UPDATED:  Flash files are now available that should play on any system.

The theme of Tuesday’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting was budgeting.  Three items on the agenda were budget-related:  A review of status of the current budget, a proposed calendar for the 2007-08 budget process, and a discussion of the budgeted cost for the city’s police department.

Council member Jim Grady asked that the police expenses be put on the agenda.  He said that with the chief retiring, now would be a good time to discuss department staffing, and potentially outsourcing police services to the county.

Public safety expenses have increased from $2.7 million in 2002-03 to $4.0 million projected for 2006-07—from 33% to 39% of the city’s expenditures. This is a compound annual increase of ten percent.

However, the other four members of the city council declined to look at the cost of the department until the regular budgeting process, which is laid out in the budget calendar.

Do yourself a favor and take half an hour to watch the video (it’s the last clip on the list), and download the linked documents so you can see for yourself what they’re talking about. This is a huge issue and it’s only going to get bigger.

• Agenda
• Oral communications | Quicktime | Flash |
• Council reports | Quicktime | Flash |
• Staff reports and consent calendar | Quicktime | Flash |
• Road Closure ordinance (first reading) | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Appointments to Parks and Recreation Commission | Quicktime | Flash | Docs  |
• Proposed transient occupancy tax increase ballot measure | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Budget review | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Proposed budget calendar | Quicktime | Flash |  Docs |
• Discussion of Police Department costs, adjournment | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |

Short: West Bank Story(32 mins)

Musical comedy about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. David is an Israeli soldier. Fatima is a Palestinian fast food cashier. This unlikely couple falls in love during a war between dueling falafel stands run by their respective families. Oscar Winner - Best Live-Action Short Film.

Boy can we pick em!  In May 2005 the Coastside Film Society gave this little film its Bay area premiere.  It’s sort of a Middle Eastern West Side Story; this flick has everything you want in a movie—romance, comedy, great singing, great dancing, FOOD FIGHTS!  Took the rest of the world a while to realize what a gem this film is. 

Last week it won the Oscar for Best Live action short film.  We figured we had to show it again.

Feature: Of Wind and Waves—The Life of Woody Brown

An award-winning documentary about a 95-year-old legend in the worlds of surfing, sailing and soaring.

Winner of the 2006 Inspiration Award at Mountain film in Telluride, and the Award at the 2004 Maui Film Festival. This documentary captures the unique blend of enthusiasm, wisdom, humor and spirituality that made Woody Brown such a truly inspirational figure.

The picture explores Woody’s life using Woody’s own words as well as the perspectives of Woody’s family, friends and surfing colleagues. The film also features a remarkable assemblage of archival footage representing every stage of Woody’s long life.  Through this footage Wind and Waves provides a valuable cross-cultural portrait of the land, people and culture of Hawaii over the entire six and a half decades span of Woody’s life.

Film Director David L. Brown will attend the screening to talk about his experiences working with Woody.  Brown sees Woody as "a modern day Thoreau sitting on his surfboard, living in harmony with the world around him. He’s alive to the possibilities of each new day, and follows his own singular vision of how to be in the world."

Friday, March 9, 8 p.m.
Community Methodist Sanctuary
777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay
Corner of Johnston & Miramontes.
Donation:$6.00  

For more info see: http://www.hmbfilm.org

Because of a resignation, the Midcoast Community Council (MCC) now has an open position. Residents from the unicorporated areas of Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, and Princeton who are interested in joining the council should contact Gael Erickson at 726-4416 or [email protected] for more information.

The County Times is reporting that the Half Moon Bay Brazilian martial arts teacher arrested for child molestation of four boys has plead no contest and faces two years in prison.

Joao Pierini, 35, pleaded no contest to one count of felony lewd acts upon a minor and three counts of misdemeanor child molestation, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

The Point Montara Fire Protection District, in a closed meeting today, voted to reject the referendum petitions from the fire fighters on the grounds the referendum did not meet the technical requirements of the state election code.  The Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District voted to reject the referendum petitions at its meeting on Friday.

Every year, Coastside Hope prepares tax returns for about 300 Coastside families, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. Just under 20% of those are undocumented immigrants, many of whose children are citizens who qualify for tax credits.

Each year, millions of undocumented workers pour money into Social Security with jobs they got using fake Social Security cards. They will never get their money back or receive an Earned Income Tax Credit, said [Coastside Hope volunteer Judy] O’Leary. But choosing to file a tax return each year does guarantee that many low-income immigrant families will earn an Additional Child Tax Credit — up to $1,000 off their taxes per child, depending on the family’s needs.

"The IRS wants people to file, even if they’re illegal," said O’Leary. "It’s a cheap way to get money into the hands of the poor without a lot of administrative oversight."

Karen Harwell, co-author of the Exploring a Sense of Place guidebook, will be at Moon News in Half Moon Bay on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 7pm. Karen will give a talk on how you can incorporate Sense of Place ideals into your own life, and begin a process of discovery and reconnection with the natural world where you live. The Exploring a Sense of Place guidebook is designed to help people with this process. It contains inspiration and all the practical tools needed to design, develop, organize and produce an Exploring a Sense of Place program for any bioregion.

BNI-Coastside Chapter is pleased to sponsor the first Pacifica Home & Health Expo on Saturday, March 10, from 12-4. The expo features local resources for creating a more comfortable home and more radiant health. The event, including refreshments, is free; there will also be a raffle to benefit Pacificans Care.

Featured presentations on community topics will be:

1:00   "Learning The Ropes of Government Access" with Chris Hunter, Special Assistant to Tom Lantos

2:00   "Know What’s In Your Water", with Linda Corwin, Citizens Against Chloramine

3:00   "Celebrate Pacifica’s 50th Anniversary", with Frank "The Emperor of Pacifica" Winston, The Pacifica Historical Society

A number of the exhibitors will also be making presentations, on topics ranging from "Preventative Plumbing: Don’t Throw Your Money Down the Drain" to "Gorgeous Ideas for Creating an Eco-Friendly Home" to "Tips for Investing in Pacifica Real Estate."

Click below for a list of exhibitors.

Volunteers make a difference.  Along the San Mateo County coast, trained volunteers play a major role in protecting the Western Snowy Plover—a small shorebird that lays its eggs on the sand at a few California beaches every summer. 

The snowy plovers, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, may be found on several local beaches during the winter months.  In the spring and summer, the plovers congregate on the few beaches that can provide safe nesting sites, including Half Moon Bay State Beach—a busy recreational beach where a protected habitat is set aside for the plovers to nest.

Volunteers in the Half Moon Bay State Beach Plover Watch program monitor the beach to help protect the plovers and point them out to beach visitors.  Public education—sometimes including presentations for school groups—is an important part of the volunteer program.

Click below for details on volunteering.