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October 16, 2013

Comments

Mark

Surprise surprise...weird comments coming from his mouth. Think it's pretty safe to say that together with the other things in these posts, good judgment does not appear to be this guy's forte.

James

Firefighters and police are well compensated and at times perform heroic feats. But that doesn't mean they are untouchable when it comes to pension reforms, etc.

FIDUCIARY

Hello everyone, my summary of the nine candidates:

PECEIMER: As I like to call him Donald Trump without the big hair and billions. How high can he count, LOL? Oh, and he apparently knows Mandarin, maybe he should be running for city council in Millbrae.

COHEN: A throw back from the 60s, straight up hippie. Drives a cool car. His campaign website video reminded me of something from Silence of the Lambs, scared the crap out of my kid. Russ, stop recording videos from the basement.

NIRMALA: Imagine the People's Republic of Burlingame. Peace, Love and High Density Housing! What next? Bollywood break dancing at council meetings?

BROWNRIGG: Current council member. Claims to be a venture capitalist, Angel investor and a Middle Eastern diplomat. What next, salsa dancer and a nice body odor? Would love to see this guys tax return. Anybody need a Falafel recommendation? Please!!!

KEIGHRAN: Current Queen of the council. She falls a little short of being the city princess... Seriously what kind of narcissistic person advertises with a crown on her campaign signs? Am I qualified to be her servant? LOL.

SCHNIGAL: A GoodFellas throwback, works in a cigar shop. Rumor has it that Jimmie Hoffa is buried in the humidor. Word is Geraldo will be visiting Burlingame soon. Very Qualified!!! He's got my vote.

KENT: The best educated person in the race, just ask him. FUDICIARY His claim to fame is an astonishing 4.0 GPA from City College of San Francisco, oops I mean Northwestern... who cares... WTF? LOL. FIDUCIARY Can you say FIDUCIARY 10 times fast? How much wood could a wood chuck chuck.... FIDUCIARY, FIDUCIARY, FIDUCIARY.

DUNCAN: Great Guy. Anyone need a 2 liter bottle of Ginger Ale or a home pregnancy test? I here there's a sale on November 5. May infringe upon my voting ability. Next time I go to CVS I'll know who to look up. Qualified???

ORTIZ: Si se puede! List himself as a businessman with the proud support of a corporate giants such as the notorious MEGA Burlingame penny candy peddler. Swedish Fish and Beanie Babies for everyone if Ortiz wins!

Who are you voting for...FIDUCIARY!

Holyroller

Dear James,
If you were told in High School that being a Police/Fire/Paramedic/Sewage/ Park/ worker was going to pay a lot of money, plus benefits, and retire at 50 years old, would you have been interested?
Hell Yeah you would have...
So why do you have hard feelings towards the men and women who do the work?
In my opinion, it is pure and simple..
"You" are afraid of developing a collective bargaining unit.
Afraid of losing your job, if you do, and not be able to make the $4-5000.00 mortgage payment.
The people who get the water to your house, and keep the toilets working are invaluable.
What do you do for a living James?
How much to you get paid?
What value to Society and contribution/skills to you make.
If I was able to see what you do for a living, get paid-including benefits vs. people who keep this Country together, your "Stock" would be worthless.
This is not a personal attack on James.
Just an attempt to share the contributions that people like James have never seen, or considered.
If your sewer is plugged at 1:00AM, your water is brown, you have a flat tire,a tree fell on your car, are you going to call James?

Burlingame Mom

I am APPALLED by the racist comments made by Fiduciary above. I can't believe we have people in this community that believe that this kind of talk is acceptable. Even if it is meant as satire, it is completely unacceptable.

James

Holyroller, Guess what, this is a free republic and I'm allowed to have opinions which, by the way, are not out of the mainstream by any stretch. Of course I have respect for all working people and value everyone's contributions. I didn't say "fire them" or "take away their benefits", did I? It's reasonable to put everything on the table when discussing a balanced budget. Take a deep breath, comrade.

alittlenird

Ah FIDUCIARY, you are one funny guy/gal who seems to have a real take on each of the candidates. I got a real belly laugh out if your post. Thanks for that and couldn't agree with you more.

Debbie F

I love the summary of candidates. Keighran and Kent's comments were the best.

Alexander Kent

How many false names can Joe Baylock write comments under?

The above comments are kinda entertaining, but then you have to actually do the work and prevent all the explicit conflicts of interest on the existing City Council and Planning Commission - woopsy.

If you want to get real insight into Burlingame, please read my facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexander-England-Kent-for-Burlingame-City-Council/626053540750506?ref=hl

Holyroller

Thank you Commrade James for your thoughtful response.
Dear Burlingame Mom,
You are the person that is racist when you broadcast your interpretation of what is, and is not, a racist comment.
As Comrade James suggests,"Take a deep breath."

Joe

I'm thrilled to publish more of Alexander Kent's increasingly wild accusations. He is turning out to be the most entertaining candidate in the race and I haven't bothered to note some of his most entertaining actions around town. Here's one taste: the two BRITISH citizens in Behan's were quite perturbed when he wouldn't leave them alone about voting for him. The whole bar got a good laugh about that. Blog on Alex, you are my sunshine.

hillsider

He thinks you are FIDUCIARY but we all know you are not nearly that funny. I bow to FIDUCIARY. He is also a GoodFellas throwback.

