San Leandro Focus

Dear Friends and Neighbors: Congratulations to Mariellen Faria, Gordon Galvan and Roxann Lewis for their winning campaigns for the Eden Healthcare District Board. I wish you the best of success in meeting the healthcare needs of the residents of the Eden Area and specifically keeping St. Rose Hospital in Hayward open. I offer my deepest thanks to my supporters across the Eden Area. I appreciate your encouragement and kind words over the course of the campaign. I wish the outcome could have been different so I could  have served you on the District Board.  However, I am hopeful for the future of the District under the leadership of the newly elected Directors. In particular, I am excited for the victory of Gordon Galvan who shares with me the vision that the Eden District needs to return to its original mission of providing, directly or indirectly, healthcare services. I  believe I played a positive role in shaping the discussion of the issues for the Eden District candidat

I am running for the Eden Healthcare District Board to expand access for healthcare in the Eden Area (Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley and San Lorenzo) and to keep St. Rose Hospital in Hayward open for decades to come. As Mayor of San Leandro, I helped prevent the planned closure of San Leandro Hospital. Today, St. Rose Hospital is in a financially dangerous position. The closure of St. Rose would be devastating for the 160,000 residents of Hayward. St. Rose is the only acute care general hospital in Hayward. Losing St. Rose would also have negatively impact patients using hospitals in San Leandro and Castro Valley. St. Rose receives over 40,000 patient visits to its emergency room each year. The current members of the Eden Health Board fail to appreciate the importance of saving St. Rose. If elected, I will dedicate myself to keeping St. Rose open. Please complete your election ballot and vote for Stephen Cassidy for Eden Health District Board. Respectfully, Stephe

Preventing the closure of St. Rose Hospital is one of the principal reasons why I am running for the Eden Heath District Board.  Let me explain why this is a pressing issue for the community: Only one acute care general hospital serves the 160,000 residents of Hayward: St. Rose Hospital. Located next to Highway 880 at Tennyson Road, St. Rose is the second largest safety net hospital in Alameda County, receiving over 40,000 emergency room visits annually. In addition to an emergency room, the hospital has an intensive care unit, surgery rooms, labor and delivery rooms, women’s health center and cardiac receiving center. Every second counts in an emergency. The loss of St. Rose would be devastating for Hayward resident. Furthermore, residents of Castro Valley and San Leandro would see emergency response times and waiting periods at acute care hospitals in their cities due to the spillover effect of patients previously seen at St. Rose being sent to Eden, San Leandro and Kais

I am proud to have the support of many accomplished leaders in our community, including: Wilma Chan, Alameda County Supervisor Pauline Cutter, San Leandro Mayor Carole Rogers, RN, Director, Desert Healthcare District and former President, Eden Township Healthcare District Aisha Knowles, Trustee, Alameda County Board of Education Kinkini Banerjee, Vice President, Alameda Health System Elsa Ortiz, President, Alameda County Transit Board of Directors Hermy Almonte, former Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District  Rebecca Saltzman, BART Director Evelyn Gonzalez, Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District  Jim Prola, former Vice Mayor, City of San Leandro Victor Aguilar, Jr., Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District  Diana Prola, Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District  Leo Sheridan, Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District  Mike Katz-Lacabe, former Trustee, San Leandro Unified School District Our Revolution San Lean

Our tax dollars can make a real difference in the lives of our children and prosperity of a community. Twelve years ago San Leandro High School was grossly overcrowded leading to discipline problems and undermining academic performance, no theater in the school district existed for student performances, and many restrooms at schools were in such poor condition that the students would not use them. That all changed in August 2006 when the School Board voted to place Measure  B on the ballot. The largest school construction bond in San Leandro’s history, Measure B received overwhelming support and led to the physical transformation of San Leandro public school (combined with the passage of two subsequent bond measures and one earlier measure). With better public schools, San Leandro has become a more desirable city to live, helping attract and retain families who previously would have never moved to San Leandro or moved away when the children were in middle school. Here is a

I am pleased to announce that I am a candidate for the Eden Healthcare District Board. I wish to expand access to health care to the People of Castro Valley, Hayward, San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview and San Leandro, as your representative on the Eden Board. Today, the Eden District funds health education programs. While useful, this is not why the District was established. I will refocus the District on its historic role of providing health care. We must keep St.  Rose, a nonprofit, community hospital in Hayward, open and expand access to health care across the Eden Area. This photos is from the press conference announcing the saving of San Leandro Hospital from closure by Sutter Health and its transfer to public ownership under the Alameda Health System.  As Mayor of San Leandro I worked tirelessly to keep San Leandro Hospital open. In collaboration with the Alameda County Supervisors, and in particular Supervisor Wilma Chan, we kept the emergency room open and tr

