Politics

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Faith Frazier, San Leandro councilmember and women’s advocate

Posted on by Eric Kurhi
From a April 13, 1974 story after Frazier was elected to the City Council.

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.” Continue Reading →

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Events for week of Jan. 31

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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. Continue Reading →

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Crime, cleanliness remain top Hayward priorities

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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.”

Continue Reading →

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Calendar through Jan. 25

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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. Continue Reading →

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Meanwhile, in San Leandro

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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.

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New HUSD Board President: Lisa Brunner

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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.

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Last night’s rally at Hayward City Hall

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

dreamactIt 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. Continue Reading →

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Anyone see any electioneering at the polls?

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

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.

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Hayward area election links

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

Here are some links to look at… like I mentioned in a recent comment, I’m off this week but I wanted to open up a new post for election commenting.

HUSD 2-year seat. Here’s our story.

Here’s the smartvoter information page on candidates. Candidate websites: Jesus Armas, Lawrence Fitzpatrick, Annette Walker.

HUSD 4 year seat. Here’s our story.

Here’s the smartvoter information page. Candidate websites: Audie Bock, Lisa Brunner, Sue Lafferty, William McGee, Sheila Sims.

We also had stories on the Eden Township Healthcare District race, Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, San Leandro school board, San Leandro mayor, San Leandro City Council, San Leandro ballot measures, more on San Leandro’s Measure Z, San Lorenzo school board, Fairview Fire  Protection District, Castro Valley Sanitary District, and last but not least, the District 2 supervisor’s race.

Here’s the smartvoter Alameda County page, where you can find more information on many of those races.

The city of Hayward website has a page with links to videos of forums between the supervisors and Hayward school board candidates, but it doesn’t seem to be working for me. Might be my computer.

Catch you all next week!

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Foam fight tonight in Hayward?

Posted on by Eric Kurhi

Tonight’s City Council agenda includes a public hearing on a Styrofoam ban. You can read the entire item here.

Hayward wouldn’t be the first city to pass such a ban, and it wouldn’t be the first city to have said ban opposed by the Chamber of Commerce. According to an e-mail from Councilman Bill Quirk, that opposition is expected at tonight’s meeting.

Save the Bay also checked in and will be there to speak to the importance of such a ban.

Also on the agenda: A work session on regulating hand-cart vendors, which are currently banned from operating but do anyway.