A very brief high-speed chase concluded with a crash in Montara at 8th Ave. and Highway 1 at 6:30am on Wednesday.

A man sped and through a red light (passing Sergeant John Gonzales of the San Mateo County Sheriff) at Highway 1 and Capistrano in El Granada on Wednesday morning.  "It wasn’t much of a high speed chase," Lt. Steve Shiveley told me. "By the time they caught up with him, it only lasted about half a mile."

At that point, in Montara, the driver suddenly changed direction and intentionally rammed Sergeant John Gonzales’s car.

At this point, says the County Times:

From the driver’s seat of a van he had crashed shortly after 6:30 a.m. at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Highway 1, Gregory Martin, 45, wildly stabbed at Deputy Timothy Frayne and Sergeant John Gonzales with a 6- to 8-inch knife as they attempted to open his door, police said.

According to sheriff’s reports, Martin then appeared crazed and repeatedly yelled "kill me, kill me" to the deputies. Martin continued to wield the knife from inside the van, stabbing himself in the chest and stomach, police said.

About 10 Pacifica police officers and sheriff’s deputies negotiated with Martin for an hour before he surrendered, police said.

Half Moon Bay’s biggest farmers are unhappy with restrictions the city’s proposed Local Coastal Program puts on development of their land, reports the Daily Journal.

Part of the massive Local Coastal Program amendment being discussed by the City Council would not allow any new buildings on urban reserve zoned property. For all practical purposes, that only applies to the five major farms remaining in the city. The hope of the city is to protect the extremely large properties from falling into the hands of developers and turning into massive housing developments.

Additionally, to also protect open space on the coast, the city is proposing any new water wells on the farm properties require a conservation easement. That means the property, regardless of owner, could not be built on.

While the agricultural land is already zoned for limited development, creating an easement would require the land to remain untouched even if the zoning is changed.

At the same time, an easement devalues the property value. Oftentimes, that is a farmer’s largest and only major investment. They use the assessed land value to borrow against and use the money to purchase business materials or more land, said land use consultant Kerry Burke, a former planner for Half Moon Bay.

The issues raised by farmers in the article have to do with their ability to build homes for their own children who will work the land, or to replace a barn that has burned down.

But if they’re concerned that development limitations will limit the amount of money they can borrow, they must plan to borrow more money than can be paid back with simple agriculture.

Let’s face it, sewers and financial reports are in a pretty tight race when it comes to combining importance with inherent boredom.

However, Sewer Authority Midcoastside (SAM) just won a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 03-04 [PDF]. SAM says it’s "the highest form of recognition in the area of government accounting and financial reporting" and I have no reason to dispute this.

All kidding aside, it’s great to see our local agencies winning awards for their public reporting.

Click on "read more" to see SAM’s press release.

Grade the News has a really interesting study of the newspaper market in San Mateo County, comparing the major metro dailies (Chron and Merc), the County Times, and the free dailies (Daily News, Daily Journal, and Examiner).

It’s pretty interesting, if you’re a news junkie. Although the free dailies don’t tend to run as many words of news, the big dailies tend to be weak in surprising ways: the amount of hard local news and the impact of their reporting, and the level of initiative they show in San Mateo County.

Free dailies are a big trend in the newspaper business, and San Mateo County may be one of the most intensive battlegrounds in the industry. But the effect of all this competition on the Coastside is nil.

NOTE: The following letter is from Jim Marsh, who is a candidate for Coastside County Water District board.  Jim sent it to Coastsider after the Review declined to run it. All candidates are welcome to submit letters to Coastsider, or to comment on the letters of other candidates, as long as they can maintain a civil dialog.

At their budget meeting July 12, 2005 the CCWD board approved next year’s budget with a draconian 19% "across-the-board" increase - equally applied to the base charge and to usage.  This represents a regressive application of local tax collection due to the State’s fiscal malfeasance. Oh well, as they say: "stuff floats downhill" - but I wish to speak to a deeper issue.

An issue of trust.

The board studied their long awaited, overdue finance committee recommendations and spent hours hand-wringing and self-aggrandizing only to raise rates to cover the state takeaway (unavoidable).  The accountant calculated 20.8% and finally the board decided to make the rate increase 19%.  Why?, because 19% sounded better than 20% - "more palatable", it’s "psychological", easier to sell.

What?  Yes, the board approved a budget increase that was not based upon accounting facts.

