San Leandro Focus

Last week the San Leandro Times reported : The city adopted it’s 2009- 2010 budget just last month, but new figures show revenue is already down another million dollars from what was projected just weeks ago. The initial budget had a projected cuts of $2.9 million happen this year. But recent sales tax figures were down by $455,000 and property tax was down $600,000, meaning the city’s budget is already off by over a million dollars. In response, at a city council finance committee meeting, Mayor Santos wanted the state constitution amended: Santos also said that he’d like to invoke the city’s charter, which states that the city can impose an increase in property taxes without a vote, but the state passed Prop. 13 in 1978, which caps the increases. Santos said that he’d like to see the state law changed and that, given the budget situation in Sacramento, now is the time to do it. The continued and growing city defict comes as no suprise. As I noted last month , The budget planned for

Next Tuesday, July 14th, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be discussing the future of San Leandro Hospital. Prior to Tuesday, it is important that we contact the Supervisors and let them know that the planned closure of San Leandro Hospital by Sutter Health will have a significant, negative impact on public health in Alameda County. Below is email message I sent today to the Supervisors. Please craft your own message or feel free to use the arguments I made in your message to the Supervisors. The email addresses for the Supervisors are: scott.haggerty@acgov.org; gail.steele@acgov.org; nate.miley@acgov.org; keith.carson@acgov.org; alice.lai-bitker@acgov.org; shawn.wilson@acgov.org; chris.gray@acgov.org; alison.lewis@acgov.org; seth.kaplan@acgov.org; rodney.brooks@acgov.org I have been told that not all Supervisors read their email on a regular basis. Therefore, the list includes the chief of staff for each Supervisor. Please forward this message onto friends and family ac

In June, Judi Burle, a teacher in the San Leandro Unified School District, sent an email message to fellow teachers and members of the community inviting us to march with her in the 2009 Pride Parade in San Francisco. She stated, I am very proud of the pioneering work we have done in our district to teach respect and safety for LGBT people. We're really awesome in this work! So after many years of 20-20 hindsight, this year I'm organizing a group to march in the education section of this years LGBT Pride Parade. I was glad to join Judi and other teachers in the district. We walked at the end of the Coalition of Independent Schools group. While small, this was the beginning of a group that will become much larger with time. It was also I believe the first time any San Leandro group has participated in the Pride Parade. Here is a short video I shot. Finally, on a related topic, I want to share an email message I sent to the Alameda Unified School District Board of Educati

Yesterday in Sacramento Assemblymember Mary Hayashi refused to vote and support a bill by State Senator Ellen Corbett that would have delayed the closure of the emergency room at San Leandro Hospital. In response, Mia Ousley of the Save San Leandro Hospital Coalition wrote: Our State Assemblymember, Mary Hayashi, let us all down yesterday. The Assembly Health Committee voted 9-6 on State Senator Ellen Corbett's SB-196 , which would require more public notice before an ER can be closed. However, the bill needed 10 votes, and MARY HAYASHI DIDN'T VOTE! Please call Hayashi's Sacramento office ASAP -- hopefully before the CNA's Bonnie Castillo meets with Hayashi at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon on this matter. You can call Hayashi's office at 916-319-2018 . Creating procedural barriers to the closure of the ER by Sutter at San Leandro Hospital can help us keep the ER open permanently. This would provide greater time for us to build community pressure across Alameda County on