Volume Two, Number 9                                              What ElseYou Need To Know                                    March 20, 2003

Mr. Pico, you cannot have it both ways

Mayor Tom Pico was recently quoted as saying that “The people who are pushing the extension of Stoneridge Drive are the folks that are more concerned about regional traffic issues and trying to build arterial streets to the 580 freeway. They want to connect Jack London in Livermore to Stoneridge. As our General Plan reads today, Stoneridge will connect El Charro, Busch Road will connect to El Charro, and El Charro will go all the way from 580 to Stanley Boulevard.” What a hypocrite. Mr. Pico is the chairman of the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency and has often admonished misbehaving drivers to think regionally and act locally when it comes to area traffic. He supports costly high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. He “salvaged” $10 million for the improvements to Highway 84 (from LIVERMORE to SUNOL.)

Yes and no Mr. Mayor? Opinion Pleasanton and the rest of those “folk” see these studied, approved, and voted upon connections as a Pleasanton-first endeavor to relieve Pleasanton’s rush-hour gridlock. So, again, the mayor has is wrong. But we do believe that the solution will help with regional gridlock and air quality. What Mr. Pico says is exactly what many feel should happen and happen quickly to relieve the pressure from other major arterials and pave the way for rapid and orderly development of the remaining tracts of developable land. Taking growth issues off the table rids Pleasanton of do-nothing, no-growth environmental extremist activists whose agenda stifles growth and economic vitality.

It was Mr. Pico’s no-growth leadership that chased IKEA and a potential of one million in sale tax revenue to Dublin. Roads, democratically voted on in the General Plan, were all that was needed to make IKEA and their revenue generating retail machine a Pleasanton neighbor. (Now it may be Dublin that can complete their road and street network with their newfound IKEA sales tax revenue.)

Mr. Pico, usually the first to run to the ballot, is now unhappy with the result of the 1996 General Plan election outlining the completion of El Charro and Stoneridge. That was an election Mr. Pico supported.

With a lazy opposition, an uninformed electorate, and a supportive, well-entrenched bureaucracy in his pocket, Mr. Pico knows that development in the areas around El Charro and Stoneridge will most surely never happen until he is term limited. So that is not the issue.

The issue is that nasty approval by the voters of the General Plan that supports those road extensions. With those democratically approved extensions on the books, Mr. Pico is loath to stick his neck out too far. He is not quite sure whether people will remember that he supported the 1996 General Plan election—which includes El Charro and Stoneridge extensions. So the issue is another General Plan review and election. Mr. Pico feels that, with a busy, dumbed-down electorate, he will win removing “growth-inducing” road extensions. Were the election in 2004 he feels that he can ride that to another term as mayor. The mayor will tie roads to growth and he knows that he has already fooled the electorate on housing and growth so he sees it as a slam-dunk for removing those extensions. It is all about his “protecting” the neighborhoods. Those people (victims) who bought homes near where Stoneridge (four lanes and a wide median) dead ends, need the mayor’s help. The residents near West Las Positas have the mayor’s support for removing the long-planned interchange. (West Las Positas is wide enough for four lanes all the way from Foothill Road to the current over crossing). Residents along Stoneridge Drive (four lanes from Foothill to El Charro) near the Stoneridge Interchange will have the mayor’s support not to make changes that may interfere barbecuing on their patios.

Just as he did with the Bernal initiative, Mr. Pico will deflect criticism of his tenure on the council and as mayor with a General Plan update initiative. He is still fighting for the neighborhoods will be his mantra.

The only thing that this mantra does not address is that those people in the neighborhoods are also drivers who have to ferry their children to and from school, dance class, and soccer practice. And, that is right after commuting back into town from Silicon Valley.

Only some things move slowly in Pleasanton

Opinion Pleasanton often quotes city Manager Deborah Acosta McKeehan, “things move a little slowly in Pleasanton.” We often point out that she means that because things go slowly, they are done well. Not so however.

But, not everything goes slowly. In light speed we got another layer of bureaucracy in the form of the Energy Committee. The committee means more staff time for meetings and more clerical help for agendas and minutes. We guess that soon there will be a consultant to the committee. Same old stuff, different day.

