Hooray!! Better Late than Never...

Look at what's on Tuesday night's agenda! This is a follow-up from the June 19, 2007 meeting where the Commission discussed the need to have a fact sheet put out containing information on the beach redevelopment project. My concern is that this is coming very late - almost a year after the City entered into the agreement with Greater Bay to redevelop the beach. I say this because, according to the transmittal memo issued by the Interim City Manager, the soonest that this could go out in the utility bills would be November of this year. The development agreement was executed in October of last year.

In the mean time, due to the void of information coming from the City, enterprising individuals have filled the vacuum with frightening visions of what would be physically built at the beach, the fiscal implications and environmental consequences resulting from the project. This spread of misinformation manifested itself at resident's front doors and grocery store parking lots in the form of petition gathering efforts to repeal the land use and zoning changes made necessary to enable the project to go forward.

I am not inferring that everyone involved in the signature gathering effort was doing this. One gentleman who came to my door was well-informed and concerned about getting the information right (Fate played a role). We had a long and frank discussion. However, I have heard that there were others that used the opportunity of not having the correct information to create realities that didn't or that will not exist.

One wishes that this information could have gotten out from the City - the final, official source of facts related to the project - much sooner. I attempted as best I could to do the same through this blog, but that really cannot take the place of an official pronouncement from the City itself.

Below, find a portion of the City Commission agenda for next Tuesday night and images of the transmittal letter and, most importantly, the list of facts that are proposed for the official publication. We can be sure that the usual suspects will be there to debate the facts presented, but "facts is facts."







You might want to click on the last page especially and bring it up in a new window for easier reading. But, I would also highly recommend that you print it out and keep in your pocket or purse. Make some additional copies and give it to those people who may have been given the incorrect information while being solicited for their signature on the petitions.

Or, you can click here for the entire item as stored on the City's website (in .pdf form).