Grand Jury Reports on San Ramon

Letter to the Editor:

"City rejects jury's findings."

In summary, the Grand Jury recommended to the City of San Ramon to reduce its City Council salaries and/or benefits. Apparently, Mayor, Abram Wilson is paying "his" entire council $163,190, which is well above the county average of $77,895!! More than double!!!

San Ramon officials, Mayor Abram Wilson have apparently refused to comply with the Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury Findings and recommendations.

Unbelievable! The egos and arrogance of this San Ramon Council!

SR Resident

Sources:

San Ramon dismisses grand jury report
Grand jury questions East Bay elected leaders' compensation

Check Out San Ramon Watch

The "concerned San Ramon citizen" writer Steve O'Brien at San Ramon Watch has written some excellent insightful articles into what is going on with our city. He also has information on the website on matters concerning:

• Council Campaign Donors
• City Salaries
• Important City Reference Documents

His recent posts include:

• Council Invertebrates
• It’s a Start
• City Leaders Salute San Ramon Voters
• Saving The Mountain Parcel By Parcel
• Issue #1: Growth
• Truth Be Told
• Time for Measure X
• ABAG Follies
  

Thanks Steve, for your diligence in getting to the truth of the matters.

Relay for Life at Cal High

San Ramon, CA – 06/01/2011 – Walkers will go around the clock in the battle against cancer when the eleventh annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life® of San Ramon gets underway with teams of residents gathering at California High School on June 18th at 10 AM.



Relay For Life events are held overnight as individuals and teams camp out at an athletic track, park or other gathering area, with the goal of keeping at least one team member on the track or pathway at all times throughout the event. Teams do most of their fundraising prior to the event, but some teams also hold creative fundraisers at their campsites during Relay. Relay brings together friends, families, businesses, hospitals, schools, faith-based groups . . . people from all walks of life – all aimed at furthering the American Cancer Society’s efforts to save lives by helping people stay well, by helping them get well, by finding cures and by fighting back.

“Relay is a unique opportunity for our community to come together to celebrate people who have battled cancer, remember those we’ve lost, and fight back against the disease,” said Jim Wild, Volunteer Event Chair. “Many of the participants are cancer survivors and caregivers, which serves as a reminder that San Ramon is not immune to this disease and that by participating in Relay, we are joining with the American Cancer

Society’s efforts to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays,” Mr. Wild added.

Funds raised at Relay For Life of San Ramon enable the American Cancer Society to impact the lives of those touched by cancer within the community. Relay For Life’s Luminaria Ceremony takes place after sundown, honoring the community’s cancer survivors and remembering those lost to the disease. Participants will circle a track that is surrounded with glowing luminary bags that bear the name of someone who has battled cancer. A suggested donation of $10 will purchase a bag for decoration or you may have someone at the Relay For Life event decorate a bag for you. Also a part of San Ramon’s Relay For Life event is the “Fight Back” Ceremony, in which a community leader will inspire Relay participants with his or her own personal story or commitment and will challenge them to take a personal pledge of action (e.g., stop smoking, eat healthier foods, exercise regularly, etc.) in fighting back. For more information about the event please go online to relayforlife.org/sanramonca.

To locate a Relay For Life event and find out how you may get involved, please

call 1-800-227-2345 or visit RelayForLife.org.

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; by helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.



Jeremy Gomoljak
Pubic Relations Chair & Cancer Survivor - Relay For Life San Ramon
925-519-3110
----------------------------
One day. One night. One community. One Fight. Relay For Life is a
life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people-
to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer; remember
loved ones lost to the disease; and fight back against a disease that
takes too much. Won't you join us?

2011 Relay For Life of San Ramon, CA

Event Date and Time:
Saturday, June 18, 2011 @ 10:00AM - Sunday, June 19, 2011 @10:00AM

Event Location:
California High School, San Ramon, CA

Website:
www.relayforlife.org/sanramonca

Representing San Ramon’s Best Interest

BY: Jim Gibbon

I agree with the letter from Phil O’Loane to the Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County about the proposed New Farms development in Tassajara Valley. He expresses the opinion of 72% of the voters of San Ramon as expressed in the last November election.

