Pacifica Chamber of Commerce opposes proposed Utility User's Tax

http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103529695417-780/UTTax_FINAL_PCC_8-26-13.pdf

Submitted concurrently by both Tom Clifford and Bobby Hutchinson

City meeting calendar this week, August 26-30, 2013

Poet Laureate for Pacifica

 City Calendar, 8/26-30, 2013.

Monday, 8/26/13.  City council meeting is cancelled.

Tuesday, 8/27/13 - no meetings.

Wednesday, 8/28/13.  Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission meeting.  Reorganization.  Consideration:  Poet Laureate selection process.  PB&R Agenda.

Thursday, 8/29/13 - no meetings.

Friday, 8/30/13 - no meetings.

Note:  graphic from Portsmouth Poet Laureate program.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

Yosemite fire threatens Bay Area water supply, so far so good but its early

San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press, Gosia Wozniack, 8/24/13.  "Huge California Wildfire spreads into Yosemite. 

Groveland Ranger Station (Yosemite), 8/22/13

Airplane dropping fire retardant

"FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A giant wildfire raging out of control grew to nearly 200 square miles Friday and spread into Yosemite National Park at the height of the summer season for one of California's most popular tourist destinations. But in an unusual move, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Francisco 150 miles away because of the threat to the city's utilities. The blaze had already done some damage and threatened more to the lines and stations that pipe power to San Francisco, so Brown, who had declared an emergency for the fire area earlier in the week, made the unusual move of extending it to the city across the state.

San Francisco gets 85 percent of its water from the Yosemite-area Hetch Hetchy reservoir that is about 4 miles from the fire, though that had yet to be affected. But it was forced to shut down two of its three hydroelectric power stations in the area. The city has so far been able to buy power on the open market and use existing supplies, but further disruptions or damage could have an effect, according to city power officials and the governor's statement."  Read article.

Related -   Christian Science Monitor, 8/24/13, ".... more than 2.6 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area receive water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite."  Article includes a KTLA 5 embedded video, about 60 seconds.. Groveland Ranger Station photograph from this article.

Humans and wildlife affected

CNN, 8/23/13, includes slides of the fire. "The Rim Fire has burned nearly 106,000 acres, up from about 53,000 acres a day earlier, spreading east from Stanislaus National Forest to part of Yosemite, Forest Service spokesman Bjorn Fredrickson said. The fire is only 2% contained."  Airplane Ranger Station photograph from this article, includes embedded video, 2:03 minutes. Airplane dropping fire retardant photograph  from this article.

Yahoo.com/AP, 8/24/13, includes video. "The so-called Rim Fire doubled in size in just one day, and the 125,600-acre (510-square kilometre) blaze was only five percent contained, according to InciWeb, the online Incident Information System that monitors fires in the western United States.  But more help was on the way, with California securing federal financial aid to help mobilize resources to extinguish the monster blaze."  Bears photograph from this article. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

Drunkards Beware

Pacifica Five-O DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint Planned Aug. 30

Read about it here.

Daniel Steidle, Captain

Administrative/Investigative Services Division

2075  Coast Highway

Pacifica, CA 94044

650-738-7320 (Desk)

650-355-1172 (Fax)

steidled@pacificapolice.org

Annual environmentally unfriendly marijuana eradication under way

Half Moon Bay Review/Bob Franklin (Special), 8/22/13.  "Annual pot eradication effort get under way, Marijuana operations often leave toxic environment."

Welcome to our local GGNRA

....  As the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office prepares for its upcoming annual pot grow “eradication” — a countywide purge of whatever pot farms it locates — the effort includes cleaning out the environmentally harmful waste left behind.

Pot farms are located throughout the county and Peninsula on both private and public land. Farms of the latter sort can be particularly problematic because growers often set up sites in national forests for several months during the summer growing season, generating a great deal of garbage before abandoning camp. Last year, local authorities removed around 3,000 pounds of garbage from grow sites, according to San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force Cmdr. John Munsey."

....  "On the environmental side of it, it’s just a very toxic situation,” said Munsey in a phone interview. “(Growers) come and camp out for months, using gasoline fuel, pesticides, and accumulating garbage. When they leave, none of that comes out. They just leave it, and most of it drifts into waterways.  Read article.

Note:  Photograph from  Business Insider.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

Is police outsourcing the end of civilization as we know it"?

Pacifica Tribune Letters to the Editor, 8/20/13.   "Grand Jury report" by Bob Hutchinson

"Well you can always move", take a trail

Editor:  Last month The San Mateo Grand Jury released a study of how well police outsourcing is working for Millbrae, Half Moon Bay and San Carlos. I think this report is extremely relevant to Pacifica who has, and still is considering outsourcing our police to the sheriff.

Police solution to our "serious incident" 

Here are a few excerpts from the Grand Jury report:

"The investigation revealed that monetary savings have been significant in each city without any reduction in services." "Millbrae city officials indicate a 17% drop in crime and a 37- second decrease in response time since contracting with the sheriff.""The cities report an increase in the professionalism of their police services without changes in response times or crime frequency."

"The Millbrae City Council indicated contracting with the SO (sheriff) has helped the City deal with its finances realistically, while maintaining a viable, effective law enforcement presence. We realized $500,000 in savings. The public is very happy. I hear this at meetings I attend. Complaints have dropped substantially." "All interviewed parties agree they have received positive feedback from their current and former personnel and from the public at large."

Bye bye... try Millbrae

  Police officer message to us

"By contracting with the SO (sheriff), San Carlos was able to maintain minimum staffing levels for patrols, provide the same quick response times, and has been able to restore many of the key community programs that the San Carlos Police Department had provided in better economic times."

The entire report has nothing but positive outcomes resulting from these three cities outsourcing their PD to the sheriff. The sheriff has more resourses and better training. Yet our officials resist, stall and evade. Our police don't seem to be able to shut down drug houses which are in every area of town. We have had one in our neighborhood for years. Despite numerous calls about dealing Pacifica Police can do little. In fact this week after a serious incident an officer told myself and two other neighbors "well you can always move."  You can read the whole San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report  here.  Or search on Google.

Note photographs and graphics:  Trail, Beta Pro/Con Lists.  Going away party, Zazzle Moving away Invitation. Sorry to see you go, Zazzle Moving Away Cards.  House moving, Sodahead.

Submitted by Bob Hutchinson, with permission to post the entire Letter to the Editor text.   

Posted by Kathy Meeh