We are in the midst of what appears to be a significant statewide  stranding incident involving mostly California sea lion yearlings. With heavy summer beach attendance, there is potential for injury, for beachgoers and their dogs. The animals are cute, pathetic to see, and don’t know not to bite a hand extended in kindness. In addition, they’re protected by law, by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and anyone attempting unauthorized interference with one could be subject to fines.

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary has posted notices in the Coastside area, and provided posters to the Pillar Point Harbor office since they have been getting so many stranding reports. The message is:

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Pillar Point Harbor advise:

CAUTION: Sea Lion Stranding Advisory!

Sick and starving marine mammals are washing up alive and dead on local beaches.

TAKE CARE! These are stressed wild animals and can bite and transmit diseases to you and your pet.

Report strandings at once (24 hours):

Live seals/sea lions: Marine Mammal Ctr., 415/ 289-7325 (-SEAL)

Dead seals/sea lions: California Academy of Sciences, 415/ 379-5381

The county’s Civil Grand Jury says that because the county, which charters MCTV, has not exercised its oversight of the public channel the result has been poor quality programming, a failure to communicate with the community, restriction of reuse of programs it produces with public money, and the elimination of a public voice in the station’s management.

The Grand Jury recommends that the county and Half Moon Bay (which provides the station with cable fees) "initiate engaged oversight in the areas of station revenue, quality of programs, and relevance to the community." From the findings:

The majority of MCTV broadcast programming is archival in nature, often obtained from sources outside the community, and is aired repeatedly.  The overwhelming majority of MCTV produced programming is of regularly scheduled government meetings.  Some new programming produced by others in the community and offered to MCTV has been rejected on technical grounds and occasionally for reasons of religious advocacy. ...

The Directors and Station Manager of MCTV acted on April 30, 2009 to eliminate the category of membership, as well as all rights associated with membership through a bylaw change.  The MCTV Board absorbed these rights, and became a self-perpetuating governing body.  It initiated this action, in part, to eliminate the burden of dissent from the membership.

In April, MCTV eliminated the rights of all members and made its board of directors self-appointing.

We’ll be writing more about this, but in the meantime, you can read the Grand Jury’s report.

Full disclosure: In 2008, I ran for a seat on MCTV’s board as part of a reform slate and lost to a board-nominated slate. More on that later, too.

Three recent articles in the Half Moon Bay Review relate to water issues on the Coastside and to the performance of the Coastside County Water District (CCWD) board of directors. 

On July 1, the Review reported that developer Charles Keenan surprisingly retained ownership of 93 Beachwood water connections estimated to be worth over $3 million. Half Moon Bay Mayor John Muller is quoted in the story as saying "Somebody missed the boat on it," during the Beachwood negotiations. The CCWD board of directors obviously knew about the 93 water connections parked at Beachwood. My question is: why didn’t they say anything to help the City of Half Moon Bay?

Also on July 1, the Review reported that the trustee in the bankruptcy of the Coastside Family Medical Clinic was accusing the clinic’s board of "squandering the remaining funds…leaving nothing to pay for securing records." How does this relate to water? Well, it turns out that CCWD director Everett Ascher is also president of the medical clinic’s board of directors.

Lastly, on July 8, the Review reported that CCWD is proposing to raise water rates this year by as much as 12 percent, which is "the ninth consecutive rate hike for local water users." The article also noted that CCWD is planning a further 66 percent increase in water rates spread out over the next three years. Where is all this money going? For one thing, to help pay for super-generous employee salaries and benefits. The water district contributes about 15 percent of each employee’s salary toward the pension plan with no need for any contribution from the employee. Employees become vested for lifetime pension payments after only five years of service, and employees may retire as early as age 50.

In Fall 2009, two seats on the CCWD board will be up for election. The incumbents are Everett Ascher and Chris Mickelsen, who has his own interesting history. Their records speak for themselves. Ideally, these entrenched politicians would be termed-out, but unfortunately for voters, the CCWD board is not subject to term limits. It’s long past time for some new leadership on the CCWD board.

