Comments by Kevin J. Lansing
October 31, 2005
From the City's Fiscal Analysis "...typical new residential in the City does not generate sufficient revenues to fully offset the costs of providing essential municipal services to the new develpment." http://www.half-moon-bay.ca.us/ATTACH_2_Fiscal_Analysis_of_New_Development.pdf Is HMB Ranger arguing that essential municipal services could be delivered at a cheaper cost? The City's biggest municipal expense is the Police Department I believe. So would HMB Ranger suggest cutting back on the Police…
November 03, 2005
Your map is not something that was enacted by the current City Council, so you still have yet to cite a specific case. (23 words) As you know very well, the zoning of lots that we see on the ground today is the cumulative result of numerous historical zoning actions going back many decades. For example, a large number of houses built in the 1960s and 1970s did not even conform to the zoning standards that existed at the time they were built. Nobody knows why that happened, but the City is working…
November 03, 2005
HMB Ranger writes:
"I’ve read the California Coastal Act. It most certainly does not clearly support many of the actions taken to date by elected and appointed officials in HMB."
This is a groundless accusation. Can we please elevate the discussion? I would like to hear you cite the specifics of a case where you think local HMB officials have taken an action that is not supported by either the Coastal Act or its local implementation, the LCP.
November 03, 2005
Responses to bginna below: "Relating consumer inflation to salary growth...is a little silly" and "Exactly how generous is the retirement plan versus other public employees?" The point here is that the public has not been given the straight scoop about where all the money is going. At the Oct. 25 candidate debate, Mickelsen actually did claim that salary growth was approximately in line with inflation. He also was unable to give a clear answer to a question about how much water rates would be increasing…
November 02, 2005
The 30% salary increase takes place over 4 years (2002 to 2006), which translates to a simple average of 7.5% (=30/4) per year, not 6% per year. The 7.5% figure is about three times the average annual inflation rate over the period. The parabolic increase in retirement plan payments is presumably driven by the need to address the district's significantly underfunded but very generous retirement plan. This would not be so bad if it had all been properly disclosed by CCWD in the weeks leading up to…
October 26, 2005
Barry, Thanks for providing the link to my "Voice of the Coast" article. Since that was published, I have been able to compile the following data from CCWD's financial statements. The data shows that over a time period of 4 years, the average employee salary shows an increase of 30 percent while retirement plan payments show an increase of 385 percent. Kevin J. Lansing # of CCWD Employees FY 2001/2002 17 FY 2002/2003 16 FY 2003/2004 16 FY 2004/2005 17 FY 2005/2006 17 CCWD Salaries (Field + Admin.)…
October 07, 2005
I was at last night's hearing. Barry Parr is to be congratulated for his outstanding news report--this one filed less than two hours after the hearing ended. Coastsider.com continues to prove its value to our community. There are many, many people who have been urging the school board to go with the Cunha site for years. The clear advantages of the Cunha site in both time and cost which were cited by the Professional Advice Committee have been known for years (see link below). http://builditnow.sanmateo.org/…
September 21, 2005
JLundell wrote:
"Cunha has now entered Year 2 of program improvement, and will be required to provide tutoring to economically disadvantaged students."
Okay, and a year from now, if or when Hatch also enters Year 2 of program improvement, then it too will face the same requirement. Right?
Obviously, this is all going to cost a ton of money, which helps to put Barry's excellent article (link below) into much better perspective:
https://coastsider.com/comments/919_0_1_0_M/
July 07, 2005
The article by Richard Scholl is amazing---it was written 33 years ago but it could just as easlly have been written last week. Scholl warns about the growth-inducing effects of oversized infrastructure in stating: "The lesson is clear--it is the special districts and boards that determine the population, through control of the size of the sewer plants, the water service, the highways. Because of this, plans to meet `demands' become kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Population expands to use the…
June 06, 2005
Here's my letter to the Board of Supervisors: June 6, 2005 President Richard Gordon and Members of the San Mateo County Board of Re: Statement of Principles to Guide Midcoast Growth Dear President Gordon and Members of the Board of Supervisors, I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed "Statement of Principles to Guide Midcoast Growth." I am currently a member of the Planning Commission for the City of Half Moon Bay, but my comments below represent my views as an individual citizen.…
May 13, 2005
[partial repost from Midcoast list] I don't mean to throw a wet blanket on the Podesta site, but with all due respect, I think we are looking at a Wavecrest-waiting-to-happen. For starters: 1. The school district does not own the land and it is far from clear how the district would get the money to pay for it. I would prefer not to use taxpayer-supplied funds to buy real-estate at current elevated prices. 2. The project would presumably require a costly and time-consuming Environmental Impact Report…
December 03, 2004
This is really courageous writing. You have to wonder how many U.S. "citizens" are open-minded or caring enough to try to understand what the average Iraqi is going through. Not the majority, unfortunately. But there is no doubt that many those same U.S. "citizens" will be in church this Sunday professing: "Do unto others..."
November 30, 2004
The owner's stated plan for Wavecrest does not envision agriculture, but instead a 220-house subdivision and a middle school. So why aren't people like Mr. SwingFiddle above, who claim to be in support of agriculture, upset that the developer intends to permanently take this "agricultural land" out of service?
November 15, 2004
This is another in a series incidents that illustrate the developer's lack of concern for finding and/or protecting environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA) on the site. Some other notorious examples: 1. Installation of an illegal drainage pipe to drain wetlands in 1999. For details, see link below http://www.sanmateo.org/CCC/HMBReview1999.html 2. Failure to identify habitat for the California redlegged frog and SF garter snake during the original biological studies done in late 1990s. 3. Failure…
October 27, 2004
It's too bad that Mr. Gardner evaded the direct question as to whether he knows who was behind the smear ad. How in the world could he not know who was behind it? This was his reserved slot. I think the public has a right to know who is coughing up money to support Mr. Gardner and Mr. Mosely because these candidates may be inclined to pay this political favor back in the event that one or both are elected. Even if the law does not require Mr. Gardner and Mr. Mosely to disclose who was behind the…
October 25, 2004
The above article states: "Gardner also received $1,000 from the Committee to Elect Jim Larimer. Larimer is a director of the County Coastside Water District..." Is that legal? How can funds from a commitee to elect Larimer be used to fund Gardner? Also, does anybody know who paid for the negative smear ad that was placed next to Jonathan Lundell's ad in last week's HMB Review? It wouldn't surprise me one bit to learn that Gardner's three biggest contributors (Ken Jones, Jolanda Shreurs, and James…
October 15, 2004
A version of this comment was posted on the Midcoast-List on 10/14/04 I too noticed the glaring whopper in Debra Godshall's editorial of 10/13/04. Anyone who subscribes to the Midcoast list or reads the Coastsider knows that, in fact, the Coastsider broke the story about red-legged frogs at Wavecrest, not the Review. Moreover, the Review botched the subsequent coverage of the story by misreporting on 8/4/04 that "State and Federal Biologists Find No Frog at Wavecrest." In a letter to the editor dated…
October 15, 2004
Dear Mr. Gardner: I wish you would answer some of the foregoing questions before the election is over. If this is the kind of "response" to citizen concerns that we can expect from Trustee Gardner, then it looks like we are in for "more of the same." As a separate question, I would like to know why you think that putting up a new building (in the form of a middle school) will somehow miraculously boost the quality of instruction or improve the district's scores on state-mandated achievement tests.…
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