The year that was 2011

San Mateo County joined the rest of the state, nation and world in 2011 preparing — twice — for the end of the world, watching Occupy movements spring up in cities, welcoming home overseas troops and saying goodbye to the space program.

Unlike 2010, a year punctuated by the unforgettable San Bruno explosion and fire, the last 12 months in San Mateo County were more a continuation of events. The fights after the San Bruno explosion and fire for PG&E to admit fault, improve safety and defend itself in court. The ongoing debate whether high-speed rail through the Peninsula is a boon or a financial boondoggle. Wondering where the state budget ax would fall next, whether it be redevelopment agencies or more realignment.

That’s not to say, however, that the county was quiet.

San Bruno

If 2010 was a year of destruction, 2011 was one of rebuilding from the Sept. 9, 2010 San Bruno disaster that left eight dead, dozens wounded and 38 homes destroyed. In the early part of the year, the City Council wrestled with how to best distribute $365,000 in donations to the victims and, by May, Rob and Nancy Hensel were the first family to break ground on the Fairmont Drive plot where their former home sat.

Throughout the year, the news was punctuated by hearings on the blast and PG&E’s culpability. Peninsula lawmakers introduced bills to strengthen pipeline safety and cities throughout the area underwent testing of their lines.

Nearly a year after the fatal failure of a 30-inch natural gas transmission pipeline in the Glenview neighborhood, the National Transportation and Safety Board released its final report about the event. Among the discoveries were multiple deficiencies with the pipe as well as within PG&E. Shortly after 6 p.m., loss of power at a Milpitas plant set off a chain of events that resulted in a large crack in the line under the San Bruno neighborhood. It took 95 minutes for PG&E to turn the gas off, according to the NTSB.

So far, 64 lawsuits have been filed against PG&E, bringing with them dozens of victims, lawyers, hearings and demands. Judge Mark Forcum ruled that all lawsuits would be consolidated, citing the similarities and need for streamlining.

Also in court this year were several people accused and often convicted of trying to scam aid in the form of money and shelter by falsely posing as explosion victims. Many used addresses found off the Internet, claiming to have formerly lived in the blast area. One claimed "food damage” and another, given hotel lodging, reportedly complained he couldn’t order room service. Sentences for them ranged from community service to prison time.

Learning to share

San Carlos raised eyebrows in 2010 when it completely outsourced its police department to the Sheriff’s Office as a cost-savings measure. However, in 2011, the trend of outsourcing or sharing services proved the new norm.

San Carlos remained a focal point, particularly as it moved forward with plans to disband its joint Belmont San Carlos Fire Department as another way to balance the budget. Belmont leaders knocked San Carlos for the decision and decided to establish its own department. San Carlos sought proposals from other cities and asked San Mateo County to consider absorbing it under the Cal Fire contract. Instead, the members of the Board of Supervisors told both cities to roll up their sleeves and work out their differences with Belmont. The two cities sat down but the conversation was fruitless. San Carlos mulled a contract with private provider Wackenhut — an idea that did not fly well with residents worried about accountability and service and the fire union worried about jobs — but ultimately opted for a hybrid model with Redwood City. The fire department officially dissolved in October.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Office took over police duties in Half Moon Bay and are poised to do the same for Millbrae once final details are hashed out.

San Carlos took over parks and recreation services for Half Moon Bay while South San Francisco began providing police dispatch services for Pacifica.

Burlingame looked at sharing a fire chief with San Mateo although it ultimately passed on the idea. However, sharing dispatch and records could still be a go.

Millbrae and San Bruno also signed on to test a four-city fire merger with Burlingame and Hillsborough that already operate as Central County Fire.

New — and old — faces

In 2011, local governments and agencies saw several shakeups as officials were replaced, left or, sadly, passed away.

In January, Redwood City Police Chief Louis A. Cobarruviaz stepped down after four years at the department’s helm, following on the heels of other city changes like the abrupt resignation of city manager Peter Ingram the previous November. In December, former San Jose police Capt. J.R. Gamez was sworn in as the new chief.

Bob Doty, the man brought in to help save Caltrain from financial ruin by partnering with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, ditched the job for a private gig. Over in Burlingame, Superintendent Dianne Talarico announced her immediate retirement after two years leading its schools for health reasons. Talarico succumbed to lung cancer in May.

Downtown San Mateo Association executive director Rob Edwards abruptly quit in October. Edwards had been hired to spruce up and draw new business to downtown but under his leadership the DSMA canceled its annual summer Wine Walk, a move largely disapproved of by the City Council.

In November, County Manager David Boesch agreed to leave, ending a sometimes testy relationship with the Board of Supervisors marked by "philosophical differences.” While neither Boesch nor the board were more specific, the differences were regarding overall budgeting tactics and disagreement on whether a new jail could be funded as proposed.