On July 6, 2018, the City mailed a legal document to all San Leandro commissioners requiring that they sign the document by July 13, 2018, attesting to their acknowledgement that they are contractually obligated to never "demean or besmirch the reputation" of Mr. Zapata.  Failure to sign this document will result in their "forfeiture" from office as a commissioner. The Mayor and City Council have made a serious mistake in placing a restriction on the speech of all City employees and City Commissioners in the course of reaching an agreement with former City Manager Chris Zapata for his departure in exchange for a payment of $350,000. Presumably the Mayor and City Council acted on the poor advice of the City Attorney.  But the decision is their responsibility. The Mayor and City Council have caused great stress and anxiety for all City Commissioners - who give freely of their time for the betterment of the community. [Disclosure: My wife is a commissioner. She

I have advocated that San Leandro amend its cannabis ordinance to allow the dispensaries licensed in San Leandro to sell cannabis to adults for recreational use. Presently the ordinance limits sales to solely persons with a medical authorization card. Unless you possess such a card, you will not be able to walk into a cannabis dispensary in San Leandro and purchase any product. At least one dispensary, the Davis Street Wellness Center, and possibly a second cannabis disp ensary will open in San Leandro later this year. [Disclosure: I work for a company whose CEO is the primary owner of the Davis Street Wellness Center.] There are several reasons why I support this amendment to the local ordinance. The principal one is the sale of cannabis to adults for recreational purposes is now legal under state law. There is no need for any adult to spend $50-$80 a year to obtain a medical marijuana card. Consequently, there is no reason why sales to adults should remain restricted in local c

While this blog is focused on San Leandro, I must express my outrage that President Trump is elevating cruelty to a mass level in America to serve his perceived political interests. His policy of separating children from their parents who have been detained for entering the US without documentation is causing irreparable harm to these children and extreme stress and anxiety to the parents.  He combines this cruelty with outright lying and deception by claiming this new policy was forced upon him by the Democrats. Walter Shaub had aptly stated:  “Citing deterrence as a basis for the atrocities at the border is an admission that the goal is terror. Citing Romans 13 is to emulate the German Nazis, slaveholders and South Africa’s supporters of apartheid. This is reminiscent of the Japanese internment camps we set up in WWII.”   For context: “President Trump has calculated that he will gain political leverage in congressional negotiations by continuing to enforce a policy he claims

I support a measure that would raise revenue for our local public schools to lower class sizes. California has some of the most overcrowded classrooms in the nation. Large classes are an obstacle to student achievement and cause stress for teachers leading to greater teacher turnover and less young persons entering the profession.  The school district's current $39 annual parcel tax expires on June 30, 2018.  Here is a recent letter to the San Leandro Times from the local teachers' union President Jon Sherr on this topic: There has been a quiet ren aissance in the San Leandro public schools over the last 5 years.   The changes have been numerous and when taken as a whole, dramatic.  A partial list includes: increased Advanced Placement enrollment leading to a recent award by College Board naming SLHS a national leader (San Leandro Times, April 12), SAT testing for all high school juniors, ongoing improvements to each school’s facilities, teacher-led staff development

I don't understand why police officials rush to make a statement not based on the facts.  On Monday, the day after the fatal Uber crash in Arizona , Sylvia Moir, the police chief, told reporters that from her viewing of the video, it appeared that neither the driver nor the self-driving car were at fault. "It’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode,” Moir stated. "The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front  of them." We were led to believe the victim entered the roadway suddenly right before the collision. Now we learn that (1) the victim was in the roadway already when struck, (2) the victim could be seen from a considerable distance before she was struck, (3) the driver in the Uber self-driving car was not acting as a backup, e.g. she was not looking at the road, (4) the Uber vehicle neither slowed down nor tried to swerve to avoid the collision.  The car's technology - video, radar

The Florida shooting has left me so angry and upset with our President, Congress and society as a whole. We value the right to bear arms to such an extent that it is perfectly lawful for individuals to own military grade weapons that have one purpose only: kill scores of people in just a few minutes.  What has also affected me is having a daughter who is a freshman in high school. Five of the victims were 14-year old girls like my daughter . I can't imagine the grief, sorrow and rage all of the parents of the victims must be experiencing.  As Mayor, after the elementary school massacre in Newton, Connecticut in 2012, I joined with over 700 other Mayors in calling for Congress to pass legislation to take high capacity rifles and ammunition magazines off our streets. That did not obviously occur. I plan on channeling my outrage into donating to Democratic candidates for Congress this Fall and supporting gun control advocacy groups.

