Morning News Round-Up -- 4.9.09: Blasts from the past...

Here is a story from the distant past...last year, a Petaluma teacher was tricked/lured by two of his students into meeting a teenager at a San Mateo hotel. He pleaded no contest yesterday. Scott Eugene Dietlin's sentencing will be June 2nd.

Here is a story from the recent past...last week we wrote about Putnam Subaru opening a showroom in Burlingame...well, apparently Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City didn't like the close competition and got a court order to close down Putnam's new showroom...so, after selling one car and being open one day, Putnam said, "It's the shortest car leadership in the history of the world..." Except, perhaps, the Yugo...Watch Dog loves business guys who claim to be free market zealots, except if it pertains to them...We don't know the Carlsen (or Putnam) folks, but we guess that they are Chamber of Commerce-types who hate government interference in business...except...

Another story from the not-too-distant past...the Menlo College student (and another guy) accused of assaulting a Menlo College baseball player entered not guilty pleas Tuesday...

Here is a twist on the Garbage Saga...while Allied was not selected to be the next garbage hauler by the SBWMA, they are (still) hosting an Earth Day celebration on April 22nd and welcome everyone to the soon-to-be-extinct recycling center right off 101 in San Carlos.

Apparently selling meth online is illegal...but elling fake meth online will get your ass thrown in jail. Ask Scott Beveridge and William Cummings who were arrested in San Mateo after being discovered on Craigslist...

Expect (major?) development in Menlo Park at Willow Road and Bayfront Expressway in the City's "light industrial" area. Is it just me, or is "light industrial" sort of like "a little pregnant"...

According to Pacifica Riptide ("We cover the waterfront"), the construction project for the proposed biodiesel plant have been halted at Calera Creek...thank goodness for Riptide or we wouldn't know what's up...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.17.09: Good bye Michelle?

Make sure you take a read through yesterday's Watch Dog post about the Civil Grand Jury report on red-light cameras in the County...

Something seems to be wrong with a story that appears in the San Mateo County Times today. The story says that Burlingame residents will see their sewer rates go up by 8 percent. Ok. But then the story says that the rate increase will be on Allied Waste's bills starting in April. The problem is that Allied Waste is the garbage company, not the sewer company. Maybe Watch Dog is wrong...but maybe Christine Morente is wrong...Either way, 8 percent increases in garbage or sewer is a lot. Hold on to your wallets Burlingamers...

The Daily Journal (finally) gets in on the story reported by the Half Moon Bay Review (and written about on Watch Dog San Mateo) about the closure of the Coastside Family Medical Center...

A contentious zoning issue was discussed last night in San Mateo. The issues is whether to "downzone" certain parts of certain neighborhoods...for your land-use geeks, read this story...

Is Michelle Durand leaving town? Say it ain't so...in today's Daily Journal she breaks up with the State of California. The budget mess. The failed leadership. The botched State Government. Michelle is fed up and she isn't taking it anymore...apparently. Please Michelle, let Watch Dog buy you a coffee to talk about the good old days before you leave...

New retailers are opening up in East Palo Alto: Sports Authority, Nordstroms Rack...these are a few of my favorite things...

Palo Alto is going to ban plastic bags at grocery stores...Watch Dog guesses that lobbyist/former Assemblymember Manny Diaz wasn't successful in lobbying for the environmental gurus at the American Chemistry Council...San Jose, are you listening?

The TravelBlog being posted on the Palo Alto Weekly website has been updated. Keith Schuman is in Vietnam. Note to Jay Thorwaldson, updating a blog regularly (like Keith is doing) makes things a lot more interesting...

More bad news from our friends in Half Moon Bay. The Legend of Motorcycle event has been canceled for 2009...(perhaps) to return in 2010.

Once again Assemblymember Jerry Hill is proving himself to be the most strategic politician in the County...he appointed Pacifica's Barbara Arietta to the State Democratic Committee Convention...you'll remember that Hill outmaneuvered State Senator Leland Yee when most of the delegates were selected to the Convention. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Speaking of Pacifica Democrats...on March 21st they will be discussing how Coastside areas get screwed in choosing County Supervisors...(hat tip: Riptide)

You have got to love Atherton. A tech start-up, TechCrunch.com, was going gang-busters and was being run out of the founders home in Atherton. Neighbors freaked out about the traffic (for the 10 employees/interns) and pushed the promising start-up out of town to Palo Alto. Not only did the neighbors cause jobs from being created in Atherton, they pushed them out of the County...

Civil Grand Jury takes on pilfering...and someone (Watch Dog) actually read it...

A few weeks back, Watch Dog posted about a San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report related to garbage ( recycling, actually). This Civil Grand Jury report should not be confused with the Civil Grand Jury’s upcoming report about the awarding of the $700+ million contract -- which promises to be far more exciting...but the recent one was ok.

There seems to be a problem (or perceived problem) in County neighborhoods of scavengers poaching stuff from recycling bins to make money. Because no one, except maybe this guy and these guys, read the report -- Watch Dog took the liberty of reading it and filling you in on the details, as promised...

