City/Colma Democrats are hosting a visit by our Congressional representative, Jackie Speier.  Congresswoman Speier will be discussing health care reform at a breakfast meeting at the Sharp Park Golf Course from 9:30 to 11:30am.

All Pacifica Democrats’ meetings are open to the public. You don’t need to be a club member, or a Democrat, to attend. A full breakfast is available for $12; continental breakfast for $6; or coffee only for $3. 

Due to the anticipated popularity of this event, RSVP’s are requested. Doors open at 9:00 a.m. Seating is between 9:00 a.m. and 9: 30 a.m. Meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. To RSVP, please call Barbara Arietta, President of the Pacifica Democrats at 415-246-0775 or email her at [email protected].

The county’s Charter Review Committee is holding its next public hearing in Half Moon Bay at Cunha Intermediate School, on Wednesday March 10, from 5:30 to 7:30.
 
The Committee is reviewing the county’s charter and, after public hearings, will make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for amendments to be submitted to county voters.
 
The general purpose of a county charter is to provide a measure of home rule to the counties of the state. The charter defines San Mateo County’s structure, powers and functions. It’s akin to a local constitution.
 
In its review of the Charter, the Committee will specifically address the Civil Grand Jury recommendations regarding Board member elections and filling Board vacancies, and  the method of electing members of the Board of Supervisors from the current “at large” system to a “by district” system. In addition to other items the Committee will consider consolidation and reorganization of departments and other organization improvements requiring a Charter amendment.
 
The Committee will meet at least once in each of the five supervisorial districts in addition to meetings held at the County seat in Redwood City.  The schedule and all materials provided to Committee members are available at its Web site.
 
Video recordings of each meeting will be posted on the Charter Review Committee’s Web site:   
http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/CharterReviewCommittee.
 

Please take ten minutes to join us in an effort that we think can save the State of California from budget gridlock and cuts to essential services, and restore Democracy to California.  The California Democracy Act, a volunteer, grassroots effort, that is not backed by any special interest money whatsoever, is fourteen words long; probably the shortest initiative petition in state history:

"All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote."

This simple initiative would end the 2/3 rule that has left the state in the hands of a minority of legislators who have prevented the government from doing what it was created to do: protecting and empowering its resident. This has resulted in a tyranny of the minority.

Here’s what you can do to help:

Download the petition and print it (do not shrink or enlarge it; print it only at 100%, single sided, on white, 8.5" X 11" paper only) sign the petition and send it to the campaign (instructions provided) send the petition to your friends, urging them to support this measure. 

We must collect over a million signatures by April 5, and we need everyone’s help.

If you’ve ever thought you’d be interested in serving on the Grand Jury, now’s your chance. Those who’ve served tell us it’s a very rewarding experience, and we could use more Coastsiders on the panel.

The county is now accepting applications for service on the 2010-2011 Grand Jury. The deadline for application is April 23. The grand jury year begins July 1.

Any resident of San Mateo County for more than one year who is a citizen of the United States, 18 years of age or older, of ordinary intelligence, sound judgment and good character, with sufficient knowledge of the English language is eligible for selection. Elected public officials are not eligible. The Court strives to obtain a cross section of the county population. After the completion of an interview process by Joseph E. Bergeron, jurors will be selected through a random draw.

Application forms can be obtained by writing Grand Jury Clerk, Court Executive Office, 400 County Center, Redwood City, CA 94063 or telephoning (650) 599-1200.

Residents of a mobile home park are the most recent Pacificans to be threatened by the erosion of wave-battered cliffs, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The waves took out a 3-foot-wide, 20-foot-long section of blufftop and shattered the living room windows of at least one home facing the ocean at Pacific Skies Estates, a mobile home community perched precariously near the edge of the cliff less than a mile south of the apartment building that was evacuated in mid-December due to cliff erosion.

Only four of the 12 homes that face the ocean across a narrow cliffside road are occupied, said mobile home park manager Steve Kester. He closed the road and boarded up the west-facing windows of many of the homes on Monday, but said residents should have nothing to fear despite Sunday’s events. [...]

Some of the mobile homes now have no more than 17 feet between their backyards and a sheer drop to the ocean. But Doug Rider, Pacifica’s chief building official, said he isn’t looking at evacuating them.