The City of Oakley Parks Division has recently gone through some reorganization. “The vision for the Parks Division restructuring is intended to provide improved leadership and enhance operations,” stated Jason Vogan, City Engineer/Public Works Director. “We’re committed to ongoing improvements of service delivery,” he added.

Along with some in-house adjustments, the most significant change will be the recruitment and hiring of a Parks Division Manager. The Parks Division has not had a Manager since 2008. Leonard Morrow, an experienced and long time parks and recreation professional, is serving as the interim parks manager. Morrow is evaluating the park programs and services and assisting in making the restructuring a smooth transition.

Recent accomplishments within the City of Oakley Parks Division include: Assisting with the installation of an all abilities playground at Crockett Park, located at 4150 Richards Way and  Empire Road. The playground is designed for use by children with disabilities as well as nondisabled children. Crockett Park’s grand opening was celebrated January 14th; Holly Creek Park, located on Hagar Court, has added 6 new developed acres which include a walking trail, landscape, and large open turf play area. It previously was the site of a former detention basin for storm water runoff. Its ribbon cutting is scheduled for Saturday, February 4, 2012; and last, renovation of the streetscape along Neroly Road at the entrance of Placer Drive is substantially complete. It includes new irrigation and shrub replacement. The existing trees were kept and remain vibrant. In the coming weeks the Parks Division will be focusing on community and  neighborhood parks by making needed repairs and ball field renovations. Medians and streetscapes will also be improved through the replacement and installation of shrubs and trees.

The mission of the City of Oakley Parks Division is to provide clean, safe, well-maintained, inviting, and sustainable parks, landscape areas, and recreation facilities for the enjoyment of Oakley residents and visitors. The Division is responsible for maintaining over 95 developed acres of park land, almost 40 acres of unimproved park land and open spaces, and approximately 50 acres of landscaped street medians, planters, and streetscapes, with the majority of the  maintenance and operations costs funded through landscape and lighting assessment districts.

The maintenance services are divided into twenty-six (26) benefit zones throughout the City with in-house staff and contracted services performing the work. Maintenance tasks include playground equipment, athletic fields and courts, mowing, edging, irrigation, tree trimming, litter control, graffiti removal, vandalism repair, weed abatement, pest control, general landscape maintenance, and special projects, just to name a few.

Unfortunately, the assessment revenues in some benefit zones have not kept pace with expenses, and are insufficient to adequately maintain their neighborhood landscape areas and have no reserve monies. Bryan Montgomery, Oakley City Manager said, “We continue to face a real challenge with many of the landscape districts being underfunded.” He noted the costs of maintenance increases each year and inflators were not built into the assessments when first established, and therefore, the revenue is no longer adequate in many of the zones, especially when you consider the need that every landscape’s irrigation system and plant matter has a life cycle and eventually needs to be replaced. Morrow added, “The City needs make outreach efforts to the neighborhoods where landscape areas are underfunded and educate residents about the problem, what is at stake, and what can be done.” If no additional funding in those underfunded zones occur, or residents don’t step forward to assist with the maintenance, the City may, at that juncture, need to start cutting costs which may include reducing maintenance levels.

The City of Oakley Parks Division is interested in soliciting input from the community with regards to all its work aspects and responsibilities, be it existing parks and landscape, future projects, or needed amenities. Interim Park Manager Morrow said, “If you see a problem, have an idea or suggestion, please let us know.” Citizens, groups, and neighborhood associations are encouraged to work with the Parks Division to propose and perform volunteer park maintenance activities.

Morrow can be contacted by calling the Parks Division office at 625-7037 or directly by email at Morrow@ci.oakley.ca.us

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business. I personally do all my bills online and wish all my bills would provide an e-bill option.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is “catalog items,” meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”

7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It’s time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery.. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The “Things” That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.” That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?” Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

10. The death of the big box. Best Buy and other specaility big box stores will find their demise by way of the Internet. As online shopping continues to grow these large specialty stores will become a place where you showroom shop and with your phone or iPad at hand finish the deal online and purchase the same product at a better price.

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There are no planned highway lane closures for the week.

Local Street Closures

A single lane in each direction of Somersville Road at highway 4 will be closed between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on Monday through Friday. A single lane in each direction of Loveridge Road at various locations will be closed between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on Thursday and Friday.

Ramp Closures

There are no planned ramp closures for the week.

Signs will be in place at the ramps to direct motorists to alternate routes. Please be alert and carefully follow all directional signs when encountering detours.

Questions or comments can be directed to the Highway 4 widening hotline at (925) 756-0721 or visit our web site at http://widensr4.org.

Facebook Readies IPO Filing for Next Week - Facebook Inc. could file papers for an initial public offering as early as next week and is currently looking at a deal that would value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, said people familiar with the matter….At a valuation between $75 billion and $100 billion, Facebook is looking to raise as much as $10 billion, said people familiar with the matter. The final valuation will be determined by a variety of factors, people familiar with the matter cautioned, such as investor demand for social media, the IPO market and the health of the European economy. Read More > in the Wall Street Journal

State reform groups merge and revive ballot measure – …The merger’s baby is the Government Performance and Accountability Act and its target is the November 2012 election.

The act requires state and local governments to produce budgets that spell out in detail the expected results from every dollar spent and publish an annual account of their performance.

It also allows local governments to band together, write a community strategy plan and if the legislature approve it, the local partnership will receive regulatory relief to carry it out. Read More > at the Political Blotter

The Peripheral Canal – How much water? At what cost? Who pays? – Nearly two-thirds of California residents and the majority of agriculture get their water from the Delta and its tributaries, which surround Stockton in an intricate pattern of levees, rivers and farms. But the Delta faces multifaceted environmental problems, which have led to a crisis for fisheries, wildlife and water quality.