Seeing photos of the victims of the Florida school shooting is heart wrenching. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the loved ones who died. Such beautiful young people taken away by the act of one person, obviously troubled and obviously equipped with a military-grade weapon that no civilian in our society needs or should possess. What happened in Florida reminded me that the San Leandro Police Department, 5 years, ago conducted a major active shooter exercise at San Leandro High School in coordination with the school district, Alameda County Fire Department and Paramedics Plus. Subsequently, the police department undertook a similar exercise at the Bayfair Mall. I had advocated that the police department undertake mock active shooter exercises. At the time, some in the community criticized me for supporting these exercises because, they claimed, these were such rare events that it was a waste of city money to train for them. Today, mass killings have sadly beco

This message was posted on NextDoor by San Leandro resident Aaron Bukofzer: "This coming Monday, February 5th, the San Leandro City Council will be holding a meeting at which they will be discussing a process for updating and improving the Zoning Code. Many of us from the community believe that we now have an opportunity to close some of the loopholes created by the prior Zoning Code amendments in 2016. We want to make sure that future development is of an appropriate scale that complies with the intent of the 2016 amendments that were enacted with substantial public input. To that end, we've met with with members of the City Council in recent weeks. Also, on Jan 8th, we attended the City Council meeting and raised three issues during the public comments section. Evan Adams spoke about ambiguities in the General Plan that could be interpreted as saying that all P-zoned properties should be consider "Downtown mixed use". Evan pointed out the absurdity of th

Despite a booming local economy, a $5 million general fund surplus when I left office, and overseeing the Yes on Measure HH campaign that resulted in a $10 million boast in sales tax revenue in fiscal year 2015-16, the City of San Leandro is now running multi-million dollar deficits with no end in sight.  How could this occur? Exploding employee pension costs is the prime reason. Employee salary and benefit costs jumped $7 million from fiscal year 2016-17 to the current fiscal year. Mayor Cutter and City Council needed to continue to make progress on employee pension costs in labor negotiations and didn’t. These photos are from San Leandro Finance Director David Baum’s presentation at the city planning retreat on January 20, 2018.  Here is a link to presentation powerpoint . Here is an article on the San Leandro budget deficit from the San Leandro Times : City Budget Forecast:  In the Red San Leandro Times, February 1, 2018 The City of San Leandro’s unfun

This Saturday, January 20th, the San Leandro City Council is holding its annual planning session at the San Leandro Senior Community Center, located at 13909 East 14th Street, from 8:30 a.m. until approximately 2:00 p.m. The meeting will include opportunities for public comments and questions. Why is this meeting important? For two reasons: (1) the City Finance Director provides a multi-year forecast on the city budget and (2) the City Council sets goals and priorities for our local government for the coming year and beyond. If we want to influence what issues our local elected officials should address, Saturday is the time to speak up. In addition, the budget update is extremely important. Neighboring cities have reported that despite rising revenues they expect to run deficits in the coming years due to continuing increases in pension and retiree health care costs. San Leandro has been running a budget surplus the past several years. That all may be about to change

I sent the following message to the Mayor and City Council today concerning the need for independent appraisal prior to the sale of any City owned properties, including property along the San Leandro shoreline for the proposed Cal Coast development: I see the City Council has several properties under discussion for transfer/sale in closed session agenda today. 3.A. Closed session pursuant to California Government Code section 54956.8: CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS Property: Alameda County APN 075 0209 001 00 Agency negotiator: Cynthia Battenberg, Community Development Director Negotiating parties: Wells Fargo Bank Under negotiation: Price and Terms of Payment City of San Leandro 3.B. CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS Properties: Alameda County APNs 079A 0475 009 04, 079A 0590 001 07, 079A 0590 001 05, 079A 0590 003 00, 079A 0590 002 00, 079A 0590 004 00, 080G 0900 004 01 Agency negotiator: Cynthia Battenberg, Community Development Director