The board is currently seeking a permanent replacement but meanwhile re-hired retired county manager John Maltbie, 64, for $100 per hour. Maltbie had hired Boesch away from Menlo Park ostensibly to fill his shoes.

Just this week, Burlingame City Manager Jim Nantell announced his retirement although he’ll stay on through the year while a replacement is recruited.

Dave Pine was elected in a special May election to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors and former San Carlos councilman Randy Royce lost a November bid for re-election, putting two new faces on the council.

The other council vacancy came due to the unexpected death of Mayor Omar Ahmad, one of the country’s few Muslim mayors, on May 10. Ahmad, 46, and known for his quips as well as his push for technology and out-of-the-box thinking, appeared fine at a late council meeting the night before but called 911 himself around 7 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later.

The council appointed former member Brad Lewis to fill the remainder of Ahmad’s term.

The year also saw the passing of former longtime county treasurer-tax collector Lee Buffington, former San Mateo mayor Jane Baker and former Foster City mayor Ron Cox.

Long time coming

Projects that at times seemed destined to nothing more than years of meetings, redrawn plans and controversy finally reached fruition in 2011.

In San Carlos, the long-running turf war over, well, artificial turf officially ended when the city dedicated its first synthetic athletic field in March. The $1.9 million field at Highlands Park ended a fight more than a decade long during which council faces changed, the chosen site was tweaked and the debate hinged on extended playing time versus safety. The previous year, a community group called Save San Carlos Parks won a lawsuit over the environmental review, leading the city to add speed bumps and loading areas and pay more than $84,000 in legal fees.

Over in Burlingame, the community cheered Oct. 14 when a new Safeway opened its automatic doors for the first time. Customers flooded the store, hoping to be one of the first inside the new 45,600-square-foot store at 1420 to 1450 Howard Ave. The store replaced the previous, dilapidated store which few disagreed needed upgrading but many argued over how exactly to do so. Plans were first submitted in 1997, beginning 14 years of reworked plans that both included and excluded the adjacent Walgreens and Wells Fargo Bank, led to the creation of numerous resident groups, petitions, community meetings and stalls. In 2007, Burlingame created the Safeway working group charged with creating design criteria for a new store tailored to the city.

The final result?

"Absolutely gorgeous,” former mayor Rosalie O’Mahony said at the opening.

In September, two years of construction ended for the 56,700-square-foot Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, an offshoot of the Peninsula Humane Society sitting on 1.2 acres of land at 1450 Rollins Road.

In Belmont, a different journey ended when historic Emmett House reopened. The cottage moved from its original Ralston Avenue home in 2008 and underwent years of renovations into low- to moderate-income housing.

Public safety

South San Francisco began the year allocating $400,000 for four more police officers to curb the increased violence of 2010 which ended with a still-unsolved triple homicide.

In March, San Mateo police fatally shot a mentally ill man who opened fire on them in front of his Oak Street home but had no other homicides this year aside from Justin Lockwood whose body was discovered June 7 at a self-storage facility.

The end of the year saw homicides in cities not known for them — Foster City and Burlingame — and a Daly City woman caught attention for first scalding her ex-husband with a pot of boiling water and later being charged with his murder when he died.

On March 4, five Redwood City middle-schoolers allegedly attempted to sexually assault two 12-year-old classmates during a field trip at Stulsaft Park but the girls did not tell authorities until three months later. Four of the teens, ages 13 and 14, admitted participation and received sentences of between 60 and 120 days at the Youth Services Center. The fifth was found incompetent for trial.

All eyes were on East Palo Alto in June when a gang drive-by shooting left 3-month-old Izak Garcia Lopez dead, his mother wounded and 17-year-old Fabian Zaragoza charged as an adult with his murder.

This year also concluded two criminal cases that were top stories in previous years.

In March, a jury convicted Alexander Robert Youshock, 19, of six felonies, including the attempted murder of chemistry teacher Meghan Spalding, during the Aug. 24, 2009 pipe bomb and chain saw attack at Hillsdale High School. Youshock, 17 at the time, blamed Spalding and others for ruining his life and the trial detailed the pains he took to construct the bombs, buy the chain saw and create a manifesto of his plans.

Youshock, who doctors testified is likely schizophrenic, was found insane and committed to a state mental hospital. He was also ordered to repay the school district $122,161 for damages to the campus and staff salaries for a two-day closure of the San Mateo school following the botched attack.

In April, a jury could not agree if former child psychiatrist William Hamilton Ayres was mentally competent to stand trial again on charges he molested several former male patients under the guise of medical exams. Prosecutors ultimately agreed to let Ayres be committed rather than seek another trial.

