Just a refresher post pointing at the State of the City address I gave back in March that addresses, in more detail, the background behind San Carlos’ current development outlook, and the choices we can make as a community about it.
State of the City Redux Read More »
This is op ed was published in the Daily Post on Thursday, September 26, 2019. I’ll post a link to the online article on the Post’s website as soon as it’s available. About ten years ago San Carlos updated its General Plan, the master document defining how the community wants to see itself evolve. That
Time to Speak Up About Commercial Development Read More »
Imagine a public agency being threatened with a lawsuit for something it’s done, or hasn’t done. Seeking to avoid going to court it enters settlement discussions with the potential litigant. The strategy it decides to follow is set in closed session discussions. That’s allowed because it protects the public interest by not letting the other
A Huge Transparency Hole? Read More »
This is an op ed I wrote which was published in the Palo Alto Daily Post. Early this year I became San Carlos’ representative on the Silicon Valley Clean Water commission. SVCW operates the sanitary waste treatment system serving Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and areas of East Palo Alto,
Protecting the Public’s Right to Know Read More »
Silicon Valley Clean Water, the joint powers authority which operates the treatment facility out in Redwood Shores which handles wastewater from Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Atherton and Menlo Park, is in the midst of a multi-year, multi-hundred-million-dollar maintenance/enhancement project. As part of that project they are building a new line which will pump wastewater
Tunnel Boring Machine Read More »
Well, it finally arrived this afternoon: an email disagreeing with the City celebrating Pride month: As a homeowner in San Carlos for over 40 years my father X and myself Y as his POA [power of attorney, I think] would like to make a complaint. We both disagree strongly with the Pride banner over Laurel
Not an Opinion I Agree With, At All Read More »
Some time ago my colleagues agreed to a suggestion I made about having staff put our banking services contract out for bid. While the then-current provider, Wells Fargo, had been providing services for enough years that it was good practice to re-bid the service, there was a more important reason to do so. At least
San Carlos Rewarding Monumentally Bad Behavior Read More »
At our November 13th meeting, staff presented the audited financial results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. The Council ultimately ended up accepting staff’s recommendations as to how to allocate the surplus to various reserves. But the more interesting part of the story was in the size of the surplus: nearly $7,000,000, the
Giving Back to the Community Read More »
I received a well-written email from a Central middle school 6th grader on a topic which I would never, in a million years, have expected to receive. I thought you might be interested in both the issue and my reply. Because it was a great opportunity to talk about being the change… Here’s the email
Halloween and Honeybees Read More »
At last Monday’s Council meeting, a discussion requested by Matt Grocott, to consider changing how much council members are paid, took place. Although no specific dollar changes were proposed, all four of us (Bob Grassilli was out of town) agreed to bring such an item forward for action at a future meeting, although for different
Should the Council Get Up to a 145% Raise? Read More »