The Hayward Area Planning Association surveyed city council candidates on matters including development surrounding the South Hayward BART station, transit vs. car access to Cal State East Bay, and Bayview Village. Six of those surveyed responded, and you can find the results here.

UPDATE: Story on forum.

Tomorrow’s brief, today: The League of Women Voters-Eden Area will host a pair of nonpartisan political forums Tuesday night, one for Hayward City Council candidates and the other for contenders in the 15th Congressional District.

For Hayward City Council, nine candidates are vying for four seats that are up in June. Incumbents Barbara Halliday, Olden Henson and Francisco Zermeno are facing challengers Shahla Azimi, Peter Bufete, Ralph Farias Jr., Greg Jones, Fahim Khan and Al Mendall.

It will be followed by candidates in District 15, where incumbent Pete Stark is up against challengers Chris Pareja and Eric Swallwell.

The City Council forum starts at 6:30 p.m., District 15 at 8 p.m. at Hayward City Hall, 777 B St.

Judging from various candidate statements, there’s sure to be talk about economic revitalization and bringing businesses to Hayward. Other possible hot topics (and new territory for HayWord commenters as well) include a contested Walmart Neighborhood Market in south Hayward, and the reuse of the former Mervyn’s headquarters site as upscale housing. And there’s always gang injunctions or even happy hour restrictions/alcohol policy.

Take a gander at political reporter Josh Richman’s blog for the latest word on the District 15 race.

UPDATE: Here’s the story.

Our  story on who’s running for Hayward City Council come June should be posting online soon. And as promised at the end of the story, you can find more information on each candidate here, as collected from the City Clerk’s Office, candidate statements, websites and interviews. Candidates in order per Secretary of State’s randomized alphabet, starting after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

By now you’ve probably heard about the various “Occupy Wall Street” protests that started on the East Coast and are now taking root in cities across the nation. They’ve garnered support from a lot of our local U.S. reps, saw an Oakland councilwoman join them in their tent city and are starting to pop up in places that usually don’t see very many demonstrations: San Ramon on Tuesday, Walnut Creek on Wednesday and on Friday, MoveOn.org will bring it to the Bank of America near Bayfair Mall in San Leandro. Find the press release after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Jared Gochuico, a senior at Mt. Eden High School, earned high honors over the summer when his mixed-media work titled “Examination” was selected as winner of the 30th Annual Congressional Arts Competition. The piece is on display at the Capitol, along with other winners from across the nation.

Jared Gochuico said his work, "Examination," represents adolescence (done in grayscale) combined with the "childish, playful" colors of a Rubik's cube.

“As you can imagine, winning this award was no small accomplishment,” wrote his art teacher, Carrie King, in an email. “The competition was intense with only the very best work from the students from all over the East Bay on display. I’ve taught art at Mt. Eden for the past 19 years and I know that in that time no student from Mt. Eden has won this award. I am unaware of the last time (if ever) a student from HUSD has won. I’m very proud to be his teacher.”

She said on Tuesday that Jared is extremely talented but is also very disciplined and doesn’t coast on his skills. “He absolutely works harder than any other student I have had,” she said. “He won’t just put in partial effort and still get an A. So much of it is sweat.”

Jared and his family were flown to Washington DC courtesy of Southwest airlines in late June to view his artwork, which will remain on display in the Cannon Tunnel in the capitol building for the next year. Jared and over 430 winners from other districts, about 50 from CA, were in Washington DC to celebrate this national competition.

Read Rep. Pete Stark’s release after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Councilman Bill Quirk sent out this message today regarding his run for Hayashi’s assembly seat. It includes a link to his campaign website for more information. Not sure who all else is gunning for the seat except for Jennifer Ong. Here’s more information about the district. Here’s Quirk’s statement:

I have decided to run for California State Assembly because I believe that my 7 years on the Hayward City Council give me the experience needed to make a difference in Sacramento. My primary concern is to get Californians back to work. I have been endorsed by Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, Former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Mayors Michael Sweeney of Hayward and Marshall Kamena of Livermore and many others.  You can go to my website http://www.electbillquirk.com/ to get more information on my positions and endorsements. Please let me know by return email if you are willing to give me your endorsement. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 7/29: Here’s the story.

