Rush, rush

As mentioned by John Knox White over at In Alameda it appears that on the agenda for the entire month of December for the City Council will be Special Meetings if the December 1st meeting is any indication of what the pattern will be.

For those not up to date on the Brown Act terminology, a Special Meeting is a meeting that is generally called beyond regularly scheduled meetings.   The City Council generally meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month, but this month is special because the second regularly scheduled meeting (the third Tuesday this month is December 21st, which is notable because that is the first meeting that the new City Council will be seated).

Everyone’s a critic

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.   I certainly did.   To answer Jill, the turkey turned out beautifully, although I don’t know whether to credit it to the cooking technique or the turkey itself.  We were trying out a new turkey in addition to a new technique, so next year, we’ll go with the same turkey and old school technique to determine for certain which did it.   Of course the two sticks of butter coating the bird probably helped too.

Hoping to capitalize on the glow of good feelings from Thanksgiving, the School Board will be voting on the Parcel Tax tomorrow night.   Both Susan Davis and and Michele Ellson covered the story on Wednesday.  True to form, there were some last minute swaps and changes in some of the details of the parcel tax.   The biggest one is the drop in the cap for businesses, from $8500 to $7999 which will, of course, give business owners like Edward Hirshberg, who sued AUSD over the last parcel tax, fodder to complain about how the tax is “unfair.”    This drop was requested by Trish Spencer, which would lower the amount of total tax collected by $160,000 per year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For one, I’m thankful that the election is over.

This year, I’m attempting to roast the turkey breast side down.   According to Elise at Simply Recipes, it keeps the breast meat moist and delicious.   And honestly, any recipe that has the endorsement of “Mom” no matter whose mom it is is worth at least one shot.

Happy Thanksgiving Alameda, and thank you for your last minute generosity in helping us (and by us I mean the bloggers over at In Alameda) raise enough money to buy enough turkeys to give to needy families in Alameda.   And we’re still collecting so that we can help make sure these families have a good December holiday as well.

Running the numbers

One last meaty blog post before the holiday weekend.

It is unsurprising given the results of the election and the shocking win of Jean Quan in Oakland, that some Alamedans that appeared to have not supported the ultimate victor in the Mayor’s race are now clamoring for an adoption of Ranked Choice Voting in order to better capture the true sentiment of who Alamedans want in their elected office.

The unspoken is that, with Ranked Choice Voting, Alameda would have seen a result like Oakland where the primary vote getter would not be the ultimate winner once the ranking reallocated lower placing candidates’ votes.

It’s taxing

According to Susan Davis at In Alameda, Eve Pearlman  at Alameda Patch, and Michele Ellson at the Island, AUSD has settled on a proposed parcel tax for next Spring designed to raise $12.4 million.   The details from Alameda Patch, because I like bulleted lists:

1. It would replace Measures A and H, the current school parcel taxes in Alameda, both of which will expire in 2012.
2. The rate for parcels with buildings is 32 cents per building square foot, for both residential and commercial parcels.
3. Parcels without buildings will be taxed at a rate of $299 per parcel.
4. The maximum per parcel tax will $8,500, which means the first 26,560 square feet of a building will be taxed.
5. Seniors and people who receive disability insurance will be exempt from the tax.
6. The tax will last seven years.
7. The election will be March 8, 2011.

All a board

Have you guys been reading Alameda Patch?   If not, you should, it’s a great addition to the Alameda online news scene.

There was one article that I found really interesting about the lack of a fully constituted Arts Commission.   It mentioned that only three of the five seats are actually filled and that at a recent meeting of local artists, no one really knew who the current Art Commissioners were.    This complaint about the City’s inability to keep some of its commissions and boards full is something that others have pointed out previously with regard to the Transportation Commission.

Fasten your seatbelts

The other day I received an email about the “Plan B” from the Alameda Unified School District.   The emailer was concerned that the most recent iteration showed that the closure and consolidation options revealed that Encinal High School would be consolidated into a 7 – 12 school whereas Alameda High School would remain a 9 – 12 formation.

Susan Davis on In Alameda breaks down the latest version of Plan B:

The current proposed school closure plan takes a two-phase approach. In the first year, Wood would close and Encinal High would convert into a 7-12 combined school. All elementary schools would serve grades K through 6 and Lincoln Middle School would become a 7-8 school. Some attendance boundaries would change and all classes, K-12, would bump to 32:1 (in order to fit all those students in the existing facilities).

Tuesday’s council is full of…

So a few interesting things that happened at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.   First, there were some changes to the Municipal Code that now allows for greater flexibility for some businesses (not so much for others) in the Community Commercial Zones.

First, the prohibition on new bars on Webster Street has been lifted, so new bar owners could apply for Conditional Use Permits.

Tattoo parlors, which have now come into the mainstream, are allowed once again on Webster St. on the second floor, but conditionally permitted  on the ground floor.  Park St. will allow tattoo parlors on the second floor, but they are still banned on the ground floor units.

Everybody else is doing it

In light of the City of Alameda’s position on email retention, this article from the Voice of OC is timely.   Apparently Alameda is not the only city struggling with email retention policies and not the only city that destroys emails after as little as 30 days.  From the Voice of OC:

A check into email retention policies across Orange County revealed wide inconsistencies. Some cities destroy emails after 30 days, some after 90 days. Some have no policy at all. Some direct their employees to save certain categories of emails and destroy the rest.

Most are violating the California Public Records Act, according to the First Amendment advocacy group Californians Aware.

No accountant for taste

Based on a tip I received, I recently made a public records request for invoices for a particular City of Alameda contractor for work done last fiscal year.  That contractor was Moreland Personnel Services.

According to the contract signed by Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant on September 22, 2009, there was a need in the City for temporary staffing in the form of an Accounting Manager for six weeks.   The billing rate for these temporary services was $101 per hour, with overtime billed at time and a half and anything over 12 hours a day would be double time.   All housing expenses would be reimbursed as well as travel and mileage.

So, for some reason, six weeks extended to eight months and the cost for this temporary employee is staggering.