The county will be holding a budget forum in Monday, April 26, from 7:30 to 9:30pm at the Ted Adcock Center in Half Moon Bay.

The Board of Supervisors has already reduced the County’s budget by $23.5 million over the previous two years and the size of our workforce by more than 300 positions. Without further action the County’s structural budget deficit is expected to grow to $150 million within three years.

The Board reduced benefits for managers and is working with labor organizations to achieve savings in labor costs. A hiring freeze on most non-vital positions has been in force since 2007.

At the forum, the county will present more information on the budget and the steps it has already taken.

Citizens can post your ideas, discuss ideas with others and vote for your on the county’s online budget forum at http://smcbudget.ideascale.com/

Get some community spirit and join in Senior Coastsiders Annual Home Rehab Day. OVer 100 volunteers are needed to help build, paint, garden, weed, gopher this and that and help as needed on Saturday, June 5th from 8-4 p.m. For more information call 726-9056 or to volunteer before May 15th go to http://www.seniorcoastsiders.org. It’s a wonderful to meet new people and help those 60 and older live independently.

Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office will be holding its Coastside office hours on Thursday, April 22 from 10am until noon at the Sheriff’s Substation in Moss Beach.

The San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee endorsed Coastside April Vargas for County Supervisor in District 3, the seat currently occupied by outgoing Supervisor Rich Gordon. The election will be Tuesday June 8. The supervisors race is non-partisan, so there is no primary. If one candidate does not win 50% + 1 of the vote on June 8, the top two contenders will compete in a run-off in November. (An earlier version of this story described the election as a primary.)

The committee also endorsed appointed incumbent Carole Groom. Appointed incumbents are heavily favored to win election to their seats. The Board of Supervisors’ practice of appointing members to open seats on the board has come under criticism by some members of the county’s Charter Review Committee and the county’s Civil Grand Jury.

The committee also endorsed Dave Mandelkern for the position of Treasurer-Tax Collector.  Mandelkern is a trustee of the San Mateo County Community College District.

April 7, 2010 Charter Review Committee meeting

The Charter Review Committee is a linchpin committee because it examines potential changes to the county charter through a series of public meeting and sub-committee meetings every 8 to 10 years. The process of evaluating the county charter is the equivalent of a local Constitutional Convention. Of the sixteen committee members, the Board of Supervisors appointed ten. Six members were appointed by: San Mateo County Central Labor Council; SamCEDA; Council of Cities; League of Women Voters; County School Boards Association; and Sustainable San Mateo County.

The agenda of the April 7, 2010 meeting held at the San Mateo Main Library included testimony by three guest speakers. The discussion focused on the issue of at-large elections versus district elections. As the election situation is now and has been from the start, County Supervisors are elected in at-large elections. This means that Supervisors, regardless of where they reside in the County, represent every district in the County. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how unfair this method might be. A Civil-Grand-Jury report, emphasizing the lack of minority representation in County at-large elections will in all likelihood lead to a court suit if the County doesn’t change to district elections. Should such a suit go forward, it will only waste taxpayer revenues and will doubtless end in a court order mandating district elections.

Featured speakers included former supervisor Mike Nevin, Executive Director of the Service League of San Mateo County, former supervisor candidate Jo Chamberlain, Executive Director of Coastside Land Trust, and a former supervisor who lost in his own district John Ward, now a revolving-door lobbyist for developers.

Mike Nevin kicked off the meeting by voicing staunch support for at-large elections. He said, "Of course I’m prejudiced…" towards the status quo and at-large elections. This was an interesting choice of words when you consider that The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a San Francisco-based civil rights legal foundation, sent a letter dated March 24th 2010 informing the County that it is giving serious consideration to filing a lawsuit against the County for possible violations of the California’s Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit will zero in on the County’s use of at-large elections to elect San Mateo County Supervisors.

NOTE: This letter has been updated by the author.

Board of Supervisors Meeting - April 13, 2010
Agenda Item 11: Midcoast LCP Update

At the Board of Supervisors meeting today Supervisors Adrienne Tissier, Rose Jacobs Gibson and Mark Church showed their collective unwillingness to consider California Coastal Commission suggested modifications to the Midcoast Local Coastal Program.

