Comments by Vince Williams
November 19, 2007
Paul, I read the opinion piece. The article fails to mention some USA based Blogers justification for remaining anonymous. One is that many employment agreements prohibit the employee for damaging the reputation of their employer, partners or customers. Some corporations initiate legal proceedings against individuals and groups that "get in their way". Given the financial resources and legal protections for corporations, why would anyone speak against them publicly? The only real restraint on corporations…
November 02, 2007
David F. Smydra Jr., I have some issues with the objectivity of your reporting and your editors from an article you wrote entitled "One night, three races, 10 candidates", on Oct. 18, 2007. From your article: "Williams said that Montara's fire station is practically falling down and that the engine will soon need to be replaced." What I actually said: "...If you think in terms of replacing fire apparatus on a twenty year cycle, replacing the El Granada station, which is literally ready to fall down.…
November 02, 2007
I also decided not to participate in The HMB Review's candidate review process. Years ago, I was sucked into attending the Fire Board meetings by all of the misinformation in The HMB Review about what was going on at the Fire Boards. As I shifted from reporting on MidcoastL to advocating a position, every letter to the editor that made print in The HMB Review was mangled by their staff to make me look the fool. In articles in 2005, I was misquoted. Misinformation was printed. The Editor refused to…
November 01, 2007
Carl May wrote: "So now, every time a car is broken into and trashed on the coastside--an act that happens fairly often in parking lots and neighborhoods--local firefighters and their union are tainted by it?" I wrote "at HMBFPD" not "on the coastside." According to press reports the crime locations were Half Moon Bay Main station parking lot and Chief Cole's locker. I wrote "the whole organization and Local 2400" not "local firefighters and their union". The "whole organization" also includes, the…
October 31, 2007
Continued part two of two Mary Kay Jolley wrote: "Yes, Acting Chief Paul Cole had his car vandalized and someone peed on his sleeping bag, but there was never any proof who did it and certainly no connection one can logically make that it was because of the contract with CalFire. It is very irresponsible for you to write such. Local 2400 came out swiftly and strongly condemned the actions." Barry has responded. The question of who is responsible is just the game that has been played over and over…
October 31, 2007
Mary Kay Jolley, Thank you for clarifying the quote about CDF. I have some issues with some of your other comments. Mary Kay Jolley wrote: "What you need to consider is that CalFire is only able to staff approximately half of its engines with a paramedic and that the paramedics are VERY inexperienced." Where, the state of California, San Mateo County or Station 44? CalFire provides a variety of engine staffing options to agencies that contract with them. The contract for staffing Station 44 calls…
October 31, 2007
Mary Kay Jolley, I do not recall having written on Coastsider what you claim I wrote. I did an advanced search of what you claim I wrote, “CDF will cause more problems than it will solve.” That string search only found your post. Could you please provide a link to what you claim I said on Coastsider? An anonymous poster on The Half Moon Bay Review Talkabout on September 28,2007 12:05PM posted the following quote attributed to me on Coastsider, "we should not contract out with CDF, it will cause…
October 07, 2007
I misspoke on the video in two places. I have two corrections: I said "... that is to reconstitute CalFire having its own employees.". I meant to say "... that is to reconstitute Coastside Fire having its own employees." I said, "...200 households." in the video. I meant to say, "...2000 households.". Under Darin Boville's ground rules, that I agreed to, this was shot and edited by him and I did not have the opportunity to review it or edit it. I want thank Darin for the opportunity to get my message…
July 28, 2007
Carl May wrote: "The overall landslide is longer at road level that where they bolted the retaining walls to rods pushed into the hillside." Technically it may be true that the section south of the whaler wall is part of the slide. But the historic movement of this section is a lot less than the northern part where the whaler wall is. Look at the photo's of previous failures. The major rifts were all at the northern end of the current whaler wall. These rifts follows the fault line between the north…
July 27, 2007
Leonard, I have one minor technical correction. You wrote: "It’s not—it’s basically just the part where they bolted the concrete barrier to the side of the mountain with long bolts/cables into the solid part of the mountain." Not all the tension anchors are embedded in bedrock. It may look like a fortress. But, it's basically retaining walls above and below the roadway with anchors buried in slide debris. Have a look: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/stormdamageroute1/docs/daily_update_71806.pdf…
July 26, 2007
Darin, Carl May makes some really good points. If you go back and read the history and all the studies you will come to many of the same conclusion he has. Taking a hard look at the documents it's obvious CalTrans has never wanted to admit that Dr. Hovland or others had a viable option in dewatering. Dewatering is not in CalTrans's solution space. CalTrans is not an evil empire. CalTrans had/has a technical bias against anything that touches on dewatering the slide, because they were attempting to…
July 26, 2007
Cal Trans had an agenda in 2006 and our local government representatives were all to willing to be spoon fed information from CalTrans. Weeks into the crisis, we get Mr. Wilcox's hand waving dog and pony show at the MCC. In the following weeks CalTrans did not share their drilling, slippage or water level data with the public, until they had their $7M solution. Nor did CalTrans ever answer the question asked in the MCC meeting, about whether their lack of maintenance of swales and drains contributed…
June 27, 2007
Mary Bordi, Sorry, I misspelled your last name. A reasonable presumption for the reader of a newspaper is that a publisher knows how to write or can find someone around the office to edit what they write. Debra Godshall in her Publisher's Note said, "I apologize in advance if it reads a little bit like a fairy tale." Those were her words. Readers upset or confused by her writing have every right to comment on this confusing piece, ask questions, disagree or use the label she supplied, "fairy tale."