His committal ended a criminal legal battle than began with his 2007 arrest. In 2009, Ayres had stood trial on the charges but a jury hung in varying amounts on every county. Before he could be retried, his new defense attorney questioned his mental state. During his competency trial, doctors said the 79-year-old has Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia but the prosecution argued he was still able to understand the charges against him.

On Aug. 11, the county was horrified when pregnant Pacifica resident Darla Napora, 32, was mauled to death by family pet Gunner, a 75-pound male pit bull. Napora’s husband found her when he returned home to find the 2-year-old dog hovering over her body.

In November, 67-year-old Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth surrendered to San Mateo County Superior Court for charges he shot at a South San Francisco police officer in 1968. Bridgeforth disappeared after his conviction in the shootout outside an appliance store on El Camino Real and remade himself into a community college counselor and family man in Ann Arbor, Mich.

In December, the county’s emotional temperature turned to outrage when the Mosquito and Vector Control District announced its former finance director and accounting supervisor had swindled more than $630,000. The insult to injury was that the director, Jo Ann Dearman, had two prior embezzlement convictions under the name Joanne Seeney. She is currently serving a prison term but will return to San Mateo County in January for prosecution alongside Vika Sinipata. The district said it now requires employment background checks.

Dollars and cents

To the rest of the world, it may look as though the moving of Facebook to Menlo Park was the only economy story in San Mateo County in 2011. Facebook took over the old Sun Microsystems campus, installing a sign of its telltale thumbs-up and giving county officials hope of what that may mean for local coffers.

In January, the county began looking at its own move by agreeing to spent more than $40 million on a pair of San Carlos office buildings on Circle Star Way for departments currently in costly leases elsewhere. The county spent the year working out exactly what may move and when but are still undecided on whether to seismically upgrade part of its existing government center in Redwood City as part of the rearranging.

Maryland-based SunEdison agreed to move to Belmont after the city agreed to $106,000 in permit fees for the headquarters on Clipper Drive. In return, the company said it will invest up to $8 million in renovating the building for its headquarters and claims the move will generate 400 to 500 new jobs within the next few years.

In October, Foster City made good news by unanimously choosing developers Foster City Community Partners to build 450 housing units on the vacant 15-acre site adjacent to City Hall. Sares-Regis had proposed to build on the land years ago in a development called Mirabella that eventually fell through because financing could not be secured.

The year was primarily unmarked by the city budget fights of years past and San Carlos in particular cheered eliminating its deficit for the first time in a decade.

Cities with redevelopment agencies spent much time this year committing funds to projects in anticipation of them being eliminated by the state — a move approved by the state Supreme Court just before the end of 2011. While all affected cities may be pinched, San Carlos may feel it especially keenly on top of a $4.3 million lawsuit loss. A judge ruled the city’s RDA owes three school districts years of tax payments outlined in a 1986 agreement.

Also stinging from a court ruling were a dozen San Mateo County school districts who were told they do not have the authority to sue the county and its former treasurer for a collective $20 million loss caused by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The collapse leached more than $100 million from the county investment pool in 2008 and the districts sued, claiming the county and then-treasurer-tax collector Lee Buffington should have known better. The districts plan to appeal the dismissal.

Locking up jail plan

The county’s longtime effort to build a new correctional facility got solid footing this year when the Board of Supervisors voted in favor of a 576-bed design for land it previously purchased on Chemical Way in Redwood City. The three-floor hybrid option is topped by unfinished space for future development and was a compromise between the smallest design and the larger scale preferred by Sheriff Greg Munks. Officials hope to open it by 2014-15.

Supervisor Dave Pine balked at the idea and County Manager David Boesch often bristled during talks of how the county would fund both construction and operation. The jail is estimated to cost approximately $165 million and the county in October was told not to bother applying for up to $100 million in state construction money. Munks and others are hopeful they may be reconsidered in 2012 if other counties don’t accept the money.

All of the county’s jail facilities have been overcrowded for years and space became even tighter in the fall when so-called state realignment shifted some prisoners to local incarceration.

Like counties statewide, San Mateo County officials worried that the realignment didn’t bring with it ample funds and the addition in December of so-called trigger cuts only deepened the concern. The Probation Department estimates it will need to pay California $1.6 million annually to house its 13 serious juvenile wards in state facilities. The in-home supportive services which also help keep the disabled and elderly in their homes will also absorb part of a $100 million cut — roughly a 20 percent reduction in hours.

Local schools will be hit the hardest, as many of the cuts are aimed at education. Community college students will see a $10 increase per unit, school bus funding will be gone and districts will lose between $11 and $15 per students for state-funded districts.

Michelle Durand can be reached by email: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.