Pacifica Riptide

70 San Mateo County Employees Make Over $200,000

By Lionel Emde
Riptide Correspondent

The Daily Post, a newspaper most Pacificans will never see, is doing yeoman's work reporting on what our county government officials merrily pay themselves.

In its February 20, 2013 edition, the Post reports: "(The) county's $200,000 Club surges (as) the number of San Mateo County employees earning more than $200,000 a year jumped 600% in (the past) 7 years despite the county's struggle to close annual budget deficits of up to $50 million. In 2005 the county's $200,000 Club had just 11 members. Now, 70 employees make more than $200,000 a year, and 1,361 of the county's 5,187 employees earn more than $100,000, according to payroll data obtained by the Post. The county doesn't anticipate a shortfall this year now that voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase in November, which is expected to bring in around $60 million a year for the county."

Of course, one shouldn't forget newly rehired county manager John Maltbie, who received a raise upon his rehiring to $300,000, which is actually less than he took home as interim county manager in the previous year:

"As interim manager for the year that began in November 2011, Mr. Maltbie made around $325,000 during the 12 months, if you include his retirement pay, according to calculations confirmed by supervisors Don Horsley and Dave Pine. He received $133,000 in retirement money, which he is entitled to draw from the county provided he worked as interim manager fewer than 960 hours per fiscal year. Because he began and is terminating his interim position around the middle of two fiscal years, 2011-12 and 2012-13, he met the 960-hour requirement for both years and earned $192,000 at $100 an hour during the 12 months. As permanent manager, Mr. Maltbie was paid $270,000 but regularly made around $342,000, Mr. Horsley told the Almanac. How? By exercising a privilege granted to the county manager and the county counsel: they receive nine weeks of vacation per year (another singular privilege) and they can cash in unused vacation and raise their salaries while retaining their jobs." (The Almanac, December 19, 2012)

In the context of the November 2012 general election, we were told how vital it was for Measure A to pass in San Mateo County to "preserve county services."

The half-cent sales tax increase passed handily, and it would appear that things like county supervisors' salaries are safe from possible cutbacks. The total county payroll in 2012, according to the Post, "was $446.5 million—up a half million from the year before." To put that in context, the adopted general fund for the fiscal year 2011-12 was $1.16 billion.

The Post, in a separate story in the same edition, notes that "Supervisor's salaries climb 43% in 6 years." The story notes that the rate of increase has been nearly three times the rate of inflation, in spite of the five supervisors rejecting a 5 percent raise in 2009.

"In 2006, supervisors made $93,792 in total pay. But last year, four of San Mateo County's five county supervisors received $133,915 in total pay, according to newly released payroll data," the story says.

The story also gives further info on the royal packages granted to supervisors: "…supervisors also receive a pension and some of the best medical and dental benefits money can buy. These benefits are paid in full by the county. Supervisors don't even have a copay for doctor visits."

Supervisors also have chiefs of staff who are paid handsomely. Supervisor Carole Groom's chief of staff Juda Tolmasoff was paid $117,198, and supervisor Don Horsley's COS Chris Hunter made $110,000 in 2012.

The Post reports that Supervisor Horsley received $27,258 last year after he "reneged on a 2010 campaign pledge to forgo his annual salary while he was receiving his $215,000-a-year county pension, an act referred to as 'double-dipping.'"

"Horsley began collecting a paycheck six weeks before he announced on December 26, 2012, that he would start double-dipping. Under fire, he quickly reversed course, announcing in early January that he had changed his mind once again," the Post story says.

San Mateo County voters can look forward to more self-serving platitudes such as were offered in the last election. The question is: Will they have enough data to make an informed decision? The Daily Post is to be commended for going after the story that informs the public in that regard.

Pacifica's Future: The Outdoor Recreation "Industry"

By Dan Underhill, Riptide Correspondent

As long as I have been paying attention, there has been a certain faction in Pacifica that considers ecological and wildlife considerations to be somehow at odds with business and commerce.

Many of these same individuals promote building more housing because of the very short-term boost that gives the economy, and I guess they think that the property taxes will offset the additional burden on city services.

It has been proven again and again that "bedroom community" is NOT an industry. I am a plumbing contractor. I make my living designing, installing, and maintaining plumbing systems. If anyone were going to make money from a period of indiscriminate building, it would be contractors such as myself.

Pacifica needs industry, not more residences. The rights of people who already own property zoned residential should, of course, not have their rights violated. We have many empty storefronts, so we don't really need more commercial buildings, either, until we come up with businesses to put in them.

Pacifica is particularly well situated for tourism, and especially for eco-tourism, and we aren't very well situated for anything else unless some Pacifican has just (I hope) invented the next Gotta-Have-It in their garage and plans to keep their business in town.