The peripheral canal has been touted as the solution to the Delta’s problems, but it’s questionable whether it can provide reliable water and protect the ecosystem. Read More > at BW News

2011 GDP: 1.7% – That’s the final, pathetic growth number for 2011.

From the just-released GDP report: Real GDP increased 1.7 percent in 2011 (that is, from the 2010 annual level to the 2011 annual level), compared with an increase of 3.0 percent in 2010. Read More > at Business Insider

Fire district formation moves to next step, LAFCo hears conflict re GSD sphere – Four Southern Humboldt volunteer fire departments cleared another hurdle on the path to become full-fledged Fire Protection Districts, which will give them the ability to stabilize their revenue through special parcel taxes.

At a hearing last Wednesday, Jan. 18, staff of the Humboldt Local Agency Formation Commission reported to the commissioners that they did not receive even close to the required number of protests to halt the formation process in any of the four proposed fire districts: Briceland, Bridgeville, Fruitland Ridge, and Palo Verde. Read More > in the Redwood Times

California air board to vote on landmark electric-car rules – In a move that could reshape the American automobile industry, California regulators Thursday are expected to approve sweeping new rules requiring that 15 percent of new cars sold in California by 2025 run on electricity, hydrogen or other systems producing little or no smog.

The regulations by the California Air Resources Board, dubbed the “advanced clean car rules,” would start in 2018, ramping up each year and ultimately resulting in 1.4 million “zero emission” vehicles on California roads by 2025. Today there are only about 10,000 such vehicles in the state. Read More > in the San Jose Mercury News

Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year - Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the president’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss…Insofar as Buffett (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.

The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent. This is below Buffett’s rate; so she must earn more than that. Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent. Therefore Buffett must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand. Read More > in Forbes

Nutrition: No Obesity Link to Junk Food in Schools – In the fight against childhood obesity, communities all over the country are banning the sale of sweets and salty snacks in public schools. But a new study suggests that the strategy may be ineffective….No matter how the researchers looked at the data, they could find no correlation at all between obesity and attending a school where sweets and salty snacks were available.

“Food preferences are established early in life,” said Jennifer Van Hook, the lead author and a professor of sociology and demography at Penn State. “This problem of childhood obesity cannot be placed solely in the hands of schools.” Read More > in the New York Times

Fed Sees Rates Staying Near Zero Through Late 2014 – The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it intended to hold short-term interest rates near zero “at least through late 2014,” extending its most basic and longest-running response to the financial crisis by at least another 18 months.

The decision means that the Fed does not expect the economy to complete its recovery from the 2008 crisis over the next three years. By holding rates near zero, the Fed hopes to hasten that process somewhat by reducing the cost of borrowing. Read More > in the New York Times

Survey paints portrait of black women in America - …In a new nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a complex portrait emerges of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage. The survey, which includes interviews with more than 800 black women, represents the most extensive exploration of the lives and views of African American women in decades….Religion is essential to most black women’s lives; being in a romantic relationship is not, the poll shows. Nearly three-quarters of African American women say now is a good time to be a black woman in America, and yet a similar proportion worry about having enough money to pay their bills. Half of black women surveyed call racism a “big problem” in the country; nearly half worry about being discriminated against. Eighty-five percent say they are satisfied with their own lives, but one-fifth say they are often treated with less respect than other people. Read More > in The Washington Post

Study: Eating Fried Food Doesn’t Increase Risk of Heart Disease – A new study which was recently published in the British Medical Journal found no association between the frequency of fried food consumption in Spain and the incidence of heart disease. This adds to the mounting research which suggests that it is the type of oil used and whether or not it has been used before, that really matters.

It should be noted that in Spain olive and sunflower oil are mostly used for frying. The British Heart Foundation was quick to warn its citizens not to “reach for the frying pan” just yet, and noted that the Mediterranean diet is healthier than that of England, or the U.S. for that matter. Read More > in The Cleveland Leader

CalPERS earns 1.1% on investments in 2011 – The nation’s largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, posted a 1.1% return on its investment portfolio in 2011, Chief Investment Officer Joseph Dear told his board.

The 2011 performance was well below the estimated average annual return of 7.75% that the fund’s actuaries say is needed to meet current and future obligations to its members.

The $229.5-billion CalPERS provides retirement and other benefits for 1.6 million state and local government employees and their families.

CalPERS’ annual investment results, whose volatility has echoed that of the overall markets, have become the focal point in an ongoing debate about looming pension fund liabilities and the ability of future generations of taxpayers to continue financing them. Gov. Jerry Brown has said he wants to overhaul state and local government pension programs, but whether he and the Legislature have the political wherewithal to do so in an election year remains unclear. Read More > in the Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court: Warrants needed in GPS tracking – The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restricted the police’s ability to use a GPS device to track criminal suspects in a first test of how privacy rights will be protected in the digital age.

The court rejected the government’s view that long-term surveillance of a suspect by GPS tracking is no different than traditional, low-tech forms of monitoring. But its decision was nuanced and incremental, leaving open the larger questions of how government may use the information generated by modern technology for surveillance purposes. Read More > in the Washington Post

Poll: Satisfaction on the decline – American satisfaction with the economy, the size and scope of the federal government, and the moral climate of the country have all dropped precipitously over the last four years, a new survey Monday shows.

The economy has become the most toxic issue of 24 different topics surveyed by Gallup polling – only 13 percent say that they are satisfied with the state of the nation’s economy, down from 36 percent in Jan. 2008, a 23 percentage point drop.

In fact, a whopping 83 percent now say they are dissatisfied with the economy condition of the country, according to Gallup. Read More> in Politico

Labor union quits alliance with greens over Keystone pipeline - The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline.

LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project.

“We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement. Read More > in The Hill

In Case You Missed It: Post-Redevelopment: What’s Next for Local Economic Development – California’s economy is still suffering, local government is contracting, public financing is constrained and private debt and equity sources are scarce. Despite all this, economic development, affordable housing and infrastructure investment are still desperately needed and relevant in our communities.

The immediate challenge facing public officials in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in California Redevelopment Agency v.Matosantos is how to develop these much-needed projects without the tools of traditional tax increment-based redevelopment, which has been the norm under the Community Redevelopment Law for the past 65 years.