The accountant then asked how they would square up the budget as they still had an imbalance, and by law, the budget must be balanced.  So the board found some "savings" in employee funding, and in reducing the "reserve fund".  Bottom line - the budget is now balanced by a jury-rigged, "acceptable" increase while the public takes the hit.

The CCWD Board just makes it up as they go along.  You’ve read about their recent attempts to overcharge families with failed wells.  Now this fiscal hokey-pokey.

Some would say this is an outright disregard of the public interest. Register your opposition this November when two of its directors, Mickelson and Ascher, seek re-election.

Jim Marsh

Montara Water and Sanitary District’s newest well may produce enough water to make up for the District’s deficit of 150 to 180 gallons per minute, according to the County Times.  The deficit is the gap between the district’s current production and the peak and emergency needs of its existing customers. By law, until the district covers its deficit, it cannot serve people who are on wells. But the new well is an important step in that direction.

District board member Kathryn Slater-Carter said that all new homes in the area would be required to switch over to public water as soon as it became available to them.

She said she hoped that would happen soon, but she wasn’t optimistic — the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the unincorporated area’s Local Coastal Plan, had already decided to give affordable housing projects, flower farms and recreation areas first crack at the water. She said that the board of directors was appealing the decision.

According to MWSD president Scott Boyd, MWSD is asking the supervisors to include failed wells as a priority in the LCP update.

Scott says, "The numbers for the actual deficit vary a lot during the course of the year and the course of the week.  The numbers in the article are considerably lower than the numbers we’ve been working with, more like 200-240.  And that’s not so simple because any time a well fails or has to be taken offline for any reason, we have to deal with quantum jumps in the deficit, so scheduling of repairs requires careful planning."

MWSD reported the new well to the community in its spring newsletter.

The whale carcass that fouled the Poplar Street beach in Half Moon Bay is drifting back to the beach after the attempt to tow it way failed, reports the Mercury News. Shark researchers have sawed off 100 pound of blubber for shark bait. Another attempt may be made to haul it away, but not before Tuesday.

For now, the whale awaits its fate while rolling and flopping in the surf and drifting generally northward, Van Sommeran said.

"At this point, it’s all ragged and flattened out,’’ he said Sunday.

The easiest job in journalism, even easier than being George Bush’s press secretary, is to write the corrections for the Half Moon Bay Review’s editorial page. We’re not sure how he got the job (he’s not saying), but Review Editorial Corrections Editor Oliver DeNiles did sit down with us to answer a few questions about the Review’s August 10 editorial.

Coastsider: In its August 10 editorial, the Review said that �Section 84308 [of California�s Political Reform Act] notes that state officers, including Coastal Commissioners, shall not �direct� anyone to contribute more than $250 to anyone with a matter currently pending before the state.� But the law actually says that the donor—and not the recipient—should not have a financial interest in any matter pending before the state.  How did the Review address this error after it was pointed out?

A: The Review stands by its Aug. 10 editorial. Readers who missed it can decide for themselves by logging on to http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2005/08/11/news/editorial/story01.txt

Coastsider: The Review’s editorial expressed a lot of concern about ex parte communications in its editorial about coastal commissioner Sara Wan’s appearance at a Coastside fundraiser, but Sara Wan is the only coastal commissioner who doesn’t take ex parte communications. Why bring it up?

A: The Review stands by its Aug. 10 editorial. Readers who missed it can decide for themselves by logging on to http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2005/08/11/news/editorial/story01.txt

Coastsider: Why did your editorial mention a certain City Council member three times in the course of alleging unethical behavior by someone else, and then say he’s not at fault?

A: The Review stands by its Aug. 10 editorial. Readers who missed it can decide for themselves by logging on to http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2005/08/11/news/editorial/story01.txt

Coastsider: The editorial said that coastal commissioners should not be involved in local politics. But, by law, half of the commissioners are local elected officials.  How would you make that work?

A: The Review stands by its Aug. 10 editorial. Readers who missed it can decide for themselves by logging on to http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2005/08/11/news/editorial/story01.txt

Coastsider: I couldn’t have said it better myself.

San Mateo County will get a federal grant of nearly $1.2 million over three years provide treatment for substance abuse on the Coastside. The money is designed to reduce the use of methamphetamine and should provide services for about 234 clients, according to the County Times.  The money is targeted for meth and stimulant use and treatment will include family participation.  The announcement followed Congressional accusations that the Bush administration has ignored the meth problem.