Coastsider taped Tuesday's Half Moon Bay City Council meeting. It was election night, and the only substantive issue on the agenda was pretty important: campaign finance reform in city elections.

UPDATE: Windows Media Player files are now online.

• Presentation of a proclamation to Coastside Opportunity Center/Coastside Hope [QuickTime | WMP ]
• Oral Communications [ Quicktime | WMP ]
• Council member reports [ Quicktime | WMP ]
• Staff reports [ Quicktime | WMP ]
• Consent calendar [ Quicktime | WMP ]
• 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 ]
• Final Comments [ Quicktime | WMP ]

Kirk Riemer, Dwight Wilson, and Jolanda Schreurs have been elected directors of the Cabrillo Unified School District. Newcomer Riemer received the most votes.

The Measure I bond vote in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District passed by a wide margin.

Pacifica's Measure L, which would have permitted 355 housing units at the quarry site was defeated 52% to 48%, despite over $1 million in campaign spending by the developer who sponsored it. There is still likely to be development, but this will have to be negotiated with the city. Jim Vreeland, Sue Digre, and Julie Lancelle were reelected to the Pacifica City Council.

County Measure A, the 1/8% sales tax to support parks, failed to achieve the necessary 2/3 vote.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Measure A passed.

CABRILLO UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST, GOVERNING BOARD

Number To Vote For: 3

Completed Precincts: 31 of 31

	Vote Count	Percentage
KIRK RIEMER (NP)	3,315	23.5%
DWIGHT WILSON (NP)	3,058	21.6%
JOLANDA SCHREURS (NP)	3,021	21.4%
PAMELA L. FISHER (NP)	2,723	19.3%
KEN JOHNSON (NP)	2,008	14.2%

LA HONDA-PESCADERO UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST MEASURE I

Completed Precincts: 7 of 7

	Vote Count	Percentage
BONDS YES	710	70.9%
BONDS NO	291	29.1%

CITY OF PACIFICA MEASURE L

Completed Precincts: 30 of 30

	Vote Count	Percentage
YES	5,654	48.0%
NO	6,113	52.0%

PACIFICA CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Number To Vote For: 3

Completed Precincts: 30 of 30

	Vote Count	Percentage
JIM VREELAND (NP)	6,260	20.7%
SUE DIGRE (NP)	5,703	18.9%
JULIE LANCELLE (NP)	5,320	17.6%
BILL MOORE (NP)	4,487	14.8%
DAVID BLACKMAN (NP)	4,300	14.2%
JOHNNY NAVA (NP)	2,362	7.8%
TOD M. SCHLESINGER (NP)	1,799	6.0%

COUNTY OF SAN MATEO MEASURE A

Completed Precincts: 518 of 518

	Vote Count	Percentage
YES	82,215	54.7%
NO	68,174	45.3%

Cheri Parr

Good, but somewhat confusing, advice from one of our kids.

Cheri Parr

Susie Maya votes in her first election since becoming a citizen.

Wednesday’s regular meeting of the Midcoast Community Council (MCC) has been canceled.

We'll be posting election results tonight. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of Coastsiders doing the right thing.

Cheri Parr

Diana Kalos votes the "old fashioned" way

Cheri Parr

Precinct 3306 Farallone View team: Deb Kessler, Marta Jacobsen, Stephen Bradley, Rose Angelo(L to R)

Cheri Parr

Nancy Dare, Chelsey Silveria, Roy Salume (L to R)

Interested in local government? Want to make a difference in our community?
Many of the decisions that affect us on the coast are made right here in local government meetings. Few of these are filmed by Coastsider.  Some are filmed by our local community access channel, but these broadcasts are often a week after the event (diminishing your chance of affecting the debate) and they are typically broadcast only once, with limited further public access.
Coastsider is looking to expand its video coverage of local government meetings. Our plan is to develop a small pool of interested people (we will train and equip) who will then videotape these important government functions.
The videos will put online within 24 hours and will be available day and night (Coastsider will take care of getting them online).
We will cover meetings from beginning to end, and we will make the videos available online, organized in a user-friendly, meaningful way so that citizens who cannot attend these meetings will have a greater understanding of what decisions are being made and why.
Come, join us in our efforts to promote open government and a better democracy. For a few hours of your time a month you can make a real difference here on the coast.
Please contact Darin Boville [darin/at/darinboville.com] for more information. 

The fate of the Harbor District is being discussed by the county’s Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) and Board of Supervisors, reports the County Times.  The District is almost $20 million in debt, has numerous other delayed capital projects and is suffering a loss in revenue from the fishermen who are its primary customers. 

The Harbor District operates Pillar Point Harbor and Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco. In addition to fees from users, it collects $3 million in property taxes from the entire county. The fact that the district collects property taxes county-wide, but only serves in a limited geographical area makes some people wonder whether it should be absorbed in to the county government. LAFCO recently released a report that considered the fate of the Harbor District.

Dissolution of the district, which encompasses Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point Harbor and Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco, was one of the financial remedies suggested by the LAFCo report, and it has been on the table before. The harbor district was dissolved in 1966 at the initiative of the County Board of Supervisors, but was reinstated on appeal by district officials in 1969.

Voters rejected another attempt by the Board of Supervisors to dissolve the district in 1970. Similar attempts to annex or dissolve the district failed in 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1991, according to LAFCo documents obtained by Peter Grenell, general manager of the harbor district.

The Daily Journal also covered the LAFCO meeting, and has a somewhat confusing discussion of the term of art "zero sphere of influence", which was used to describe the district.

Tuesday, the Half Moon Bay City Council announced the new city manager, continued its discussion of campaign finance reform, and came closer to resolution on the parking permits.  [Link to agenda]

Request for feedback:  We’re still experimenting with production and publication of video from meetings, so you may find that our video reports vary in format and turnaround time. You’re invited to give us feedback on these report by adding comments.

• Public comment period [Quicktime | Windows Media ]
• City council member reports [Quicktime | Windows Media]
• Consent calendar [Quicktime | Windows Media]
• 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 | Windows Media]
• Discussion and vote to limit parking after midnight in Miramar/Naples and Alsace Lorraine neighborhoods. Council member Grady proposed limiting closing Poplar Beach parking after midnight. Council member Patridge explored turning designated open space at 144 Kelly St. into a parking lot. [Quicktime | Windows Media]
• Short, near content-less finance discussion.  The financial statements were in the council members’ packets.  The city has a little more money than expected. [Quicktime | Windows Media]

 

Marcia Raines, a resident of Ocean Colony and the current San Mateo County Environmental Services Agency Director, has been hired as the new city manager for Half Moon Bay. The decision was announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Coastsider is experimenting with fast-turnaround video publishing from local events. Our dress rehearsal was tonight’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting.  Tonight, Darin Boville recorded the meeting straight to disk, processed it on the spot and uploaded tonight’s clip to the Web from the Coastwave hotspot in front of La Di Da Cafe. Tonight, we present the public comments from the city council meeting still in progress.