The county’s 16-member Charter Review Committee met Wednesday for the second time, reports the Mercury News.

The biggest issue before the committee is district elections for the Board of Supervisors.  San Mateo is the only county in California that elects its supervisors at large.

Other topics proposed Wednesday by committee members include:

• Consolidating county departments
• Redrawing supervisor district boundaries
• Establishing new campaign finance rules
• Revising or creating qualifications for certain elected offices
• Eliminating redundant boards and commissions

The committee will hold meetings every other Wednesday now through June and is expected to eventually forward its recommended changes to the board of supervisors, which could then choose to place them on the ballot. Charter changes require 50 percent voter approval.

The committee’s next meeting will take place Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at 455 County Center, Redwood City.

The charter was last reviewed in 2002.

The meeting was not video taped as previously requested. Hopefully the committee will have all future meeting online and broadcast on television.

Chair and Vice-Chair were elected at the beginning of the meeting.

Chair:
Sean Foote was appointed by Supervisor Gordon . He is a venture capitalist at Labrador Ventures, Hass School of Business Lecturer and folk musician. 
Labrador Ventures: http://www.labrador.com/index.html
Foote’s blog: http://seanfoote.wordpress.com/

Vice-Chair:
Melanie Hildebrand was appointed by Supervisor Groom.  She is a land use consultant at Cornerstone Consulting and Real Estate Broker at Hildebrand Real Estate Group. Interestingly Hildebrand was president of the San Mateo County Association of Realtors (SAMCAR) in 2005 and her company website includes a link to McCracken and Byers.
Cornerstone Consulting: http://melaniehildebrand.com/

Dave Pine is Vice President of the San Mateo County School Board Association and an attorney. He suggested that the committee list serve agendas and requested that speakers be given three minutes of speaker time vs. two minutes. 

Former Mayor and current Redwood City Council member Rosanne Foust voiced concerns about the meetings ending on time.
Link to article about Foust: http://www.peninsulaexaminer.com/2009/06/redwood-city-mayor-is-nimby.html

Beverly Miller a resident of El Granada and CFO for Brannan Street Wholesale Florist in San Francisco was appointed by Supervisor Gordon. Miller requested the committee stick with two minutes of speaker time. She then left the meeting an hour early.

Some of the ideas listed during the meeting for future discussions:

Citizen review of perspective County department head hires.

Reducing term limits. Current Supervisor term limits are 3 terms/12 years.

Rules and restrictions of BOS appointees.

Salaries and how they are determined.

Instant runoff elections.

Improved operating efficiency through consolidating offices.

Provisions for ethics violations by Supervisors and County staff.

County redistricting, changing electoral district boundaries in response to census results.

Redundancies on County Boards and Commissions.

Campaign finance reform.

Blogged live from the Supervisors’ Chambers in Redwood City

The Pelican Eye: Jan. 27, 2010

Gail Slocum, Commissioner, Fourth District had questions for County Counsel regarding the sale of the four proposed office buildings.

She is attempting to better understand what will happen to the office buildings, the storage building and parking lot once they are sold.

Project Phasing

Camille Leung, County Planner said the Wellness Center and Office Park construction will be based on demand.

The developers plan to rough grade the whole site and put up one building at a time. The parking lot would also be phased to provide parking for the building constructed.

Phase One of Construction

Building A would be built first (building closest to Pillar Ridge) and parking lot to the north of building A (closest to Pillar Ridge).

Scott Holmes, Engineer for the Big Wave development said building A is for mixed use, light industrial so it might need less parking? He also said agricultural farming would continue while construction is in progress.

- Hard to imagine how all this multitasking would work for the farm.

Holmes said they plan to switch to organic farming and plan to continue farming during construction.

Camille Leung said, "The agriculture is proposed for the Wellness Center site." Holmes said, "The farming would continue on both the Wellness Center and Office Park site."

Dave Byers of McCracken, Byers and Richardson said, "A banker will decide how the sites will be used. The construction loan will decide how the land is farmed during construction. We intend to keep farming the land during construction."

