Appointment to San Mateo City Council coming

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Exciting close race for the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District board with three outstanding candidates for two seats. Hopefully, Annie Tsai, who almost but did not make it, will run again in the next election. Alison Proctor of Foster City led all evening. Many felt it was important to have someone on the board from Foster City and she had the support of community members in both cities and had been a PTA president. The appointed incumbent Ken Chin came in a close second.

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Community activist Anna Kuhre is urging residents to sign up for Voca, an on line polling site, where you can express your views on a variety of subjects with a simple text. Kuhre feels it is an excellent way to get the community heard on important city issues. She also considered a run for the San Mateo City Council several years ago when there was a vacancy. She applied but did not get the appointment. Councilman Rick Bonilla did instead. Since then, Kuhre has remained active in the San Mateo United Homeowners where she was president for several years. The current president is Michael Nash, husband of Lisa Diaz Nash, one of the current applicants for City Council.

Kuhre, listed as one of the Chamber of Commerce’s most influential people in San Mateo, is definitely a power broker. She is a good person to have on your side if you are running for office. Her most important contribution was bringing the business community and the homeowners associations together after the bitterness which followed the original height limit initiative Measure H. In those days, homeowners thought people in the chamber were monsters and visa versa. When Kuhre got involved with SMUHA and was willing to work with the chamber on issues of mutual interest, the ice was broken. And speaking of ice, she was behind the effort to get an ice skating rink set up in Central Park over the winter holidays. It shows you don't have to be on the council to make a difference.

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Big upset in San Bruno with the defeat of longtime Councilwoman Irene O’Connell who has served for 24 years, twice as long as most Peninsula councilmembers. Linda Mason, Planning Commission chair, and Councilman Marty Medina were the winners. Also running was challenger Stephan Marshall, son of the late former San Bruno mayor Bob Marshall. His sister, Annie Oliva, Millbrae councilwoman and candidate for Jerry Hill’s state Senate Seat, is Bob Marshall’s daughter. The senior Marshall was a beloved figure in San Bruno politics, a prominent Realtor and was known as Mr. San Bruno. His son and daughter continue in the family real estate business. Medina cast the lone no vote on a major housing development which killed the project because O’Connell and another councilmember had to abstain because of conflict of interest and it needed three votes to pass.

The only other current council member who rivals O’Connell in years of service is Karyl Matsumoto who has been on the South San Francisco City Council for 22 years. I served with both of these women decades ago and can attest to their devotion to their respective cities and their respected involvement in countywide committees.

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.

Note to readers: This column has been changed to correct a mistake. Councilman Rick Bonilla was named to a council seat in 2015, not current Mayor Diane Papan. Papan won election later in the year.