What about City Council Agenda, 3/25/13, Consent Calendar, Item 6. Is the city really going to build a sewer basin under park and ride in Linda Mar?
| Seriously your sewer park and ride stinks |
Summary printout: "Construction at four possible sites would be technically feasible" at the following locations:
1. Park and ride at Linda Mar Boulevard (Site "A")
2. The parking lot and open space area behind the Pacifica Community Center (Site "B")
3. The beach parking lot in front of the Pacifica Community Center (Site "C1") and
4. The beach parking lot at the Linda Mar Pump Station (Site "D")
The possible sewer basin overflow site locations are map identified in the linked report. * Fix Pacifica restated paragraph, for actual wording see the City Agenda. The photograph is from an unrelated San Francisco Chronicle story.
Submitted by Jim Wagner
Posted by Kathy Meeh
58 comments:
That's where I'd put it! Just think what a malfunction could do for the neighborhood and the shopping experience. Oh wait, is this gonna be another state-of-the-fart adventure?
Genius city council hiring more consultants and pissing away more money they do not have.
They still need to purchase the parcel from Caltrans.
Motivate the NOBIES to support economic development to fix our broken infrastructure.
Put it under the Snowy Plover habitat.
The money for the sewer overflow basin project will come from the enterprise fund. One look at the sewer fees line item on your property tax bill will give you a good idea of the resources available to the City. It is a whole different pot of money.
Clifford's last post shows what is wrong with him and the prior council who appointed him to the planning commission. The "whole different pot of money" from the "enterprise fund" is MY money.
As a taxpayer, I am paying for this and council doesn't have the courtesy to clearly tell what they are doing...
Yes, whatever's being spent in Pacifica seems to always come from "a different pot" of money. This in a town too broke to have a pot to piss in. It's all a con.
"As a taxpayer, I am paying for this.." "Life isn't fair" Anonymous 4/5/13, 10:12 PM.
Oh yeah, you and everyone else in Pacifica are paying "for this". Its not about you, and its not about Tom Clifford who merely advised in a charming manner where to look for "who pays".
Because of city (city council) mistakes of the past, the city is complying with terms of the Our Children's Cleaner Water lawsuit. It seems the lawsuit is one of the better outcomes in this city. Now there is a plan to maintain the WWTP and the city sewer collection system. Win, win!
Thanks Kathy. You are correct in saying that this and other work on the sewer system is being done now because of a lawsuit. The total projected cost of the work need to be done to meet the terms of the settlement is $50 million over a twenty year time span.
The sewer fee is just that a fee that property owners who have sewer hook-ups pay. It is not a tax and can not be used to support other City budgets needs.
Does Fix Pacifica ever write it's own material or is just a ripoff factory?
This exact story about a 2 week old agenda item JUST HAPPENED to be posted on Riptide a few days ago.
What a coincidence!
Yeah, council can't touch that money. Not since the Bighorn Decision in 2006 in which the courts put a stop to cities in CA looting sewer fees for anything other than the purpose for which they were assessed. In Pacifica, where sewer fees were used for just about everything but the sewer system, that decision was known as "the party's over!". You gotta love the power of the courts, particularly when they order local government to do a better job for the tax payer.
"JUST HAPPENED to be posted on Riptide a few days ago." Anonymous 8:53 AM.
Looks like the excellent article by Chris Fogel on Pacifica Riptide was posted yesterday 4/5/13 at 6:56 PM, whereas this Fix Pacifica article was posted yesterday 4/5/13 at 6:44 PM (12 minutes earlier).
The email request came to me from Jim Wagner yesterday 4/5/13 at 8:46 AM, about 12 hours prior. The information for both the Riptide and Fix Pacifica articles came from the City Council Agenda of 3/25/13, Item 6. There was a prior City Council article link posted on Fix Pacifica, 3/19/13. And Chris Fogel posted a review of the City Council meeting on Pacifica Index, 3/26/13. Enough said?