Leung said that if the office park was a flop the Wellness Center would still be built but would not serve low income developmentally challenged people. Leung then went on to say, "Those living on just SSI payments are below the poverty line."

Holmes said, "The cost to lease office park space would be $3.00 per sq. ft. and the purchase cost would be 1.5 times higher."

Holmes, "A tenant will be secured before the structure (Building A) is built. The building would be customized to fit the tenant/customer. Each building permit would shift depending on the needs of the tenant."

Story Poles

Leung said, "The developer will start construction of the story poles next week."

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s newest ranger, Elizabeth Wright, was sworn in as a peace officer at the board of directors meeting last night.

Once her training is complete, Wright will work out of the District’s Skyline field office serving preserve visitors in San Mateo County’s Skyline and Coastside areas. She is a native of San Jose, and has a degree in criminal justice from San Jose State University. Wright worked as a police officer for the City of Fremont between 1991 and 2001, holding several different positions including street patrol officer, drug abuse resistance education officer, training officer and crisis/hostage negotiator. 

She left law enforcement to pursue a career in woodworking and enjoy a slower pace of life in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  As a journey level carpenter and general contractor, Wright specialized in building log homes and remodeling kitchens and baths. She recently moved back to San Jose, and graduated at the top of her class from a nine-week law enforcement academy to become a ranger.

“Having grown up in the rapidly expanding Bay Area, I can appreciate how important it is to set aside such beautiful lands for everyone’s enjoyment.  I am proud to be protecting the land, the wildlife, and the people who enjoy the preserves,” Wright said. After taking the state of California’s peace officer loyalty oath, Wright asked her mother to pin on her new badge.

District rangers are stewards of 58,000 acres of public open space land. They interact with preserve visitors providing interpretive and educational information, first aid, and law enforcement. Rangers also patrol and maintain roads and trails, complete projects that enhance and restore the natural environment and work to prevent and fight wildland fires.

An approximately 350 lb wild boar has been seen in Grandview Terrace area of Half Moon Bay.  According to the county’s alert service, boars tend to run in packs.  If you see a boar do not approach, call police immediately at 726-8286 or dial 911

Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office will be keeping their regular Coastside office hours today from 10am to noon at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach. As always, it’s a good opportunity to raise issues with our county representative.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission owns a great deal of open space between Highway 280 and the Coastside, and nearly all of it is inaccessible to the public. This may change in the not too distant future.

The Chronicle’s Tom Stienstra notes that the SFPUC only has to unlock a couple of gates to connect Sweeney Ridge Trail to the Pacific, via Rancho Corral de Tierra—and that it may eventually happen.

After years of public prodding and pleading with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the Crystal Springs Watershed with the San Francisco Water Department, the water agency has a new conciliatory attitude toward public access that could eventually unlock two gates on the service road.

"There’s definitely a change," said Powell, in regard to the commission’s thoughts. "I think that trip (Sweeney-to-the-sea) could be possible in the future."

The commission has always been tight-lipped about public access, but the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s influence could open the door. That’s because of the pending addition of Rancho Corral de Tierra to the recreation area by year’s end, leaving the watershed sandwiched between two recreation area properties - Sweeney to the east and Rancho to the west.

The two locked gates between Sweeney and Rancho are on a service road. One gate is about a mile south of Sweeney Ridge and the other is just off the shoulder of the summit of Montara Mountain. This gravel and dirt road rises up the wilderness east flank of the mountain. It is bordered by chaparral, so those making the trek would be forced to stay on the road.

Meanwhile, San Mateo County may be able to eventually open a trail to connect Sawyer Camp Trail with Cañada Road, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The public now has access to sixteen years of biological data from 41 Northern California beaches through the Beach Watch online query system.

Beach Watch was founded in 1993 and covers the outer coast of central California between Bodega Head in Sonoma County through Año Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County, as well as beaches inside Tomales Bay and Bolinas Lagoon. Along each beach segment, live bird and marine mammals are counted, dead vertebrates are documented, human and dog activities are recorded, and data is collected on oil and tarball abundance and distribution, vegetation/algae wrack, invertebrates, and stream and lagoon status (opened or closed to the ocean).
 