Supervisor Tissier said, "Growth limits are a catch 22, it’s a no win situation." One wonders why that is a "no-win situation"; certainly there are gains for an entire community, and not just for a few developers, when growth is subject to intelligent controls.  Mark Church said, "The Coastal Commission recommendations are a subjective interpretation of the Coastal Act." This is a no-brainer; all interpretation from whomever is subjective because interpretation is a product of the human brain and imagination. The question that begs to be asked is: Are CCC’s suggested modifications responsible and intelligent.  Supervisor Jacobs Gibson supported Supervisor Tissier’s suggestion that the Board resubmit the LCP Update without any additional modifications.

Board President Rich Gordon, District 3 said he is very concerned about lot retirement leading to weed filled lots in residential areas. He did not evince any concerns about storm water flooding, salt water intrusion, water pollution in Pillar Point Harbor, sea-level rise, coastal erosion and limited traffic capacity on Highway 1. Supervisor Gordon shows due diligence to surface niceties; he cannot tolerate unsightly weeds growing in a few lots but he can, apparently, tolerate avoiding the significant challenges facing the Midcoast.

Supervisor Carol Groom said she would like to have one more meeting with Coastal Commission staff before making a decision. Supervisor Rich Gordon supported Grooms request for one more meeting.  Hopefully the two Supes will use the time with Coastal Commission staff to discuss ways to move the process forward rather than focusing on weed abatement. 

Supervisors Adrienne Tissier, Rose Jacobs Gibson and Mark Church made it clear that they were not interested in meeting with Coastal Commission staff.  Perhaps if they had attended the December 10, 2009 California Coastal Commissionhearing in San Francisco they might be better informed. To help them grasp the complexities of the LCP Update process, all three would benefit from meeting with Coastal Commission staff. If they had asked more specific questions of County Planning staff today they would have learned that resubmitting the LCP Update without any additional modifications is not a reasonable or appropriate next step.

The Supervisors’s fear of lawsuits initiated by developers was punctuated and highlighted by the angry tirade and finger pointing of local land use attorney David Byers. Intimidation is a standard tool in the lawyer’s bag of tricks.

The Supes habitually site the fear of lawsuits as an excuse to turn a blind eye to environmentally responsible land use policy. Fearful thinking is likely to continue ruling the decisions of the Board due to the loss of over 150 million tax payer dollars to Lehman Brothers.

Kicking coastal resources to the curb has short-term benefits for developers and real estate lobbyists. Enhanced coastal ecotourism, recreation, environmental education, and proactive sea-level rise planning provide long-term benefits to California residents.

The environmental catch 22 Supervisor Tissier invokes may be a win-win proposition for developers and supervisors with political aspirations, but it’s a losing proposition for thousands of County residents.

The eighth annual Pacifica School Volunteers (PSV) Children’s Book Sale and Celebration of Literacy is being held April 17 at the Linda Mar and Fairmont Starbucks.

The paperback books will be sold for $1 and hardcover books for $2.

There will be many activities during the day including Young Authors, local student musicians, raffle drawings and more. Funds raised by the book sale and raffle will support PSV’s Volunteers In Literacy Program and literacy trainings for parents and volunteers.

Fabulous Raffle Prizes

PSV has lined up some terrific raffle prizes for its annual book sale. Tickets are being sold prior to the event. Raffle tickets can be purchased at both branches of First National Banks (Eureka Square and Linda Mar) and at Starbuck’s (Linda Mar and Fairmont locations) or contact Pacifica School Volunteers directly at [email protected]. When you buy a ticket, you could win one of these wonderful prizes:

NorCal Surfboard
Handmade Quilt (full bed)
$50 Granucci Gift Certificate
$60 Gift Certificate Sharp Park Restaurant or Pro Shop
Romance Basket (Must be 21 to win)
Original Intaligio Print
$50 Barolo Gift Certificate
Recology of Coastside dumpster (Pacifica residents only)