Pleasanton is now demanding that our drinking water, provided by Zone 7, be improved post haste and delivered to us yesterday. Oh yes, the improved water delivered now is supposed to be paid for by developers. Our questions are these: Why the hurry? We do things a little slowly in Pleasanton to assess all of the collateral issues. We have no development, so how will this “stick-it-to the developers” work? Oh, and by the way, developers do not pay for water connections. Their clients do. How will jacking up the price of housing for better water work for improving our subsidized housing dilemma?

Finally, now that we have rid ourselves of the nasty senior housing on Bernal, we can, laser-like, get the park (with dog runs) planned. (The only exception is the slow down on the ACE Train station now that ridership is down because of the slowdown in Silicon Valley. The extremists really do not want public transportation. Is it the riff-raff that rides through town six times a day)? Now that LAFCO has approved annexation of Happy Valley land for a municipal golf course, let us get that course built before the law suits red tag the city’s six-year, $4-million effort over a silly, little by-pass road.

The city’s entry into the assisted living business is stalled out because their business partners are wise enough to know that an economic slowdown means a slowdown in bringing mom from New Jersey to live near (not with) the kids. The go-slow effort will move forward, however. There is a rival plan being proposed for property that is own by the Catholic Church and offered rent-free for the project. That is the good news. The bad new is that the property is smack dab in the middle of the mayor’s neighborhood and, of course, the mayor has been fighting for that neighborhood forever. Don’t look for a rapid hearing on the church’s proposal. Look for keeping Bridge on the hook for the Senior Center’s companion building project.

Pleasanton’s bi-polar disorder has its costs as well. Going slowly on Bernal (before now) cost us staff time, clerical time, legal time, and consultant costs. Not one bureaucrat has volunteered what that cost was and not one counselor has asked for that number. We are heading into an “east-side study.” That means years of hashing out issues that have been hashed for 25 years. Moreover, it means more staff and consultant expense. The coup de gras is the new General Plan study. Mayor Tom Pico is no longer satisfied with the result of the last General Plan review and election in 1996 and must codify his do-nothing, no-growth agenda. If he thinks it will help him win re-election, the study and proposed changes will hit the next municipal ballot in 2004. If he feels that he doesn’t need a major election issue to hide behind, he will stall out the review knowing that the mantra can easily change from “protecting the neighborhoods” to “do not do anything until the General Plan review is complete.” Neat trick and the people will get suckered either way. The guy is good.

For the city, however, the costs will mount and become more evident but not until Mr. Pico is term limited. At that time he will justify the cost with his major accomplishment of “do nothing and they will not come,” anti-developer agenda. The end justifies the means. Only the city will suffer from inertia and economic vitality will flag or at best become stagnant. The problems we have today will grow worse and more expensive to fix. Mr. Pico and the Dream Teamers will not care. They will all move on to regional boards and commissions reprising the same tactics on a larger and even more gullible electorate.

News Opinion

Extremists eat their own. Zone 7 is on the menu. We cannot even cut some slack for the people who provide us our water?

Just yesterday roads caused growth. Now it is back to water. When water failed, a few years back, to stop growth in its tracks, sewers were the focus. The export pipeline is now being upgraded so it is now back to water. Zone 7 is the latest straw man. The target is still the same. Stick it to the developers. At the very least if you are forced to allow some development you can extort additional park or other development fees. (New Cities is asked to pony up $2 million rather than the paltry $500,000 they offered). Homebuyers are unawares and continue to shell out, with fees an ever-growing line item of their purchase price.

Zone 7 must be aghast at what they have had to put up with to provide Pleasanton’s million-dollar homes with drinking water. Their meetings sound just like the ones in Livermore and Pleasanton, and since Guy Houston got kicked upstairs, like Dublin. They talk of EIRs and funding. They have their own cadre of consultants. They are government, complete with bureaucrats, so what gives.