Scooter

FIDUCIARY where can I buy tickets to see your act? Abso-fiduciarily-hilarious. At first read I thought the Alfred Smith white tie dinner had come to Burlingame. I tell you what, tell me which candidates read this and laugh at themselves...and they get my vote. As for racism, give me a break. Every ethnic note is pure clean fun.

Alexander Kent

Ladies and Gentlemen and Joe,

Your 4th-hand account of me talking to two guys from England at my local bar is not accurate.

I've always politely asked people if they live in Burlingame, before I discuss my campaign.

I was well aware that they were from Liverpool and also London. There were 7 people in the bar, and I was not trying to get them to vote for me.

Rather, they claimed to work for the BBC, and we were specifically looking at The Daily Post article that conveniently left about my statements that

#1) I am running to represent the 51% of Burlingame that rents their home,

#2) I am running to stop the conflicts of interest on both the existing city council and on the planning commission.

During my in-person interview with Dave Price of The Daily Post, Ann Keighran was right next to me, and she agreed that city council members and planning commissioners should not actively solicit payments (to serve as lobbyists for real estate proposals) based on their seat on our fiduciary boards, she admitted that this is happening and that it should stop.

Yes, this practice is legal, but I believe that the law is intended in case someone accidentally finds themselves in a conflict of interest, not after actively soliciting payments to themselves.

It's still a conflict of interest to the residents who voted the person in. Isn't this newsworthy and discussion worthy to our community?

My points are real and truthful and in the spirit the long-term health of Burlingame (past conflicts of interest have greatly hurt Burlingame, like the city council granting free-health-care-for-life to a city worker and their spouse, after only 5 years of service and if their retire at 50 years or older, which helped to create our now $73M in unfunded pension health care liabilities).

Most residents are aware that the conflicts of interest have been going on for years, and now, many of us are ready to stand up against the bullies - including yourself.

Joe, we know that you and your wife endorse Russ, and that Russ is one of the editors of this blog. Perhaps the 29,450 residents of Burlingame should now endorse Ethics on the City Council, instead.

The full details are also on my website, www.alexkent.org

Cheers,

Alexander Kent

Residents to Elect Alexander England Kent for Burlingame City Council 2013

Joe

Interesting that you didn't describe how you were "politely" asked to stop it.......

#1. What exactly are the special interests of the 51% of the city that rents? Inquiring minds would love to know after hearing you say the same thing for months.

#2. You have yet to back up this wild-eyed claim with anything. Your credibility on this is shot. And continuing to harp on a policy that changed years ago as your only example is downright humorous.

Lucky for you the editors of this blog give you all the space respond you want, but yet you just keep harping on this irrelevant fact as well. Thanks, sunshine.

Mark

Sadly, conflicts of interest are pretty rampant in our city government, specifically the city council and planning commission. Architects, builders, real estate owners (who rent out property), real estate developers, brokers have all served or continue to serve on one or more of these bodies. When the architect on the planning commission has to recuse himself because he designed the house that is being rubber stamped by his buddies is just wrong...not illegal, but held to the standard of other industries would be a conflict of interest. And btw, the definition in most industries of a conflict of interest is one that is real OR PERCEIVED.

I think the vast majority go into city gov't because of one of 3 reasons..they have lots of extra time on their hands and really want to contribute to the community, or they view this as a way to improve their own real-estate related wealth, or this is a political stepping stone for something bigger in government/public service.

One just has to look at the pro-development bias that occurs with local government in burlingame as evidence that this city is a developers dream. How about this city be a dream for residents and not developers.

Granted single family residences the city has done a decent job but only since post 2000...after screwing up for years before the anti tract homes lookalike code was written-thank heavens for that and actually shocking that it passed-must have been divine intervention. But multi-family, high density, transit oriented mumbo jumbo spewing out of Nagel-NirmalaRiggs mouths every time they open up is just plain idiotic. And those aren't for rental citizens that our city supposedly 'cares' about. No, its for million dollar condos downtown and everywhere else there is a vacant lot larger than 10000 square feet. The last thing Burlingame needs is the Millbrae look, especially if people care about single family real estate values and what makes burlingame different from other peninsula cities and the reason why our real estate is at a premium and our schools are so good. And to the extent that conflicts of interest occur in the city government that aid and abet bad decision making so obviously pro-dumb-development needs to stop ASAP. Any time I see anyone tangentally involved with real estate is an automatic NO vote in my book, and for good reason-its the last thing we need right now. Time for some real change in burlingame government.

Alexander Kent

Joe,

Why do you continue to try to mislead your readers?

I was never asked to 'stop' talking to the English guys, and I was never asked to stop highlighting the conflicts of interest that I've observed.

What are you talking about?

My credibility is not shot on anything, Joe. The evidence of the constant real estate proposals being presented by the planning commission and Jerry on the city council are part of public record.

