Strike Averted: San Carlos School District Reaches Agreement with Teachers

Deal Reached

Much to the relief of parents of San Carlos school-age kids, it was announced today that a tentative agreement has been reached between the San Carlos School District and the San Carlos Teachers Association, thus averting a possible teacher’s strike at the beginning of the school year.  The deal that has been reached is discussed in greater detail in this article from the Daily Journal, and the new proposal must still be approved by the Board of Trustees in their July 22 meeting.

An “A+” for persistence and patience on both sides.  These negotiations have been ongoing for months, and had hit a standstill on several occasions.  But it’s a huge relief that there will be now strike.  That would not have been a great way to start the school year!

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BlockShopper: Too Much Information About San Carlos Real Estate?

Crossing the Line?

I’m a big fan of real estate-related websites, if you couldn’t already tell.   The internet continues to put more and more real estate information at the fingertips of the consumer, where it rightfully belongs.   And informed clients are empowered clients, in my book.   When it comes to putting as much useful information on one page as possible, I think Redfin has one of the best real estate websites out there — even though they are a competitor!    Even Burbed, one of my all-time favorites, has good info hidden amongst the snarky commentary.  And there are many more good, informative websites out there that educate both buyers and sellers.

But is all the information out there necessarily useful information?  Or relevant?   I don’t think so.   I recently found a website called BlockShopper that illustrates my point.

A Home Sale Becomes a “Press Release”.

BlockShopper, which describes itself as a “San Francisco real estate news, data and statistics, home sales and real estate listings” website, is packed with lots of useful real estate information — listings, neighborhood sales information, and even a section that refers you to cleaners, carpenters, etc..    Like Redfin, they do a nice job of packaging lots of information in an easy to use website.   So far, so good….

But when you click on the “News” tab, you’ll see a list of articles that contain an unnerving amount of information about the buyers and/or sellers in a particular transaction, almost in a “press release” format — where they are employed, how long they’ve been employed there…perhaps even where they went to school.   Here’s a Castro Valley listing that I picked at random that’s typical of the kind of information you’ll see: Arabic teacher, eBay exec lists Castro Valley 4BD.

Voyeurism, or Useful Information?

While all of this information may be highly entertaining to some, is it really relevant to a real estate transaction?  More important, does it cross any privacy boundaries?    It seems that BlockShopper pulls a lot of this data from LinkedIn and other publicly-available websites, so it’s probably fair game.   But I can imagine that most people who are buying or selling a home right now can’t be too pleased that this fact is being blasted all over the internet, along with their life story.

The news tab is even segmented by City, which means you can find all kinds of useless and personal information about just about any city, even those people who have bought and sold recently in San Carlos.

What do you think?    Is this a case of TMI?    If you were selling your home today, would you care if anyone knew all of this info?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…  Leave a comment below!

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If Outsourcing is “The Right Path” for San Carlos, Why Stop at Public Safety?

“A Paradigm Shift”

In last week’s press release in which he formally unveiled his preference to outsource the Police, Fire, and Park Maintenance services, San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss spoke of a need to change the way we provide services in the future:

“What I am proposing in this year’s budget is a paradigm shift in how we view City services in San Carlos.  Rather than continue to attempt to provide the full range of City services mostly in-house, I believe it is time to accelerate the use of contract services in several areas in an effort to improve efficiency and take advantage of economies of scale, while embracing a regional service delivery model.”

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this site already about two of the proposals that are on the table right now. But setting aside the specifics of these proposals for a moment, and focusing instead on the general concept behind this paradigm shift, the question begs to be asked:

Why Not Other Departments?

If you take a quick look at how the City of San Carlos is organized and which services the City currently provides in-house, you start to see that there are a number of other services that could also be potentially handled by an outside agency.  San Mateo County already has a Building Department, a Planning Department,  and probably a Housing Department — Emerald Hills, and other communities in the County utilize these resources already.  The County also has the infrastructure to handle Administration and Payroll, and I would imagine that their benefits package is more cost-effective simply due to the economies of scale.  And the list goes on…

Now before you fire up the hate mail, understand that I have the utmost respect for the professionals that currently serve these roles in San Carlos (just as I do our Police and Fire Departments.)  I call on them quite often for information and clarification on building codes,  or an update on what’s happening on Wheeler Plaza, etc..    I have spoken with several council members who refer to this group as “the brains behind the operation”, and I totally concur.  I’m not suggesting for a nanosecond that we remove a single one of them.

But in the spirit of “the same or better service” mantra that’s being repeated regarding the Fire and Police proposals on the table, couldn’t the same “paradigm shift” be applied to other departments achieve additional cost savings to the City of San Carlos?

Of Course Not.

There are probably a hundred reasons one could envision for not doing this — and the top of the list would be that  wouldn’t want to risk losing the Al Savay’s, or Mark Sawicki’s, or Deborah Nelson’s or, Chris Valley’s that we have already…although one could apply the same argument that working for a larger organization provides more career opportunities — you know, the same carrot that we’re dangling in front of our police force right now.  But then shouldn’t we have the same concern about losing our Police Commanders, Detectives,  Fire Captains, and Engineers?

Is it really fair to apply this “paradigm shift” to only a select few departments in the City of San Carlos?  Sure, public safety accounts for about 57% of our current budget.  But what about the other 43%?   With such dramatic savings being touted by outsourcing Fire and Police, couldn’t some additional savings be achieved by applying this principle across the board?

Maybe that way, we could bring back a live receptionist at City Hall.  Or staff an additional officer during our peak hours.  Or put a fourth firefighter on our rigs?

What Does it Say if We Don’t?