UPDATE 7/28: Board not going forward with Palacios. Brunner swings vote, says that while Palacios is very impressive, doing a great job in Pittsburg, he may not be right person for Hayward. Board will move on to third round of supt. search, will not have one for start of school year, which Brunner said she finds “very depressing.” Trustee McGee said he’s not worried because ”we have people in place who will be able to keep district moving.” He said next step is “getting together with search firm and interim superintendent and discuss how we will go forward.” Both said Palacios didn’t meet the criteria on the brochure they created. Press release expected in the morning, will write a story tomorrow.

The board voted 3-2 to offer the job to Enrique Palacios, an associate superintendent at Pittsburg Unified, contingent on the site visit and interviews. Barring any problems, they would then enter contract negotiations. Here’s a story that quotes Palacios regarding the positive state of Pittsburg schools.

Board President Lisa Brunner and trustees Maribel Heredia and Jesus Armas voted to go with Palacios. Luis Reynoso and William McGee cast dissenting votes.

“We’re all looking for different things,” said Brunner. “He is much heavier on the business administration than the academic end.”

Brunner added that they did recently hire an associate superintendent of academic affairs. Here’s that story from a few weeks ago.

Brunner said only two candidates were brought forward to be interviewed by the board, and “the other was also excellent.”

Looking around for info, came across this although I’m pretty sure it is the wrong Enrique Palacios.

Matt Rodriquez was selected by Gov. Jerry Brown to run the California Environmental Protection Agency, and his mom called the Review to point out that he’s a son of Hayward.

You might know his mom, too, from her years of service on the City Council.

“I just wanted to drum the fact that Hayward is a really nice town,” said Doris Rodriquez, who was on the council from 1991 to 2004, and also served as an appointed member from 2006 to 2008. She still can often be heard speaking at city meetings.

“It’s been a while since Matt went to Hayward schools, but he did,” she said. Matt went to Southgate, Calaroga (now MLK) and Mt. Eden.

 ”Chabot College, too,” she said. ”It was what I could afford, and he spent two years there before going to UC Berkeley and Hastings. It says something about Chabot.”

She said her other two children also started out at Chabot. One is now the head of the Hayward Education Association, and the other is also an attorney.

“It can make for sort of dull dinner conversation sometimes, but other than that it’s a good deal,” Rodriquez said.

Annette Walker, who lost to Trustee Jesus Armas in a close race last November, said at the time that she intended to work in other capacities to help Hayward schools, and tomorrow she’s being sworn in on the district’s Personnel Commission after being appointed to the post last month by State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson.

“I promised to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on with schools,” Walker said. “I didn’t immediately jump at this opportunity, but thought about it and decided I had to do it. There’s no way I could walk away from an opportunity to do greater service to the schools in this tough economy.”

According to a district document, the Personnel Commission is “charged with maintaining a merit system for classified employees of the school system and for fostering the advancement of a career service for such employees.” They hear appeals and protests of personnel matters concerning the district’s non-teaching workforce.

Walker pointed out that this is a six-month appointment, as she is filling in for someone who couldn’t complete the term. She will then be up for a three-year appointment … or might pursue other things, which “absolutely” includes the possibility of another school board run.

“What excites me is that I ran for wiping the slate clean,” Walker said. ”And that possibility may come up again, in a run with two other candidates.”

Wait… that word, “slate.” It rings a bell. Wasn’t there a high-profile couple talking about forming a slate for a school board run before deciding not to run? And who did they strongly back in the race? Ok ok, I’m not here to speculate, just to report. But those are the facts.

Terms for trustees Armas, Luis Reynoso and Maribel Heredia are up for election in November 2012.

Hayward had its annual proclamation ceremony honoring the various city volunteers on Tuesday. It also happens that National Volunteer Week is coming up, April 10-16. There’s been a “surge of volunteers,” said staff, with 630 names submitted for the honor this year compared with 520 last year. By the end of the ceremony, the front of the council chamber was packed with those receiving certificates for their good deeds.