June 22, 2007
Mary Bordi, The Publisher of The HMB Review spins a political "fairy tale" and us little folks are supposed to see all the hidden wisdom and none of the sexism. I'm no expert in "fairy tale" interpretation. Who exactly is the "he" in Debra Godshall's political "fairy tale"? Mike Ferreira, John Lynch, a member of the patriarchy, some incompetent lout or any man? Why not a "person"? Can a woman not be the head of a household and aspire to own a home? Do men have a monopoly on making obstinate bad decisions?…
June 22, 2007
This week we have Debra Godshall's latest "fairy tale". I'm not sure whether it is a bad metaphor of Mike Ferreira overcommiting the family to purchase a dream mansion on a toxic waste dump surrounded by disabled(from the toxics) red legged tree frogs or maybe we're supposed to trust the women in the family to know what the City can afford and to have better real estate acumen. The "yammering" on Coastsider brought to light what the current City Council in HMB was planning to do on short notice,…
June 16, 2007
Debra Godshall is self-serving. She put the IAFF Local 2400 supporters on the front page of her newspaper with all kinds of positive press for doing exactly the same thing that John Lynch is doing(September 13, 2006 and February 14,2007). They didn't have a viable plan to finance the status quo at Coastside Fire. Why a different standard for John Lynch? Stoking the fires of controversy at Coastside Fire helps create strife that passes for news and I'd guess criticizing John Lynch reassures the construction…
May 29, 2007
Leonard, Part 2 of 2 HMBFPD reserves are very low. PMFPD's are in really good shape. In the consolidation the reserves are commingled. There is a short term financial benefit to the residents of HMBFPD at expense of the residents of PMFPD as far as reserves. PMFPD is also buying into the long term liabilities of HMBFPD. Also, getting the two Boards in one tent will prevent all the costly inter board strife. I have been told numerous times by many "experts" that the minor financial inequities are…
May 29, 2007
Leonard, The short answer is this is a detail that may get dwarfed by other financial considerations. But, here is a summary of what I know that addresses your concerns. The current PMFPD Board has been pretty aggressive about letting the HMBFPD pay for its lawsuits and services that are not a benefit to PMFPD. With everything going on the last year and half, the rates were left as they were because of the expectation the two Districts would merge and all the reserve funds would go into one joint…
May 29, 2007
Carl May, How is any of your spin on history relevant to the situation today? If a Board ten years ago had done something different it would not have effected the current reserves significantly. The present Board has done a good job of maintaining the reserves and not picking up the tab for HMBFPD's problems for many years. 88 percent of the current costs are professional staff costs dictated by the going rates for that staff in San Mateo County and providing service in San Mateo County. The District…
May 29, 2007
Carl May, What is your solution beyond complaining and revisionist history? Responsibility clearly lies with the Boards. But, really it is a more general failure of the community. The Boards respond to the constituency that elect them. So, we wind up with an odd lot of Fire Fighters, ex-Fire Fighters and some "civilians" on the Fire Boards all saying, they want to give something back to the community. There is a long tradition of Fire Fighters and ex-Fire Fighters getting on the Boards and taking…
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