Nobody reads Riptide though.
I guess my question would be what would be the LEAST disruptive construction project to Pacifica residents and motorists? Selecting Site A would require relocating the SAMTRANS buses and parking; Site B would likely impact traffic at Crespi and assumingly disrupt or destroy the new skatepark; Site C would also likely impact traffic at Crespi and eliminate parking; Site D would run interference with the simultaneously planned rebuild of the San Pedro Creek bridge as well as eliminate a portion of the planned paid beach parking. It is also quite close to the newly established wetlands area. So while there are four "feasible" sites, each one could be quite possibly be problematic.
Not to put too fine a point on it because it's not a big deal, but my article was posted to Riptide on Thursday evening and the one here posted the day after was quite obviously inspired by it.
No biggie, because people should be told about the process surrounding this holding tank and however it happens is fine by me.
Thanks for the links and kind words, Kathy.
The date stamp on the Riptide posting is:
"Posted on April 05, 2013 at 01:24 PM in POLITICS & GOVERNMENT" which would be 5 hours and 20 minutes before Fix Pacifica.
If the City does procure site A for the sewer overflow basin The above ground land uses are potentially game changers for Pacifica. Envision a transit hub with both SamTrans and BART buses pulling into a visitor serving Plaza with high-end beach front Condos above.
A public/private endeavor that could both make Pacifica a destination and a jumping of place for the rest of the coast.
So let's take a trip back and walk through what happened and how knowledge of this massive spill became public.
I posted above the link to the City Council Meeting Minutes from 1/28/08, where CouncilMembers Vreeland and Dejarnatt both clearly stated the beach closures were due to tar balls. No mention of the massive sewer spill for which the city is now being fined.
Around that time, proponents of the biodiesel refinery at this same facility such as Nancy Hall were floating the notion that the EIR Addendum performed for the proposed facility was adequate for their purposes of approval. One of the issues brought up was that the harmful chemicals being proposed for use at the biodiesel facility were already approved under the original EIR for the Calera Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant.
In February of 2008, I submitted a Public Records Request requesting a copy of any "spills" at the WWTP to see if they had used any of these chemicals, or had experienced any problems with the use of these chemicals. I believe because I unintentionally used the rather vague term "spills", I was then given all documents relating to sewer spills and overflows. It was enlightening to say the least (I think the above mentioned report describes 28 effluent limit violations from January 2006 to December 2008 . . . that's almost 1 per month for those keeping score at home).
I also received a copy of the Bypass Report from the heavy storm in late January 2008. I recall having to read it twice because I honestly did not believe what I was reading. 7 million gallon spill, and no one said a word to the general public?? That should have been front page news!!
I contacted Julia Scott at the San Mateo County Daily Times and forwarded her the information. Go to the City of Pacifica's website and check out the Meeting Minutes for March 10, 2008. I was emasculated by City Manager Steve Rhodes, Councilman Jim Vreeland, and Councilman Pete Dejarnatt over the subsequent article by Julia Scott, which Mr. Dejarnatt (the man who lied about the tar balls) said was "as bad an article as he had seen in a long time with very little truth in it."
Tom did you forget about Pacifica's "gang of no"
In my effort to escape from Riptide, it seems I miss the time line. Okay Chris 11:51 AM and Anonymous 11:52 AM you win the article "firsties".
Having just read your article Chris, I am inspired by your comment: "the parking lot was one of the few prime sites suitable for much-needed development in the city." And as expected, I recognize that Tom Clifford's 2:50 PM comment affords the kind of vision needed to move Pacifica successfully into the future.