In the upcoming weeks and months, we may see the state legislature spearhead a redevelopment revival of some sort, or perhaps local government will devise the next generation of economic incentive tools. Needless to say, local government in California has never been more exciting… uncomfortable, uncertain…but exciting, nonetheless. Read More > at Public CEO

EIA estimates California Monterey to have four times the technically recoverable oil of the North Dakota Bakken oil field - The Monterey/Santos oil field in California is estimated to four times the technically recoverable oil as the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota.

The Monterey field is also estimated to have 500 billion barrels of oil in place The Bakken oil field oil in place estimates range from 271 billion to 503 billion barrels (average estimate of 413 billion barrels). Read More – at Next Big Future

Main Street may soon belong to Oakley. The State Route (SR) 4 Bypass Authority is in final negotiations with Caltrans to transfer the SR 4 Bypass to the State. It is anticipated that the transfer of the Bypass to the State will be approved at the December 2011, California Transportation Commission meeting. When this happens the existing SR 4 through Oakley and Brentwood will be relinquished to the appropriate jurisdiction to operate locally. This is great news for our City. The plan for bringing Carpaccio’s to town and moving La Costa include enhancements to Main Street that would have needed Caltrans approval and would have probably delayed the projects.

When the transfer is complete the Bypass will officially be designated as the legislatively defined State Route 4 and will be maintained and operated by Caltrans.

6 -7 oz. Lobster tails for $15.00 each – Place and pay your order (pre-pay only), pick up on February 10th (just in time for Valentine’s Day), cook and enjoy.

• Order from a member of the Friends of Oakley before Feb 8th at 3:00 – www.friendsofoakley.com or friendsofoakley@comcast.net .
• Pay for your order. Orders only placed after payment.
• Pick up your frozen order on Friday, February 10, 3:30 – 5:30 at Almond Grove Elementary Multi-Use room, 5000 Amaryllis Street in Oakley (off Carpenter)
• Order must be picked up by 5:30 (use a friend or family member if you can’t make it) or order is forfeited.
• (925) 625-5745 or (925) 250-9689 for additional information
• All proceeds are tax deductible and help sustain the Christmas basket program

A single lane of SR-4 in the westbound direction will be closed between Contra Loma Boulevard and Somersville Road from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am on Monday through Friday nights. A single lane of SR-4 in the eastbound direction will be closed between Somersville Road and Contra Loma Boulevard from 11:59 pm to 6:00 am on Monday through Friday nights.

Ramp Closures

The westbound on-ramp from Contra Loma Boulevard will be closed between 10:00 pm and 4:00 am on Monday through Friday nights. The eastbound off-ramp to Contra Loma Boulevard will be closed between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am on Monday through Friday nights.

Signs will be in place at the ramps to direct motorists to alternate routes. Please be alert and carefully follow all directional signs when encountering detours.

Local Street Closures

A single lane in each direction of Contra Loma Boulevard at SR-4 will be closed on Monday through Friday nights 11:59 pm and 5:00 am.

Questions or comments can be directed to the Highway 4 widening hotline at (925) 756-0721 or visit our web site at http://widensr4.org.

Reid postpones vote on Internet piracy bill – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indefinitely postponed next week’s vote on the controversial Protect IP Act “in light of recent events,” he announced on Friday.

The move is a resounding victory for online activists, who staged an unprecedented protest against the anti-piracy measure on Wednesday…Just minutes after Reid’s announcement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said he would shelve the House’s version of the legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

The measures, which seemed set to sail through Congress just a few weeks ago, now appear dead. Read More > in The Hill

Jerry Brown pitches higher taxes, budget cuts and more public works spending - Gov. Jerry Brown, calling on lawmakers and voters to help him prove “the declinists about California are wrong,” on Wednesday launched his campaign for higher taxes and urged billions in spending on infrastructure and schools.

First in his State of the State address at the Capitol and then at a second address at Los Angeles City Hall, Brown said he would press ahead with his ballot measure to raise the state sales tax and income taxes on California’s highest earners…He said a peripheral canal or other ways to move water through or around the Delta is “an enormous project” he would undertake, and reiterated his support for California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project, urging a skeptical Legislature to approve the start of construction in the Central Valley this fall. Brown called the $98.5 billion project a “wise investment” for a growing state. Read More > in The Sacramento Bee

Copper Basin 300 canceled because of ‘impassible’ trail conditions – The Copper Basin 300 sled dog race is the latest victim of Alaska’s weird winter weather pattern as race officials canceled the event Sunday morning, less than a day after the race started.

The race came to a halt when a section of trail was deemed impassible.

A statement by race marshal Greg Parvin said the trail between Meier’s Lake and Sourdough had unusually deep snow conditions, with high winds and bitter cold.

Two Rivers musher Allen Moore, who was one of the race leaders, told his handlers that the trail got bad about 12 miles out of Meiers Lake and snowmachines were getting stuck in attempts to break a trail for the race. Read More > in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Canada will look to China to sell its oil – …In fact, in a sign of warming relations, Harper is scheduled to make a high-profile trip to China in February. Canada is proposing to build a pipeline of its own through western Canada that would make oil exports to China faster and cheaper.

In recent months, Harper has pushed more forcefully for the Northern Gateway pipeline project to get underway, calling it in the country’s “national interest” as it works to develop markets other than the United States for its crude oil exports. Read More > at CNN

California home sales hit highest level in a year – The number of homes sold in California rose for the third straight month in December, according to the California Association of Realtors.

The association said today that single-family home resales statewide hit a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 520,940 last month, a 3.3 percent increase from November’s rate and the highest level since January 2011. Read More > in The Sacramento Bee

Dan Walters: California redevelopment still has a faint pulse – …It could be redevelopment by another name, such as “infrastructure financing district.” Authority for those redevelopment-like entities now exists, but they require local voter approval to be implemented. Two pending bills would remove the voter approval requirement.