A woman came up to me and said, "I’d like to poison your mind
with wrong ideas that appeal to you, though I am not unkind."

—They Might Be Giants, "Whistling in the Dark"

"Whatever their motivation, a fear of change or something more ominous, they have hidden their agenda behind a shield…"

—Jim Larimer, referring to "No Growthers"

"Wrong ideas that appeal to you" is a pretty good description of Jim Larimer’s column in last week’s Review.

Larimer’s column is a rickety confection of name calling ("NIMBY"), scapegoating ("plans for the school were crushed"), demonization ("Do they fear of the type of people who might choose to live here?"), ad hominem ("hidden agendas"), peculiar reasoning ("No growthers", like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, have hidden agendas and are therefore like slaveholders), and old-fashioned hoodoo ("Whatever their motivation, a fear of change or something more ominous").

There’s a word for that: Propaganda.

His faulty reasoning is supported by a muddle of wrong ideas about who "crushed" the middle school at Wavecrest (it was the US Army Corps of Engineers), who "sponsors" Big Wave (it’s a couple of guys who stand to make millions), why Big Wave has little community support (it’s just plain huge), the wisdom of the county’s Midcoast Local Coastal Program (the county’s version was the last minute rewrite), and who was responsible for the US Civil War (hint: it wasn’t Madison and Jefferson).

There are two opposing viewpoints on the Coastside. Both sides believe the Coastside can be a better place. One side believes that this can be achieved through respect for the local environment and the rule of law (the Coastal Act, state and federal environmental regulations, and local planning and zoning), and the other believes something else.

Like Dr. Larimer, I recommend you vote accordingly.

Eight painters who live on the Coastside of California: Kwi-Suk Carter, Eric Greenhut, Sandy Miller, Patricia Ryan Madson, Linda Bea Miller, Nina Miller, Nancy Margulies, and Eric Shapira, will celebrate their work with a month long show at the La Di Da Café in Half Moon Bay.  The show opens on July 1 and can be seen through July 31, 2009.

The eight artists are part of a collective known as the "Plein Air Painters of the Coastside" who meet regularly to paint outdoors.  The works will feature local landmarks, buildings and scenic views of HMB , the harbor, local florists and environs.  Media includes watercolor, acrylic and oil painting.  Many of the pieces will be available for purchase. 

The artists will welcome the public for a gala reception on Sunday, July 12 1 to 4pm at the La Di Da Café, 500 Purissima St in Half Moon Bay.

Artist and Storyteller Rick Bartow will be appearing at Half Moon Bay Library at 7:00pm on the evening of Thursday July 16th.  Rick has had exhibits at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian and the White House. He will be showing his artwork at the Enso Gallery in Half Moon Bay from July 10th through August 30th.

Open Mike Night, Friday, July 17, 2009, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.  Hwy 1 at 8th St., Montara, 728-5229.

We’re releasing our new Letters section as a way to make it easier for readers to post to Coastsider.

Any stories you post to Letters will immediately appear in the right column of the site. To add your letter to the site, just click on the "Post Letter" link on the top menu bar of any page.

Letters will greatly reduce the wait to get your announcements, events, and opinions on Coastsider.  We will also move letters of general interest to the main column. Letters replace Town Hall, but all existing Town Hall posts will be maintained and we’ll continue to use Town Hall to host Unclassified Ads.

Letters work like any other story. Readers can comment on letters. All comments on letters will appear in our list of recent comments. Letters are indexed and archived with our other stories.

If you don’t have posting access, just set up an account, and send your real name and email address to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll give you access. Instructions can be found on the "Post letter" page.

The rules for Letters are simple.  We reserve the right to moderate all content, but you can’t go wrong with the following:

• All posters must use their real names, just as they do on the rest of Coastsider.
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