Tom@ 2:50 p.m. Seriously, you envision Luxury Beach Condos on Site A? What? With a pristine view of Lou's Texaco to the west and the lovely LM Center to the south? Even if by chance, eminent domain displaced the gas station, the view would still include the small sewer treatment plant. How about an alternative Site (E: the LM Shopping Center? Makes some sense to leave the SamTrans lot as is and dig up the shopping center lot, a section at a time, build part of the overflow basin, cover it up (I'm assuming this overflow basin will be covered up), then go on to the next section, the next, etc. Why not? It's no worse/better idea than Sites A, B, C, or D.
One slight problem. The city has no money to buy the gas station.
Fogel if Pacifica recognized heroism and true public service, you would be the people's nominee. No question about it! Have someone else start your car, OK?
Use of the consent(hush)calendar to sneak through "smelly" stuff-- like a sewer overflow basin in lower Linda Mar-- is a longtime Pacifica City Council tradition and clearly this council saw no need to break with tradition. Remember these are same scammers (talking here about the three veterans)that pulled off that outsourcing hustle. Go back thru consent calendars and you'll find lots of other interesting stuff. Probably even council's posh management benefits package including a pension and buckets of cafeteria cash.
Should we be surprised by the stupidity of this plan? No. Again, another Pacifica City Council tradition. The last time a council played with shite they left a gaping smelly hole in Sharp Park, turned the quarry into a multi-agency regulatory stink bomb, and fouled the air in Vallemar. There is probably somewhere some secret oath Council takes promising to destroy every developable parcel and business area in Pacifica. Golly, does Kimco know what's in the air?
If this latest brain fart proceeds just wait til those on-shore winds pick up the scent of sewage in the Linda Mar overflow basin and send it swirling back up the Valley. Or off-shore winds could send it up Pedro Point. Those lucky kids at Cabrillo school! All in a day's work for the Pacifica City Council.
City Hall will say this plan has been public for years and that may technically be true. However, it is not by accident that discovery of these things requires more effort and vigilance than the average citizen can muster. Not all of us can be legislative analysts. City Hall is counting on that...and the absence of print investigative journalism in Pacifica. No wonder people like Lionel Emde and Chris Fogel and others give them nightmares.
Gee, and I thought the Pacifica City Council (something of a generic term-pick one, any one) was reprehensible when it used sewer funds to pad the general fund year after year until the courts made that illegal a few years ago. Now, I realize the problem is much bigger than that. They are INSANE.
"Thomas Clifford said...
If the City does procure site A for the sewer overflow basin The above ground land uses are potentially game changers for Pacifica. Envision a transit hub with both SamTrans and BART buses pulling into a visitor serving Plaza with high-end beach front Condos above.
A public/private endeavor that could both make Pacifica a destination and a jumping of place for the rest of the coast.
April 6, 2013 at 2:50 PM"
Now Tom, let me get this straight, something built upon a 2 million-gallon sh@@ pool is going to be a "game-changer" in terms of Pacifica's tourist attraction?
Dude, think about what will inevitably go wrong, as has been the case with everything else in this system.
envisioning a giant sinkhole in our state of the art sewer overflow basin. isn't lake matilda under that entire area? any real pacifica historians on here?
and maybe Clifford's vision is entirely too upscale but that space could be developed for more shops, apts, transit. overflow sewer storage is rarely on the amenities list for any kind of development. even in pathetica.
Fogel, beware of council members oozing sincerity and offering insight. In general just avoid any kind of oozing.
come to pacifica we are the only city in the united states that puts a 2 million gallon poop tank on prime oceanfront development property.
I am surprised none of the gang of no have thought about puting this poop tank in the quarry.
There is a pooh tank in the quarry.
a second poop tank!
See when I tell you kids, this council is just as underhanded, sneaky and devious as past councils you don't listen.
You should listen and obey your elders.
Yeah, moved the poo outta sharp park and put it in the quarry and coincidentally upped the regulatory hurdles to any development in the quarry by ten-fold. Very smooth move. And here we go again. Put that sewage overflow basin on that oceanfront parcel and it's "saved" from development forever. I know it's just a parking lot and a gas station now, but surely some day a light bulb will go on. Instead, we're going to make it virtually unusable for anything other than a parking lot. A coincidence? More of that good enviro karma? Probably, but funny how that keeps happening around here. What/who are the common denominators?