Or it could be an entirely new approach to underwriting local economic development and housing projects, as Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg advocates.

He wants the “asset pool” held by local redevelopment agencies to remain with their governments as long as they are used for “high-wage jobs,” low-income housing, and projects that comply with the state’s anti-sprawl, transit-friendly, anti-greenhouse gas standards. Read More > in The Sacramento Bee

Detroit Unsure Over the Future of Green Cars - The U.S. auto industry remains unsold over the future of “green cars” such as electrics and hybrids, as carmakers struggle with the first steps in a market most agree shows promise over the long term.

According to a recent article in Industry Week, automakers wheeled out a variety of new hybrids and plug-in electrics at the annual Detroit auto show last week, touting their great energy savings along with new, freshened designs. But despite that apparent commitment, behind the scenes, the manufacturers remain split between doubts and optimism over their potential. Read More > at Smart Energy Portal

Jerry Brown’s budget depends on $6.9 billion tax hike initiative: LAO – The LAO writes that the governor’s proposed $6.9 billion tax increase, to be put on the November ballot, is the “cornerstone” of the budget. Without it, the budget numbers collapse like a cheap card table. The increase would impose an extra half-cent sales tax, raising the state sales tax to about 8.5 percent in most counties. And it would impose an additional 2 percentage points of income tax on the wealthy, bringing the top state tax rate to 12.3 percent. That would make it the highest in the nation. Read More > at California Political Review

California lawmakers take another crack at ‘single-payer’ health care bill – California’s “Medicare for all” bill goes before a key Senate committee today, the latest chapter in a long-running battle between universal health insurance supporters and business.

Senate Bill 810, introduced by San Francisco Democrat Sen. Mark Leno, would establish a California Healthcare Agency to run a single-payer health care system that would pool employer and employee payments. It would administer the money and negotiate rates with doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.

As a mammoth player in the industry, the thinking goes, a state-operated system would drive down medical costs and insurance premiums while improving access to care.

The bill doesn’t establish any new taxes or fees, preferring to leave that for future legislation. Read More in The Sacramento Bee

REGION: Cities naming redevelopment successors, but many details nebulous – Most Inland local governments have determined who will take over the obligations of their redevelopment agencies, but officials said many aspects of what happens next remain unclear.

How and when must they sell property and other assets? Which obligations will be paid? How many redevelopment employees will lose their jobs?

Cities and counties with redevelopment agencies are struggling to sort out state legislation, upheld by the state Supreme Court last month, that disbands redevelopment agencies and has successors wrap up their work. Read More > in The Press-Enterprise

Universal Flu Vaccine Could Be Available by 2013 – Annual flu shots might soon become a thing of the past, and threats such as avian and swine flu might disappear with them as a vaccine touted as the “holy grail” of flu treatment could be ready for human trials next year.

That’s earlier than the National Institutes of Health estimated in 2010, when they said a universal vaccine could be five years off. By targeting the parts of the virus that rarely mutate, researchers believe they can develop a vaccine similar to the mumps or measles shot—people will be vaccinated as children and then receive boosters later. Read More > in U.S.News & World Report

Discovery Could Lead to an Exercise Pill – Researchers have discovered a natural hormone that acts like exercise on muscle tissue—burning calories, improving insulin processing, and perhaps boosting strength. The scientists hope it could eventually be used as a treatment for obesity, diabetes, and, potentially, neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy.

In a paper published online today by the journal Nature, the scientists, led by Bruce Spiegelman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, showed that the hormone occurs naturally in both mice and humans. It pushes cells to transform from white fat—globules that serve as reservoirs for excess calories—into brown fat, which generates heat.

Because the hormone is present in both mice and humans, Spiegelman speculates that it may have served as an evolutionary defense against cold by triggering shivering. He named it irisin, after the Greek messenger goddess Iris, who allowed humans to communicate with the gods in Greek mythology, because exercise appears to “talk” to various tissues in the body via irisin. Read More > at Technology Review

Here are recent updates from the Secretary of State about the status of various new initiatives and summary:

1542. (11-0072) Approval of Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1541. (11-0070) Approval of Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1540. (11-0067) Legislature Expansion. Legislative Process. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1539. (11-0062) Online K-12 Education. College Preparatory Courses. Initiative Statute. New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1538. (11-0061) State Funding to Local Governments. Criminal Justice. Social Services. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1537. (11-0068) State Budget. State and Local Government. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1536. (11-0069) Equal Male/Female Membership of Legislature. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

11-0099 – “The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act”. Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

11-0100 – “Our Children, Our Future: Local Schools and Early Education Investment and Bond Debt Reduction Act”.  Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

1535. (11-0066) Elimination of Benefits for Part-Time Local Officials. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1534. (11-0065) Undocumented Immigrants. Requires State Law Enforcement Officers to Enforce Federal Immigration Law. Denies Driver’s Licenses to Undocumented Immigrants. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1533. (11-0060) Health Insurance. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1532. (11-0059) – AMENDED Summary – Human Trafficking. Penalties. Sex Offender Registration. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1531. (11-0054) Regulation of Corporations. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1530. (11-0057) Three Strikes Law. Sentencing for Repeat Felony Offenders. Initiative Statute.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

1529. (11-0058) Reinstates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.  New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

11-0097 – “Corporate Political Accountability Act”. Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

11-0098 – “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act”.  Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

1528. (11-0056) Concealed Firearms. Initiative Statute. New Initiative Cleared for Circulation.

11-0095 – “The Citizen Legislature Act”. Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

11-0096 – “The Higher Education, Schools, Public Safety, and Health Care Preservation Act”. Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

11-0094 – “Protection from Transnational Gangs Act of 2012″. Initiative Pending at the Attorney General’s Office.

The term “Section 8” is often used as a scare tacit when certain types of development are discussed. It’s been an issue in Antioch and concern here in Oakley. There does seem to be a lot of confusion about exactly what it is and how it works. I’m not going to get into the pros and cons of the program. My purpose here is to merely provide a brief introduction to the program.

