First of all, of course, is the annual Woodside Junior Rodeo, now in its 59th year of bringing a taste of the Old West to our Town and showcasing youthful equestrian talent. Presented each year by the Mounted Patrol of San Mateo County, the festivities include a dinner and dance at 6 p.m. on the night of July 3rd and the Rodeo itself on the Fourth.

The Rodeo will again be held at the Mounted Patrol headquarters at 521 Kings Mountain Road, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Kids under 18 are $7, adults are $15, and children under 6 are free. The “famous” Pig Scramble is held in the afternoon and the petting zoo is open all day. The main Rodeo activities – roping, bull riding, barrel racing, and more – really kick off after noon with the presentation of the Colors. For more information call (650) 851-8300, or to check out some exciting pictures from previous Rodeos see here.

We know many people like to start their patriotic juices flowing with a parade, and there’s no better opportunity for that than the annual Redwood City Fourth of July parade! Redwood City’s “Family Fourth” is now celebrating its 71st year of family fun with the biggest Independence Day parade in Northern California. The internationally famous parades theme this year is “All Things Musical” and features 200 entrants divided into five divisions, including marching bands, antique vehicles, youth and community groups, veterans groups, Shriners, lots of horse riders, and even a calliope! To see this year’s entrants, check here – you’ll even see the Mounted Patrol and Woodside stables represented!

The parade gets started at 10 a.m. at Winslow and Brewster. Get there early to find a good spot. Be aware that the Redwood City Police begin shutting down the parade route to cars around 8:30 a.m. The parade winds down a little before noon, after which you’re encouraged to enjoy the festival in the surrounding streets, including food booths and arts and crafts booths, the Marshall Law Band from 1-5 p.m., and a kid’s area with face painters, a bounce house, and a magician! A Battle of the Bands between the UC Davis Aggies and the Stanford Marching Band kicks off at 1:30 in the San Mateo Credit Union parking lot. At the Courthouse Square, the Redwood City will be hosting a car show and two bands, High N Tight and Stealing 3rd.

If you’re in San Jose and wanting to see a parade, we can recommend the Rose, White and Blue parade in the Rose Garden area of San Jose. While it’s only in it’s second year, the parade is sure to grow. Check it out from 10 to 3.

Since baseball is our national pastime, perhaps you’d like to take in a game. This year you’re in luck! The San Francisco Giants are playing the Houston Astros at home in AT&T Park in San Francisco at 1 o’clock. Or, if you prefer supporting the little guy, you could always go and see the San Jose Giants minor league team playing the Modesto Nuts at the San Jose Municipal Stadium at 9:30.

Some other quick ideas for the Fourth:

Enjoy a picnic in the park in Sunnyvale’s Baylands Park from 8-5. Bring a picnic and enjoy the antics of juggler and stiltwalker Lerum from 12-2.

Take the kids out for a beautiful day on the ocean with the Farallon Islands Whale Watch trip, leaving San Francisco at 8 am and coming back at 4 pm. The trip is lead by a naturalist and actually stops at the southern Farallon Island for lunch!

The Fillmore Jazz Festival in San Francisco features such musicians as Wayne de la Cruz and the Jazzstronauts, on Fillmore between Jackson and Eddy from 10 to 6.

Or you could celebrate the Fourth onboard an actual aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, which is marking our Independence Day with live music.

The Alameda County Fair is going on over at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton, from 10 to 9.

Pier 39 hosts its annual bash – the Waterfront Celebration runs from 1-9, featuring bands and the usual Pier 39 activities, but also providing a great view of San Francisco’s annual fireworks display.

Fireworks are many people’s favorite part of the 4th. Most Bay Area towns and cities, including Woodside, ban private fireworks displays. Given the fire danger, especially in our Town, that’s a very GOOD thing! However, some Bay Area cities do let you shoot off your own “safe and sane” fireworks, including Pacifica and San Bruno.

