Jon Sakol Corrects the Record on Pool Takeover

I don’t want to re-argue whether the club’s lease should have been renewed, but I do think the narrative of what really happened is important.  Otherwise, it will be too easy to forget that, if the city cannot afford to keep the pool open or open full time, it will not be the members of the tax review committee or the city council that will suffer, it will be those who use the pool, who were willing to continue to fund the pool themselves, who will suffer.  > Click to read more…

Statement to City Council by Piedmont Resident Regarding a Roundabout at Moraga & Maxwelton

Concerning PRFO’s Blair Park traffic plan, the proposed mini-roundabout at Maxwelton and Moraga is entirely contrary to the Federal Highway Administration’s Feb. 2010 Technical Summary concerning single lane mini-roundabout intersections. > Click to read more…

Isn’t it time for the City’s Municipal Tax Review Committee to come out of the basement and meet in a more public setting, such as the City Council chambers, where meetings can be broadcast to Piedmont residents via KCOM and videotaped for city archives.

This important, nine-member committee of Piedmont residents has been meeting bi-weekly or weekly on Wednesday evenings for the past several months in the Piedmont Police Dept.’s emergency operations room on Highland Avenue.  The committee and City staff sit at tables arranged horse-shoe style around the room, while the audience must find seats in a few randomly placed office desk chairs in the back of the room.  Last week’s meeting drew an “overflow” crowd of about a dozen Piedmonters, requiring four or late comers to either stand or sit on the floor, including the City Administrator. > Click to read more…

Read comments from Jack Follick, Richard Raushenbush and Rick Schiller
and join the lively discussion on artificial turf replacement.

“PRFO has firmly asserted turf replacement cost is not a responsibility of PRFO or the private sports clubs.”

“Most [School] Districts do not have the use we have by outside groups. . . . . “

Read more . . .

Will voters paint with too broad a brush?

The worst kept secret in Piedmont is that City Council decisions involving utility undergrounding, staff benefits, and recreational facilities have created a fiscal crisis.  As bad, if not worse, the Council has no strategy for fixing the problem.   Indeed, it remains unclear how we will avoid what a member of the Council appointed Municipal Review Tax Committee (MRTC) called a “homeowner’s revolt” when the city increases the sewer tax by 50% and asks Piedmonters, already among the most heavily taxed homeowners in the state, to extend the parcel tax.  The MRTC further noted that without major change in Council behavior, the city would soon incur large deficits even if the parcel tax were extended. > Click to read more…

A letter from Randy Wedding

One of the ongoing mysteries surrounding the Piedmont City Council’s handling of the Blair Park project is their apparent obliviousness to the liability associated with the under-engineered traffic solution.  If there is a traffic accident with an injury or fatality in the immediate vicinity of Blair, if and when the proposed project is completed as designed, the City is likely to get sued.  With the copious comments in the record about > Click to read more…

Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent to the Piedmont City Council and Park Commissioners regarding landscaping the city-owned property at 801 Magnolia. The matter will be heard at the Wednesday, July 6, Park Commission meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers.

June 30, 2011

Dear Council Members and Commissioners:

The citizens of Piedmont are indeed fortunate that the Piedmont Center for the Arts (PCArts) will open soon in the long-abandoned building at the corner of Magnolia and Bonita. While the interior will be a venue for bringing the community together to celebrate our city’s diverse talents, the expansive outdoor portion of the property ought to showcase creative landscape design—as well as honor Piedmont’s adopted Bay-Friendly ordinance. > Click to read more…

A letter from Bernard Pech discussing a new opportunity the Internet may offer Piedmont teachers

Our Piedmont Unified School District teachers are confronted on a daily basis with the contradictory expectations of two extreme categories of parents in our well-off community (I exaggerate): those (say type A) who want very structured classes with heavy curriculum and teachers dispensing knowledge; and those (type B) who want very interactive classes where creativity is fostered through discovery, investigative learning, and critical thinking. > Click to read more…

A letter from Joanne Semitekol on the Blair Park process

According to Geoff Grote in the June 22nd ‘The Blair Park Project’  article in East Bay Express, $65,000 is now needed for environmental and legal studies regarding a traffic plan for the project.  Early on in the process, I for one, and several others requested, even pleaded with City Council, to conduct a thorough traffic study for Moraga Avenue to insure a viable project BEFORE embarking on a premature Environmental Impact Study.   Instead the City Council chose to move ahead and conduct > Click to read more…

Comments before the Piedmont School Board, June 22, 2011

I am a very long time Piedmont resident. On May 25, Mr. Gadbois asked Ms. Hubbard a critical question, inquiring if turf replacement can be charged as a direct cost to the private sports clubs.  I note the Piedmont sports clubs are given priority access to the School District fields, and this is certainly a special benefit for them. > Click to read more…