Section 8 is best defined as a program that is run by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing for low income families. This program is more commonly known as Section 8, the reference to the portion of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 under which the original subsidy program was authorized. It provides the housing for low income families through the use of a voucher system. The voucher system is administered by local housing authorities. In our case, and the majority of cities in Contra Costa, this local housing authority (HA) is the county. The program’s primary purpose is to provide rental assistance to low-income families for affordable housing. Recipients of the assistance receive a voucher to rent homes in the private market. The voucher covers a portion of the rent and the tenant is expected to pay the balance. The tenant’s share of the rent is an affordable percentage of their income, which is generally between 30 to 40 percent of the monthly income for rent and utilities.

To be eligible for Section 8 housing assistance, a family must meet several requirements. They must be citizens or have eligible immigration status, and they must qualify as a “low or very low income” family, according to local income standards. Generally this means that their family income is below 50% of the median income for the area. These median income levels are determined annually by HUD. According to federal law, 75% of Section 8 vouchers are to be given to families whose income level is less than 30% of the local median income.

Here is how it works. Once a family qualifies for Section 8 they are issued a voucher. The family looks for a privately owned rental unit participating in the program. Rent payment is based on income. The voucher will pay anything above 30% of the adjusted monthly income up to an established limit. For example, if the person earns $2,000 per month and the home rents for $900 per month, they would pay $600 and the voucher would cover the difference of $300 as long as the Fair Market Rent in the area is equal to or greater than $900. Section 8 vouchers are “portable”. So, once a voucher is received, it can be taken anywhere in the United States that has a public housing authority which can administer the voucher. You can literally receive a voucher in Mississippi and move to Hawaii with it.

Fair Market Rent (FMR), is defined as: “The rent, including the cost of utilities (except telephone), as established by HUD for units of varying sizes (by number of bedrooms), that must be paid in the housing market area to rent privately owned, existing, decent, safe and sanitary rental housing of modest (non-luxury) nature with suitable amenities.” In metropolitan areas HUD sets a rent level that determines which units are available under the Section 8 certificate and voucher programs. Because the FMR is based on rents throughout the metropolitan area, the FMR tends to be somewhat high relative to rents in the central city and somewhat low relative to rents in the suburbs. Someone living in a small house in San Francisco could use the same voucher to rent a much larger home somewhere in East County. With vouchers, thousands of families each year do exactly what the program expects: They migrate out of poor neighborhoods and into better neighborhoods.

For properties to participate in the Section 8 program it is a fairly simple process. The first step is to inform the local HA that your property is available, and that you would like to rent to tenants with Section 8 vouchers. The HA places the property on a listing of qualified units and then distributes it to potential tenants. For properties to qualify, they must be safe and in decent shape, yet relatively affordable. To qualify as Section 8 housing, a rental property must be within 90% to 110% of the local Fair Market Rent. No one at the city is involved in this process or notified when a home owner rents their home via Section 8.

School districts are a form of a Special-purpose district. Their boundaries are delineated to encompass certain geographical areas, which are not necessarily the same boundaries as the surrounding cities or towns. Districts are governed by a school board, members of which are elected by popular vote and are, basically, a legislative body, often thought of as being coequal and similar to a City Council or the County Board of Supervisors. The board has many powers including taxation and eminent domain. They appoint a superintendent who functions as the district’s chief executive to carry out the day-to-day administration.

The City of Oakley is served by three school districts. The Oakley Union Elementary School District, serving students in grade K-8, and consists of five elementary schools and two middle schools. Their boundary area covers most of Oakley and a very small part of Knightsen. The Liberty Union High School District has five high schools, one in Oakley. Liberty’s boundary includes most of Oakley, all of Brentwood, Knightsen, Bethel Island, Discovery Bay, Bryon and any unincorporated areas in between. The boundaries of the Antioch Unified School District with 14 elementary schools, including the newly opened Orchard Park in Oakley, four middle schools, one charter school and six high schools, covers all of Antioch and everything west of Empire Road, west on Main St (Highway 4) to Big Break and then north on Big Break to the river in Oakley.

The Antioch School District has had a long presence in Western Oakley. In 1883 the Live Oak School District was established to accommodate the population of what was known as the “sand country”. Two years later, on a lot about a mile and a half from the village of Oakley (now the Live Oak Community Church at the corner of Live Oak and Highway 4,), a former house was remodeled and transformed into a school which was named Live Oak. One teacher was in charge of approximately 25 students. In 1903, at a cost of $4000.00, a new school building was constructed on the same site. Somewhat later, when another teacher was needed, the one large room was divided into two rooms. The enrollment swelled to over 40 students.

In 1908, as a result of population increases, the Live Oak School District joined with the Antioch, Black Diamond (now Pittsburg), Somersville and Nortonville school districts to approve the first joint communities bond and raised $20,000 to build Riverview High School, the first high school in Contra Costa County. In 1921 a special election was held to consolidate the Live Oak and Antioch School Districts later morphing into the Antioch Unified School District.

Continuing their presence in Oakley the Antioch School District and the City of Antioch created the Antioch Area Public Facilities Financing Agency’s Community Facilities District 1989-1 (“CFD”), in 1989, commonly known as the Antioch Mello Roos District. The CFD was formed to finance five elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school and a 100 acre community park.

Mello Roos is a taxing methodology developed in 1982 to allow county, city, special district, or joint powers authority to bypass the property tax limitation established under Prop 13. Instead of increasing the tax on the value of your property, which is prohibited under Prop 13, the tax is calculated based on the “livable” square footage of the home, excluding the garage, rounded up to the next highest increment of 100. This tax can only be used to finance streets, sewer system and other basic infrastructure, police, fire, school, ambulance, and other cultural facilities. The CFD-89 rate is approximately $0.61 per square foot for homes in the City of Antioch and $0.48 for Oakley homes within the District (homes west of Empire). The majority of homes are in the new areas of Southeast Antioch, but also included are other new areas of Antioch as well as parts of Oakley which are within the Antioch Unified School District boundaries and were built after 1988. The tax is used to pay principal and interest on construction bonds that have been sold. These bonds mature at different times, from now all the way out to the year 2025. The newly opened Orchard Park School on Live Oak was not built using Mello-Roos funds.