It is their turn in the barrel. They should not take is personally. And as long as there is money in the pipeline, it will all come out in the wash. Homebuyers are the pipeline and they are still flush. It is akin to the City of Pleasanton taking it in the neck on the Happy Valley golf course. Wetlands, habitat, and endangered species doubled the cost from a guesstimate of $18 million to nearly $35 million. And like builders, the city will simply pass on the exorbitant cost to golfers. Green fees will cost a little more green. Fore just might mean 4X the green fees.

As it stands now, “housing affordability” is the victim. New homebuyers will pick up the tab--housing connections will take care of the anticipated costs to lay the proposed pipeline and construct the proposed Altamont Water Treatment plant. NIMBYs and the frog people will see to it that the projects are stalled just long enough to double the costs. Higher costs mean higher connection fees. Higher connection fees mean higher purchase prices. Higher purchase prices means less affordability. Housing to meet state housing mandates will remain only a dream because housing costs will escalate to cover more governmental red tape and regulations. That is until we completely socially engineer who lives in our communities and we simply just buy houses for selected people. In Pleasanton, that will not be seniors. We took a vote last November and they lost.

The real conflict of interest is when no one is left to vote

Mayor Tom Pico has dodged important votes by invoking the conflict of interest rules. He owns property downtown and refused to vote on the new downtown plan. He also owns a home near the St. Augustine’s church property between Bonita and Bernal. Will he simply rally the rabble and then sit out the vote because of his home ownership? If the past is any indication, he will. Besides hiding politically, Mr. Pico has brought conflict rules to a new low level. His appearance of trying to remain above board has caused other counselors to sit out critical votes. Former Vice Mayor Sharrell Michelotti also sat out the downtown vote because she owned a rental home in downtown. Recently, counselors Matt Campbell and Steve Brozosky sat out votes.

One wag quipped that if Mr. Pico owned property in Pleasanton Meadows, Stoneridge, and Del Prado he could also avoid voting on road extensions on the Staples Ranch, Busch, and Chain of Lakes properties, flood control, and I-680/Stoneridge interchange improvements.

If Mr. Pico’s rationale is carried to its logical extension, should he therefore sit out any more downtown traffic and parking votes such as turning off the metering lights, artificially maintaining the arroyo, and turning the fire station into a theater and gallery?

The point is that if a counselor has no specific monetary connection to an issue there is no conflict of interest. The value of Mr. Pico’s downtown property is not affected one way or another from the new downtown plan and his property is not affected more or less than all downtown property. Would Mr. Pico consider sitting out votes for code enforcement for surrounding property ala the Marquis nightclub and Toby’s? Would he excuse himself from voting on Planning Commission appeals for properties surrounding his?

We can see the mayor sitting out a vote appealing his own use of dormer windows thought to be smaller that the code requires or second-floor access to his “home-office.”

More important than the mayor’s dodging those votes that create a record, is the mayor’s entry into the debate at all. If the conflict of interest is great enough for him to sit out a vote then it should be great enough for him to remain silent during the debate. But that is not what the mayor does. He directly and indirectly rallies his troops to persuade the council to vote his way. Wearing a red shirt to a council meeting when a special-interest group is expected to wear their red shirts is akin to a wink and a nod to the group that he is behind them. Saying that certain proposed road construction will surely be on an election ballot is the mayor’s signal to radicals that it is time to get out their petitions.

He influences his colleagues, he wins, and he takes no political hits.

For instance, the mayor recently told the Chamber of Commerce that St. Augustine and Elder Care should scale down their proposed assisted living project in the mayor’s own neighborhood. He entered the debate. Now with baited breath people will wait to see if he will dodge voting on the project or claim that his home is more than 500 feet away from the project and vote. It just depends on how the rest of the votes line up. It is, of course, less critical now that the environmental extremists hold a four to one majority on the council. Were this simply a developer proposed project not a church and elder project, there would not even be any discussion on the project. It would be dead on arrival. While they despise both, the city treats private enterprise quite differently than it does charitable organizations. The mayor also counts on voters having short memories. So, contradictory action is seldom a concern for the mayor. Who cares? Old news.

