The Burlingame Voice

City Manager to Retire...Almost

City Manager Jim Nantell has decided to retire after nearly 40 years in the public sector.  At the January 3rd Council meeting, the Council will vote on a proposal to retain Jim on an hourly basis in order to get priority projects completed and to help recruit the next city manager.  According to the Staff Report on the hourly service proposal

As of January 2012 employees retiring from a council appointed position are now limited to a maximum of 960 hours in a given fiscal year and a maximum of one year (over two different fiscal years) or post employment with the agency from which they retired.

In discussions with the City Council it has been a priority to ensure that any post retirement employment option would not increase the costs and hopefully allow the City to realize some significant savings.  The proposed contract would reduce the City Manager hourly rate by 21%.  That reduction and the savings from paid benefits means the budgeted cost for the City Manager for the next 12 months would be reduced by 38% (over $100,000).

Normally we would wish Jim well now, but let's hold off on that just a bit since it appears the council has plans to wring the last bit of work out of him before he goes to de facto retirement!  In the meantime, kudos on an approach to staying involved in the on-going work while getting some flexibility to do some other things in life once in awhile.  Here's a reminder for you bloggers on some of the council priorities for this past year and another and another reminder.  And here's a photo of Jim presiding over a range of city staff at one of the public meetings at the library (he's on the right).

High Cost Rail - Part 67 A Million Misteaks

It gets harder and harder to criticize the California High Cost Rail Authority because its public pronouncements get more ridiculous by the month.  In some ways it seems like picking on a defenseless person, but unfortunately for all of us when you line-up supporters like President Obama, Governor Brown, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and other lesser big wigs, they are still a threat to our neighborhoods, budget, schools and peace of mind.

So the fiasco of publicizing One Million Jobs from the high-cost rail project only to backtrack a day later and say that they meant one million man-years of work where two-thirds would be "spin-off jobs" at restaurants and retailers played out just before Christmas.  The San Mateo Mercury Times had some fun reporting on it here and then here.

The pull-out quote from Nancy Pelosi in the printed edition was the best

"The facts are clear:  Over 1 million good-paying jobs will be created"

Nevermind that a prediction can not be a "fact" until it happens, one wonders if Pelosi can really even comprehend "1 million" of anything.  As the Times wrote "One million people--more than the combined workforce of San Jose and San Francisco--would have to cram shoulder-to-shoulder just to fit along the rail line between San Francisco and Anaheim."  A real fact would be that if the people where all on the same side of the 520 mile track they would each have 2 3/4 feet of room to work and that would probably be an OSHA violation.

One sane voice appeared in print this week as the following Letter to the Editor ran on Dec. 24

Contrary to Roger Rudick's recent Op-Ed (Opinion, Dec. 11), California's high-speed rail project will do little, if anything, to alleviate local traffic congestion in the Bay Area or the Los Angeles basin. Worse, HSR will soak up public funds that would be better used to improve public transit.

Nor will HSR significantly reduce air traffic. In September, San Francisco International Airport released a thorough analysis of projected air traffic at Bay Area airports through 2035. It concluded that air traffic at SFO would be reduced by only 3.7 percent as a result of the proposed HSR system. And that was based on the inflated ridership projections of HSR's 2009 business plan. The lower ridership projections of the 2012 business plan would result in an even lower impact on future air traffic at SFO.

James R. Janz

President, Community Coalition on High Speed Rail

 Atherton

Well said, Mr. Janz.  Keep up the good work.  Same for Mike Rosenberg at the Times.

Merry Christmas from the Voice

B'gamers near and far, have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous, happy New Year.  Thanks for stopping by to visit the Voice.  We look forward to another year of informing the folks in town as well as the growing population of former B'gamers who are checking in from around the world on their Own Little Mayberry!

Retail Update (Primrose)

A blogger was thinking the same thing I was regarding the 203 Primrose shops...i.e. how's it coming?  I was pleased to see all five spaces being worked on yesterday.  Four of them (Which Wich, It's a Grind, Yogurtland and Pizza My Heart) seem like they have been sitting idle for a long time, but Five Guys Burgers is making great progress.  Fixtures are in place and they are hiring.  Here's a view of the application box that was drawing attention when I went by.

