Week in review

San Mateo County stands to lose $46 million under the recently adopted state budget agreements and the figure may rise after the June revision of revenue estimates, according to County Manager David Boesch.

The state spending agreement has an estimated $15.6 million hit against the county’s budget with millions depending on what happens on both the state and national level in the coming months.

Boesch will detail those hits to the Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting along with the caveat that the updated estimate is just that — an estimate. Boesch said the numbers continue to change and could be further impacted by the state’s update and if California receives $10 billion in federal stimulus funds. The state will determine if that threshold is reached at an April 1 hearing. If not, another set of reductions — also known as "trigger cuts” — including elimination of Medi-Cal option benefits and a reduction of hospital reimbursement rates become effective July 1.

San Mateo County is struggling with its own budget and currently anticipates either laying off or re-assigning 40 filled positions on top of its hiring freeze and other cuts. Since Boesch’s preliminary analysis in mid-March, department heads have more thoroughly looked at how the deferrals, federal trigger cuts and pending state budget measures could trickle down to San Mateo County.

City investigates forming own power company

Pulling the plug on Pacific Gas and Electric and forming a new municipal utility district may have its challenges with both logistics and legality but the city of Belmont may look into it — at least if one councilman gets his wish.

Councilman Bill Dickenson wants the city to examine the idea of forming its own municipal electric utility district. It will allow Belmont more flexibility when determining ways to deliver power to its residents, he said.

The council considered the idea last year and heard a report regarding ways to split from PG&E at its Tuesday meeting. It explored four options — a city municipal utility created and governed by the council, a municipal utility district that represents two or more public agencies and is harder to form, partnering with another municipal utility like the one in Palo Alto or forming a joint utility agency with other cities, according to the report.

Most cities buy their power from PG&E, but Dickenson feels Belmont could create better cost-saving and "green” programs on its own. Dickenson has worked for the past three years to create a plan that would allow the city to benefit from installing solar panels that produce more power than it actually needs. Differences with PG&E and state laws have prevented him from bringing that plan to the city, he said.

By creating a municipal electric utility district, the city can circumvent the legislation that makes the plan unsuccessful, he said.

Love triangle murder mistrial

After deliberating more than a week, jurors declared they were hopelessly deadlocked in the trial of a Hayward man accused of murdering his lover’s husband in 2006 in her Redwood city apartment.

Judge Mark Forcum declared a mistrial in the case of Samuel Blackmon, 46, after jurors announced they were split 7 to 5 in favor of guilty but could not reach a unanimous verdict.

The mistrial came eight days after jurors began deliberating in the case which largely hinged on a series of cell phone calls pinpointing Blackmon in San Mateo County the night of the murder, a debated mixture of DNA found on a rope around Henderson’s wrist and the testimony of Beatriz Butler with whom both men were involved.

On July 6, 2006, Butler discovered Henderson face down in her Second Avenue apartment, shot in the back of the head and with a rope around one hand, after she returned from work as a nurse’s assistant at Sequoia Hospital. The door was unlocked and the apartment slightly ransacked.

Henderson, whom she had married three weeks prior, was in the apartment with plans to make dinner for the couple. Chicken was defrosting in the sink and a plastic bag of eggs was on the table, both items which attorneys used to help propel their time lines of events.

Giannini told jurors his theory that Blackmon confronted Henderson in the fourth-story apartment and tried to lead him outside with the rope to stage the murder to look like a street robbery. When the pair struggled, Giannini said, one shot went into the floor and the other into Henderson’s head.

Maguire had told jurors the time frame for Blackmon to drive to Hayward, kill Henderson and get back to the East Bay to establish an alibi was too tight. She conceded her client was on the Peninsula — a departure from Blackmon’s assertions to police he was never in Redwood City — but said he planned to visit Butler at work before changing his mind.

Blackmon’s whereabouts were pinpointed through a series of cell phone calls which formed a key point of both sides’ case in the trial.

Cops’ deaths put murder trial on hold

The capital murder trial of accused East Palo Alto copkiller Alberto Alvarez was placed on hold for five months after defense attorneys questioned if prospective jurors about to be screened for duty might be influenced by the bloody Oakland weekend which left four officers dead and another wounded at the hands of a parolee.

Jury selection in Alvarez’s trial was scheduled to begin Monday, following weeks of pre-trial motions, with opening statements anticipated for next month. Instead, Judge Craig Parsons Monday agreed with the defense to delay jury selection until Aug. 24 out of concern prospective jurors would be unduly influenced by the national publicity generated by the shootings.

Alvarez, a parolee, is accused of killing East Palo Alto police Officer Richard May and, also similar to the Oakland situation, standing over his body to fire off a final shot.

Parsons semi-invited the request for a continuance after discussing widespread publicity of the Oakland situation, said defense attorney Charlie Robinson.

In particular, some radio news broadcasts discussed the Oakland deaths followed by talk of the pending Alvarez trial, Robinson said.

Alvarez, 25, is accused of gunning down May in front of a teenage police explorer more than three years ago after the pair responded to a call for a fight at a Weeks Street taqueria. If convicted, Alvarez faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The capital nature of the trial already tacks on substantial more time for preparation and jury selection. Monday’s decision to postpone means more than three years will have passed since May’s Jan. 7, 2006 death.