The Burlingame Voice

Killing the Golden Goose?

I don't know Belmont city councilmember Coralin Feierbach.  We may have met on the hotel chicken council circuit, but I absolutely love the piece she wrote in the Daily Journal about the over-development being rammed down the Peninsula's throats by a bunch of bureaucrats with control over our money.  Here is a pretty lengthy excerpt.  Please do click through this link and read the whole thing.

This is in response to the May 1 article in the Daily Journal, “What is Plan Bay Area? Region Adopting Strategy for Future Growth.” The article states that San Mateo plans to add 10,000 new housing units by 2040. To paraphrase futurist Paul Saffo when he spoke before the Council of Cities 10 years ago, San Mateo County is in the process of loving itself to death.

Peninsula cities are continually inundated by pro-growth voices from the San Mateo County Economic Development Association, the Association of Bay Area Governments, building trade unions, developers and Realtors, “building more new housing” proponents, state legislators and their lobbyists and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

If it were only voices, that would be one thing. But now the deck is being stacked so if cities don’t build more housing then grant money may not available for road or other infrastructure improvements. In the post-Proposition 13 era, property taxes on housing units have not been sufficient to pay for all city services, including infrastructure maintenance, used by residential property owners. So adding more housing comes at a cost to cities’ infrastructures — a cost that is not funded by state or regional agencies.

ABAG issues mandates for each city for a number of additional housing units they must enable via zoning increases. These mandates have so far not been enforced, but proposed state legislation may soon change that. The very qualities that attracted us to Belmont are threatened.

Will local cities be forced to convert suburban single-family neighborhoods to urban multi-family condos and apartments? Will we be forced to sell our open space to developers to make up for sales tax money the state can potentially deny us? Will we be forced to build high-rise apartment buildings and condos along the “transportation corridor” as ABAG and MTC wants, destroying the view of the Bay for many Belmont households?

......

Belmont has about 350 acres of open space. Previous and present councils made that happen with strength, courage and conviction. Yes, there will be some new development in downtown Belmont on El Camino Real but not the kind of massive development some cities like Millbrae, Redwood City and San Bruno have generated and San Mateo is about to generate. Massive housing is not a sustainable solution. New Belmont development will be done with care and with consideration of long-term sustainability, consultation with residents and in cooperation with neighboring cities as well.

We moved to the San Mateo Peninsula because it was suburban, not urban. Yet outside agencies continually pressure us to urbanize. It’s time for our voices to be heard in Sacramento. Let us not die of a thousand cuts.

Right on, Coralin.  I'll go a step further and suggest that the Peninsula city councils need to band together in a similar fashion to the PCC group that formed to stop the high-cost rail monstrosity.  This group should get themselves a good lawyer and start now on prying the grant money, tax money and any other funding source away from the likes of ABAG and the MTC.

Saying Goodbye to the Fire Chief

I was not able to make the retirement celebration for Central County Fire Chief Don Dornell last night but Mayor Keighran and my lovely wife, Councilmember Cathy Baylock, were there along with a sizeable crowd to send Don off to retirement.  From the program we learn that Don was

Hired with the City of Burlingame Fire Department as a firefighter in 1977.  Promoted to Fire Captain in 1985 and Assistant Chief in 1997.  Appointed to be the second Fire Chief of the Central County Fire Department in 2006 and the shared Fire Chief for the CCFD, Millbrae Fire Department and San Bruno Fire Department in 2012.

You will recall from this post about the Screaming Eagles that Don

Served as the first Chairman of the Burlingame Adopt-a-Unit Program since 2004 which as sponsored the adopted soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division through 5 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I hope Don enjoys his retirement and welcome to new CCFD Fire Chief Mark Ladas.  Here's Cathy Baylock wishing Don well last night.