The report was launched in response incidents in Menlo Park where a neighbor complained to the City Council...then another neighbor wrote on a message board...and pretty soon, the Civil Grand Jury deemed that there was a large-scale issue on its hands and took action by launching a "pilfering investigation."

Civil Grand Jury Findings...
The Civil Grand Jury actually provided a pretty good picture of how garbage and recycling work in San Mateo County. We learned some new information about how garbage runs here -- perhaps it is new to you too:

• The current garbage company, Allied Waste, picks up recycling at the curb and sells the collected recyclable materials. However, Allied Waste doesn't get the revenue generated from the recycling. Instead, the money actually goes back to the agency overseeing the garbage contracts -- the South Bayside Waste Management Agency (SBWMA). From the SBWMA, the recycling revenue is distributed to the member agencies (cities, the County, etc.) who often use the revenue to off-set rate increases. This apparently differs from Pacifica's relationship with its garbage company that actually keeps the revenue from recycling. (Pacifica is also considering dumping its garbage company.)
• Over the past four years, Allied Waste claims that the total number of recyclables have gone down from curbside pick-up while at the same time the money that scavengers can get for recycling 'commodities' have skyrocketed. (Apparently, the sky-high commodity prices have recently dropped like Madoff's portfolio.)
• Pilferers (or anyone else who has tons of beer cans in their garage) can bring recyclable materials to a 'buy-back' center and get paid for their recyclables. It is relatively simple -- if not a little smelly and sticky.
  
• To help curb pilfering, a new State Law went into effect last week (1/1/09) whereby anyone who brings stuff to buy-back centers needs to show identification if they are looking to sell more than $50 worth of stuff. Also, those crisp bills that buy-back centers used to hand out are now going to be pesky checks.
  
• 'Single-stream' recycling is going into effect in much of the County in 2011 which may make pilfering more difficult. Single-stream recycling is when everything that is recyclable gets put into one bin -- as opposed to the two-bin system now.

The bottom line from the Grand Jury's findings: There is lots of money in recycling. People like money and pilfer other folk's bins to get to the recycling/money. Pilfered recycling/money generally goes to reducing our garbage rates.

Civil Grand Jury vs. Watch Dog San Mateo -- More Questions...
To wrap up the Civil Grand Jury report, these good folks put forward some conclusions. Unfortunately, these conclusions lead to more questions. Fortunately, Watch Dog loves asking questions. So, here are the Civil Grand Jury’s conclusions, followed by (much more interesting) Watch Dog Questions:

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: Pilfering can cause increased garbage rates because cities receiving less revenue from recycling means cities cannot offset the actual garbage costs.

Watch Dog Question: Does this mean that the rates we pay now are not covering the cost of the services we get? Is the next garbage company due to take over in 2011 going to receive the revenues from recycling? If so, won't our rates go up even more than what has already been promised?

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: Pilfering will increase as commodity prices rise.

Watch Dog Question: Duh, but doesn't this mean that pilferers will do even more to get their hands on the recyclables? If yes, won't that screw up the next conclusion?

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: Single stream is becoming more common, including in our community, which will make pilfering more difficult.

Watch Dog Question: Won't pilferers want these recyclables/money enough to wade through the other stuff -- especially if the commodity prices rise -- as the Civil Grand Jury says they will? And what has been the experience of Cities with single-stream already? (Partial answer here.)

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: SBWMA should take a leadership role in dealing with this and they currently have not. Likewise, Allied Waste doesn't currently take an active role in dealing with pilfering because they don't have a financial stake in it.

Watch Dog Question: Same as before: If the garbage company has a financial stake in the recycling revenues -- and those revenues won't help underwrite the cost of the services we get now -- won't our rates go up even more?

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: The new garbage contract should put onus on collection companies to help curb pilfering.

Watch Dog Question: Does this mean that the next garbage company is going to be policing our neighborhoods? Is that what we want them to do? Won't that add even more cost to our garbage service?

Civil Grand Jury Conclusion: Pilfering is not a public-safety threat but it does concern residents.

Watch Dog Question: If this is not a public-safety threat, why is the Grand Jury recommending that new ordinances be put in place that would be enforced by police? Aren't our police departments already stretched too thin? What if neighbors call all the time about pilfering -- won't that put a burden on the police to respond to "non-public safety"-related calls?

To deal with this issue...

the Civil Grand Jury Proposes...(drum roll please)...

• The Civil Grand Jury recommends that a bunch of public agencies do a bunch of work about this issue.
  
• The County should educate residents about the relationship about pilfering and rates.
• The County should set the stage for new ordinances that allow police to issue citations that costs folks lots of money if they pilfer.
  
• The DA should be able to do something about pilfering.
  
• Collection companies should communicate with customers that pilfering is illegal and pilfering should be reported to the police.
  

Overall, the report provided some interesting information. However, it lacked any real solutions to the perceived pilfering problem.

In Watch Dog's view, there is very little that government agencies, police departments, or garbage companies can do to keep people from pilfering recycling if the financial reward is great enough ($) -- especially in these economic times.

What have we learned about how to curb pilfering? Not much...

What have we learned about the Civil Grand Jury? We know that they understand the local garbage industry...which should worry some folks and make some folks happy as the Civil Grand Jury starts asking tough questions about the new garbage contract...