UPDATED with Windows Media files

The big dispute the Tuesday’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting was over whether the council should accept an administrative Coastal Development Permit for the renovations of the the Cunha Middle School. This item was taken off the Consent Agenda and moved to the end of the meeting to allow for discussion.

Several speakers said that the hearing was poorly publicized over the holidays and that it was inappropriate for the city’s planning director to grant a CDP for what will be the largest downtown project in the city’s history without a hearing before the Planning Commission.  Planning Commissioner Kevin Lansing filed a protest with the council that raised several questions about the process [PDF]. Council members Grady and Muller voted to refer the matter to the Planning Commission, but were overruled by Patridge, McClung, and Fraser who accepted the CDP as granted. The permit is likely to be appealed to the Planning Commission.

The council also voted to make the Midcoast membership on the Parks and Recreation Commission optional rather than required.  Council members Patridge, McClung, and Fraser voted yes. Muller and Grady voted against.

The meeting also marked Naomi Patridge’s first city council meeting presiding as mayor in this term—this is her fifth term as mayor.

The clips of the Parks and Recreation Commission and CDP discussions are both worth watching if you’re too busy to watch everything.

The agenda is posted on the city’s web site.  Individual items below are linked to supporting documents on the city’s site.

• Mayor (incoming/outgoing) comments   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Presentations/Proclamations   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Oral Communications   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Council Member Reports   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Staff Reports   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Consent Calendar   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Making Midcoast member of Parks and Recreation Commission a optional rather than required position   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Appointments to boards and commissions   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Mayor’s Appointments   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Proposed Transient Occupancy (Hotel) Tax Rate Ballot Measure   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Measure A Phasing Agreement for an Affordable Housing Project at 501 Church Street   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Granting mayor selection authority   | Quicktime | WMP |
• Approval of administrative CDP for Cuhna renovations (removed from Consent Calendar)   | Quicktime | WMP |

The San Mateo County Superior Court is holding a public meeting to discuss its strategic planning process on January 23, at the Adcock Center in Half Moon Bay at 7 pm.

The court is in the process of revising its strategic plan.  The current plan contains a number of services and programs that have been successfully launched - including improving services for jurors, EZLegalFile, Court in the Schools Day, Community Law Night, Bridges Day Treatment and the new Juvenile Youth Services Center.

You can also provide feedback to the court on juror services, court services, traffic, and
other areas using a form on its Web page.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) is looking to raise their rates over the next three years.  MWSD will hold a public hearing Thursday, February 15 at 7:30pm to consider the matter.

The district wants to raise basic connection charges 22.5% and the price of water from 17% for the the first 19 hundred cubic feet to 29% for 20 or more hundred cubic feet.  According to the district, 79% of its customers use less than 19 hundred cubic feet per month.  The rate increases would not take effect immediately, but would be the maximum total increases over the next three years.

The district says it needs the increase to pay for capital improvements, including two new water tanks that are more earthquake resistant and higher capacity, and improvements in water treatment facilities to meet state and federal requirements.

The proposed increase cannot take effect if the owners of a majority of parcels receiving water from the district file written protests. Property owners can submit written protests, which must include their property address or parcel number, to:

MWSD
PO Box 370131
Montara, CA 94037

The meeting will be at the district’s headquarters at 8888 Cabrillo Highway, next to the Pt. Montara Lighthouse and Hostel.

UPDATE:  The deadline for written protests is the date of the public hearing: February 15.

The Half Moon Bay City Council approved its revisions to campaign finance reform ordinance, and continued its discussion of parking permits at its meeting on Tuesday, December 19.

Agenda items are linked to relevant documents on the city website.  Videos by Dana Kimsey.

Meeting opening   | Quicktime | WMP |

Proclamations and presentations   | Quicktime | WMP |

Oral Communications   | Quicktime | WMP |

Council reports   | Quicktime | WMP |

Staff reports   | Quicktime | WMP |

Consent calendar   | Quicktime | WMP |

Campaign finance reform   | Quicktime | WMP |

Parking at Poplar Beach and 144 Kelly Avenue   | Quicktime | WMP |

Calling the sewer bond   | Quicktime | WMP |

Accept the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), the Communication with Governing Body Letter, the Report on Compliance and on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, and the Appropriations Limit Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2006 (Bound Reports Available at City Hall for Review)   | Quicktime | WMP |

Appoint City Council Subcommittees on Redondo Beach Road Stairs Proposal and Allied Waste Rate Review (No Staff Report Attached)   |Quicktime | WMP |

Rescheduling of January 2, 2007 City Council Meeting to January 9, 2007 (No Staff Report Attached)   | Quicktime | WMP |

Former Half Moon Bay city manager Debra Auker has been appointed to run the Hayward city finance department, three months after resigning her post Half Moon Bay in September.