Our current City Council has decided not to express any opinion on our behalf. In fact their attitude is to sit on their hands. They will do nothing to represent our interest in preservation of the valley as a rural area that is not to be developed as just another urban development project. To be preserved for our children’s future.

This proposed New Farms development will be fought out at the county level for the next two to three years. It will determine if our Urban Limit Line in the county and our Urban Growth Line in our cities will mean anything in the future.

The proper place for growth in the future San Ramon is in the inner city core where infrastructures already exist and the cost to the city and residents will be less than growing in green rural areas on the outskirts of the city. The inner city should grow ‘organically’ as needed and not as a master plan that overhauls the existing building and street design. San Ramon is an established community and any growth should begin with that fact at its base.

Destroying existing established businesses, changing street locations, and adding another 4,500 people to the inner city of San Ramon without new schools and services is not good for anyone. It will cause more problems than it will help the city be or become viable. Unbraided growth for its on sake is not go for anyone who lives here.

We need to replace this City Council next November with people who understand how to represent our best interest, not theirs. If you know someone who you think can do that and is interested in serving on the council let us know. We need three good residents of San Ramon to run in November. They can count on 72% of the San Ramon voters to vote for them and a lot of support from us all. Now is the time to step up and be counted. This opportunity come only once for most of us.

Let me know what you think and who you think would be a good candidate to represent our best interest. San Ramon is about to change for the better or worse. Who represents our best interest will determine which future we will have.

Thank you,

Jim Gibbon AIA, LEED AP
j.c.gibbon@comcast.net

SROG
SAN RAMON for OPEN GOVERNMENT
SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA

New Farm Notice to CCC Board of Supervisors

Board of Supervisors
Contra Costa County
c/o John Oborne
Department of Conservation and Development
651 Pine Street, 4th Floor, North Wing
Martinez, CA 94553-1290

Re: New Farm Application

Dear Supervisors:

I am writing as a resident of San Ramon to personally express my opposition to the proposed New Farm Development in the Tassajara Valley. I was first introduced to the New Farm project during my tenure on the San Ramon Planning Commission and became further informed on the project as one of the Co-Chairs of the successful “No on Measure W” campaign in San Ramon.

I find it outrageous that no one on San Ramon’s City Council has yet to come out to express an opinion on this subject much less oppose it. While the city leaders have not commented, the voters spoke as recently as last November on this subject. They made it abundantly clear, by an overwhelming 72% majority, that they are opposed to any expansion or weakening of the Urban Limit Line in San Ramon.

New Farm is a blatantly illegal attempt to destroy voter-approved Urban Limit Lines in Contra Costa County and flies in the face of reasonable growth management policies that have been a hallmark of our county for 20 years.

It is an illegal application that attempts to thinly disguise a Major subdivision and claim it is something else by merely calling it something else. It is growth inducing by bringing urban sewer and water to an area currently, and appropriately, dependent on wells for water and septic systems for sewage. If you bring Urban Services to an area, it is an Urban Area. That seems pretty simple to the average voter. These urban services would no doubt be used by the developers as a major selling point for this sub-division.

New Farm would set a very bad precedent in regards to weakening or even destroying voter-approved Urban Limit Lines. The developers are essentially thumbing their nose at the concept. Their cynical contorting of the zoning regulations in an effort to bring urban services to a rural area is at best devious logic.

This project would accelerate land speculation and put further pressure on what is considered by the county itself to be some of the most important agricultural lands in the area. It is incompatible and inconsistent with local and county general plans and puts significant pressure on wildlife corridors that connect San Ramon’s open space with rural and open space further to the east. It clearly violates Measure C, J and L.

We did not approve, at great time and effort, Urban Limit Lines to then have developers turn around and act as if they don’t exist. Please take your obligation to follow the will of the voters seriously and dismiss this project for what it is; a major urban sub-division outside of the Urban Limit Line. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,


Phil O’Loane