Realtor of the Year

Our own Tim Auran has been elected Realtor of the Year by the San Mateo County Association of Realtors; known as SAMCAR.  The piece in the SM Mercury News noted

Auran, a political powerhouse within the real estate industry and on behalf of SAMCAR, has held various volunteer positions including Chair of the Legislative Committee and as a trustee for the Local Candidate Recommendation Committee.

Tim is also a B'game Planning Commissioner.  Congrats, Tim!

B'game Bungalows Rule!

Burlingame is getting more famous every month for its fabulous inventory of bungalows.  We certainly love our ranchers and Eichlers as well.  And some day I will get around to correcting the Wikipedia entry  on B'game that says we are "renowned for our many surviving examples of Victorian architecture" since there aren't more than a half dozen such examples in town and none that jump off the curb at you.

But our bungalows are another matter.  They are all over the place--in all but the youngest neighborhoods in town.  They are all distinctive even when they were purchased from catalogs and assembled on site by local workmen (a common approach in the teens and twenties).  American Bungalow magazine is the go-to reference source for bungalow lovers nationwide.  Each issue has a feature called "Family Album" that highlights eight bungalows from across the nation.  The current issue (#72) marks the third issue in a row to highlight a Burlingame bungalow.

Issue #70 featured a 1916 version on Palm Drive that is followed by a 1912 example on Fairfield Road in #71 and #72 has a 1910 example from Newlands Avenue that I can assure you is being lovingly maintained.  If we keep this up people will be visiting B'game in the same way they go to Pasadena to see "Bungalow Heaven".  One can only hope.

The last time I checked, the B'game library carried the magazine in the reference department.

Friends With Benefits - Part 14 A Half a Trill

The Sac Bee is reporting on a Stanford study about unfunded pension liabilities at the state level.  We've been following the general issue here, but the news is

California's three largest pension systems have promised $500 billion beyond their current ability to make those payments to retirees, according to a study released to today by Stanford University Professor and former Democratic Assemblyman Joe Nation and a student researcher.

 And the bottom line is

The annual cost to the state of delaying pension solutions is $3.4 million per day.

Ouch!

High Cost Rail - Part 66 - A Do-Over? No, thanks just do your job.

The Field Poll about high cost rail has been well-covered this week including here by the SacBee who write

For all the questions about its management and cost, this much is clear about high-speed rail: Californians who authorized the project three years ago want a do-over, according to a new Field Poll, and by a wide margin they want to vote "no."

Opposition to the multibillion-dollar project crosses party lines and includes more than a third of voters who previously favored the state's plan to build a high-speed rail system.

The problem is at this point we shouldn't have to have another vote.  The pols in Sacramento should just kill the thing and move on.  They would have to face down various labor unions, but isn't it really time for that anyway?  C'mon, just do your jobs.

Golfer$ Bringing Dollar$

It took awhile for the SF Examiner to get this article up on its website, but the news is all good for B'game's coffers to the tune of $50k.

Peninsula leaders are cheering the United States Golf Association’s decision to house nearly half its staff in Burlingame during the event, allowing San Mateo County cities to bag coveted tourism dollars.

But many event staffers, and some players, will likely find themselves staying in San Mateo County. The USGA has contracted with Peninsula hotels for some 4,066 room-nights. Meanwhile, the rest of the staff will stay in downtown San Francisco, for about 4,314 room-nights.

The Convention Bureau is doing a great job overall and the Hyatt appears to have nailed the bulk of this windfall although I'm sure the other hotels will pick up some business too.

Holiday Parade & Concert

As Jennifer has already noted, the Friday night Holiday event was a huge success.  It certainly helps to have good weather, but I think the appetite for good, local, inexpensive fun was more of a driver of the huge crowd.  I'm no crowd estimating expert, but I did get a pretty good overview from aboard the vintage firetruck near the front of the parade and it could have been almost 5,000 people!

Here's the MC for the concert part, whose name I didn't catch but who did a great job, with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

And the Mercy High School choir did a fabulous job.

It looked like the ice skating rink took a bit longer to assemble than planned, but was in full swing by Saturday.