Faced with little progress on sanitation, East Palo Alto (EPA) has asked the San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission (SMLAFCo) to subsidize the city's Sanitation District (EPASD) by local government.

This was announced by East Palo Alto Mayor Rubén Abrica, who through a letter addressed to the community and taxpayers specified that since 2019, the East Palo Alto City Council and other interested parties have attempted to collaborate with the EPASD to develop solutions that facilitate the advancement of development projects such as affordable housing, advance the city's objectives, and ensure that accurate information is available when the city considers future development.

"Despite these efforts, very little progress has been made and the City of East Palo Alto has become concerned about the management of this critical system and the City's ability to move forward on development projects that significantly benefit the entire community," the letter said.

The mayor noted that EPASD's request for subsidiary district status is because, according to state law, when a development is planned in the city, developers must pay their fair share of fees to cover the connection of the new building to the sanitation system. 

“Unfortunately, EPASD has been unable to establish connection fees that cover the developers’ share of the improvements needed to accommodate development, and this inaction is obstructing the construction of affordable housing, a health clinic, job training, and employment generating facilities,” he said.

The letter, which is also signed by Interim City Manager Patrick Heisinger, notes that the City recently learned that a closed-circuit television study of 22.2 of the EPASD’s 29.8 miles of sewer lines found that many sections of the district’s aging lines are deteriorated and broken, allowing wastewater to flow into the ground, causing contamination and potential health risks.

What is a subsidiary district?

A subsidiary district is one governed by a city council and operated by a city department, such as the public works department. 

A separate special district may be established as a subsidiary district of the city if the entire area is located within the city limits or if at least 70 percent or more of the area of the district and 70 percent or more of the number of registered voters residing in the district are located within the city limits. 

It should be noted that as a subsidiary district, the district's budget must be separate and distinct from the city's budget and all revenues collected may only be used for the purposes of sewer operations maintenance, capital improvements and treatment.

Officials explained that by establishing the district as a subsidiary district of the city, property taxes will not increase, since in California they are limited to 1.0 percent of the assessed value and the county assessor can only increase the assessed valuation by a maximum of 2 percent per year, unless the property is improved or sold.

In this regard, they highlighted that sewerage operations would be transferred to the City Council as the governing body and to the Department of Public Works for their operation, which would significantly reduce the annual general expenses of approximately 820 thousand dollars in the current budget of the District.

The EPASD was formed in 1939 as an independent special district. While some sections of the system have been replaced, most of the original pipes and manholes remain in service, which is a critical concern for the city and East Palo Alto residents, Abrica said.

On October 6, 2022, the Director General of EPASD informed the Board that in several cases, pipes were broken and wastewater had been released onto the ground. He further stated that “…all of these pipes are in a very deplorable state and the estimated cost of replacing the oldest and most broken pipes will cost $22 million.”

What is at risk of being lost?

Abrica and Heisenger said that without the EPASD grant, 135 affordable apartments, the Ravenswood City School District community center project, the 61,000-square-foot expansion of the Ravenswood Family Health Center and other spaces for local nonprofits that were to be 100% funded by philanthropy would be lost.

Also included is JobTrain's new headquarters, a 102,478-square-foot building dedicated to providing East Palo Alto residents with living-wage employment, and 9,000 square feet of office space dedicated to East Palo Alto small businesses and entrepreneurs.

To ensure transparency and accurate information, the City of East Palo Alto has compiled background and documentation of the City's efforts to address EPASD's inadequate sewer infrastructure that cannot accommodate economic development projects vital to the quality of life of its residents. 

Interested parties can find more information by visiting the website https://www.ci.east-palo-alto.ca.us/publicworks/page/msr-process.

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Los californianos que reciban préstamos estudiantiles perdonados federales no tendrían que pagar impuestos estatales sobre el monto condonado bajo el programa del presidente Joseph Biden, señaló el gobernador Gavin Newsom.