Everyone in Oakley living west of Empire is in the Antioch School District and within the Mello-Roos boundaries. If your home was built before 1988 or if the builder paid off the bonds and included it in the price of your new home you will not see a Mello-Roos line item on your property tax bill.

The Mello-Roos tax may be the largest hurdle to leap when the issue of school district reorganization is broached. A boundary change will probably necessitate that the Mello-Roos bond debt be paid off. If the Antioch School District were to let the “Oakley Orphans” secede the remaining bond payers would be left to pay the debt. In all probability, they would opt to sue the School District to prevent this from happening. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the ensuing steps in the process if this issue were addressed first. Further steps include but are not limited to: filing a petition for boundary changes, approval from the County Superintendent and an election.

Once the Mello-Roos hurdle has been crossed there are two ways to start the process of transferring territory from one district to another. The first is a citizen initiated petition which requires signatures from at least 25% of the registered Oakley voters in the territory to be transferred. The second is also a citizen initiated petition which requires signatures from at least 10% of the registered voters in the entire school district. When all of the requirements are met there will be a proposition placed on the ballot for a vote by those in the entire school district. The complete process is detailed at the California Department of Education website. Chapter 5 contains the information you’ll need to proceed.

A question often asked of City Council members is, “Why don’t you do something to effect the boundary changes?” Over the years we have had dozens of meetings with the School Districts to encourage some sort of boundary adjustment, but in the end the City Council has absolutely no control over the situation. We can plead, cajole and make polite suggestions, however it is up to the respective elected school boards to work out the complicated details of any boundary adjustments. Frankly, the details of a change are so complicated and expensive that it is highly unlikely that the school boards will make any changes in the near future.

2011-2012 Public Schools Directory

Contra Costa County School Districts Map 

There are no full freeway closures for the week.

Highway Lane Closures

A single lane of westbound Highway 4 between Contra Loma Blvd. and Somersville Rd. will be closed on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, January 19 from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am
• Friday, January 20 from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am

A single lane of eastbound Highway 4 between Contra Loma Blvd. and Somersville Rd. will be closed on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, January 19 from midnight until 6:00 am 
• Friday, January 20 from midnight until 6:00 am

Ramp Closures

Both the westbound on-ramp and eastbound off-ramp at Contra Loma Blvd. will be closed on the
following dates and times:

• Thursday, January 19 from 10:00 pm until 4:00 am
• Friday, January 20 from midnight until 4:00 am

Signs will be in place at the ramps to direct motorists to alternate routes. Please be alert and carefully follow all directional signs when encountering detours.

Local Street Closures

A single lane on southbound Loveridge Rd. south of Highway 4 will be closed on the following dates and times:

• Tuesday, January 17 from 9:00 pm until 3:30 am
• Wednesday, January 18 from 9:00 pm until 3:30 am

Lanes on southbound Somersville Rd. between Century Blvd. and Highway 4 westbound on-ramp will be closed on Tuesday, January 17 from 10:00 pm until 5:00 am.

A single lane on southbound Somersville Rd. at Highway 4 undercrossing will be closed on Wednesday, January 18 from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.

Contra Loma Blvd. will be entirely closed southbound and northbound at the Highway 4 undercrossing on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, January 19 from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am
• Friday, January 20 from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am

Questions or comments can be directed to the Highway 4 widening hotline at (925) 756-0721 or visit our web site at http://widensr4.org.

Solyndra asks judge to pay out $500,000 in bonuses - Solyndra, the Fremont solar panel company that laid off more than 1,000 workers upon declaring bankruptcy last summer, has reportedly requested to pay remaining employees up to $500,000 in bonuses.

If a judge approves the request, the bonuses would go to workers lower on the food chain than the sizable bonuses handed out to key executives in the months before the company’s bankruptcy — 13 of the 21 possible recipients the Associated Press listed were equipment engineers and facilities workers. Read More > in the San Jose Mercury News

State report says PG&E collected millions from ratepayers for improvements it never made – PG&E could face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines stemming from the 2010 San Bruno catastrophe, after a new report Thursday from state regulators accused the company of violating numerous laws governing its natural gas operations.

The report by the California Public Utility Commission’s safety division also disclosed that PG&E in recent years has collected more than a half billion dollars from ratepayers for system improvements that were never made or that exceeded the amount of money it was authorized to earn. That finding, from an audit, could make it harder for the utility to saddle its customers with 90 percent of the cost of its $2.2 billion pipeline-renovation plan, as it recently has proposed. Read More > in the San Jose Mercury News

California slips to No. 9 in worldwide economic rankings – California, long considered to have the world’s eighth-largest economy, has slipped to ninth place, according to the Palo Alto-based Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy.

Blame it on Brazil.

With a fast-growing, $2.1 trillion economy, Brazil has slipped past California ($1.9 trillion) into eighth place, according to the center’s calculations from the latest World Bank economic rankings.

California was once as high as seventh but was later surpassed by Italy, which remains No. 7, just ahead of Brazil and just behind No. 6 Great Britain.

The United States, of course, is first at $14.5 trillion, followed by China at $5.9 trillion, Japan at $5.5 trillion, Germany at $3.3 trillion and France at $2.6 trillion.

California is just ahead of India’s $1.7 trillion. The Los Angeles area, with a $886 billion economy, would rank 16th in world, just behind Australia and just ahead of the Netherlands. The Sacramento area’s economy, incidentally, would rank 59th, just behind Qatar and Kazakhstan. Read More > in Capitol Alert

California’s $500K Earners Dwindle – Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to balance the state budget in part with higher taxes on the wealthy depends on a group of top earners that shrank by one-third from 2007 to 2009.