Tuesday was a busy night for the Half Moon Bay City Council, which doubled the limits on political contributions, and increased the city’s growth rate from 1% to 1.5% outside the city’s core.  The council has begun the process of reviewing its park priorities.

• Oral communications: Comments from the public about issues not discussed on this particular council meeting’s agenda. Mayor Fraser dedicates the meeting to James Fitzgerald.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Council reports: Council members report on various meetings and activities they’ve engaged in since the previous council meeting.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Staff reports: The city’s department heads update the council on work in progress such as the Highway 92/Main Street widening project.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Consent Calendar   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Campaign Finance reform: The council reached a consensus on the financial limits that individuals and organizations are able to contribute in local elections. The limits have been raised from $250 per person to $500, and individuals who own businesses can contribute $500 personally, plus $500 from their business. Language will be finalized by the city attorney and brought back to the next council meeting.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• 2007 Residential Building Permit Allocation and Administration System and Residential Phasing Plan for New Development (Measure A allocations): The city council voted 4 to 1 to limit growth throughout Half Moon Bay to 1.5% per year. The previous city council had limited growth to 1% per year (or 1.5% in the city’s core) in deference to Measure D, which was written into the city’s Local Coastal Program update, which was sent to the Coastal Commission.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Parks Master Plan Matrix: The Parks and Recreation commission and city staff presented a summary of all of the park properties under city jurisdiction and information on their current status. The council resolved to prioritize the parks to focus on in the January prioritization meeting.   |Quicktime | WMP |
• Half Moon Bay 50th anniversary is only 2.5 years away!   |Quicktime | WMP |

San Mateo County has agreed to pay Half Moon Bay $380,858 to compensate it for property tax revenue that it neglected to pay to the city between 1991 and 2005. This settlement is about 60% of the missing taxes, according to the County Times.

According to a San Mateo County Grand Jury report released in June, "the Controller failed to allocate approximately $8.1 million of TEA funds to four cities for the 15-year period between 1991 and 2005."

The report also assigned blame to the California State Controller’s Office — which missed the omission despite regular audits — and to the county bureaucracy for poor communication about the changes. The cities failed to notice it in a timely manner as well, the report said.
tax."

However, trying to get more could have meant costly litigation, something everyone wanted to try to avoid, Howard said.

There will be no Midcoast Community Council meeting this week, Wednesday, Nov 19, the day before Thanksgiving.

James V. Fitzgerald, creator of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and a longtime San Mateo County Supervisor 1960 to 1980, died on Monday at the age of 87, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

An avid scuba diver and snorkeler, Fitzgerald took action to protect the delicate marine reef at Moss Beach that later became his namesake after a team of marine biologists from Stanford University approached him about protecting the area in 1969. Back then, the site was overrun with visitors who would steal starfish and other pieces of sea life to take home with them, and motorcyclists who sped over the bluffs above.
...
Preserving open space was important to Fitzgerald, but he wasn’t one to stand in the way of progress when he deemed it important. He was part of a slim majority of supervisors who voted to replace the Dumbarton Bridge in the late 1970s, overriding objections from environmentalists who were attached to the two-lane drawbridge that preceded it. He was also part of a controversial vote to build a four-lane bypass highway near Devil’s Slide on Highway 1, but the decision was overturned by a subsequent group of supervisors.

Fitzgerald was involved in the creation of San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica, San Bruno Mountain State and County Park, Wunderlich Park in Woodside and Junipero Serra Park in San Bruno and Coyote Point marina and rifle range.

The Half Moon Bay city council is considering changes to its campaign finance ordinance.

The changes are pretty small.  Mainly, businesses owned by a single individual will be able to donate up to an aggregated total of $500 (instead of $500 per business) in addition to a personal limit of $250.  This puts some limits on individuals who own businesses, but it still means that they can contribute three times as much as an individual who does not own a business. In 2005, several city council candidates benefited from this loophole.

The size of the limits is still under discussion. Some city council members have said that there should be no limit on individual contributions, or that the limit should be as high as $1,000. But no one has declared themselves strongly for a particular individual spending limit.

Now that Coastsider is taping city council meetings and breaking the recordings out by agenda item, it’s much easier follow a story as it develops in the city council. This is our first remix, showing two meetings’ worth of discussion on campaign finance. The descriptions below are the ones that originally appeared on each item when we first published them.

• October 17: Discussion of campaign finance limits, including higher limits on contributions and consolidating personal and business contributions.  This discussion was very interesting and worth watching. [ Quicktime | WMP ]
• November 7: Discussion of proposed revision to campaign financing ordinance. The council is considering aggregating contributions for all the companies a person owns, and limiting that number to twice the limit for individuals. Discussion was continued until the first meeting of December, but the council seems to want to finish this project this year. [QuickTime | WMP]

The public discussion is informative as well, including comments from 2005 candidate George Muteff, and former CCWD board member Jim Marsh, who operates MCTV’s camera at city council meetings.