Este sábado, el funcionario estatal pidió a la Legislatura que tome medidas tempranas para garantizar que cualquier alivio de la deuda estudiantil federal proporcionado a los californianos no esté sujeto a impuestos estatales. La propuesta será parte del presupuesto del Gobernador que se publicará en enero.

«Los californianos que obtienen alivio de la deuda estudiantil no deberían pagar impuestos por ello. Esto proporcionará hasta mil 300 millones de dólares en desgravación fiscal para más de 3.5 millones de californianos», señaló Newsom. «Espero trabajar en estrecha colaboración con la legislatura para lograr esto a través de una acción temprana».

California has nearly 3,550,000 eligible borrowers, of whom approximately 2,340,600 are Pell Grant borrowers. 

De acuerdo con el estado, las estimaciones han demostrado que la exención de los impuestos estatales sobre la deuda de préstamos estudiantiles perdonados proporcionará a los californianos un alivio de hasta 1.3 mil millones de dólares. 

Individualmente, los prestatarios ahorrarán en promedio cientos de dólares en impuestos estatales e incluso podrían ahorrar hasta mil 860 dólares, señaló en un comunicado la Oficina del Gobernador Gavin Newsom.

Según la propuesta del presidente Biden, el gobierno federal perdonará hasta 10 mil dólares en préstamos estudiantiles a personas que ganan menos de 125 mil dólares por año y hasta 20 mil dólares a quienes recibieron una Beca Pell, destinada a estudiantes con la mayor necesidad financiera. 

El Plan de Rescate Estadounidense del presidente Biden exime la condonación de la deuda de préstamos estudiantiles de los impuestos federales sobre la renta de 2021 a 2025.

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Ha pasado el momento de usar disfraces y comer dulces, y estamos a tan solo 4 días de que se lleven a cabo elecciones, a ello se suma que cada vez más se siente el ambiente de las celebraciones navideñas, en lo que llegan y te preparas para las compras, estas son las noticias locales del 29 de octubre al 4 de noviembre que debes conocer para estar al día.

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El director de elecciones del condado de San Mateo anunció nueve centros de votación adicionales, para las próximas elecciones intermedias que se llevarán a cabo este 8 de noviembre, mismos que ya se encuentran en funcionamiento a partir de este sábado 29 de octubre.

Así lo informó Mark Church, director de elecciones del condado de San Mateo, quien puntualizó que los centros adicionales se ubican en Burlingame, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica y San Carlos.

En tanto, los centros de votación que abrieron a principios de octubre están en Redwood City, San Mateo y South San Francisco.

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Agentes del condado de San Mateo arrestaron a un hombre identificado como Jason Hewitt, de 34 años, de Modesto, en relación con un caso de agresión.

On Friday, October 28 at 12:01 p.m., San Mateo County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the Russian Ridge Preserve on Alpine Road for a report of an assault that had just occurred.

Responding officers located a female who was eventually transported to the hospital for treatment.

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As if it were a bad joke, Cindy Chavez, mother of a man killed in 2017 by a San Jose Police Department officer, received a restraining order from Santa Clara authorities to protect the officer who killed her son.

The temporary restraining order, filed by the San Jose city attorney in September, requires Chavez, 58, to stay at least 300 yards away from San Jose Police Department Sgt. Mike Pina, who fatally shot her son, Jacob Dominguez, in 2017, San José Spotlight reporter Brian Howey reported. 

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Los propietarios de viviendas de Berkeley pueden solicitar hasta 3 mil dólares en subvenciones de la ciudad para remodelación sísmica de terremotos.

Los funcionarios de Berkeley recuerdan a los propietarios de viviendas que las modificaciones sísmicas pueden ayudar a evitar que las casas se deslicen y se derrumben durante un terremoto. 

Los hogares con ingresos calificados pueden recibir un reembolso por el costo total de una mejora sísmica en su hogar, mientras que otros pueden calificar para recibir hasta tres mil dólares para hacer que sus cimientos sean más resistentes a los terremotos. 