Earth Day 40th Anniversary Day of Action: Coastal Cleanup in Pacifica

The Pacifica Beach Coalition Earth Day event is probably the only event of it’s kind; where an entire community joins together to pick up litter, restore habitat, and make the community a better place for Earth Day.  The event is about action for the EARTH.  Join us on Saturday, April 24 as five thousand volunteers to take action for Earth Day in Pacifica, a town of 39,000.  That is almost 15% of the population.  Over 100 community groups will join together, along with families, young, old, and everybody in between to make their (our) community a better place.  Groups are joining us down the coast and around the Bay Area.  Volunteers will be cleaning up the beaches, bluffs, creeks, streets, parking lots in every corner of Pacifica and in between.  There are gardening events and habitat restoration events at 5 or more places.  In addition to citizens and residents, businesses are joining the event and taking time out of their day to pick up litter, install cigarette urns and trash cans and plant flowers around their businesses.  A post-cleanup celebration will take place at Linda Mar State Beach afterwards with surf music and refreshments.  Representative Jackie Speier will be our honored guest and speaker scheduled between 1.00 and 1.30.

WHEN:  Saturday, April 24th
Beach Cleanup 9:00am - 11:30am
Celebration on Linda Mar State Beach 1:00-3:00
Our hope is that people everywhere will hear about our event and choose to step outside and pick up litter on their street and in their community.  Not alone, Earth Day is about doing things for the Earth with others, whether it be with family, friends or neighbors.
For more information, feel free to call Lynn Adams, Pacifica Beach Coalition, President at 650-355-1668 or 415-309-5856.

Cleanup Sites
·Hickey Blvd/Inverness Drive
·Oceana High School campus and Milagra Ridge
·Pacifica Community Center
·Frontierland Park
·Terra Nova Blvd
·Oddstadt Blvd
·Rosita Road
·Manor Shopping District (across from the Manor Post office)
·Fassler Blvd (On Fassler at Terra Nova)
·Roberts Road (Roberts Rd by Crespi Post office)
·Hickey Blvd/Inverness (Sunset Ridge School)
·Crespi Street (Pacifica Community Center)

Habitat Restoration Sites
·Linda Mar State Beach (Iceplant, invasive removal)
·Pedro Point Headlands (Planting, trail widening, sign installing, invasive removal)

Garden Events
·Oceana High School (meet in the upper parking lot of Oceana HS.  )
·Pacifica Gardens (Build compost piles, plant sunflowers and more)
·Elkus Ranch Tree planting (plant trees- contact [email protected])

Beaches and Bluff cleanup sites
·Mussel Rock and Bluff (in the parking lot at the end of Westline Drive)
·San Pedro Creek - mouth (Pedro Shopping Center near NorCal Surf Shop)
·Surfers Beach
·Mavericks
·Pilarcitos Creek
·Gray Whale Cove
·Montara Beach

Please join the Coastside Land Trust for an exciting workshop led by Toni Corelli, Half Moon Bay botanist, State Park volunteer and co-author of Plants and Plant Communities of the San Mateo Coast. Learn plant family characteristics, how non-native plants arrive here, and where the native plants are. Light refreshments will be served. Come stroll through this beautiful open space, lead by Toni Corelli. Apply your plant identification skills and identify plants and other wildlife. Beverages and cookies will be served at the end.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Workshop from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.
At the Train Depot, 110 Higgins Canyon Road, Half Moon Bay

Ocean Shore Railroad Right-of-Way Plant Identification Walk from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Meet at corner of Poplar Street and Railroad Avenue; parking at Poplar Beach

Suggested donation for Workshop: $15, seniors $5, under 18 free.
Ocean Shore Railroad Right-of-Way Plant Identification Walk: free. Bring binoculars, dress in layers and wear sturdy shoes.

For more information: 650.726.5056 or [email protected] http://coastsidelandtrust.org

Fingerstyle guitarist and folk singer, Ezekiel Kelly, will be performing original songs in the intimate atmosphere of Cafe Classique.

FRIDAY, April 16th, 7pm-9pm
Address: 107 Sevilla Ave., El Granada CA 94018
Phone: (650) 726-9775
www.cafeclassique.com

Come join us, rain or shine! Dinner available accompanied by adventure stories and high-powered original folk tunes with intricate guitar work.

Children welcome. No cover. Bring your people!