Tax returns with adjusted gross incomes topping $500,000 fell to 98,610 in 2009, the latest year available, from a recent peak of 146,221 two years earlier, according to data from the Franchise Tax Board, the state agency that collects income and corporate taxes.

Brown, a 73-year-old Democrat, faces a budget deficit of $9.2 billion. If voters reject his tax plan, Brown proposes to cut $4.8 billion from schools, the equivalent of taking three weeks from the academic year. California’s top individual tax rate of 10.3 percent is third-highest in the U.S., behind Hawaii (STOHI1) and Oregon (STOOR1), according to the Washington-based Tax Foundation. The new tax proposal might put California on top. Read More > in Bloomberg

Senate Report Argues Defined Benefit Pension Plans are Inappropriate for Local Govts – U.S. Senator Orin Hatch has released a report on state and local public pensions that calls for greater involvement of the federal government due to fears about the impact of pension obligations on the nation’s credit rating and federal budget. Hatch is the ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The report argues it would be a mistake to blame the pension crisis on the recession or expect the issue to be resolved over time.

Hatch’s report states, “Unfunded public pension liabilities are a longstanding problem that existed well before the current economic downturn.” With respect to the debt facing state and local officials, the report notes that “This crushing debt load is ravaging state and local government budgets, and there are few options available to them for addressing this crisis – cuts in services, reductions in benefits, higher taxes, or some combination of the three.” Read More > at California City News

14 cattle trucks burned in arson at Harris Ranch - Animal-rights activists are taking responsibility for an arson fire that destroyed 14 cattle trucks at the sprawling Harris Ranch in the San Joaquin Valley off Interstate 5…In an e-mail sent to the media Monday, the North American Animal Liberation Press Office said it had received an anonymous message from someone with specific details about the fire at the Coalinga ranch, one of the largest farming operations in the San Joaquin Valley.

“Containers of accelerant were placed beneath a row of 14 trucks with four digital timers used to light four of the containers and kerosene soaked rope carrying the fire to the other 10,” the e-mail said.

“We were extremely pleased to see all 14 trucks ‘were a total loss,’ ” the message said. Read More > in the San Francisco Chronicle

State’s $1.6 billion computer system beset by woes – Five months before selecting a contractor, the state of California has already spent $62.6 million on a computer project that the state auditor says is beset by problems with staffing, funding and conflicts of interest.

Auditor Elaine Howle comes to this conclusion in her new annual letter about the Financial Information System for California, or Fi$Cal, project.

Fi$Cal is an IT project that seeks to modernize and streamline state’s accounting, budget and cash management systems. Read More > in the Orange County Register

Boys’ And Girls’ Locker Room? Calif. Bill Would Blur School ‘Gender Identity’ Rules – Days after a landmark law went into effect requiring California schools to teach about gay historical figures, a new piece of proposed legislation is likely to spark even more controversy.

Sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), AB 266 would require schools to allow students to play on sports teams according to their “gender identity” and not their biological sex. Read More > at CBS Los Angeles

December’s Revenue Slumber – State Controller John Chiang announced that cash receipts in December were below all expectations. They came in $1.4 billion (-15.0%) below what the 2011-12 budget relies on, and were even $165.2 million (-2.0%) worse than the Governor’s 2012-13 budget proposal released last week guessed…For the fiscal year, General Fund receipts are $2.5 billion (-6.2%) below what the 2011-12 budget relies on. Of course, the budget relied on $4 billion of magic uncategorized revenue, so some observers might not be entirely surprised.

The January numbers, which the Controller will release about this time next month, will capture most of the rest of the holiday sales and will be an important indicator of whether the state will fall even farther down the deficit hole. Read More > in Public CEO

Tax plan would generate billions less than thought, analyst says – Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure could bring in billions less than what the governor is counting on, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan state legislative analyst.

Brown, who hopes to put a measure before voters to temporarily increase levies on upper earners and hike the state sales tax, says his initiative would generate nearly $6.9 billion annually over the next five years to help close the state’s budget deficit. But the Legislative Analyst’s Office says the plan would bring in only $4.8 billion in the 2012-13 budget year and about $5.5 billion in following years.

The wide discrepancy is the latest split over numbers between the administration and the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Last November, the Legislative Analyst’s Office released a revised estimate for the state’s current budget picture. Less than a month later, Brown’s department of finance came back with estimates that were $1.5 billion higher than the Legislative Analyst’s Office numbers. Read More > in the Los Angeles Times

Twinkies Maker to File for Bankruptcy Again: Report – Hostess Brands Inc, a wholesale baker, is again preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

This would be second court restructuring for Ripplewood Holdings-owned Hostess, which filed for bankruptcy almost two years ago and had emerged from it last September.

Irving, Texas-based Hostess has arranged for about $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings, the sources told the paper.

Once in bankruptcy court, the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread will try to reduce debt and renegotiate labor contracts, the newspaper said. Read More > at Fox Business

State convicts arrive in L.A. County with costly mental illnesses – As California begins shifting supervision of thousands of newly released state prisoners to local probation agencies, ex-convicts are arriving with incomplete medical records and more serious mental illnesses than anticipated. And mental health officials are scrambling to provide appropriate — and often costly — treatment…In some cases, he said, released inmates have had to be immediately transferred to hospitals or residential centers for psychiatric care.

A new state law designed to reduce prison crowding and cut costs requires that certain nonviolent convicts serve their time in county lockups rather than state prisons. It also makes counties — rather than the state parole agency — responsible for supervising such inmates after their release. Read More > in the Los Angeles Times

Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually – …We left the store, my friend having made his purchase but both of us fuming. I was reminded of a line from Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” One character asks another how he went bankrupt. “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Best Buy, I thought, is doing the same, just as many big box retailers have done in the last decade.