The City Council's upcoming appointments to the Open Space Committee are essential to having a City Council and an electorate that are adequately informed on open-space issues. There is a great deal to know about our open spaces and without the counsel of a strong Open Space Committee, we could well be burning our bridges in front of us, and undoing our prospects for the future.

I spoke to council member Mary Ann Nihart about it last week, and she said that the Open Space Committee issue will be addressed in March. She also suggested that there will be some structural changes to the Open Space Committee, having to do with liaison with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). Here is a link about the impact of parks and open spaces on various economies:

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Apply for County Grand Jury, Through March 29

Press Release

Barbara Arietta
President
San Mateo County Grand Jurors Association
415-246-0775
 
Applications for service on the 2013-2014 Grand Jury will be accepted for consideration until March 29, 2013. The next Grand Jury term will commence on July 1, 2013 and end on June 30, 2014.
 
Any resident of San Mateo County for more than one year, who is a citizen of the United States, 18 years of age or older, of ordinary intelligence, sound judgment, good character, with sufficient knowledge of the English language is eligible for selection by the Grand Jury Advisor, the Honorable Lisa A. Novak of the San Mateo County Superior Court.
 
Elected public officials are not eligible. The Court encourages all interested individuals to apply. The Court strives to attain a cross section of the county's population. After the completion of ian nterview process by Judge Novak, Grand Jurors will be selected through a random draw.
 
Application forms can be obtained by going to: www.sanmateocourt.org/court_divisions/grand_jury or by writing Grand Jury Clerk, Court Executive Office, 400 County Center, Redwood City, Ca 94063 or by telephoning 650-599-1210. Applications may also be obtained directly from Barbara Arietta, President of the San Mateo County Grand Jurors' Association by emailing barietta@hotmail.com or by calling 415-246-0775.                                                                                                                

City to Make Pacifica Police Outsourcing Report Public

PRESS RELEASE, February 13, 2012: In July 2012, Management Partners consultants made a verbal presentation to the Pacifica City Council, supported by a PowerPoint presentation, to assess the possibility of contracting police services with the San Mateo County Sheriff or the City of South San Francisco. No document was produced as a result of this presentation. It is the City Council’s opinion that this information should become a public document. The City Council has directed staff to have a written version of the verbal presentation prepared for dissemination. The estimated time for the completion of this report is March 20, 2013. For further information, contact City Manager Steve Rhodes at 650-738-7301.

Opinion: We Need Open Space AND Economic Development

Why has the City Council allowed Pacifica’s long-standing Open Space Committee (OSC) to languish? The committee has not been able to meet for lack of a quorum, and the city has done nothing to appoint new members.

This is important. The OSC and the Golden Gate National Recreational Area (GGNRA) Advisory Board are the main connections between Pacificans and public officials on critical open-space issues. Here, concerned citizens are not just limited to three minutes at a public hearing. Issues can be thoroughly discussed before recommendations are made to the Planning Commission and City Council.

The OSC was formed decades ago. If you remember, there were plans for big housing developments all over Pacifica, with little real concern for open-space impacts. It was the era of “condomania.”

The public was alarmed. In response, the City Council, led by Councilmember Chuck Curry, formed an Open Space Task Force to identify and evaluate the open-space resources of the most important private parcels and government-owned public lands. The Task Force was made up of folks from all over Pacifica, along with two planning commissioners and two councilmembers.

The system worked well, and many potentially ugly confrontations between citizens and the City Council, not to mention potential referendum elections, were avoided.

The current City Council has announced its intention to focus on economic development, and has appointed a citizens committee for that purpose. I applaud that.

Pacifica needs an Economic Development Committee and an Open Space Committee. I hope that, working together, Pacifica will have beneficial development that complements the open space we all love and value.

John Curtis

Hill's Bills: State Senator Jerry Hill to Protect Mountain Lions

Democratic State Senator Jerry Hill has introduced legislation that would require the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to use nonlethal options when responding to incidents like the one that led to the fatal shooting of two mountain lion cubs by a game warden in the backyard of a home in Half Moon Bay on December 1, 2012.
 
Current state regulations do not give DFW much flexibility when mountain lions venture into areas populated by humans, as in the incidents that resulted in the Half Moon Bay shootings and another in Redwood City in 2011.

Hill’s legislation also would authorize DFW to partner with wildlife groups and nonprofits when responding to such incidents, if no imminent threat to human life. Current law doesn’t clearly authorize DFW to use wildlife groups throughout the state, even though they could help tranquilize and capture mountain lions.
 
Contact: Aurelio Rojas, communications director,  916-747-3199 cell or 916-651-4013 office; Leslie Guevarra, 415-298-3404 cell or 650-688-6384 office
 
Background
On November 30, 2012, two sibling mountain lion cubs were observed in the 800 block of Correas Street in Half Moon Bay near Burleigh Murray Ranch State Park. The cubs, which DFW officials initially said weighed 25 to 30 pounds, were fatally shot after game wardens and San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies were unable to shoo them out of the neighborhood.