Perhaps there are no savings to be gained by further outsourcing.  But if we proceed down our current path of just outsourcing Public Safety, what does that say about our value system?  Is it right that we apply a different yardstick to one department, and not another?   What keeps coming back to me are the following two thoughts:

1. Either our City Manager views Public Safety as a commodity, even though he states otherwise.  Or,
2. If we can’t apply the same model across the board, maybe outsourcing isn’t the right solution after all.

What are your thoughts?

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A Milestone…

“Stick-to-it-iveness”

This post also has absolutely nothing to do with real estate….or San Carlos.  But it is the 500th article on the White Oaks Blog.   My hands hurt just thinking about that number.  When I started this site in the fall of 2007, I couldn’t fathom finding the material (or the initiative) to write 5 articles, let alone 500.   But the odometer that keeps track of site data has been slowly clicking away, and after 500 posts, 1,349 comments, and probably about 300,000 words (I’m just guessing on this last one, but I’m probably not too far off ), here we are.   That’s a lot of ….whatever you want to call it.

What does this mean?  I don’t know… I guess if you stick to something long enough…well,  you get stuck to it.   It also means that if I get an early onset of arthritis, I’ll know exactly why.

A Long, Interesting Journey.

Far more interesting than the numbers, is the path this site has taken over the past two or so years.  What started out as a place to post real estate data slowly evolved into a community bulletin board of sorts — it didn’t take long to figure out that while people in San Carlos are certainly interested in real estate, they’re absolutely passionate about the issues that pertain to their neighborhoods, their schools, and their city.   This is a good thing!  And with all that has been happening in San Carlos over the past 3 years, both good and bad, there has been no shortage of things to write about.

This site has opened doors and has taken me places I would never have imagined going, like landing this impromptu 30-second gig on KCBS radio.  That was definitely a trip!

But the biggest surprise to me about this site, and the aspect I treasure most, is the personal connections that it has created for me.   I have made friends with many great people through the site that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise — residents, City Council members, police officers, fellow bloggers…all different people, but all who share a common desire to make San Carlos a great place to live.

It has been an interesting journey, that’s for sure. … Click Here to Continue Reading

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Psst!!.. do you like what you’re reading? Click here to subscribe to the site for free, and you’ll get updates sent automatically to you. And for more information about San Carlos, be sure to follow the White Oaks Blog on Facebook and on Twitter.
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How Safe Are We in San Carlos?

San Carlos is known for being a relatively safe community.  It’s one of the big reasons that people choose to settle here and raise families — it’s still very much a “bedroom community” that until recently enjoyed relative obscurity.   When I used to work in Silicon Valley, most people I talked with had no idea where San Carlos was even located!  And that’s fine for most residents of San Carlos — a big part of the charm of this city is that it has been a hidden gem on the Peninsula for many years.

But the public safety of San Carlos isn’t something we can take for granted anymore, especially during this period of financial crisis.    Have you gotten the feeling recently that there are more crimes being reported in San Carlos?  Do you know someone who has been a victim of a crime in San Carlos?  It’s not your imagination that crime is on the uptick — because it is.

“Part 1 Crimes” Increased by 25% in 2009.

In tonight’s San Carlos City Council Meeting, Police Chief Greg Rothaus will present some alarming statistics to the City Council in his Annual Report on Police Services.  In a period of time where our police budget is being slashed, headcount reduced, and services being outsourced, Part 1 Crimes (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, arson, and motor vehicle theft) have increased by 25% from 2008.   Here’s the graphic that he will present this evening:

With the huge budget deficit that the Council must resolve this year, there’s no guarantee that police services won’t be slashed further.  To download Chief Rothaus’ complete report, click here:  San Carlos Police Report-2009

Fire Department Update

In tonight’s Council meeting, Fire Chief Douglas Fry will also be presenting his quarterly update to the Council and City Manager.  The Fire Department has fared a bit better in the funding area, as they have recently secured grants that will enable them to upgrade their radio system to be compliant with FCC mandates.  But department staffing and equipment allocation remains a big concern within the Department, because it has a direct impact on speed and quality of their response.

You’re probably aware of the fatal home fire that happened just a few days ago in Devonshire Canyon.  According to a source close to City Hall, Chief Fry will also discuss this incident in detail at this evening’s Council Meeting, with the current budget cuts as the underlying theme.  Should be a very compelling presentation.

If You’re Interested…

Tonight’s City Council meeting starts at 7:00 PM at the San Carlos City Hall, 600 Elm Street.    The meeting is open to the public.

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Psst!!.. do you like what you’re reading? Click here to subscribe to the site for free, and you’ll get updates sent automatically to you. And for more information about San Carlos, be sure to follow the White Oaks Blog on Facebook and on Twitter.
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Spike in COFI Index May Spell Trouble for Some San Carlos Homeowners.

Is your home is financed with an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM)?   Do you know what index your ARM is based on?  If you don’t know, now would be a very good time to find out, because one of the two major indices that determines your monthly payment just took a huge spike upward — and the result for you could be significantly higher monthly mortgage payments.

If you recall from a previous blog post discussing ARMs, the rate that you pay on an ARM is comprised of  two components:  The margin and the index.   Since the margin is generally fixed by the bank at the outset of the loan, variations in your payments will coincide with variations in the index.   So depending on which index your ARM is based on, you have had a widely differing ride over the past few years.     The two most widely used indices are the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR), or the 11th District Monthly Weighted Average Cost of Funds Index (COFI).

LIBOR rates spiked wildly during the credit crisis of 2008, but COFI has remained relatively flat to down.  In fact, if you have a COFI-based ARM, you have probably seen your payments drop steadily over the past few years… but that is all about to change.  … Click Here to Continue Reading

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Psst!!.. do you like what you’re reading? Click here to subscribe to the site for free, and you’ll get updates sent automatically to you. And for more information about San Carlos, be sure to follow the White Oaks Blog on Facebook and on Twitter.
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