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Algunos residentes de viviendas asequibles en el condado de San Mateo ahora tienen acceso al programa piloto de transporte gratuito compatible con todas las agencias de transporte público en los nueve condados del Área de la Bahía.

Los residentes de viviendas asequibles en propiedades administradas por MidPen Housing obtuvieron acceso al programa Clipper BayPass este lunes, ya que los funcionarios regionales de tránsito buscan hacer que el transporte público sea más fácil de usar y medir la demanda de un sistema de tarifas universal.

BayPass también está disponible para los estudiantes de Santa Rosa Junior College y estudiantes selectos de la Universidad Estatal de San Francisco, la Universidad Estatal de San José y la Universidad de California, Berkeley. 

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San Mateo County publicly discussed the possibility of establishing an oversight committee for the county Sheriff's Office for the first time during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

La Oficina del Fiscal del Condado y Fixin’ San Mateo County, una organización de base local que aboga por la supervisión de la Oficina del Sheriff, realizaron presentaciones sobre los posibles modelos y beneficios de la supervisión, seguidas de comentarios de los supervisores y el público.  

The discussion came in the wake of Assembly Bill 1185, which passed in the fall of 2020 and took effect in 2021. The legislation allows California counties to create citizen oversight boards and suggests research, transparency and community engagement within the process. 

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The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has filed a civil complaint against a crab fisherman who allegedly illegally harvested crabs from a protected area.

An announcement from the Bureau's Environmental and Consumer Unit reports that a civil complaint was filed on Monday against George Jue for allegedly catching 36 live Dungeness crabs in traps located in a Marine Protected Area on January 8, 2022.

The complaint alleges that Jue's actions constitute an unlawful business practice and seeks an injunction to stop the conduct and civil penalties of up to $2,500 for each violation. 

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Like every year, Casa Circulo Cultural and its partners—the San Mateo County History Museum and the Friends of the Redwood City Library—bring the most important celebration of Mexican tradition to the city center: the Day of the Dead.

This time, it will be on Sunday, November 6th when the Plaza del Palacio de Justicia will become the monumental stage where a procession, catrinas, folk dance, Cuban and Peruvian music and even bel canto, will come together to delight the public and, without a doubt, accompany a large part of it to remember the land they left behind and their loved ones who are no longer with us. 

Así, este 6 de noviembre el público podrá disfrutar también de los tradicionales altares, que miembros de la comunidad de Redwood City crearon para esta ocasión a partir de una convocatoria de Casa Círculo Cultural. 

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A días de que se lleven a cabo las elecciones generales, líderes de la iniciativa ProChoice del Condado de San Mateo pidieron que se revoque el apoyo al candidato al Concejo de la Ciudad de San Mateo, Rod Linhares, pues no sólo no apoya los derechos reproductivos, sino que trabaja activamente en contra de ellos.

En un comunicado señalaron que la organización sin fines de lucro ProChoice envió un cuestionario a más de 100 candidatos que se postulan a todos los niveles de los cargos electos del condado; sin embargo, Rod Linhares no los devolvió para aclarar su posición sobre los derechos reproductivos o la Propuesta 1, una medida electoral que enmendaría la constitución del estado de California para nombrar explícitamente el derecho al aborto. 

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You may be interested in: Newsom grants posthumous pardon to woman who provided safe abortions in the 1930s and '40s

This Friday, the governor Gavin Newsom granted a posthumous pardon to Laura Miner, a courageous reproductive health care provider in California from 1934 to 1948 who dedicated her career to providing safe and accessible elective abortions at a time when punitive restrictions forced women to seek unregulated and often medically risky abortions. 

Miner was respected in the medical community as a highly skilled practitioner and cared for patients in need. 

In 1949, Miner was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison on felony charges of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortions.

 “In California, we will never return to a time when women were forced to seek basic medical care in back rooms and underground clinics,” Newsom said. 

