Downtown, revenue top candidates' goals

Expanding downtown while increasing revenue and maintaining public safety were the top goals of seven candidates vying for three open spots on the Millbrae City Council during last night’s candidate forum.

Mayor Marc Hershman and councilwomen Nadia Holober and Linda Larson will all be termed out in November, leaving the three seats up for grabs. Retired police officers Ron Caine and Richard Dixon; community volunteer Marge Colapietro; John Darro, a Millbrae Elementary School District trustee; planning commissioners Lorrie Kalos-Gunn and Wayne Lee; former councilman Dan Quigg and Parks and Recreation Commissioner Paul Seto are all hoping to fill one of the vacant seats. Dixon was not in attendance.

The interactive forum took questions from the audience, via e-mail and from telephone calls. Money and expansion were themes of the evening with topics like the fire assessment tax, development around the Millbrae Station and raising revenue as the repeat topics of the night.

In two years, the city’s fire tax assessment, which brings in about $1.4 million annually to fund the fire department, will lapse.

Most candidates were not in favor of relying on the tax for much longer. Caine was in favor of reissuing the tax. Kalos-Gunn, Darro, Lee and Seto were in favor of a small tax if necessary. For the long term, however, the candidates wanted to work on raising revenue through sales tax and increasing new businesses to cover the costs down the road. Everyone was in favor of merging fire services — which Millbrae is currently studying with San Bruno, Burlingame and Hillsborough.

Colapietro and Quigg pointed out such a merger brings a cost savings and allow hotel tax income to cover the costs.

A main way to increase revenue according to the candidates seems to be by supporting local businesses, specifically downtown. Recently the City Council decided to move forward to research a parking garage for downtown — an idea all the candidates favored noting the increase in foot traffic that could occur as a result.

Quigg and Caine favored the larger project option — a $9 million double level option — since costs continue to increase. Quigg suggested a bond measure as a way to make up the $5 million additional estimated cost for the double versus single level garage. Kalos-Gunn wasn’t in favor of going into debt for a garage. Seto agreed that in general the last thing the city needs to do is take on more debt. Instead, it needs to work on long-term planning, he said, allowing the city to plan for the future rather than reacting to needs.

Although candidates agreed a garage would draw foot traffic, it wasn’t the only idea for improving downtown.

No one was in favor of putting in parking meters. Kalos-Gunn did suggest putting the meters in areas like on El Camino Real where there are red zones put in to prevent long-term parking and allow close parking to those businesses.

Seto wanted to see a couple national chain stores added to the downtown as anchor stores.

Quigg, Colapietro, Lee and Darro were in favor of promoting maintenance and upgrading of the buildings. Quigg suggested bringing back a program previously run through the Redevelopment Agency, where the agency would foot part of the bill to encourage business owners to make improvements.

The downtown outskirts have also seen expansion with a number of condominium projects. For years there’s been a plan to update the area around the Millbrae Station — which has hit a few time-delaying snags along the way.

All candidates agreed this development would be a wonderful addition to the city, however, overall did not support using eminent domain to secure the property for the development to move forward.

Kalos-Gunn and Seto were not necessarily in support but would not say how they would respond should the vote ever come before them.

Quigg was mayor when the city used eminent domain for the Millbrae Station. Eminent domain can be a good thing if done correctly, he said.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.