Letter: Let’s get behind the CUSD board

Mike Ferreira is running for re-election to the Half Moon Bay City Council. Coastsider welcomes letters and comments from all candidates for Coastside offices.

I’d like to offer the following observations and suggestions regarding the recent results of the CUSD’s Committee of Experts which appear to overwhelmingly endorse the Cunha site as faster and cheaper.

1.) �This is not the same Board as that which made the Wavecrest decision in the mid 90’s.

2.) �Key assumptions about the environmental facts on the ground are not the same as they were in the mid 90’s.

3.) �In the mid 90’s, Court decisions (such as "Bolsa Chica" in 1998) had not yet refined and strengthened wetland/ESHA protections.

4.) �The Coastal Commission that was in place in the mid 90’s (Governor Wilson) was a much different Commission than that which took shape in 1999 (Governor Davis) and lord-only-knows what kind of Commission we have now (Governor Schwarzenegger).

No, I’m not exonerating the prior Board completely. �I still believe that less recriminatory and more analytical responses to new information might have gotten the community to this point much earlier.

But I do want to offer respect to the current Board for demonstrating leadership and no small amount of courage by putting a process in place that had a reasonable likelihood of producing a politically uncomfortable result, which it did. �They were willing to take substantial �political risk, and I think that, boiling it right down, they did it out of altruism, i.e., For The Kids. Genuinely. �For The Kids.

So, let’s get behind them. �Let’s pitch in and see if we can’t help them beat their schedule. �Not only will it feel good to take old estrangements and animosities out of our kit bag, but won’t it feel even greater to have both political camps (the bulk of each, anyway) pulling together on something that we’re all doing for one overriding motive….For the Kids?

Mike Ferreira