Mega-city = Mega-stupid

It appears the Daily Journal and the Daily Post simply republished some press release from the "Mega-city" presentations at last Thursday's State of the Valley conference.  You would have had to pick up the Post in print to see it since there is no web presence.  The front page piece in the Post has the exact same quotes and the exact same sentence as the DJ about

Stretching from the rolling vineyards in north Sonoma County to the sprawling estates of southern Santa Clara County, the Bay Area has 6.9 million residents living in 101 cities, centered in the tech-rich Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

It's word for word.  Now perhaps one or both papers will start asking the tough questions about what happens to citizen representation on local issues when the constituent count climbs dramatically?  Or what happens when the special interests can consolidate their "resources" on fewer elections and fewer candidates?  Or do we really want one homogenous city from Sonoma to somewhere south of San Jose?  I thought diversity was viewed as good these days.  Heck, the state is working so well, perhaps we just eliminate municipal and county government all together.

Friends with Benefits - Part 21 This would be funny....

This would be funny if it weren't so sad.  The San Mateo Mercury Times somehow found an administrative assistant in the SJ school district's special ed department to write an OpEd claiming "Californians have had enough of pension reform".  The piece is so lightweight I thought my paper was going to float up to the ceiling as I read it.  First, the author--one Donna D'Arcy claims

Legislators may have lost their appetite for using pensions as a scapegoat for budget woes.

That's funny on its face since it isn't apparent legislators outside of the locals in San Jose and San Diego have done ANYTHING about pension reform except to watch the tidal wave of cash that crushed Prop 32.  You can read up on the problem here, here and here.  D'Arcy goes on to claim

Critics also were quieted by the California Public Employees Retirement System's announcement that its investments earned 13.3 percent in 2012. Over the long-term, that number is even bigger, showing that California's pension system is strong.

That last bit about "that number is even bigger" begs a footnote.  Really?  Where is she getting that and what selective bit of data is she hiding behind?  The suffocating future pension liabilities are well-documented.

But the most egregious part is the idea that Californians have had enough of reform.  D'Arcy should go look at the polls and the few elections that aren't swayed by forced union dues money.  She can also take a look at the Seventh Circuit Court ruling last Friday that reaffirmed the reforms in Wisconsin.  The article would be funny--if it weren't so sad.

County Real Estate Update

You can just walk around the neighborhoods and see how quickly homes are selling in B'game.  The Daily Journal is reporting on the County Controller's report here that puts numbers to the sales rates and the possible tax ramifications

August 2012 was the strongest month for Bay Area home sales in six years and the number of homes sold increased 14 percent over the previous year. Adler wrote that the county’s median prices continue to rise — the single-family home median rose 8.9 percent to $826,250 — and the improving real estate market in the county should continue to increase assessed property values and, in turn, future property tax revenue.

The property tax assessment roll is also up 3.33 percent, or $4.75 billion, which means an increase in property tax revenue of about $47.5 million for schools, cities, special districts and the county. However, the future doesn’t include refunds, which are unpredictable. For example, in fiscal year 2011-12, the county processed $26.3 million in refunds.

The report also noted that the commercial property vacancy rate was up 14.1 percent and the per capita personal income increased to $67,964 which is an ongoing increase.

If you read up on the deal that has backed us a step or two back from the fiscal cliff, there are some notions of limited deductions on upper income people that could affect mortgage deductions and hence the real estate market generally.  We'll see if it is enough to disrupt the B'game gravy train.

Friends with Benefits - Part 20 New Year's Wish

Our local scribe John Horgan has his "six-pack" of wishes for 2013 that does a nice job of mirroring my own.  Mr. Horgan has been watching the local pension issue as well and has the following to say here

The latest extensive audit performed by the county's controller is somewhat encouraging on the subject of long-term public employee pension requirements. Still, the figures are rather stark. According to the report, county government (the county's second-biggest employer, by the way) has a long-term, unfunded public pension liability of 28 percent as of the close of the past fiscal year. Add in the public retirees' unfunded health insurance liability and the total dollar figure comes to about $1 billion. County supervisors have been trying to trim those costs but more work needs to be done.

Aside from the disappointing idea that the county is the second largest employer in the county, with a population around 727,000 the $1 billion figure runs about $1,375 per person.  And that assumes they got the estimated rate of return even close to a real world figure.  Sounds like a good place to put some of that "extra" Measure A cash.