If you prefer to let the professionals handle the explosives, San Francisco, Foster City, Redwood City, Oakland, Vallejo, Berkeley, Santa Clara, San Rafael, and Santa Rosa all have fireworks displays this year – most starting fifteen or thirty minutes after nine. Two unique ways of seeing fireworks displays this year are the Red and White Fleet’s Fireworks Cruise on San Francisco Bay, and the Fireworks Spectacular at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, featuring the San Francisco Symphony!

Enjoy a safe Fourth!

On the consent COWlendar were a few interesting items: Susan George was authorized to hire “outside service providers” like contract planners and engineers with blanket authority, subject to a limit laid out in the Municipal Code but not stated in the resolution – no doubt because it’s $125,000! (See Municipal Code § 38.03 for details)

The COWncil’s annual month of August off was approved.

The contract for Jean Savaree, Town Attorney since 2004, was renewed and her hourly rate raised to $240 an hour this year and $250 an hour next year, rising from the $212 an hour in the current contract. Although that is a very big percentage increase, it is certainly much less than many COWs pay attorneys when fighting Town Hall.

After the COWlendar was passed unanimously, the COWncil took up the matter of twin bike races that the National Senior Games (aka “the Senior Olympics”) wished to hold on consecutive days in early August on Cañada Road. The Games were first held in 1987, and have been held every two years since then in various places around the country. Athletes 50 years and older are eligible to compete in 18 different events, with almost 13,000 projected to appear this year. The last event was held in Louisville, Kentucky, and this year the event(s) will be held in and around the Stanford campus from August 1st- 15th.

The organizers wished to shut down Cañada Road in its entirety for two days (August 6th and 7th) for their 20k and 40k bicycle races; after consulting with the Town staff and the Sheriff’s department, they decided to only request the closure of the southbound lane of Cañada Road from Cañada College to Woodside’s northern edge. The race would continue on county roads and U-turn at Highway 92.

The COWncil members generally agreed that it seemed to be a well planned event but expressed COWncerns over the inconvenience to residents and wariness over these sorts of events happening frequently. The head of the local organizing committee put those fears to rest by saying that Woodside “would never see her again” since the Senior Games are held in different locations around the U.S. For more information, check out their website here. The COWncil did end up approving the race. Signs announcing road closures will go up soon, and postcards will be mailed to every Woodside household detailing when and where the road closures will be.

Next the COWncil issued the demolition permit for the Jackling House. See our separate article on this discussion.

The Town COWncil also took up the New Building definition discussion again. The New Building definition is important because it triggers compliance with the Town’s restrictive 7A fire ordinance and the companion “7A-lite’ Town-wide fire ordinance – which, while they definitely help protect the Town and homeowners’ buildings, can be expensive to comply with. If and when a remodel is a “New Building” is thus a hotly debated issue. There are also concerns that if the Town has a “New Building” definition, it could trigger County septic system requirements as well. Paul Nagengast, the Town Engineer and Curt Clark, the Town Building Official seem to be getting closer to what the COWncil wants but they are not there yet.

The COWncil also adopted the Town Budget for Fiscal Year 2009-2010 and approved the Town Budget for Fiscal Year 2010-2011; Susan reported that the Governor was having trouble rounding up a 2/3rds vote in the Legislature to take Prop 1A monies from Woodside and other communities (see our reporting here). It’s likely that the Governor will keep trying to take the money, however, so we’re still offering to film any local COWS COWments to the Governor.

The meeting wrapped up with Mayor Mason wanting to put the creation of a subcommittee to work with the Woodside Fire Protection District onto the next agenda. Town Manager George implied it would be on the next agenda.

COWncil member Hodges complained about the “slaughter” of an oak tree by PG&E. She pinned Paul Nagengast down and asked for an explanation. Paul said that PG&E had deferred tree trimming for a long time so they were now doing a lot of it – and doing it badly. This prompted both Mayor Mason and COWncil member Tanner to decry the generally poor job that PG&E does with trees, with Tanner stating that they hire subcontractors who try to get people to agree to have trees cut down entirely. Mr. Nagengast said the best he could do was “try to keep them honest.” We at COW would like to help if we can, so if you have had bad experiences with PG&E let us know.