Necropsies showed the female cubs were only about 4 months old, weighed 13 to 14 pounds, and were starving and unlikely to survive in the wild without their mother.
 
Recent incidents have renewed calls for change from wildlife organizations and residents from around the state. A petition by animal aid group Wildlife Emergency Services urging DFW to change its ways has already received more than 1,000 signatures.
 
Hundreds of mountain lion sightings are reported every year in California. The reports range from simple sightings in the wild to the presence of mountain lions in developed areas. Attacks on humans are rare, but the incident in Half Moon Bay in December marked the second such shooting by a state game warden in San Mateo County in as many years.
 
Since the Half Moon Bay incident, wildlife advocates have met with DFW officials to come up with protocols to avert shooting of mountain lions, which are “specially protected mammals” under Proposition 117, approved by voters in 1990.

DFW’s rules clearly state: "When evidence shows that a wild animal is an imminent threat to public safety, that wild animal shall be humanely euthanized (shot, killed, dispatched, destroyed, etc.)."

Yet the way the guidelines are written, on-the-ground responses treat any situation where a mountain lion "might somehow" come into contact with a human—no matter how unlikely—as a situation of "imminent threat.”
 
The nonlethal procedures DFW will be required to use under Hill’s legislation include capturing, pursuing, anesthetizing, temporarily possessing, temporarily injuring, marking, attaching to or surgically implanting monitoring or recognition devices, providing veterinary care, transporting, hazing, relocating, rehabilitating, and releasing. 

The legislation still provides DFW with the authority to kill a mountain lion if the animal can reasonably be expected to cause immediate death or physical harm to humans.
 
The legislation also clearly authorizes DFW to develop partnerships with veterinarians, scientists, zoos, and other individuals and organizations to work with state game wardens when mountain lions wander too close to humans.

This is an important change since wildlife and nonprofit organizations throughout the state have the capability and experience to assist with mountain lion incidents.

As an example, the Peninsula Humane Society, which rescues and rehabs injured and orphaned native wildlife, saved the lives of 1,450 wild animals last year in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. 
 
“The safety of Californians is priority number one, but the law needs to be changed to give wardens more nonlethal options when dealing with the increasing number of mountain lion encounters in our neighborhoods,” Jerry Hill says.
 
"Californians value mountain lions as the last remaining apex predator in the state, contributing substantially to environmental health. Senator Hill's legislation reflects those values and will help to ensure that mountain lions remain in the wild for future generations to appreciate," says Tim Dunbar, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation.
 
(Photo credit: one of the mountain lion cubs killed in Half Moon Bay on December 1, 2012. Photo provided by California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

City Council Postpones Study Session on Commissions and Committees

(UPDATE: Noel Blincoe reports that Pacifica City Council met January 23 but postponed its Study Session on the future of city commissions and committees, including the Open Space Committee (OSC). Noel says two dozen people showed up January 23 to speak on behalf of OSC. He also notes that there still is no word on filling OSC vacancies. See op-ed below by Noel and fellow OSC member Leo Leon.)

For the previous two years, the city has not been filling vacancies on the Open Space Committee (OSC). This has caused cancellation of meetings, resulting in no work or progress on open-space issues.

Open space is such an important resource for Pacifica, and many people have worked long and hard on protecting important lands, that it seems entirely appropriate to have a committee dedicated to open space.

GGNRA is a significant land owner in Pacifica, and has shown a willingness to partner with the city on improving and maintaining coastal parkland and public access. A group specifically dedicated to interacting with GGNRA also seems appropriate.

For years, OSC has recommended outstanding Pacificans for their service to preserve open space. This recognition focuses public attention on the need to protect open space.

In an informal setting, OSC takes public input and suggests solutions to resolve issues and make recommendations to the City Council. OSC is the first to examine development proposals on public open-space lands and parcels named in the “Open Space Task Force Report.”

In protecting open-space values, OSC listens and works with the public and sometimes suggests plan revisions to allow development with maximum reasonable protection of open-space resources. For decades, this system has been efficient and has avoided possible confusion.

In Pacifica, history shows that encouraging public input at OSC works to the advantage of the city because issues are identified and addressed before they reach the Planning Commission and City Council.

There are a variety of ways the council could handle reorganizing the environmental committees. In whatever form OSC takes, it is inconceivable that the city would not have a citizen group whose job is to advise the council on open-space issues. Whatever decision the council makes, we should maintain both an Open Space Committee and a GGNRA advisory board.

Noel Blincoe & Leo Leon

OSC members

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Letter to City Council

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Thom Hartmann's Analysis