The Burlingame Voice

Election 2011 - Slight Shuffle

When all was said and done last night, the two incumbents prevailed over the first-time challenger.  From the first report of absentee voters to the final count after 11:30 pm, the order and the margins were pretty stable; as they usually are.  Here are the results:

Deal        2,879    36.74%        --

Nagel       2,780    35.84%        -99

Ortiz        2,177    27.78%        -702 

This is the first time Terry Nagel has slipped from first place in her three races.  She beat Jerry Deal by 352 votes four years ago, so last night represents a 450 vote swing towards Deal.  Ricardo Ortiz did quite well for a first-time challenger with a limited budget.  He was likely aided by having Measure E on the ballot.  It passed by 1% above the two-thirds majority required and drew out school parents.  Ortiz' fiscal emphasis also resonated with some voters, but my sense of it is that it will be a longer term "timebomb" story that he will have to build on.

If we assume very little "bullet" voting, we had about a 26% turnout, so three quarters of everyone you run into in the grocery store or at the park cannot complain about things in B'game!

Fall Sports Wrap-up

Here are a couple of local excerpts from the Daily Journal's sports wrap-up as we enter the post-seasons:

In Division III volleyball, Burlingame earned a No. 5 seed and they'll face No. 4 Valley Christian on Thursday.  Mercy--Burlingame is also in Division IV. They are the No. 10. They'll travel to Santa Catalina.

After posting another undefeated league season, the Burlingame tennis team is the No. 5 seed in the CCS team tournament. They'll face the winner of Carmel and Aptos.

In the singles tournament a couple of weeks later, Brooke Tsu of Burlingame is seeded sixth, she'll face Najah Simmons of Santa Teresa.

In girls water polo, Mercy-Burlingame earned the No. 11 seed and will face No. 6 Presentation on Wednesday. While the boys' team finished No. 10 Burlingame and will play No. 7 Aptos.

And the Little-Big Game is this Saturday at 11am at San Mateo where the 4-5 Panthers will face off against the 1-7-1 Bearcats for the Paw!  Here's the San Mateo band marching last year and here is this year's program.

Honoring Rosalie

At tonight's Council meeting, Rosalie O'Mahony will be honored for her long career at B'game City Hall that spanned 20 years and included five mayoral terms.  I like the way the Daily Journal ended their piece:

Although no longer on the council, O’Mahony remains active representing Burlingame on the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency and on the city’s storm drain oversight committee. In addition, she continues to teach math at College of San Mateo and spend time helping students in the math lab.

She also is sure to attend city events on large projects, like the long-awaited opening of Safeway, which happened to be on her birthday. O’Mahony joked that was her best birthday gift year. That was, of course, until she was notified of this recognition.

I recall the Council vote to deny the earlier Safeway plan like it was yesterday--sitting in the audience wondering how she would vote.  It all worked out in the end.  If you look closely, you can see Rosalie at the aforementioned grand opening in the blue dress.  Congrats!

High Cost Rail - Part 63 Taking it to Sac'to

Yesterday was a big day in Sacramento as the "new" business plan for High Cost Rail was unveiled at the High Cost Fail Authority's board meeting.  A number of B'gamers attended and spoke--all opposed--along with about 75 other members of the public.  Courtesy of one of the main watchdogs, here is a bit of a synopsis with links for more detail:

Cal Watchdog wrote an excellent summary of the nearly 2 hours of public comment at yesterday’s High Speed Rail Authority board meeting. Considering that the HSRA does not include public comment in their meeting minutes – which exacerbates the feeling of not being heard or acknowledged – this article performs a great public service of documenting these 60-second attempts to convey more than a sound bite.

Although Cal Watchdogger Katy Grimes quoted a full two dozen speakers, it was the necessary tip of the iceberg. For example, CARRD commented that they're using the same broken ridership models and that the Funding Plan which the board voted to approve may have trouble meeting its legal requirements. 

The HSRA will upload the board meeting video at: http://cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/2011_November.aspx

Cal Watchdog’s article and intro: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/11/04/hundreds-critique-rail-plan-at-meeting/

“Board Chairman Thomas Umberg announced at the beginning of the meeting that there were so many who had signed up to give public comments, there would only be 90 seconds allowed for each person to speak.  Before the public comments were finished, Umberg reduced the time allotted for comments to just 60 seconds."

“And speak they did. People traveled from Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford and towns throughout Kings County. They came from San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula, well-prepared with facts, figures and research, to tell the HSR board why the “boondoggle” rail plan should be shelved.

“There were only two of the usual city government brown-nosers in attendance, asking to partner with the Rail Authority to make sure that rail came through their cities.”

Congratulations to all who dedicated a day to voice their opinions and participate in the process, and thank you, Ms. Grimes, for such thorough coverage!

As we dig into the new $99 Billion dollar business plan that includes flip-flops on reusing parts of existing track as well as another fictitous ridership plan, we'll continue our coverage which you can check out here.