The COWncil meeting adjourned shortly after that.

You are probably more than familiar with Steve Job’s efforts to demolish the Jackling house. If not, you can read our prior reports here with the background on the dispute here and here.

The discussion kicked off with a side issue, Town Manager Susan George addressed the suggestion that the Town’s outside land-use attorneys had a conflict of interest. Apparently a reporter had suggested that that since they had done some work for Pixar (a company founded by Steve Jobs) that they had a conflict of interest. Ms. George claimed that they had only been brought in for CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) concerns, had done previous work for the Town, had performed only in an advisory role with no advocating for or against the demolition permit, and had consulted an ethicist who had proclaimed that they didn’t have a conflict of interest concern. Ms. George said that she just wanted that noted “for the record.”

Next, the discussion centered on the proposed agreement with Gordon Smythe, of Palo Alto, who wants to find a location in the Bay Area for the House. COWncil member Hodges asked just what would be saved in any deal with Smythe. Steve’s attorney replied that an architectural historian consultant, who would have to be approved by the Town, would decide what elements are “historic elements” and need to be preserved. A contractor familiar with this sort of historic demolition would take apart the house carefully in order to substantially rebuild it on another site. According to the agreement, Mr. Jobs would pay for the demolition (to the tune of $604,000!) and Gordon Smythe would pay to store the materials and make a good faith effort to find a site and rebuild the House. If, after 5 years, the House could not be rebuilt, the ‘historic elements” would be split up and donated to various preservation and historical groups, including the Town of Woodside. The kicker is that the agreement with Gordon has a clause that allows him to back out of the deal if it gets tied up in court again, since it took more than two years last time to wind through the legal system.

Gordan Smythe acknowledged the difficulty of finding an “appropriate” piece of land for the House to rest on, which he believes needs to be at least ten acres or more. When he had previously looked for a site, the search took him as far as Southern California. He wants to reconstruct the 10,000 square foot main house as a private residence for his family, causing COWncilmember Hodges to say, “I’ll be damned,” and “Good luck!”

A member of the public raised concerns over the possible demolition of another house on the property, accusing the Town (and Susan George directly!) of requiring a “good faith effort” to knock that house down during the merging of two lots, causing Susan to proclaim that was “not a suggestion of ours” and flatly, “No.” The COWncil seemed EXTREMELY reluctant to get into the issue of yet another house, and didn’t pursue the matter.

That was the MEAT of the matter, though there was some squabbling between COWncil members Ron Romines and Dave Burow over Romines’ wish for the resolution to require that the agreement between the Town, Steve Jobs, and Gordon Smythe be signed before any demolition permit was issued. COWncil member Romines said that the Town was at the “99th mile” and he just wanted to be sure that after all this work, the deal didn’t fall apart and the Town be left with no recourse. He got a surprising amount of pushback from the feisty Dave Burows, who said that the COWncil had already spent an “inordinate amount” of Town time on the matter, and that there were other important issues that they could have been addressing such as fire safety or Sudden Oak Death, and that he didn’t want the issue to come back to the COWncil.

Ron Romines reiterated several times his COWncerns, and said that if somehow the deal fell through (claiming he wasn’t knocking Steve Jobs or Gordon Smythe) without being signed, that the COWncil would look back at their own actions and say they’d been a bit sloppy.

After some quibbles over language with the Town’s attorney, the COWncil passed a resolution to “adopt an addendum” to the Environmental Impact Report by six votes to one, with Mayor Mason voting no. The COWncil then approved the actual demolition permit with Ron Romines’ caveat about requiring the signing of the preservation agreement, 5-2, with Mason and Burow voting no (Burow later said he voted no due to Romines’ amendment).