The online query system allows public access to data on live birds and marine mammals and dead vertebrates.  Users can choose different filters and groupings to view the data; for example, the data can be queried for specific species, by individual beaches, or for a particular date range.  The data are summarized and can also be displayed in graph form. 

The Beach Watch shoreline-monitoring program is a partnership of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association.

SamTrans is rolling out the first of four new buses specially designed for use on the Coastside.  The 29-foot buses combine the versatility of a smaller vehicle with the benefits of a standard-size bus.  The event will be Thursday, Jan. 28 at 1:00pm in the New Leaf parking lot.

The new vehicles, which accommodate up to 41 passengers (28 seated and 13 standing) will replace the smaller vehicles currently in use on Route 17.  Ridership on the popular route regularly exceeds capacity.
 
Tenatively, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo will join officials from SamTrans local officials, including Susan Alvaro, president, San Mateo County Board of Education; Rob Gaskill, superintendent, Cabrillo Unified School District; Marina Fraser, mayor, City of Half Moon Bay; and Zoe Kersteen-Tucker, coastside representative, San Mateo County Transit District Board of Directors.

The buses are part of a larger purchase of 135 buses that will replace 1993-year models that have exceeded the recommended 12-year life-span.  The new buses use the latest clean-diesel technology, emitting 70 percent less nitrogen oxide and 90 percent less particulate matter than the older buses did in 1993. 

With the cliffs eroding daily, federal money is not likely for the blufftop apartment buildings on Pacifica’s Esplanade, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

It remains to be seen whether it’s too late to save 330 Esplanade, which was red-tagged last month, or 320 Esplanade, which was partially evacuated last week. But with the ocean starting to creep up on adjacent homes on Esplanade, Speier is calling for a comprehensive solution rather than a piecemeal approach to protecting one building at a time. [...]

Another option would be to form a neighborhood improvement district that would tax locals to pay for construction work.

While Esplanade Apartments has begun a $6 million engineering "fix" that will hopefully halt bluff retreat before it can undermine the buildings’ foundations, their neighbors to the north at Lands End Apartments ?are preparing for an emergency fix of their own. Previously, the complex has been relatively unaffected by erosion, which explains why its cliff has no shore protection whatsoever. But Lands End has lost 50 to 60 feet of bluff since the summer. The edge of the bluff is now within 55 feet of one of the buildings and 50 feet from their parking lot, according to Rob Anderson, a project engineer with RJR Engineering Group.

Lands End is about to request an emergency permit from the California Coastal Commission to place large protective boulders, also known as riprap, at the bottom of their cliff as a temporary measure. In the long term, Anderson says a whole two-mile stretch of beach along Esplanade and Palmetto Avenues could benefit from a major collaborative engineering effort, like an artificial reef.

Monday, Scott gave us a good description of the $6 million in desperate measures employed by the owners of 330 Esplanade.

Workers will drill more than 200 nails 50 feet into the cliff behind 330 Esplanade, which was evacuated in December, and secure them in the sandy cliff with several layers of concrete. Next, a wire mesh with steel plates will form a smooth shield against rain and wind erosion. A final stage will involve erecting a sea wall in back of 330, 320 and 310 Esplanade to deflect the pounding current, which undermines the bluff from below.

The owners of 320 Esplanade will almost certainly decide to extend the concrete wall onto their property as well, which would mean two construction rigs working side by side by the end of the week, said Tony Fortunato of Engineered Soil Repairs. "The longer you wait, the more you lose," he warned. [...]

Even if the owners of all three apartment buildings chip in together, $6 million could be a lot of money to spend for 50 years of habitation. Millard Tong, owner of 310 and 320 Esplanade, spent a total of $6 million to purchase both buildings back in 2002. And Farshid Samsami and Delfarib Fanaie spent $1.45 million to purchase 330 Esplanade in 2004, records show.

Esplanade Apartments representative Bart Willoughby wants to get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the project, but those funds are generally used to protect public property.