Further, Ann's getting paid to rep unions on our council was stated to me by her. She was in front of your wife and the other city council members as I detailed above. The interview was video taped, and now it can't be found by the last city council member that had it.

Many old time residents already know about these conflicts of interest. Now, it's time that we all stand up against the conflicts and restore ethics to our town.

You're simply trying to play a shell game with the truth.

Sincerely,

Alexander Kent

Holyroller

Dear Mr. Kent,
The City of Burlingame Elders/Council also receieve "life time" medical benefits after serving 5 years at 50 years of age for themselves and spouse.
If elected, would you refuse that benefit?
Yes or No.
If I may say so, building your candidacy on negitive, and "just the same old retorts" will never get you elected, or get anyone to listen either.
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
Sorry, if I offended you, you seem like a nice young man...
By the way do you rent a home in Burlingame?
What is the cost of rent?
Do you own a home in Burlingame?
What is the Mortgage?
How much do you make a year and what are your benefits, including retirment plan?
If you do not mind.

Ron Fulderon

Which of the people running is least inclined to want higher density housing in the downtown area?


Joe

Sigh. Et tu, Holyroller. I guess I would have thought you would be current on this benefits issue. Please go here:

http://www.burlingame.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8482

See Section 2.1.4 through 2.1.7. The plan you quote ended more than 5 years ago!

Ron Fulderon

I'm going to rant a bit here and not bother to edit my post as I would normally do. Hopefully I won't sound like an idiot like Holyroller so often does with her rants - although I doubt she sees them as rants and more thinks she is building a cogent argument.

Please, Joe, I really doubt that Peceimer is trying to say that there aren't heros in the police and fire department and that they sometimes don't do extraordinary things. His point was pretty clear to me, whether you want to parse the words or look for meaning or not, that calling a policeman or firefighter a hero right off the bat CHEAPENS the concept of heroism. It cheapens a noble concept. Don't you care about that Joe? If we start calling everyone who serves on a job that might sometimes get dangerous, if we start calling them all heros as some would here, what do we have? Answer: We have a degraded society, where real heroism is confused with doing the role of the job they are paid to do. And I think this destruction of the traditional values that made western civilization something wonderful is exactly what we are doing and where we are going, for infinitely more reasons than that.

Surely this lack of perfect wording of the problem by Peceimer, this nitpicking of you politicos as if Peceimer's was terribly flawed because he didn't say things politically shrewd - This is why we are so screwed in trying to find decent people in our political process.

Frankly I am just trying to get up to speed on this election and haven't decided on three candidates, but if he saying that we compensate our city workers too much and wants to change that, hes got my vote.

Joe

Ron- I didn't write the letter, I just reposted it. Those are his words--exactly. But Peceimer specifically called out the ones going into the WTC after a frigging commercial airliner had smashed into it 50+ floors up. Sorry. I have a decent vocabulary but no adjective to describe what I think about that.

You are a regular reader so you know you and I are of similar mind on a lot of this (just read all the Friends With Benefits posts). But Mr. Peceimer has done a few things that give me pause as I take stock of the man.

Alexander Kent

All Burlingame residents and beyond that would like to communicate with me, please simply email me at [email protected] or call me at 650-793-0541. I'm more than happy to speak with you on the phone or in person over coffee or a beer.

Thank you,

Alexander Kent

Mark

Hollyroller, I wonder if the male city council candidates wear boxers or briefs? C'mon, why would any candidate in their right mind even answer such questions from your posts? I'm surprised Mr Kent even dignified your response by being kind enough to leave you his phone number. FYI, all candidate information is posted on the Burlingame web site with quite a bit of disclosure, and more than enough for anyone to make a decision. The US is actually very good about campaign disclosure, so don't take this for granted and be glad you live in this country to access all this information with a couple of clicks, which is a lot more than you get from other places, let alone the right to vote.

Joe

Here is a local letter to the editor of the DJ also regarding Andrew Peceimer:

Editor,

Recently, Burlingame City Councilwoman Terry Nagel had this to say to her supporters: “If you vote for one of the challengers ... that person will be out of step with the rest of the council and will not have a chance of getting support from his ideas.”

This is precisely why I’m supporting Andrew Peceimer. The City Council should be a place for honest debate about Burlingame’s future, and Nagel’s email only exemplifies that existing members want nothing but a monolithic vote and no differing opinions about our city.

We need new blood on the council, someone who has experience in the private sector creating jobs. During the last four years, our council has seldom considered differing points of view. When the Safeway project was approved, the current council did not plan for all the new employees. The new employees are now parking just on the west side of Burlingame Avenue. Instead of building a parking structure, the council voted to have two-hour parking on the closest streets, which only pushes the problem to other streets. As further lack of foresight, they approved the Burlingame Streetscape, which is supposed to bring more cars to the avenue, but without a parking solution.

Our current council says it’s instructed the public works director to find a location for a parking structure, but no money has been set aside for this project.

We need to change and I’m voting for Andrew Peceimer. He would protect our money and make informed decisions.

Marsha Kunz

Burlingame

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2013-10-26/letter-change-needed-on-burlingame-city-council/1776425112264.html

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