The only remaining question is possible threat of more litigation to stop the demolition. After the last COWcil discussion, the matter was back in Court. If we understand all the legalese, the Court still has jurisdiction. This action by our COWncil seems to have pointed a metaphorical gun at preservationist interests, though. Since Gordon Smythe is able to walk away from any deal to preserve the historical elements of the House if there is litigation, will the preservationists wager that they can get the Judge to agree to force Steve Jobs to preserve the house where it stands or move it in its entirety, versus the very real danger that the House will just be left to rot or eventually torn down with no plan to rebuild any part of it in the future? A court hearing is scheduled for the 10th of July, when we should know if the preservationists accept this contract with Gordon Smythe as “the only viable way” to preserve the House. No one from the UOH or other preservationist groups showed up to this COWncil meeting which is a big change from the last meeting where the two camps seemed roughly equal in numbers.

This saga has been playing out since 2004. We agree with Council member Burows, it is time to MOOve on.

Ten area chefs, including our own John Bentley of Woodside’s eponymous restaurant will be preparing 5-course, tableside, epicurean extravaganzas at tables for 10, all accompanied by wine provided and paired by the Thomas Fogarty winery.

The dinner is preceded at 6:00 p.m. with an outdoor reception featuring appetizers prepared by each of the ten chefs. Dinner, served on elaborately decorated tables, is at 7:00 p.m.

This is one time you want to be part of the “herd” as COWs come together in support of those in need. Reservations are required but there are still some seats available. Individual reservations are $300.00 and include the reception and dinner. Call Michelle Flatley at 415-248-1060

SIDEBAR: There is another wine event close by - the 14th Annual Wine Walk in San Mateo, Friday, June 26, 5:30-9 p.m. This downtown fundraiser is the largest strolling wine event of its kind in the Bay Area. Downtown streets will be closed off to create a wonderful “wine garden” and there will be two stages with live music. Tickets include a wine glass and ten tasting tickets. $25.00 in advance, $30.00 at the door. 650-342-5520.

District 2, represented by Deborah Gordon
District 4, represented by Dave Tanner
District 6, Represented by Carol Ann Hodges

As we have written previously, active citizen participation is the only way to ensure all points of view are herd. Competitive elections provide a great opportunity for COWs to hear a broad range of ideas and policy proposals to improve our Town. Democracy functions best when voters have the broadest array of choices, so please consider throwing your COW bell into the ring.

Council members are elected at large but candidates for Town Council must live and have petitions signed by 20 residents in the District for which they are running. The period for filing nomination papers is July 13th to August 7th. If an incumbent in one of the three Districts up for election decides not to run, the nomination period for that particular District is extended to August 12th. If you might be interested, Janet Koelsch, the Town Clerk, is prepareing a packet of information for Potential Town Council Candidates that will be available the week of June 29th. For more information you can give her a call then at 851-6790. You can check to see which District you live in by going to the Town’s Website here. Also see here for San Mateo County’s calendar and their candidate guide (it is last year’s but has useful information) here.

In recent past history, incumbents have waited until very late in the process to indicate publicly that they were not running for reelection. This practice allows a favored successor to file but does not give those who are not “in the know” a real opportunity to jump in. We urge the Council members up for reelection to let us all know well in advance whether they plan to run or not.

Council members set policy and have responsibility for fiscal management, General Plan changes, land use approvals, issues involving horses, bicycles, roads, historic houses, and the list goes on. Council decisions directly impact our quality of life. So please consider donating your time to help our Cowmunity and running for Cowncil!

Although, it will not create a crisis for Woodside, (unlike cities such as Oakland where bankruptcy has even been “bandied about”). Nonetheless, Woodside will not be immune from cuts. According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, Woodside’s “contribution” could be $178,635. However, Town Manager Susan George said at a recent COWncil meeting that the true figure could be more than fifty thousand dollars more, coming to between $225-$235,000!

COWncil member Debra Gordon asked for information about this from Ms. George. Unfortunately, it seems that Susan George isn’t that concerned with the money grab, saying that the Town has adequate reserves to fill that hole. Even if the Council is prepared to weather the cuts, our quality of life is impacted by the condition of the communities that surround us. COWs need to know exactly how the direct and indirect impact will be felt in Woodside and whether our COWncil is weighing in on the debate.

