Minutes November 17, 1999

Meeting brought to order at 5:40 pm by Wade Leschyn.
Members present: Richard Izmirian, Jerry Hearn, Wade Leschyn, Carroll Ann Hodges, Tim Frahm. Tom Forest. Anne Moser.
Members Absent: Mary Paglieri, Gloria Purcell, Keith Mangold.
Members on Leave: Peggy Becket.

Wade volunteered to be interim secretary.

No minutes from the Sept. meeting were submitted. October minutes were approved with corrections.Changes to the agenda included adding discussion of County processes for dispensing Crimp money, and the riparian ordinance, both placed under committee reports.

Public Comment:

Gene Kramer, President of the Abalone and Marine Resources Council lead the public comment session. He said that sport fishing pressures on Fitzgerald Reserve were very light, and that restrictions on shore fishing as called for in the Fitzgerald Master Plan restricts shore access unnecessarily, while commercial fishing can continue unheeded a short distance offshore. He said he was also opposed to restrictions on picnicking on the beach.

Ed Flynn, retired, was next. He said he participated in the creation of the Fitzgerald Marine reserve. He quoted from The California State Constitution, amended in 1910, Article 1, Section 25: “The people shall have the right to fish upon and from the public lands of the State and in the waters thereof,... and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon;...”

Steve Kennedy spoke, said he had received a letter of endorsement from State Senator Byron Sher concerning his Cannonball Express project.

Chair and Staff reports:

Wade Leschyn reported that Anne Moser has been confirmed as a committee member by the Park Commission. He reported that the September minutes are still outstanding.

Gary Lockman distributed a calendar of major public park events for the year 2000. He also distributed an honorary annual pass to the county parks to each member of the committee. He said he has arranged for the automatic door locking schedule of the side sliding doors to be delayed till about 7 pm. He reported that there will be no regular Park Commission meeting for December, but the Commission will meet on December 13 to review the Trails EIR. Tim asked Gary about the Magnolia dump. Tim said some low spots that were beginning to grow willows which would have provided habitat for wildlife, were recently regraded to the level, in a plan to introduce native plants to the area. Tim asked if habitat for wildlife was being considered in the plan. Gary replied that he thought the project was being managed by Public Works, but that the Department of Public Health might be involved because of the concern about the underground production of methane. Gary will check into the matter. Gary also mentioned that the Seymour Bridge project has started but is not continuing. Jerry Hearn asked Gary if a new Calendar for Commission meetings and deadlines for submissions would be prepared for the year 2000.

Committee Reorganization:

Meeting was turned over to Jerry Hearn to lead the discussion about Committee reorganization. Jerry said he wanted to poll each committee member for their thoughts about Supervisor Gordon’s plan, and that he would compile our comments into a letter which would be circulated in draft form among the members of the committee and then forwarded to Supervisor Gordon. Mary Burns agreed that a direct submission to Supervisor Gordon was appropriate as she did not want any appearance of interference in the Committee’s comments.

Carroll Ann was first. She said that she felt that the current committee was a non-technical advisory committee, that she did not feel qualified to be on a technical advisory committee, that Fishnet4C seemed new and potentially restrictive, that she had no objection to an affiliation with Parks, and that if Parks could not support our extension into a larger arena, that she would rather continue with the current structure.

Tom Forest commented that he felt that the committee should have the county wide charter as requested, that we are not a technical advisory committee, that he uses his membership on our committee to spread information and knowledge among and between the other committees he also is a member of.

Wade said he thought Rich Gordon’s comments sounded quite positive when Rich addressed the Committee in September, but that he had a totally different view after reading the written proposal. The extension of the committee’s responsibility into the Fishnet4C arena seemed positive and logical, and gaining some gaining some limited direct reporting to the Board of Supervisors was good. He had no problem with the current reporting structure through the Park’s Commission, and thought that changing the reporting to be primarily through the staff planner was not a good idea.

Tim said he felt the proposal was disingenuous, that it showed a lack of respect for the volunteer effort that the committee has contributed. He said he had a concern about the comment about the committee’s “environmental” bias, that he did not understand how we could be accused of not having a “land use perspective”. He said the existence of a County Fish and Wildlife responsibility was legislated by the State. We had not dispersed any fine moneys this year because no worthwhile projects had come before us.

