The Burlingame Voice

Whither City Hall?

I underestimated how many people have noticed (complained?) about the possibility of a new City Hall being considered during a time of tight finances.  The Daily Journal did a piece on it a couple weeks ago and since then, it has been the second most common complaint after the California Dr. reconfiguration.  Who knew that many people are paying attention?  The DJ writes

Burlingame’s City Council is taking next steps toward a new City Hall, approving commercial real estate broker CBRE to identify commercial real estate within the city that could work for a new space.  Burlingame has been exploring options for a new City Hall location since 2023 — hiring architectural firm Group 4 Architecture for a space-needs and cost estimate and real estate advisor Keyser Marston Associates to review existing city-owned property.

But hiring a real estate advisor doesn’t mean any decisions are a “done deal,” Councilmember Michael Brownrigg emphasized at the May 6 meeting, adding that the need for a new City Hall should be better explained to the public.

By my reckoning, Michael Brownrigg has that right.  When I sat through the budget study session recently, he was the first councilor to highlight the drop in the Unassigned Fund Balance from $7.7M to zero dollars in the proposed budget.  Don't hold me to the exact number, but that was what I jotted down off the Zoom call.  Here are the details for what's next:

CBRE will look into Burlingame’s available commercial real estate, representing the city in negotiating transaction terms if the city prefers existing commercial office space, according to a staff report detailing the two-year agreement.  The brokerage group will receive a commission on any purchase or lease agreement, and will be paid $70,000 if no lease, purchase or lease-to-purchase transaction is completed, the staff report said.

From my conversations, the first thing that is needed is a statement of what is wrong with the existing facility.  Having spent a fair amount of time in there over the last 30 years, it ain't great, but it's not terrible either.  Maybe we should have made the new Rec Center a little larger.

Music in the Park draws a crowd

Anyone who thinks B'game isn't hungry for more musical entertainment would have to change their mind if they were at last night's first Music in the Park event of 2023.  By my estimate the crowd approached 2,000 people.  If someone did a more extensive count and came up with 2,500, I would not argue.  The weather was perfect pre-heat wave.  And the move back to the backside of the new Rec center was most welcome.

The band, Fleetwood Macrame, pays tribute to one of the most popular bands of all time and stuck to the later, more popular songs.  They did slip in one early Peter Green blues era tune near the end.  There were tons of kids and dogs, a food truck and a Mr. Softee truck.  I'm not sure where everyone parked and in spite of all the kerfuffle over how many more bike lanes we need, I was the only bicyclist I saw all evening, but somehow it worked out.

There are three more concerts on July 14, 21 and August 11th with details here.  Check out the new Fleetwood Mac fans.

Remembering a community leader: Suzanne Tateosian

Family and friends of a local leader in disaster preparedness joined together on Saturday in the Fragrance Garden at the far northeast corner of Washington Park for a memorial service.  Suzanne Tateosian passed away suddenly and unexpectedly more than a year ago.  As a key member of the Burlingame Neighborhood Network and proprietor of Earth Shakes, Suzanne was a forward-looking can-do person.  I met Suzanne years ago when I went looking for my 50-gallon emergency water drum and an assortment of other sensible things to have ready.

BNN board member, Anne Hinckle, led off the memorial comments followed by board member David Harris.  New city councilmember Peter Stevenson concluded the remarks.  Our local woodcarver, James Delaney, recently restored the Fairy House that is tucked away in the Fragrance Garden and now bears a plaque to Suzanne.  You can see the Fairy House in the background behind Anne.  Stop by and check it and its new plaque out as well as the other carvings in the Park.

P.S.  I inadvertently omitted board member Rik Kasuga as a speaker at the event.  He had a number of insights about how Suzanne was a glass-half-full person.  Apologies.

Rec Center is Up and Running

Last night was the preview opening for donors who sponsored various parts of the new building and its furnishings.  I'll leave the critique of the architecture for another day since this was a great event with a lot of civic pride and gratitude for something getting done in town under supply chain and labor duress too.  The final cost was not mentioned, but that will eventually be known and compared to the $58.3M budget.

