Morning News Round-Up -- 7.9.09: Quality Over Quantity

There aren't a lot of stories today... but we are going with quality over quantity:

Garbage:
The Grand Daddy of all Civil Grand Jury reports is in. (Thank you Assemblymember Jerry Hill.) The Garbage Saga Report has been published and recommendations given. We will have more on this issue later this week, but it doesn't look good for the South Bayside Waste Management Authority... A weird part about this is the story was in the Daily Journal, and Watch Dog received a copy of the report as well, but as of now, the actual report isn't available on the Civil Grand Jury website... Here are some choice quotes from the report:

• ...the SBWMA did not follow its stated goal to "conduct the RFP process with integrity and transparency."
• ...the Grand Jury has no confidence in the RFP processes by which the Collections Services Contractor and the Shoreway Master Plan Facility Contractor were selected...
• ...After four years of preparation, staff time, and consultant fees, the RFP process was poorly executed...

Dr. Ayres Trial:
The other big local story this week is the trial of Dr. William Ayres. He took the stand in his own defense yesterday... Ayres Watch was not impressed and called yesterday "...a very, very, very good day for the prosecution..."

And the rest of the news...

Here are today's local government in budget crisis stories:

• South San Francisco wants to raise hotel taxes to fill its budget gap...
• Senior services in San Mateo are in trouble...

There was a pedestrian death on the Caltrain tracks in Redwood City yesterday evening.

Here is a story about golf and Pacifica and it doesn't involve the San Francisco Board of Supervisors... thankfully. Pacifica golf courses and parks are going to use recycled water for irrigation.

Stay tuned for more insight on the Civil Grand Jury report on Garbage... as soon as we can get through the 25 page document...