Supervisor Pine Reaching Out

Our District One County Supe, Dave Pine, has just instituted an email newsletter to inform district residents of what's up in Redwood City at the County government level.  If you didn't get it today, ping Dave at dave.pine@comcast.net and I am sure he can add you to his list.

One of the e-newsletter's items is this announcement

Measure A will provide approximately $60 million a year for the next ten years for a range of services.

To gather input for the use of this new revenue the Board of Supervisors will begin holding public hearings in January to help set funding priorities. The hearings will focus on community needs in such areas as: (1) health and human services including the possible funding of seismic improvements at Seton Medical Center, (2) parks, (3) public works and capital projects, and (4) housing and transportation.

If I might, can I add option (5)?  Pay down the debt, fund the unfunded pension liabilities and look for ways to spend less?  Just because a new source of funds is starting that doesn't mean we need to find new things to spend it on.

Caltrain: Planning for 2014 Taxes

There are only five taxes that you have to vote on this time around (30, 38, 39, A and D) so when better to have agencies start planning for the next batch.  The SF Examiner is highlighting a survey done by the San Mateo County Transit District that appears to indicate another 1/4 cent sales tax could pass.  The article notes

When first asked, 63 percent of San Mateo County voters said they would support a quarter-cent sales tax increase to provide funding for SamTrans and Caltrain. And after pollsters presented context and information about the need for a dedicated funding source, that rate increased to 66 percent, said Jayme Ackemann, communications manager for Caltrain. Ackemann noted that opposition efforts to tax measures usually knock a few percentage points off support ratings come election time. For the proposal to pass, it would need two-thirds approval.

SamTrans currently receives about $60 million a year from a half-cent sales tax, meaning a quarter-cent measure would likely raise half that amount. Last year, Caltrain dealt with a $30 million shortfall with unsustainable one-time funding measures. SamTrans has had its own budget issues, which forced the agency to cut its funding contributions to Caltrain.

Ackemann stressed that the poll was conducted simply to provide options for both SamTrans and Caltrain. The agencies have not made decisions on when, or if, they will move forward with the San Mateo County-only option.

The piece goes on to note that some think San Fran and Santa Clara counties should probably contribute as well--but that has been the essence of the challenge from the beginning.  In related news, the City's e-newletter notes the SMTC is soliciting citizen board members for Caltrain's sister, SamTrans.

Slocum for Supervisor

Since early voting has started it is time to take a stand in the County supervisors race.  I'm going to recommend you vote for Warren Slocum for two reasons.  His opponent, Shelly Masur, has moved ever further away from what is good for the County right now.  She shows this by supporting High-cost rail and by saying that public union bargaining units have "already made concessions, so the county needed to look at managment making bigger contributions to pensions and benefits".  This statement is laughable since doing it won't make even a little dent in the problem.

But the HSR support is even less defensible.  In the October issue of Labor newsletter, Masur states

"The county can benefit from high speed rail; it is good for Caltrain and the benefits outweigh the costs."

You can read reams of fact-based rebuttal to that here.  Both of these positions are really just the same sort of pandering that we get from Sacramento and that have led the state to terrible position we are in now.  I'm not normally one for supporting politicians who have been in office for years, but this is one situation where Slocum is far and away the better candidate.  Caveat emptor concivis (fellow citizen beware).

Friends with Benefits - Part 19 $ick time

In keeping with our FwB thread found here and here, the Mercury Times- Bay Area News Group is highlighting some more findings that

From Silicon Valley to the Wine Country, top administrators, police officers, firefighters, government lawyers, engineers, clerks, nurses and others received more than $50,000 each, combining last year for more than $30 million, most of it for unused sick days. That is enough money to add about 190 police officers to Bay Area streets for a year or about 375 teachers to local classrooms.

and the article goes on to note

And therein lies the great benefit to employees of saving time off: Governments pick up the tab based on a retiree's final rate of pay, not what he was paid when the time was accrued.

The News-Times has also assembled an interesting database here.  This would appear to be one spot where change should be easier--an ability to "rollover" a week or maybe two for one year is standard practice in most workplaces.