The League of California Cities is leading opposition to financing the budget at the expense of cities. More than 90 towns and cities around the state have already declared a state of fiscal hardship, with our neighbor San Carlos likely to join that list.

The League sponsored a Budget Action Day in Sacramento on June 3rd. We have asked and just received a response that none of our COWncil attended. The League has now rolled out www.SaveYourCity.net, a website dedicated to informing policy makers and the public on how this money grab will affect local communities. The web page also has a presence on Facebook. The site lets anyone register and submit a video, so that citizens can speak directly to the power brokers in Sacramento.

It is no secret that COW believes in letting government know your point of view, and we strongly encourage all COWs to participation in the discussion over the state cash drain. For that reason, COW will make our film equipment available to anyone who wishes to make a video for the site. After any event at which MOOtube films (generally all COWncil meetings and General Plan Update meetings) our camera operator will be happy to film your statement of your point of view, whatever your view point is, and we will upload it, as filmed, to the Save Your City site!

See you at a meeting!

Reining, sometimes referred to as “western” dressage, is a judged event which really shows the athletic ability of the horses as they are put through a program of precise patterns of circles, spins and stops. As we understand it, “dressage” is from the French word for “training.” Dressage principles and technique apply to cadence, balance and carriage. The use of western dressage horse to again work from the hind-end allowing for lightness in the front with a more natural head set.

This year’s event features a $70,000 Derby and a $10,000 3-Year-Old Futurity. Spectators are admitted without charge and there is free parking for the show which runs daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m (see also).

Reining By The Bay is is managed by RBB, Inc., and produced by Brumley Management Group LLC. a promoter of reining competitions. Reining is the only western sport recognized in the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games.

Including our fellow, furry, four-footed friends makes this event extra special. The Peninsula Humane Society/SPCA, will have dogs and cats available on site for adoption. PHS/SPCA representatives will be available to talk about the pets and how COWs can either adopt and/or assist the organization in their ongoing efforts. Like many organizations, these are hard times for the Peninsula Humane Society which receives NO funding from the National Humane Society or the American SPCA.

PHS offers a number of vital programs including: free spay/neuter clinics every week for low-income communities, a cruelty investigation department with two full-time staff, humane education programs like summer animal camp, free sheltering for pets belonging to domestic abuse victims and a therapy program which has our volunteers bringing their pets to hospitals and other health care facilities.

So giddy-up on down to the Horse Park and have yourself some fun at this very worth while event. Maybe you’ll also find a lifelong friend to share your home and heart with!

The California Department of Education reports both state and federal accountability results under the general heading of the “Accountability Progress Reporting” system. Using standardized tests mandated by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act that result in an Academic Performance Index (API), California’s accountability system measures the performance and progress of a school based on results of statewide tests at grades two through twelve. A school’s API is a composite number representing the results of these tests.
See here for more information on API.

The other three high schools in the Sequoia Union District all earned a very respectable score of at least 8.

So HOOVESRAY for our teachers and students at Woodside High.

The Town’s new GIS system is an integrated solution, which enables staff to quickly map information in order to perform spatial analysis or use a map to manage information and notifications. The system has specific map data layers such as zoning and geologic hazard data. For pavement management, the Town had previously had access to an online pavement management system which could track and analyze the condition of road networks and print out reports that help define and adjust maintenance treatments and budgets. However because of the complexity of these tabular reports, the Town continued to rely primarily on visual observations and resident complaints to determine which pavement to schedule for repair. Now they have a visual display. Town staff can now perform spatial analysis, allowing them to quickly create maps showing the extent of distressed streets and proposed pavement treatments.

Moreover, this new system also fulfills part of the long-promised overhaul of the on-line permitting process, which has been criticized as being hard to use and incomplete. As we understand it, the system will have current land information electronically searchable so that Town Planner can view which permits have been issued within a specified distance from subject site to assist with a permitting decision. We sure hope this will cut down on the arbitrariness for which the Planning Department was so famous under Hope Sullivan’s rule. Updating permit information and related data should go a long way toward achieving the goal of making permit tracking easier and more efficient. See here and here.