Join Coastside Land Trust for native habitat restoration. After an introduction to native plant habitat by a biologist, we will spend a couple of hours removing non-native plants and restoring native habitat at our open space adjacent to Francis Beach. Check in at the Francis Beach parking lot kiosk (at the end of Kelly Ave.) for directions to the work site. Parking is free for volunteers. Refreshments provided. All ages welcome.

Future dates for restoration in 2008:
June 28
July 26
Aug 30
Sept 27
Oct 25
Nov 22

Committee for Green Foothills has for the Santa Clara County to reconsider environmental reforms that would reduce the number of new hillside "monster mansions" in the wake of the ongoing, 4,000 acre Summit Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  "Taxpayer money and firefighters’ lives should not be risked for more and more inappropriate, ‘monster mansions’ on the hillsides," said CGF Advocate Brian Schmidt. 

"Two years ago, the Committee for Green Foothills and other environmental groups sponsored the Measure A environmental initiative in Santa Clara County in 2006 that would have reduced new development in hillside areas, specifically including the area in the County that is now on fire. Our initiative failed by less than one-half of one percent, due to a half-million dollars spent by outside Realtors’ groups from Southern California and from their national headquarters in Chicago.  We now call on Santa Clara County to undertake new measures to limit inappropriate new development."

Committee for Green Foothills argues that more development in the hills increases the chance of someone doing something that starts a fire, while also making firefighting more dangerous and expensive as firefighters seek to rescue people and protect property.  Schmidt said, "We’re not trying to take away existing homes or even ending all new construction in the hills, but we need to stop adding to sprawl by putting more and more buildings in these fire-prone areas, especially large mansions that are difficult to protect and harder to rescue people from."

The family of a fourth-grader suspended last year for an alleged threat made during a game of cops and robbers is suing Cabrillo Unified School District, the Sheriff’s Department and others, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified punitive damages from the Cabrillo Unified School District, San Mateo County Department of Health Services, San Mateo County Office of Education, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and American Medical Response West, was filed in San Mateo County Superior Court in late April with a request for a jury trial. The boy’s parents are waiting until the end of the school year to serve the 40 defendants with their lawsuits, including 12 teachers and school district administrators, according to their lawyer, Trevor Jackson.

Jackson said the parents are still trying to find out what led to the incident at El Granada Elementary School on the morning of April 25, 2007, just one week after the Virginia Tech shootings, when several San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies were called in to question a fourth-grade student with a mental disability who had been playing a game in which he and the other children were pretending to shoot one other with their fingers. According to the lawsuit, a classmate had yelled "Shut up, I’m going to kill you!" And the boy responded in kind.

The boy’s mother allegedly was prevented from witnessing the interrogation that followed in the school principal’s office, but later on he told her that two sheriff’s deputies had "bullied" him into saying he wanted to hurt himself or others.

"That’s crap," one officer is alleged to have responded when the boy denied wanting to hurt anyone, according to the lawsuit. "You know you want to kill people, who do you want to kill?"

The boy was suspended for three days, after he admitted to the allegation. The lawsuit says he did this to stop the interrogation and that his classmates were told about the incident in violation of his privacy rights.

By the year 2030, roughly one in three San Mateo County residents will be age 65 or older. How can the community prepare?

You’re invited to help develop the answer. This Friday, May 30th at the San Mateo County Events Center, seniors, planners, elected officials and anyone else with an interest in this important topic is invited to a summit: Livable Communities for Successful Aging.

The purpose is to allow members of the community to identify characteristics of developments that will be attractive to residents as they age and remain in San Mateo County. The forum is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 a.m.) at the Event Center, 2495 S. Delaware St., San Mateo.

The forum is sponsored by the County of San Mateo, the San Mateo County Association of Realtors and Samtrans. To register or for more information, visit www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/successfulaging or call (650) 363-4526.

The California Assembly passed AB1991 by a vote of 45 to 19 at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The bill needed 41 votes to pass, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. Assembly Republicans, who are in the minority, played a key role in pushing the bill out of the body. It faces an entirely new committee process in the Senate.

It took a while for members to come around to supporting the controversial legislation, or so it appeared. The first vote, in the early afternoon, was 19 yes to 12 no, with hardly any members voting even though the chambers were full. Mullin held the bill for a second vote later in the afternoon, which also failed with 35 yes and 15 no.

The objections from environmental groups caused Democrats on each committee that heard the bill to pause and some to vote against it, although Republicans came out strongly in its favor.

Mullin was counting on Republican support to pass AB1991, and the Republicans decided to withhold their votes for most of the day in a sort of political game to force the hand of some Democrats uncomfortable with supporting it, said Sara Ramirez, chief of staff in Mullin’s office.

"Before we went to the floor, we had support from the Republican caucus. They wanted some Democrats to sweat it out. I think they just found a bill they had control over," she said.

...

The bill will likely pass through three Senate committees before heading to the floor, where it needs to receive a vote by Aug. 31 to meet the deadlines outlined in the agreement. If the bill fails, the city will owe Keenan $18 million plus 6 percent interest per year.

