Boo the Review! Rejoice the Voice!

Councilman Bill Quirk had some strong words about the Daily Review at last week’s City Council meeting, starting exactly at the one hour, three minute mark. Piggybacking on comments made by a public speaker who said she hadn’t seen much information in the paper about the gang injunction ordinance that was on the agenda, Quirk advised the room and television audience to seek information elsewhere:

“First of all, anyone who’s waiting for the Daily Review to tell you what’s happening, that was 10 years ago. Do ask the City Clerk to send you our agendas regularly. They just come and you dont have to look if you don’t want to but she sends them out by email regularly.

“Second, start reading the Tri-City Voice. Simon Wong is back there, he’s there at all our meetings and he does a good job. So please start reading the Tri City Voice. Simon, put up your hand, there. Just to let us know. Ok. He’s here at every meeting. The Daily Review is not here.”

At this point, Mayor Mike Sweeney interrupted Quirk: “Actually, they are here.”

“Oh they are here. Oh good!” Quirk said. ”Eric, good to see you. Good to see you.”

Sweeney: “And Eric, that was Bill Quirk. By the way.”

Quirk: “Well, it’s not Eric’s fault, the problem is they won’t give him the column inches to ah, to ah, report that he would like to have and he has to cover the whole city which used to be covered by like four reporters. So it’s not his fault but it’s just — we don’t have the coverage we used to have.” Read the rest of this entry »

 Here’s this week’s calendar. Just about to head to San Leandro to see what they say about options for a medical marijuana ordinance. Tomorrow, the Hayward City Council is poised to take steps to save redevelopment assets from a possible state take. And Wednesday’s Sustainability Committee meeting could be a big one, as they will be looking at the draft Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance. They moved that meeting into the main Council Chambers instead of the work session room, in case people turn out. Read the rest of this entry »

From a April 13, 1974 story after Frazier was elected to the City Council.

We had a story in today’s paper about the passing of Faith Frazier. For space reasons, we couldn’t write more than that, but I received a lot of information that is included below. The bio is courtesy of former San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young.

“I’ll tell you something,” said her son, Carl. “My mom has devoted more years in San Leandro to civic issues, political issues than probably anyone else other than Jack Maltester. My mom goes back to before the city was really a city.”

“She passed away peacefully at Kaiser Hospital last Sunday, February 20, 2011, with her family by her side,” wrote Young in an e-mail.  “She was an incredibly gifted woman who helped numerous people throughout her lifetime learn things about government and how it affects us all. She will be missed by scores of electeds throughout the city of San Leandro and Alameda County. Clearly, she was a legend in her later life and accomplished much by way of leadership and knowledge sharing.” Read the rest of this entry »

Items of interest: If you have any acquaintances in the restaurant industry, the city is holding a “Survive to Thrive in the Restaurant Industry” event on Feb. 7. Talk about ways to evolve, such as using social media to promote your eatery.

Also, on Wednesday the Hayward Sustainability Committee is going to be talking about the Residential Energy Conversation Ordinance, something that has brought out the real estate community to speak against it at past meetings. Read the rest of this entry »

The City Council held the first of at least two priority-setting workshops last night. This one was a sort of brainstorming session, the City Manager will take input back to the drawing board and return with a revised version next month. In the end, it’s these priorities that are used to formulate where dollars will be spent when it comes time to create the budget for FY 2011-12.

Main goals carry over from last year. City Manager Fran David wanted to take the “Crime and Public Safety” and “Cleanliness” priorities from last year and also give a nod to the city’s work to be environmentally conscious, packaging it together into ”Safe, Clean, Green.”

Mayor Mike Sweeney, who was behind both the city’s Sustainability Committee and the Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force, objected.

“I’m very proud of our accomplishments, and we’ve done a lot of good things,” he said. “But I’m not sure I’m comfortable to say it’s an overriding priority.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, I really appreciate the feedback that came in, both in the comments and emails. I like Kelly’s idea about a place to put info regarding upcoming public events. Here’s what I can do — post what the Review has in the calendar section, looking forward about a week or so. Then everyone can use that post as a springboard to add events in the comments section. Let’s try it out, let me know what you think. You’ll find the community event calendar after the jump, followed by government listings. Read the rest of this entry »

Still waiting for a full-time San Leandro reporter to join us to replace our guy who got called up for a year of service in the National Guard.

There’s a lot going on in that city. New Mayor Stephen Cassidy was sworn in this week at a meeting that also saw two-year contracts approved. Pension reform was a big part of Cassidy’s campaign, and that last action by the old council makes it difficult. Cassidy was on NPR the other night talking about it.

There’s also a new police chief, the city’s first female police chief, who will be sworn in on Jan. 10.

And the City Manager announced his resignation following his performance review Monday although what happened in that closed session is not being talked about.

All this follows a close election that saw incumbent Mayor Tony Santos defeated, a loss that soured the once-ardent supporter of ranked-choice voting on that system, which was used for the first time in San Leandro in November. 

There are a couple of active blogs run by politically minded San Leandro residents, as well as an anonymous insider who tweets and facebooks, all worth keeping an eye on if you are San Leandro minded.

UPDATE: Here is today’s story.

The two new incoming boardmembers took the top two officer positions, with Lisa Brunner as the new president backed by Vice President William McGee. The two voted for each other, with Luis Reynoso supporting, who in turn was elected secretary. Maribel Heredia and Jesus Armas supported each other for prez and veep respectively but were outvoted.

Brunner’s first action was to change the seating, moving Superintendent Janis Duran over to the dais where the student board members used to sit. She will have more admin staff at the same dais as well. Student members now on the dais to the other side.

Teachers union President Mercedes Faraj said she had heard rumors of something like that happening, and said the ascension of former VP Heredia to the president position would have been “the natural order of things,” but the new lineup “is indicative of a change.”

Former board President Paul Frumkin said it wasn’t that big a surprise, and added that he supported both McGee and Brunner in their election bids.

“Given the last year and a half, it’s natural that it happened this way,” he said.

I’ll be working on a story tomorrow, but I figured HayWord readers might want to discuss.

It was organized by Congregations Organizing for Renewal as part of an ongoing show of support for the Dream Act, a bill that would offer a means to get citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the country when they were children.

According to Matt O’Brien’s story, “The Dream Act would give conditional green cards to undocumented immigrants if they graduate from high school and pursue a college education or military service. After a 10-year waiting period, they could obtain permanent residency if they met all the requirements, and they could eventually apply for citizenship.

They would have to be under 30 years old to qualify and must have arrived in the country before their 16th birthday. According to the latest version of the bill, they will also pay $2,525 in fees for the privilege of legal residency — $525 to apply, and $2,000 five years later to extend the conditional visa.

California is estimated to have about a quarter of the more than 800,000 people who could benefit from the act.”

Read on for the COR press release on last night’s rally. Read the rest of this entry »

A reader tells me there was some electioneering going on at polling places Tuesday, witnessed in the parking lot of Loren Eden Elementry School and at a polling spot near San Felipe Park. Basically, the reader said voters were being approached by people carrying sample ballots with some school board candidate names crossed out, and told something to the effect of “we hope you make the right decision.” Another account had people handing out fliers for some school board candidates in front of a polling place.

It’s against California law to campaign within 100 feet of a polling place on Election Day.

Did anyone see any of this going on out there?

And in case you missed today’s school board election story, here it is.