Um, I thought you had the council you wanted now, a pro development mindless rubber stamp machine, so why are you Yessies still whining? You won, the town is yours. All the city's problems are now yours. Enjoy it.
Placing the WWTP in Rockaway was a defining moment in Pacifica. How soon we forget. If we ever knew.
how cozy. lots of crossover between here and Riptide.
"so why are you Yessies still whining?"
Because it's just the nature of some people to whine.
It's ridiculous how people write off this council after only three months. I would venture to say most of us Yessies are happier with this council than with those of the last dozen years. It's just too bad that the town had to sink up to its chin in financial quicksand before people recognized that "Environment is our Economy" hasn't worked for the 30+ years it's been Pacifica's economic philosophy.
Police outsourcing report proves this council is just as devious and underhanded and back room dealing as the previous councils.
OH YEAH! THERE IS A NEW PROPOSED SEWER RATE INCREASE.THIS TIME ON BLUE PAPER. WHAT FOR?
DO YOU KNOW THAT ONLY 20 TO 30 PEOPLE PROTEST AND THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DO NOTHING.
WE ALL SHOULD PROTEST AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT BUT WE DON'T.
IF WE ALL DO WRITE AND PROTEST SOMETHING CAN BE DONE BUT WE DON'T.
WHAT IS THE POINT OF COMPLAINING WHEN WE DON'T DO OUR PART AS A CITIZENS FOR A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN. AND THAT WAY WE CAN STOP COUNCIL FROM INCREASING RATES WHENEVER THEY WANT.
SOMEONE IN THIS BLOG NEEDS TO START A PETITION AND GET THEIR INFORMATION BEFORE MAY 13,2013.
WE NEED AT LEAST 5,000 HOMEOWNERS.
"Police outsourcing report proves this council is just as devious and underhanded and back room dealing as the previous councils."
That's nonsense.
The issue of police outsourcing was conducted by previous councils, not this one. Nihart and Stone were the ones who wanted the report made public, but were overruled by the other members of the previous council. It wasn't until the current council took their seats, and Stone and Nihart had more like-minded peers in O'Neill and Ervin, that the report was made public.
You remind me of the people who, 10 minutes after he was sworn into office, blamed Obama for the financial mess the country was in
No need to rush to judgment. There will be ample opportunity to make a decision based on their actions. Then we each can choose how much bullshit we'll buy. Time will tell.
That previous council that handled police outsourcing included Nihart, Stone and Digre who are all still in office. It's neither ancient history nor somehow unrelated to our present council. IMHO no one earned marks for good behavior in that debacle. No one.
Steve, Pacifica is not up to it's chin in quick sand just pay stubs. Our financial issues are not revenue issues but payroll issues. But you know this.
Back in 05-06 when these raises were dish out we were in a property tax revenue boom. Staff took advantage of council and us residents to get extreme pay increases. I had senior staffers at the time roll their eyes in disbelief as the council squabbled over $5000 here and $10,000 there for their pet little projects and organizations seemingly unaware of the cliff they were pushing the city over,
You Yessies need to pick a collective "personality" and stick with it. Please.
more delusions of grandeur
Plenty of city employees live in Pacifica and were discretely vocal to friends, neighbors and co-workers back in 2006-2009 about their misgivings over the generous salaries and benefit options being handed out by council. Of course council was also being generous to itself so any misgivings or criticism were easily overcome by self-interest. The only thing that's changed is that the employees have been cast in the role of villain. Sneaky, manipulative politicians--is there any other kind-- rarely make a move without a scapegoat in the wings.
Far from villains, I feel our employees are being shafted by senior staff, department heads, fire and police who all refuse to face reality and are much happier to chuck each other under the bus.