In a press release introducing a new "truthsquad" web page,  Half Moon Bay Mayor Bonnie McClung and the city’s attorney Lanny Davis say that the Coastal Commission staff is lying to the legislature:

"The Commission staff has every right to oppose this legislation based on the facts, but the City cannot allow these false statements to go unchallenged," Mayor McClung said. "Once it became clear that the staff was misrepresenting its own history with the Beachwood property in an attempt to stop legislation that is vital to our City’s future, I knew we had to set the record straight."
...
"Because the Commission staff continues to consistently and repeatedly make misleading statements, despite multiple corrections by the City, I can only conclude the staff is intentionally misleading and spreading knowingly false statements to members of the Legislature," said Lanny Davis, an attorney for Half Moon Bay and partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. "When the legislators discover the truth, they will resent being misled by the Coastal Commission, a public commission that has already lost credibility on this issue."

Emphasis added. Click to read the full press release.

Seton Coastside will open it’s newly remodeled gift shop on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 12:00pm. The gift shop will be a great asset to the residents on the coast. It will feature all new gift items, greeting cards and snacks. The gift shop benefits the residents at Seton Coastside by providing them with a place to shop and helps to support the activities provided for them at the facility.  Volunteers are needed to operate the gift shop once a week for 4 hours. Contact Marilyn Levene at 650-991-6567.  The shop will be open daily from 11:30am-3:30pm. Drop by and visit!

It’s time for the Midcoast to start learning about self-government.  This article from the September 1997 issue of Western Cities magazine is long, but worth your time. You may want to bookmark or download it for future reference. You can download a printable pdf from the MCC website.

©2007 Western City magazine. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from the September 1997 issue of Western City magazine, the monthly publication of the League of California Cities. For more information, visit www.westerncity.com.

by Roberta MacGlashan

On January 1, 1997, Citrus Heights became California’s newest city, marking the culmination of a 12-year incorporation struggle that became legendary among the state’s local agency formation commissions (LAFCOs). But this is not just the story of Citrus Heights. It is the story of obstacles that citizens must overcome to achieve the goal of local self-government: Along the way, changes in the incorporation process took place that affect the way new cities are formed and must function in California today.

In many counties, new city incorporations are noncontroversial.  Some counties actually pay to make them happen, as Nevada County did for the City of Truckee.  But Sacramento County has vast urban density suburbs, developed in unincorporated areas and receiving mostly county services.  Prior to Citrus Heights, it had been 50 years since a new city incorporated in Sacramento County.  With a population of 88,000, Citrus Heights is one of the largest cities ever to incorporate in California, and possibly the largest without a pre- existing community services district or other locally elected governing body.

Obstacles to Incorporation

Some of the obstacles faced by the Citrus Heights Incorporation Project (CHIP) and the new City of Citrus Heights are unique to Sacramento County and Citrus Heights. But others that evolved over the course of this incorporation process apply to all prospective cities, especially those that face organized opposition, including costs, litigation and revenue neutrality.

Time is running out. Despite herculean efforts to secure grants and monies to support the HEAL project at Cabrillo elementary schools, presently only half of the funding to support HEAL has been secured for the 2008-2009 school year. What does this mean? Most importantly, it means potentially losing trained, experienced staff that have developed and nurtured this program since its inception three years ago. It means implementing an outstanding program at less than full capacity. 

HEAL stands for health, education, agriculture, and learning. In three short years, HEAL has developed into a noteworthy program demonstrated by its string of awards (the Kent award and Sustainable San Mateo Sustainability County recognition), noteworthy visitors (Supervisors Rich Gordon and Jerry Hill), and fiscal supporters which include Kaiser Permanente, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Hatch School Administration, Hatch School PTO, San Mateo County Dept of Public Health, the San Mateo County Farm Bureau as well as many local individuals and businesses.

Following in the tradition of Alice Waters’ edible schoolyard, HEAL provides students with hands-on experience in science, nutrition, ecology, health, and agriculture. The significance and urgency of these topics is underscored by our growing national pediatric obesity crisis and rising incidence of diabetes among children. If ever there was a time to pull out your checkbook, now’s the time. Here’s a chance to put money in our own backyard for our children’s future.

Please direct inquiries and offers of support to the Coastside Health Committee, Po Box 781, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, 650-712-0431.

For more information, please visit a link to HEAL on the Cabrillo district web site at http://www.cabrillo.k12.ca.us/heal/home.html.

The Cunha Intermediate School Band is hosting a free e-waste collection event to raise money on Saturday, May 31st, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in the Cabrillo School District Offices Parking Lot (498 Kelly Ave…..ocean side of Kelly off Highway 1).  Just drive up, drop off and they will unload for you.

Items accepted:

Computer items: monitors/flat screens of any size,  desktop computers and laptops, any cables/ribbons/wires, CD/DVD/Floppy/Hard drives or zip drives, CPU’s/memory, fans/power supplies, printers, ink and toner cartridges, modem/network/video cards, PDA scanners.

Electronic Items: any size television, cell phones/pagers, copy machines, any cameras, DVD/CD/VCR players, fax machines, MP3 players, cable/satellite equipment, paper shredders, radios/stereos/speakers.

Not accepted:  car batteries, fluorescent bulbs, furniture, large appliances, microwave ovens, refrigerators, toasters, vacuum cleaners, any paints/solvents/oil.

Monitors and TV’s need to be tagged with your name and address.