Quick Opinion

Bravo to the Tri-Valley Herald and Matt Carter

News stories covering Pleasanton juxtaposed to the stories about Tracy, Lathrop, and Manteca are a welcome site in the Tri-Valley Herald. We have even been more pleased to see Matt Carter’s byline on page one of the main news section. With so much coverage of Pleasanton, it will be just a matter of time when Pleasanton’s voters will begin to see the folly of returning environmental extremists to the City Council. Even a blind pig will occasionally find an acorn.

Not that the Herald’s job is to be pearls to swine. It is their job, however, to report about the governance of Pleasanton. That is news. News and occasional in-depth features will help the people make informed decisions about government.

Increased advertising and subscriptions should be the Herald’s reward for expanding their Pleasanton coverage. That coverage costs money. Associate Publisher Tim Hunt and Editor Albert Pacciorini evidently feel that the increased investment in Pleasanton will eventually produce a return on that investment.

Bravo also to the Valley Citizen

The Valley Citizen March 2003 article on property rights is right on target. Tom DeWeese, editor of the DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center said at the Eagle Forum seminar in Sonoma: “Usually, when politicians talk about sustainable development, they talk about environmental programs like the endangered Species Act, wetlands regulations, conservation easements, watersheds, “view sheds,” heritage areas, heritage corridors, heritage sites, historic preservation, rail-to-trails, zoning, The Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), energy consumption, greenways, biosphere reserves, biodiversity, environmental statements, global warming and the Wildlands Project. Please understand that these are simply the tools and excuses being used to dismantle our society and culture…” DeWeese reports that this is rooted in the United Nation’s program Agenda 21 based upon the 1992 UN Earth Summit. The United States federal government’s drive to acquire and control massive amounts of land is necessary for full implementation of Agenda 21 which means a completely managed society—“dictating the process to be used for industry, agriculture, housing development and even education.”

DeWeese describes sustainability as a policy to decide what you eat, what you wear, the kind of home you live in, the way you get to work, the number of children you may have, even your education and employment decisions not an environmental policy.

Consequently, the next time you hear sustainability at a City Council meeting, remember that is a way to take your property and dictate the way you live. It is not about the frogs or the air conditioner you use.

Bravisimo to Monte Vista High School senior George Komsky

Thanks, again, to the Valley citizen we are able to read George Komsky’s views on Saddam Hussein. This Monte Vista High School senior is the antidote to Sean Penn, Mike Farrell, and Martin Sheen.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Just barely fitted in to a Tri-Valley Herald article by Matt Carter on Bernal Avenue land uses on March 8, 2003 was a mention (in the last paragraph) that the San Francisco Water Department still owns the water rights on Bernal. Pleasanton Planning Director Brian Swift had to let the cat out of the bag when reporting that Zone 7 would like to drill three new drinking water wells on the property. Only the city does not own the water. Oops. Now we discover that water, right along with the property across from the library, fell through the cracks. What else did the city not get in the “tough and exhaustive” negotiations for the land? This water question was asked more than two years ago. The council and the staff stonewalled. A slip shows that the staff is either overworked and loses focus or it is over its depth. It also shows that the council is ill informed and too trusting.

Thorne, the volunteer, shows why he is Thorne the leader

Parks and Recreation Commissioner Jerry Thorne, in his Op-ed piece in the Pleasanton Weekly, Friday March 14, 2003, makes several very cogent points--not the least of which is his call for putting aside personal and political agendas to accomplish the people’s business. Finishing the development of our little city must be done without the rancor. More importantly, it must be done honestly and Mr. Thorne has provided the roadmap by which this can be accomplished. Mr. Thorne is a good guy. Mr. Thorne is a citizen volunteer who has worked many years to make Pleasanton a better place. Mr. Thorne is a leader. Opinion Pleasanton recognized that and endorsed him for the city council last November. More importantly, Mr. Thorne is a political leader who has nothing to gain and much to lose by his advice for Mayor Tom Pico, his council colleagues, and the paid, professional staff. But that is his point; leaders sometimes must sacrifice personal and political capital to make the quality of life better for the entire community and not just special interests.

Guest Opinion

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