The Burlingame Voice

Bond Shortfall for Schools

The Mercury Times has a good piece on how SMUSHD will handle the funding shortfall

The San Mateo Union High School District will delay some small construction projects and divert money to plug a nearly $22 million shortfall in the Measure M bond program resulting from decreased property values and other factors.

Thursday, the district board approved a financing plan that relies on $11.1 million in cuts and $10.5 million in funding from other accounts to bridge the $21.6 million gap to finish the main projects called for in Measure M.

The causes are

A district financial analysis of the bond program found that the decline in property values associated with the economic downturn created much of the shortfall, board President Stephen Rogers said.  The rest of the shortfall comes from projected savings now not expected to happen related to the solar initiative and a loss of state funding, according to the staff report.

As parents gear up for a big school funding weekend with Taste of the Town on Friday night and the BCE dinner dance on Saturday night, this will be a topic of interest!

Doggies Eating the Dogfood

I have no visibility on what's going on at the Patch, so John Horgan's blurb carries the day for now:

When it comes to community-based journalism, it's dog-eat-dog out there, to put it simply.

Competition for eager readers and advertising dollars is unrelenting and fierce, whether you're talking about electronic or print versions of the information-gathering business.

Patch, a relatively new hyper-local Internet news source, apparently is learning that very painful lesson too.

Owned by AOL since 2009, Patch, which has online news outlets in a number of Peninsula towns, is scaling back, according to sources familiar with its operations here. Budgets for freelance journalists and correspondents have been slashed and coverage has been trimmed back to accommodate the cutbacks.

But one thing is for sure, the Daily Post is easier to find lately.  The blue boxes have popped up on the Avenew like mushrooms after a week of rain.  I'm not sure what they are "testing" but I hope they figure it out before April 1st and cut back a bit so there's room to walk.  There are five or six boxes on a single block now!  Enough is indeed enough.

 

PG&E bonu$

Did you get your $25 prepaid Mastercard bonus from PG&E yesterday?  The letter notes:

We asked you to conserve natural gas during a period when some gas pipelines on the Peninsula were unavailable or undergoing repair.  Thousands of people like you stepped up by doing simple things to reduce their natural gas use.

It all seems a bit convenient to me since I don't think I did much at all to change gas usage.  I'm constantly cutting electicity usage, but gas pretty much flows as dictated by the thermostat.  Is this a $25 acknowledgment that this December was warmer expected?

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 1

In honor of President's Day and the civic inspiration we all get from Presidents Washington and Lincoln, here are the 17 goals established by the City Council for this fiscal year.  They are divided into six posts so comments flow a little better.

The first two are 

1. Adopt 6 year financial plan which would have as its core a commitment to grow revenue by X% (average) while holding operating expenses to Y% growth (Finance and City Manager)

o Prioritize spending options, especially regarding future capital improvements.

o Explore revenue producing sources for the City of Burlingame; i.e. industrial at Bay front areas; city-owned property.

2. Work with the Council to create an Ad Hoc Council subcommittee (1 member to come from Council ED Subcommittee) for Downtown Plan Implementation: sub goals would be to develop financing options for improving downtown infrastructure; to develop options for getting more value out of public parking lot(s); and discuss means for creation of public space/piazza. (Community Development)

Plug in your favorites for "X" and "Y" here.

 

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 2

Here is a biggie at number 3 that most B'gamers are unaware of--or at least unaware of the potential consequences

3. Explore consolidation of Police Dispatch and other police services with San Mateo. (Police and City Manager)

We've touched on it here, but it merits more public discussion.

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 3

High-cost rail clocks in at number 4

4. Develop and implement high speed rail action plan including resources to address engineering, CEQA, and community impact concerns. (Public Works)

And reading the whole background on this issue could take you the rest of the day.

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 4

And the next five are:

5. Integrate Neighborhood Network into city’s emergency response plan. (Fire)

6. Implement a 50/50 residential sidewalk maintenance program. (Public Works)

7. Facilitate the re-establishment of Downtown Business BID. (Community Development)

8. Clean up news racks. (Public Works)

9. Improve safety of crossing at Adeline and Cortez to Ray Park/Lincoln School. (Public Works)

10. Expand Beautification Commission to include Public Art component and explore possibility of including performing arts as well. (Parks and Recreation and Community Development)

The hot one being the sidewalk discussion which you can read about here.

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 5

This is a big one, so it stands alone as Part 5

11. Encourage establishment of a two tier retirement system. (CM and Human Resources)

We've addressed some of this in the past with our Friends with Benefits series here.

City Council Goals - FY 2011 Part 6

And finally

12. Ban the use of Polystyrene (EPS) for restaurant take out orders, or drink cups. Consider banning grocery stores from using it package meat, fish and vegetables. (Attorney and Community Development)

13. Limit leaf blowing i.e. over the weekends. (Referred to CEC for recommendation)

14. Increase code enforcement on maintenance of commercial/retail properties. (Attorney) 

15. Look for grants to fund a part time staff resource to serve as point person on sustainability efforts. (CM and Community Development)

16. Consider Options to Take to Voters to Rewrite of Business License Tax Ordinance (Finance)

17. Work with Economic Development Sub Committee and Hotels to develop a project to improve way finding signage. (Economic Development and Public Works)

So there you have it, B'gamers---our 17 priorities for the year.

Good Grass

I try not to duplicate what goes out in the City's e-newsletter because I assume if you are reading the Voice you are also plugged into the official channels.  After all, if you are reading this blog regularly you are better informed than 95% of the people walking around town.

But this little competition is noteworthy because I want to follow the results, so be on notice that:

The Burlingame Beautification Commission and the City Council are pleased to announce the opening of nominations for the Best Business Landscape Award, which recognizes the efforts of businesses to maintain and beautify the City of Burlingame and to encourage attractive landscaping improvements in our community.

If you have a favorite

Nomination Form and Award Rules & Standards are available at the Parks & Recreation Department, 850 Burlingame Ave.

Which seems downright archaic to have to go get a piece of paper, but that's the drill.  Before winter returned this week, there were some gorgeous blooms happening around town--like this

 
As a native New Englander seeing this in mid-February NEVER gets old.