Week in review

teachers oppose incumbents

South San Francisco teachers who haven’t had a raise in four years are ready to boot two longtime school board incumbents while the classified employees continue to give the thumbs up.

Currently only one candidate has signed up to run for one of the three open four-year seats, newcomer Liza Normandy. Incumbents Romolo Braschi, Shirlee Hoch and Phillip Weise will run for re-election, but have yet to file the official paperwork. But questions arose when Braschi and Hoch mentioned their decision to run for re-election after they were asked by teachers.

One local teachers group isn’t putting out endorsements yet but plans to back two new candidates to uproot the couple from their long-standing position on the board. On the other hand, classified employees within the district have already backed the couple.

"We are definitely supporting some new candidates. Shirlee and Rom need to go,” said Paul Petterson, the union representative for the teachers at South San Francisco High School. While an official endorsement won’t come out for a while, Petterson did mention the group doesn’t have a problem with Weise.

Fire chief takes leave

With less than two weeks left on his contract, Belmont-San Carlos Fire Chief Chuc Lowden cashed in his vacation time and bid adieu to the once troubled department.

The chief was saying his goodbyes at the end of last week, said Brian Moura, assistant city manager of San Carlos.

His departure leaves the department without a leader until the board of directors named Doug Fry as permanent chief later in the week.

The two cities combined departments in 1979 as the South County Fire Authority, but suffered through financial troubles for the last several years.

Voters failed to pass measure I and the department was forced to lay off seven firefighters in 2004. It later fired chief Herb Jewell after he received numerous union grievances.

Auto dealer in exchange for

housing response mixed

A proposed housing and retail development on the gateway to Burlingame’s auto row met resistance from the San Mateo Planning Commission for its size and lack of truck access.

Others argue the site should remain a car dealership.

The Planning Commission sent the developer of 800 N. San Mateo Drive back to the drawing board Tuesday in hopes something more appealing will be drafted.

The long-vacant Shen car dealership in San Mateo is proposed to be a mixed-use development with 154 condominiums and ground-floor retail on 3.11 acres.

The commission must first approve the project.

At this point, the project appears too large and doesn’t have a clear area for trucks to drop off shipments for ground floor stores, said Senior Planner Stephen Scott.

From the archives, five years ago this week

Deal saves heritage, butterfly habitat

Environmentalists and Native American cultural advocates were pleased by the announcement July 26, 2001 that 25 acres of butterfly habitat and an important Ohlone heritage site on the eastern side of San Bruno Mountain were to be saved from development after years of legal battles.

The Trust for Public Land, a leading Bay Area environmental organization, secured a $1.3 million deal with Myers Development Co. to purchase the land, which is home to the endangered Calippe Silverspot and Mission Blue butterflies. The deal will be completed within the next year, and the area will be transferred over to the San Mateo County Parks Department as open space.

The deal was struck after a coalition of environmental groups, including San Bruno Mountain Watch and Berkeley-based Center for Biological Diversity, settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for approving the development of a high-rise office building and hotel on the site, known as the Terra Bay Development.

Two paws down for

cat licensing idea

A number of animal welfare groups came out against a San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury endorsement of mandatory licensing and fixing of cats the week of July 29, 2001.

The groups said such an ordinance would unfairly penalize responsible cat owners and would lead to more cat euthanasia.

Representatives of local animal welfare groups say they don’t want to see more animals go into shelters that employ euthanasia, and they fear that the ordinance would be a disincentive for pet owners to pick up unlicensed pets.

Since its introduction into the county’s unincorporated areas in 1992, the Pet Overpopulation Program was adopted by only a handful of cities, including San Mateo, Belmont and East Palo Alto. It recently received a boost from the Civil Grand Jury, which reviewed the ordinance and recommended last month that other cities in the county adopt it.

Supes: Merge sheriff, coroner offices

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted July 24, 2001 to pass an amendment combining the offices of the county sheriff and coroner. The measure was to appear on the November ballot.

In August 2000, the Coroner’s Services Task Force comprised of staff from the Coroner’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and County Manager’s office examined the cost-savings and efficiency of consolidating the two offices. Findings released by the County Manager’s Office noted taxpayers would save an estimated $2.6 million over 10 years and provide the Sheriff’s Office with numerous administrative advantages.

In the past several decades the coroner’s responsibilities shrank. Since 1926, the coroner has been an elected office, but several times since then, the sheriff’s department have taken over the different facets of the coroner’s duties, including the toxicology lab in 1980. Critics, however, say that combining the two positions offers the possibility of a conflict of interest, especially in the event of officer-involved shootings or people who died while in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office.<