Richard said that his concern was over what appeared to be a totally bogus history of the committee. He said developers, farm advisors, and contractors had all participated in the committee, and had not found their jobs to be mutually exclusive of showing an abiding interest in the environment. Also the advisory function is different from a technical capacity. He said the proposal sounded like it had been written by the Director of Environmental Services. Mary Burns said this was not true. He said he thought Rich Gordon’s spoken words to the committee was encouraging, but he found the written proposal was not. He asked if the committee was dissolved, would staff then become responsible for distributing funds? Would not the process have to be public?

Ann Moser said as a brand new member that she feels like she stepped into a power struggle. She asked What is a technical advisory committee? What qualifications would members be expected to have? Isn’t there a conflict of interest if county staff would be appointing members, and then expect these same members to be providing advice back to staff? What role is there for the common citizen of San Mateo County?

Jerry said he thought that the verbal and written proposals were entirely different. The written document was very adversarial in it’s approach, and included lots of misinformation. Five projects recently funded were discussed in the committee. We don’t need to develop a request for proposal process, we have one! Moving toward a technical advisory role would take us away from the citizen’s outreach that we do now. We have sought diversity in choosing our membership. Part of the responsibility of a citizens advisory committee is to cause a little trouble, and we would be negligent in our duty if we did not.

Mary Burns said that the meetings resulting in the proposal was an attempt to compromise. Fishnet4C has lots of outside funding, and is a huge workload ahead. We need more people with a different mix on the committee. The committee is not functioning as it should be. We are spending too much time on the process, and are not focusing on the needs of the parks. We need a fresh look at projects. We should recirculate the Patrick Sanchez document on potential projects. She said staff does not make policy. Neither do the policy makers make independent decisions without staff.

Fitzgerald Discussion:

Richard asked our guests to comment on our comments of last month. Gene asked how we planned on battling the non-natives with 1.5 ranger positions and a tight maintenance budget. Tim and Jerry commented that this effort uses a good deal of volunteer labor. Tim asked Gene what he thought about a moratorium on fishing during a data collection phase. Ed said absolutely not. Fishing does not harm the resource. The bucket brigade and decades of school children walking over the reef have done more harm than the fishermen. By encouraging the school children tours the Park Department became part of the problem. Leave the beach alone, allow the original fishing reserve status of the park to stand. Fewer people are fishing the reef today than in 1910 despite the higher population because most of todays population have to work all week.

Carroll Ann noted on page 66, the report says two species of under rock eels are declining. There is no data on fishing catch per unit of effort.

Trails Plan Discussion:

Tim noted that the trails plan does not differentiate between culverts and bridges for stream crossings. The plan would be a good place to discuss and emphasize bridges as the primary means of stream crossings because of the serious negative effects culverts have on fish migration.

Jerry noted that the Trails Plan is a program EIR, that is it lays out only general guidelines, and that each project will require it’s own project specific EIR.

Richard expressed concern that the general language of the program EIR could allow for generalized language in the site specific plan such as: the site specific plan “conforms to the guidelines in the master plan” when in fact there might not be any specific guidelines on a particular topic laid out in the master plan.

Tim expressed concerns about equestrian trails, that the plan should include guidelines such that all equestrian trails should provide for out of stream watering for horses, and that the horses, just like cattle and sheep, not be allowed in the stream or on the stream banks.

Committee Reports:

Carroll Ann made a motion that there be no December meeting of our committee. Seconded by Anne. Motion carried.

Tim discussed the distribution of allocated county crimp money. He said the Board of Supervisors have set aside money for Crimps but monies were unspent because of a lack of county procedures for the agencies to apply for the funding. Gary commented that Sam is designated to have procedures available by mid December. Jerry and Tim both said our committee would volunteer to help Sam. The Board of Supervisors will not allocate new money until the existing money is spent.

8:00 pm, motion to adjourn made by Anne and seconded by Jerry. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted
Wade Leschyn