Volume One,
Number 10 What ElseYou Need To Know March 22, 2002
We are back to square one and that is
good. Council
should focus on what the Bernal property mission is.
The Pleasanton City Council wisely kept the Bernal Avenue
property uses off the November ballot--at least temporarily. On a 3-2
vote, Mayor Tom Pico and Counselor Kay Ayala dissenting, the council felt
there was more work to do before the people are updated on the Bernal
property plans.
On a 5-0 vote the council asked its two task forces and the staff to prepare a mission statement to help them focus on their handling of the Bernal civic developments which they envision will be in a “park-like” setting. Mr. Pico felt that the council needs direction before proceeding with more meetings of the two task forces. Duh. The council has been all over the park so to speak. First, they declared a lighted sports park and other developments. Now, after a one-woman poster parade, they have declared all of Bernal a park with other possible civic developments. That about face confused everyone.
OpinionPleasanton suggests the task forces and the staff look into the crystal ball for future for civic needs that might be appropriate for Bernal. A new city hall is one of those needs and it is already in the talking stages. Another is a mass transit hub. So far, Pleasanton has been all show and no go when it comes to public transportation and citywide traffic solutions. Senior subsidized housing is another need as is a cultural arts complex. All of the uses are appropriate for Bernal. All of these uses are compatible with one another. More importantly, all of these uses are compatible with a park.
The council must develop at a comprehensive plan for Bernal. They must estimate costs for the projects in their comprehensive plan. They must prioritize the possible projects. The must prepare a timetable for completing the entire project-likely in phases over a 10 to 20-year period.
Armed with that information, they can go to the people-if they want.
But, they have the responsibility, as Counselor Matt Campbell pointed
out, to make these kinds of decisions.
If they seek an advisory vote, they should provide all of the information
needed by voters to make an informed decision. Two beautiful parks with
lights somewhere and no financial information is not the right approach.
Cooler heads prevailed. For the time being. Thank goodness.
Hosterman tosses her bonnet into the ring
Jennifer Hosterman, chair of the Bernal Property Task Force, has declared that she is a candidate for the Pleasanton City Council in the November 2002 election. This decision was not unexpected. Ms. Hosterman’s mentor, Mayor Tom Pico, appointed her to the high-visibility Bernal task force to keep her name before the public in anticipation of another run. (Over the years, Mr. Pico and his Dream Team associates have appointed anti-business-no-growth advocates to the myriad committees, task forces and commissions designed, in part, to groom environmental candidates. Ms. Hosterman, however, failed to connect with the people and lost to Counselor Matt Campbell in Pleasanton’s last election 16 months ago.
It is anticipated that Ms. Hosterman will find willing financial support from the Sierra Club and other so-called environmental organizations. She is widely identified as greener than green having pushed good-sounding but socialist sustainability plans and energy programs that would damage Pleasanton’s business climate. She once said, “man needs Earth, Earth does not need man.”
Because there is no announced opponent for Mr. Pico, the environmental extremists can flip their financial support to Ms. Hosterman making, her a formidable candidate. Mr. Pico amassed about $25,000 for his election as mayor. His opponent Vice Mayor Becky Dennis spent nearly the same in her losing effort. His whole war chest could go to Ms. Hosterman if he is unopposed. If he is opposed by a lesser-know candidate, he can still afford to forego some of the enviro PAC money. Only if Counselor Sharrell Michelotti runs for mayor will Mr. Pico need to keep his hands on the lion’s share of the special interest money.
The other wild card for the enviro PAC money is Planning Commissioner
Matt Sullivan. Over the last few months, Sullivan has been showing off
his bonefides to environmentalists--some think to throw his hat into the
ring with their blessings and a portion of their treasury. Sullivan and
Hosterman candidacies and a well-known opponent for Mr. Pico would mean
that environmentalists would have to open their wallets even more. The
only rub might be that since Pleasanton is near buildout and all of the
Red Legged Frog habitat has already been highjacked, maybe there is a
limit to what the Sierra Club or other groups are willing to dump into
Pleasanton politics. The grounds are more fertile in Livermore and Dublin
where there is still some land to confiscate from ranchers and developers.
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The OpinionPleasanton assignment editor is
working on…Handicapping the mayor and council races…The
coziness of the council and the school board…The new Bernal
plan…The Happy Valley vote and the fate of the golf course…Traffic,
traffic, traffic.
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Feature Opinion
Argonats and Nincompoops
Building the transcontinental railroad is considered to be the greatest achievement of the American people in the 19th century according to historian Stephen E. Ambrose. The railroad took brains, muscles, etc. but it also took scope never before put into a single project.