Mayor Ricardo Ortiz did the introduction and turned the new stage over to Donna Colson who has done a lot of the work on the project since the very beginning--along with Ann O'Brien and Cathy Baylock (back in the day, about 12 years ago).  Donna had a long list of people to thank and a reminder that there are still some choice sponsorship opportunities to be had.  Here she is on the two-way stage (the doors open fully so the audience can be on either side).  I snapped the green roof and the Elm room upstairs to give you a feel for the lovely design aesthetic.

There is a lot more to see so head on over.  It's a winner.

 

Santa, I Want a Swimming Pool

Another long-running B'game saga is coming to a conclusion in the next two weeks as the BHS pool is ready for swimsuits.  Here is your personal invite to the Grand Opening courtesy of the Trustees:

Be among the first to dive in when the San Mateo Union High School District and City of Burlingame celebrate the Grand Re-opening of the Burlingame High School Aquatic Center: 

Wednesday, January 8 at 5 p.m.

Burlingame High School 

 With strong financial support and through a partnership with the City of Burlingame, the San Mateo Union High School District has just completed renovation of the Burlingame High Pool including a new shell, deck and substantial sustainability upgrades.

It's likely to be chilly at 5pm in two weeks, but go for it anyway.  You can click through to here for what it looked like in January and this is what $6.4 million can do

Bond Disclosures and Sea Level Rise

As I was reading yesterday's WSJ article about coastal cities decrying the impending sea level rise on one hand and essentially ignoring the risk in their municipal bond disclosures, I flashed on the B'game bayfront and the bonds we are about to issue for the Rec Center rebuild.  The Journal article notes

The Government Accountability Institute undertook a yearlong study of 40 major cities to find out if mayors’ apocalyptic projections about climate risks are factored into the interest rates on the municipal bonds their cities issue. The results revealed a gulf between the words municipal leaders speak and the disclosures cities make. There was no statistically significant difference in the interest rates for bonds issued by cities in high-risk locations for climate-change devastation versus those issued by low-risk cities.

The study also found scant mention of climate change in bond disclosure documents. The disclosure statements of the 20 at-risk cities totaled 4,361 pages. Phrases like “climate change” and “sea-level rise” appeared fewer than 100 times across all 20 at-risk cities in the context of the issues addressed in this study. Further, 12 out of the 20 disclosures for at-risk cities did not mention climate language in the same context.

When they got to discussing Oakland, it felt very close to home indeed since our sea level is their sea level

Worse, “by 2050, a ‘100-year flood’ in the Oakland vicinity is expected to occur on average once every 2.3 years and by 2100 to occur 44 times per year or almost once per week.” The lawsuit added that “Oakland is projected to have up to 66 inches of sea level rise by 2100.” The city alleged this would “imminently threaten Oakland’s sewer system” and harm property with a “total replacement cost of between $22 and $38 billion.”

Contrast that detailed, dramatic language with Oakland’s bland, measured 2017 bond risk disclosure to investors: “The City is unable to predict when seismic events, fires or other natural events, such as sea rise or other impacts of climate change or flooding from a major storm, could occur, when they may occur, and, if any such events occur, whether they will have a material adverse effect on the business operations or financial condition of the City or the local economy.”

That looks like an "oopsy" to me.  Which is it?  Is Oakland 30 years from disaster on a semi-annual basis which for a major port city would be a financial Titanic or are they unable to predict any of this?  We will have to have our local bond expert(s) weigh in on the B'game disclosures of same.

B'game Fiscal Risk: Yellow!

There are several news pieces highlighting the California Auditor's release of a top-to-bottom ranking of California cities' financial risk using ten metrics that combine into an "overall risk" rating of red/yellow/green.  Most of them don't bother to include the website link so here you go.  Naturally, the first question I had was "Where does Burlingame rate?"  I was expecting bright green, but alas we are ranked #220 riskiest out of 471 cities earning us a yellow overall rating.  San Bruno, Millbrae and H'borough are green overall while San Mateo joins us in the yellow category.

You have to work at it on the site to see how each of the ten contributing factors play into the rating-- but that's what I'm here for:

Liquidity:  Green

Debt Burden:  Yellow  (And rising.  Will the Rec Center bonds move us to Red?)