A modest adjustment to compensation of 1% for every $10,000 earned would save all our employee's jobs. That's all it would take.
But we've all been over this several times now. Those that still cling to some sort of other remedy are usually public employee reps wanting to keep their union and association dues.
Shafted, blamed, screwed, whatev. The blame was certain to fall on public employees. Of course, the politicians have done nothing to fix the problem, but the scapegoating is in full swing.
Rantanon @ 6:39, I'm sorry you are not really aware of this issue or it's history. Too bad but you wouldn't be the first.
Senior staff, department heads, fire and police know they need to drop their compensation, they freely admit it if you ask them. They just don't want to. They would rather we tax ourselves more to sustain them.
This is the heart of the issue. No scapegoating, just math.
"Steve, Pacifica is not up to it's chin in quick sand just pay stubs. Our financial issues are not revenue issues but payroll issues. But you know this."
I don't know that, Todd. While expenses are part of the problem, Pacifica suffers from the same salary and pension problems as any other city. We're not unique in that respect. The difference is that, while most other cities were merely having to reduce their workforce, we're so financially stressed that we have to seriously consider shutting down our police department.
Where Pacifica shot itself in the foot was by letting our local Nobie faction drive away commerce and the business tax revenue it generates. Fighting Highway 1 improvements is more of the same naive no-growth policy that got us into trouble in the first place.
I honestly believe that blaming city employee pay as the cause of Pacifica's problems is is meant to divert attention away from the damage the Nobies and their "Build trails and they will come" economic policy have done over the last several decades.
Public employees and their unions have been blamed for city, county, state and federal budget woes across the country and yes even in Pacifica. The politicians who have in many cases allowed the pigout to take place and often joined in, excel at avoiding blame.
They're also adept at avoiding solutions that might cost them votes, endorsements and campaign contributions. Even in Pacifica.
Bray, you've got a snowball's chance in hell of ever separating a career civil servant from his sense of entitlement. They'll hang on to those paychecks for as long as they can even as their ranks are diminished by lay offs. The unions will make sure of it.
Bankruptcy is the only and probably also the inevitable solution. Neither the trickle down from the state nor the fantasy of development will happen fast enough to keep Pacifica afloat.
Dramatron Bray @7:55, if you hadn't already bankrupted the city with your ridiculous grandstanding against any progress, we wouldn't actually be in such a deficit of tax revenue. imagine being able to actually pay city employees and the Resource Center! The nobees say no.
1037 Oh yes, the developments that were proposed, which were either all or mostly residential, would have given Pacifica immunity from economic collapse. Worked like a charm in Stockton, Vallejo, San Bernadino, Elk Grove, Vegas, Phoenix, the entire state of Florida. We need commercial development before or with more housing. Cover every square foot of Pacifica with it!
Why are you lot letting our employees do this or that? Why is our infrastructure not what it could be. All these things that the Yessie crowd have been badgering the city about are now your problem Yessie hoards.
Life is sweet. Hahaha, Rantanons, Dramanons and Redherringanons you have no excuses anymore. get on with it. Rantanon@10:37, man can you please think up something original rather than derive everything from everyone else?
Steve, I don't see an obsession here with bankruptcy but rather like your poor misinformed chanting and about noobies, (another uncreative derivative word based on the term Yessie that was coined in 2006) your fellow Yessies here are sad little creatures who must have property that they want to develop or work for such a person.
You guys have the council now, all the city's woes are on you lot, deal with it.
sensational! and wrong.
"Nobie" came before "Yessie".
Yes, absolutely Sinai, do keep things in order. LMAO.
Hahaha, Steve, as always you are as funny as a barrel of pooh flinging monkeys! Which is pretty funny if you think about it.
pooh fling monkeys and sad little creatures. this is a dreary start to the week. thanks Bray for a glimpse into your world.
You are welcome Dramanon @ 11:23, most welcome :)
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