First comes the strategic bankruptcy, well in progress at Best Buy, where management’s sole focus is improving some arbitrary metric from last quarter, even when doing so actually interferes with customers trying to buy something else. The financial collapse comes later. But if history is any guide, the second part, once it starts, will be quick….The new conventional wisdom says that big box retailers like Best Buy are going the way of the dinosaur. Online giants, notably Amazon, are the future. Online retailers are more efficient, because they lack physical locations, and so can offer better prices. Shopping online is also more convenient. On the web, consumers can shop anywhere they are, day or night. (Amazon has a market cap of $80 billion and a P/E of 91.) Read More > in Forbes

Nutrition: 4 Vitamins That Strengthen Older Brains – Higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin E are associated with better mental functioning in the elderly, a new study has found.

Researchers measured blood levels of these nutrients in 104 men and women, whose average age was 87. The scientists also performed brain scans to determine brain volume and administered six commonly used tests of mental functioning. The study is in the Jan. 24 issue of Neurology. Read More > in the New York Times

Another View: Delta plan, an inside job, needs legislative scrutiny

Viewpoints: Water barons will corner market in new ‘Chinatown’

Wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors tomorrow, for the full 24 hours.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents to burn wood or other solid fuels in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire-pits, or other wood-burning devices. This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties.

Winter air pollution is mainly caused by particulates or soot pollution from wood smoke. Smoke from wood-burning fires is linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and is especially harmful for children and the elderly.

For more information about the Wood Burning Rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4NO-BURN.

You can also call 1-800-430-1515 and register to receive automatic phone calls when a Winter Spare the Air Alert has been called.

To see the current air quality forecast visit www.sparetheair.org.

Visit the Apple App Store to download our FREE Spare the Air iPhone application for alert notifications, local air quality forecasts, podcasts and several tools to help reduce air pollution!

Thank you for doing your part to Spare the Air!

This AirAlert is provided by your Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Oakley’s General Plan is not happenstance. Nor is it something that takes place overnight. Projected to the year 2020 the Plan has many requirements, one of which is the Land Use Element covering many issues. This element’s basic function is to lay out the general pattern of development within the City. It is the foundation for the remaining elements. It details a vision for all buildings (residential, commercial and industrial), roads and public facilities that are currently in place and those to be built in the future. Although all general plan elements are considered equal the land use element is the most visible and most often used. The Circulation and Housing Elements are especially dependent on the Land Use Element.

The Land Use Element is required by California state law, citing California Government Code Section 65302(a): “… a land use element which designates the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the uses of the land for housing, business, industry, open space, including agriculture, natural resources, recreation, and enjoyment of scenic beauty, education, public buildings and grounds, solid and liquid waste disposal facilities, and other categories of public and private uses of land”.

Further, the State Code stipulates that Land Use Element shall include: “A statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various districts and other territory covered by the Plan. The Land Use Element shall also identify areas covered by the Plan, which are subject to flooding and shall be reviewed annually with respect to such areas.

Using text and maps the City is divided into many areas. Each area is assigned a land use designation which includes a use such as:

• SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL LOW (SL) – This designation allows for a minimum of 0.8 dwelling units and a maximum of 2.3 dwelling units per gross acre (a net acre includes all land area used exclusively for residential purposes, and excludes streets, highways and all public right-of-way). Sites generally range from approximately 14,000 square feet to 1 acre in size. Population density in this land use designation generally ranges from 3 to 8 persons per acre.
• COMMERCIAL (CO) and a building intensity range. For example: .1.0 floor area ratio (floor area ratio is calculated by dividing building square footage by the lot size. If you have a 500 square foot building on a 1000 square foot lot you have a floor area ratio of .5. If you add a second story the building square footage is increased to a 1000 and the floor area ration is now 1.) .
• SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL HIGH (SH) – This designation allows a minimum of 3.8 and a maximum of 5.5 units per gross acre. Parcel sizes range from approximately 6,000 to 8,600 square feet. Population density would normally range between 12 to 18 persons per acre.
• MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL HIGH (MH) – This designation allows a minimum of 9.6 dwelling units and a maximum of 16.7 dwelling units per gross acre. Expected population density would normally range between 20 to 36 persons per acre.
• BUSINESS PARK (BP) – Maximum Site Coverage: 50 percent , Maximum Building Height: 50 feet , Maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR): 2.0, Average Employees per Gross Acre: 87

The major intent of the Land Use Element is to take these disparate designations and create an appropriate mix of uses. Local commercial or shopping centers may be compatible with residential uses. Light industrial areas may act as a buffer to heavy industrial areas. Transitioning from one land use to another, i.e. Single Family High to Single Family Low, is a critical function of the element.

Perhaps the most used part of the Land Use Element is the map. The map is a pictorial representation of the land use designations described in the Land Use Element. It provides a general view of the types of development that will be permitted or encouraged in a particular area. City residents can easily identify places of interest on the map and can determine which types of land uses apply to surrounding areas. It will not show what will be built on a specific parcel.

The land use map will identify general areas where future development may occur and should not be confused with a zoning map. Zoning maps apply precise boundaries, detailed regulations, legal effects and must comply with the land use designation.

Oakley’s original General Plan was adopted by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in 1973. Land use designations were determined by the existing property owners and the county at this time. Although the General Plan can be amended, changing the land use designation against the will of the property owner will generally initiate litigation.

Any changes to the General Plan must be carefully considered. If the City were to initiate a change that would affect the value of the property, such as “down zoning” a piece of property by amending the General Plan designation to provide a lower density of development or reverting to lower-intensity uses, it would more than likely result in a “taking”.

A “taking” can occur as a physical taking, such as the use of eminent domain to build roads, or as a “regulatory taking” which is considered to be an uncompensated taking of private property occurring through government regulation.

Everyone who buys property, whether it’s our primary home or for future development, has an expectation of a return on our investment. If we, as a City, were to pass a regulation or ordinance that would substantially reduce the value of that investment the City could be required to pay damages, which could include the value of the property and the lost profit when the developer did not meet his investment expectations.