General Fund Reserve:  Green

Revenue Trends:  Yellow  (Adding a lot of housing won't help this)

Pension Obligations:  Yellow

Pension Funding:  Yellow (But lots of red in the cities around us)

Pension Costs:  Green

Future Pension Costs:  Yellow  (But again, lots of red around us)

OPEB Obligations:  Green  (Other post-employment benefits like medical and dental)

OPEB  Funding:  Red

So overall we are in the middle of the pack and yellow.

Rent Control: +5% Sends a Message

The Law of Unintended Consequences is often not understood in Sacramento.  In fact much of what emanates from the Legislature and the Gavinor appears to reinforce the Law of Totally Expected Consequences.  OK, I just made that last Law up, but that doesn't mean it's not accurate.  The LA Times describes the latest instance

“We are pleased to announce we have come to an agreement on a series of amendments to AB 1482 that would create strong renter protections,” said a statement from Newsom, Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) and bill author Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). “The bill will protect millions of renters from rent-gouging and evictions and build on the Legislature’s work this year to address our broader housing crisis.”

Applying the KISS principle to analyzing AB 1482, one can only conclude that the bill guarantees 5% + inflation rent increases for a huge majority of renters every year for the foreseeable future.  Why would any landlord do anything else after being told that is the limit of what is acceptable (and legal)?  As someone who is neither landlord nor renter, but an interested observer this is a totally expected consequence--as will be the calls for more taxpayer dollars to go to state-subsidized, "affordable" housing.  Bet on it.

Top Golf Offers a Preview

I'm excited by the prospects of something to do in B'game besides eat, workout and get one's nails done.  Building something other than offices and high-density, rack-and-stack housing is a good thing!  So the long-awaited Top Golf facility at the driving range that we discussed here is quite welcome.  Top Golf will be offering a preview of their plans this Wednesday, April 10 at 6 pm at the Rec Center where reps from the company will also listen to community ideas and concerns.

I took the opportunity to get in touch with the Top Golf PR team and learned a bit more in advance of the meetings.  There are 49 US venues and four international sites already operating with 10 venues scheduled to open in 2019 including San Jose which is to break ground soon (2Q19).  Like the other sites, the B'game proposal includes 3 stories (approximately 53’ max height of the building) with 102 bays and three main full service bars with seating areas, food and alcohol served throughout the whole venue.  The company estimates that sites draw from a 45 mile radius so San Jose would overlap a bit but not if you use drive time instead of distance to estimate draw.  Clearly the concentration of hotels on our Bayfront make for a build-in draw.

It should make for a nice addition to partially ease our entertainment drought in town.  Of course, traffic and lighting will need to be addressed, but at least it offers something to do.  I will miss Gabriel & Daniel's Mexican Grill that operates in the Pro Shop and it wouldn't be crazy for Top Golf to offer them a good lease on site to continue as a tenant.  I will also be interested to hear if B'game residents will be offered a discount the way San Mateo residents get a break at Coyote Point or Mountain View residents get at Shoreline Amphitheater.  Anyway you look at it, it is an upgrade from the current set-up.

 

BHS Pool Fix at $6.4 Million and Climbing

Oddly enough, I was a long ways from B'game last week when the issue came up of the BHS pool being closed for the long-term.  It was just after this meeting took place as described in today's Daily Journal:

With the price tag for rebuilding the swimming pool at Burlingame High School continuously floating higher, city officials are examining ways to help pay down the cost for the highly-valued community facility.  The Burlingame City Council discussed during a study session Monday, Jan. 7, strategies for collaborating with San Mateo Union High School District officials to address the reconstruction.  As officials from both agencies have watched the projected cost for the total rebuild rise to $6.4 million, Burlingame Mayor Donna Colson expressed some sticker shock over the continuous construction cost hikes.

City and school officials will share the reconstruction cost, as the pool is on school district property but city programming accounts for most of its use when students aren’t swimming.

As you dive into the rest of the article you see the weakness in the California approach to having the school districts being separate from their host cities--unlike where I grew up in Massachusetts where the schools were just another department.  C'est la vie.  Perhaps the Big Glass Box of a new Rec Center will get some further cost engineering to carve out a couple of million?  Here is a shot of the pool as it stands now--very sad.