President Abraham Lincoln was the train’s driving force according
to Ambrose. On Lincoln’s watch, the Civil War was settled, slavery
was abolished and the railroad completed. But Lincoln, were he alive
today, would be no match for the Sierra Club, City of Pleasanton Parks
and Recreation Commission, Pleasanton Planning Department, Downtown
Specific Plan Committee, Pleasanton Planning Commission, the Pleasanton
City Council, or the Case Avenue “affordable housing” coalition.
Scope is what Lincoln had that Pleasanton needs for the Bernal property.
Parks and civic buildings are not mutually exclusive. Lincoln would
have approached the Bernal property by starting with a civic needs list.
That list would not have a Golden Gate Park or a Lithia Park on it.
Those would fall to a wants list which of course is secondary to a needs
list.
On the needs list today, Lincoln would list a mass transit hub integrated into the ACE Train station. He would also list a new city hall/library complex on city-owned land that is less valuable than the downtown land where city hall now rests. He would list parking and further commercialization of downtown and then would offer the valuable city hall land for those projects. He would take the profit from the downtown city hall land sale and apply it to the construction of a new city hall on Bernal and would measurably reduce construction funding. He would bristle at the state mandates for subsidized housing but he would put it near transportation and a new civic center.
Lincoln would then look for ways to merge the want list with the needs list much like keeping the north and the south the United States. He would find a way to have a park and the civic projects.
Lincoln and those who supported and built the railroad are argonauts.
Those who look at 300 acres of free land and see only a patch of grass and a tree have no scope, and are nincompoops. “Arts, arts, arts, parks, parks, parks” is pandering to a very visible but small local interest group and to one lady with a poster of an Oregon park. Since no one protested the switcheroo, the about face, “get the park on the ballot” became the battle cry of the ideology and agenda driven nincompoops. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
News
Opinion
East Bay Regional
Parks is contemplating another
trip to the taxpayer’s wallets-or else
Pat O’Brien, general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) recently announced that the district, after its second consecutive ballot defeat, is contemplating going back to the taxpayers. In the meantime, he also said that the district has to consider cutting the public off from thousands of acres of parkland. Presumably, that is because the district (without the hoped-for bond money) cannot promise a safe environment. However, like their brethren in the environment extremist movement, the district is strong-arming the public in an in-your-face, pay-up-or-else declaration to the voters.
OpinionPleasanton has seen this picture before. The most memorable time was after the passage of Proposition 13 to cut property taxes. Our libraries were closed and city and county governments shut down or curtailed non-essential services in a pre-adolescent snit because the voters resoundingly demanded fewer property taxes and more governmental efficiency.
The voters eventually won out. Our libraries did not close forever and other government services were resumed. Few people noticed that the services were curtailed and the bureaucrats and the liberal politicians relented and opened the closed facilities. Not because it was the right thing to do but because the voters began to see, first-hand, that there were some services we could do without. The bureaucrats could see that their jobs were on the line. Ditto the politicians. They decided to re-enter the bureaucracy knowing they would be back at full strength soon-albeit a few years. Of course they were correct and here we are today with governmental bloat from fees and assessments and not taxes.
We survived the passage of prop 13. In fact, we more than survived. We flourished when money save from property tax reduction went back into the economy in the form of business expansion and increased consumer spending.
If the park district management and board look in the mirror they might spot an endangered species-feral pigs being scared away from the taxpayer-financed feeding trough. If they eventually want to see the rehabitation of the Alameda Whipsnake or the Red Legged Frog on pristine trails and riparian streams, they had better streamline their considerable budget to do what the voters have asked of them-maintain current services and accomplish your proposed new projects at current funding levels.
What is the problem with that? After all, the district only lost a dollar a month from single-family homes and only 67 cents a month from apartment units.
Quick
Opinion
“Environmental maintenance” sinks K
You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Measure K, rejected on the March 5 ballot, misfired because the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) went to the environmental-extremist well one time too often. In the process of trying to determine what environmental maintenance really is, voters uncovered another governmental agency bloated with money from past bond measures and a staff that is among the best paid in the Bay Area. Not even a dollar a month was small enough to overcome the district’s slight of hand with the people.
K crashed and burned. The other good news is that the district management
will have to become more efficient as a result. More district police
and firefighters must now be paid out of the existing budget. Likewise,
maintenance will also be done within the confines of the budget.
Guest Opinion
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