“Laura Miner’s story is a powerful reminder of the generations of people who fought for reproductive freedom in this country and the risks so many Americans now face in a post-Roe world. Miner paid a price for taking a stand, and today we are taking a step to right this injustice and reaffirm California’s commitment to uphold the hard-won progress made by countless advocates and health care providers over decades,” she stressed.

For her part, the governor's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, pointed out that this pardon is a reaffirmation of California's commitment to defend reproductive rights and protect those who seek or provide abortion services.

“As a woman and a mother, I am so grateful for Laura Miner’s courage and dedication to providing women with safe reproductive care in the face of tremendous personal risk. Now, more than 70 years after Ms. Miner was wrongfully convicted, we must channel her strength and determination as we fight to protect and ensure in the U.S. a woman’s basic right to make decisions about her own body and her future,” she said.

For Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, “Laura Miner was a hero ahead of her time who willingly gave up her own freedom to save countless women, women who risked everything to make their own health care decisions and, in a very basic sense, choose their own futures.”

In that regard, she stressed that “Laura’s bravery deserved to be praised, not prosecuted, and I am grateful that we have evolved enough to be able to forgive her today. Laura’s story of subversive care eerily foreshadows what we may see when courts and legislatures across the country roll back our reproductive rights. We remember her and the generations of women who had no choice but to seek care in the shadows, as we continue the work to ensure that California is a beacon of reproductive justice and access for all.”

Notably, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Governor Newsom and the Legislature took steps to advance reproductive freedom with new measures to further protect patients and providers from legal retaliation, assist women in other states seeking abortion services, and expand reproductive health care access and affordability.

In turn, legislative measures have been signed to ensure that pregnancy loss is not criminalized, safeguard the privacy of medical records, and prohibit law enforcement and corporations from cooperating with entities from other states regarding legal abortions in California, among many other actions.

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Bay City News

San Mateo County residents do not have to pay enrollment fees for the upcoming spring semester at any of the colleges within the San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD), the district announced this week.

California Senate Bill 893, passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this year, authorizes the district to use unrestricted general funds to waive enrollment fees for the upcoming spring semester. 

SMCCCD schools are Canada College, College of San Mateo, and Skyline College.

El proyecto de ley solo elimina las tarifas para el distrito del condado de San Mateo porque es una región con un alto costo de vida, según el autor del proyecto de ley, el senador estatal Joshua Becker, demócrata por San Mateo. Dependiendo de la necesidad financiera documentada, los estudiantes también pueden estar exentos de pagar otras tarifas.

Aquellos que no son residentes del condado de San Mateo aún pueden calificar para otros programas de becas y servicios gratuitos. 

Los alumnos con estatus migratorio irregular que residen en el condado de San Mateo y que también son elegibles para la exención de la tarifa de no residentes para estudiantes indocumentados pueden calificar tanto para la exención de la tarifa de matrícula como para esta exención de la tarifa de inscripción.

Cabe destacar que los nuevos estudiantes pueden recibir la ayuda después de aplicar a las universidades de SMCCCD y confirmar su dirección y residencia.

La exención se aplicará automáticamente a las cuentas de los estudiantes que continúan después de la confirmación de su dirección.

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Bay City News

El Camino Real in Redwood City reopened Saturday morning after a fatal collision occurred Friday night.

The Redwood City Police Department (RCPD) reported on the evening of November 4 that two people died in the crash that occurred in the area of El Camino Real and Finger Avenue.

Police said the collision occurred at approximately 7:56 p.m. on Friday.

Responding officers located two vehicles on the west sidewalk of El Camino Real with significant damage and one vehicle on fire, so they used fire extinguishers from their patrol vehicles to put out the fire.

A 17-year-old male driver and two passengers were located inside the vehicle. All three were transported to the hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Two adults in the other vehicle were later confirmed dead, authorities said.

The RCPD reported at around 5:15 a.m. Saturday that the road had reopened.

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