The Lagonian

Enrollment expected to spike at local schools

Alexa Hemken — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:21 +0000

Enrollment at schools in San Mateo and Foster City is expected to exceed 12,000 within two years after posting an unexpected increase this year.
San Mateo-Foster City School District administrators told trustees last night that while May 2012 enrollment was 11,655, this month it was up to 11,983.
That was up from May 2012 projections of 11,459.
The increase is part of a trend that will put the district at more than 12,000 students within the next two years, said Molly Barton, the district’s assistant superintendent for student services.
Enrollment over the last five years is up from 10,077 in 2007 to a projected 11,725 for the school year that starts this fall, an increase of 1,703 students.
Trustees are taking a multi-pronged approach to enrollment increases.
They will be changing school boundaries and opening a formerly closed campus in San Mateo, as well as opening a two-story classroom building in Audubon.
The school district will also likely rely on a new bond measure to rebuild the Bowditch Middle School campus to add fifth grade, opening room at Foster City elementary schools. The project is estimated to cost $65 million.

School administrators to get pay raise

Alexa Hemken — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:04 +0000

School board trustees voted unanimously yesterday to approve salary increases for administrators shortly after agreeing to pay raises for the district’s teachers.
San Mateo-Foster City School District Superintendent Cynthia Simms noted salary increases haven’t been approved for several years.
The group includes management employees such as principals.
The raises will cost the district $420,000 this fiscal year and $351,703 next year, according to a staff report for the meeting.
Last month, the teacher’s union, the San Mateo Elementary Teachers’ Association, reached an agreement with the San Mateo-Foster City School District administration, according to a staff report for yesterday’s meeting.
Last night, a tentative contract was approved by the board of trustees that will cost roughly $2.2 million this year and next year.
It also includes a one-time payment for this year.

Foster City budget balanced, for now

Alexa Hemken — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:40:52 +0000

Although Foster City will have a balanced budget after three years of tax and fee increases and service cuts, two “game changers” could land the city in a deficit again in the coming years.
The city has been on a three-year journey to eradicate a structural deficit, and has finally achieved that goal this year, said Assistant City Manager Steve Toler at a City Council meeting Monday.
The city has reduced transportation services and reduced staff as well as increased fees over the last several years.
The city’s five-year plan, starting with a budget expected to be approved this June, forsees a balanced budget in the first two years but a budget deficit in 2015-2016 and 2017-2018.
Two significant events occurred while city staff prepared this year’s budget that caused the projected shortfall.
First, pension costs will increase 30 percent thanks to changes CalPERS announced last month.
In April, the CalPERS Board approved a recommendation by its chief actuary to modify the rate smoothing policy charged to member agencies that, while enhances the fiscal stability of the CalPERS Plan Assets, will increase member agency contributions starting in fiscal year 2015-2016.
The net impact on Foster City will be to increase the city’s funding of pension benefits by $420,000 per year starting in 2015-16, said a city staff report. The general fund’s obligations will be $350,000 per year.
The city will also lose one of its largest sales tax producers, at a loss of $1 million per year.
Life Technologies announced its sale to Massachussets-based Thermo Fisher Scientific last month for $13.6 billion.
The company has 1,000 Foster City employers and was one of the city’s top 25 sales tax contributors.
Still, Foster City will continue to maintain its 33 percent reserve level of $17.5 million and is investing in economic sustainability programs.

City hires new human resources director

Alexa Hemken — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:40:37 +0000

Starting this summer, a Pacifica administrator will take over human resources services that Foster City had contracted out two years ago.
On Thursday, City Manager Jim Hardy announced the appointment of Ann Ritzma as Foster City’s new human resources director.
Foster City has been contracting that position since September, 2011.
Ritzma will oversee Foster City’s full service Human Resources Department, said Hardy, which is responsible for employee and labor relations, benefits administration, recruitment and selection, classification and compensation, organizational development and workers’ compensation.
“I am committed to utilizing my knowledge and experience in city government to further Foster City’s ability to provide outstanding community services,” said Ritzma in a statement.
She most recently served as the administrative services director for the city of Pacifica, where she oversaw the Human Resources functions as well as the operations of the finance and information technology divisions.
She has been employed in local government positions for 26 years.
“Ann’s thorough understanding of both human resources and the operational needs of local governments will allow her to continue the success Foster City has with recruiting, retaining and managing an excellent city workforce,” said Hardy in the statement.

Canadian man charged with meeting Foster City girl for sex over social media

Alexa Hemken — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:30:44 +0000

A Canadian man who allegedly began an inappropriate online relationship with a Foster City teenager was charged last week for that incident and for possessing child porn after first posting bail.
Adam Ouellette, 26, pleaded guilty to all charges. He was re-arrested in March on child porn charges in San Diego, one week after being booked and released from the San Mateo County Jail on charges of attempted statutory rape and arranging to have sex with a minor, according to San Mateo police.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force told police that Ouellette had allegedly been in an online conversation on Tagged.com with a 16-year-old girl. He had allegedly been posing a 14-year-old boy to meet teenage girls for sex. In an online chat with the 16-year-old girl, he allegedly admitted he was actually 26 and wanted to meet her at a hotel in San Francisco to “maybe cuddle … maybe more.”

Life Tech campus sold, new owner looking forward to ‘full site redevelopment’

Alexa Hemken — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:30:32 +0000

The move out of town by one of Foster City’s largest employers will mean a $1 million decline in tax proceeds to city coffers this year, but it’s not all bad news as the property’s new owners seek to redevelop the property.
Foster City officials revealed at Monday’s City Council meeting that one of its largest sales tax contributors is moving out of the city, resulting in a loss of $1 million.
Life Technologies announced its sale to Massachussets-based Thermo Fisher Scientific for $13.6 billion last month and last week, BioMed Realty Trust said it would be buying up the company’s Foster City campus for $37 million.
Life Technologies has 1,000 Foster City employers and was one of the city’s top 25 sales tax contributors.
Aaron Kellogg, a spokesperson for Thermo Fisher, declined to comment.
“We’re in the process of moving Life Tech employees from the Foster City campus to South San Francisco,” said Rick Howe, senior director of corporate communications for BioMed Realty.
“We do expect to be doing a full-site redevelopment to turn the property into Class A laboratory space,” he said. “What we normally do is try to find a tenant before we actually commence the effort.”
Foster City’s planning director, Curtis Banks, said the city has met with BioMed but that the conversations have been very preliminary and specific plans have not been discussed.
LifeTech’s Foster City campus has had improvements over time, said Banks.
Howe said he is “very optimistic” about finding a company to utilize the space.
“The San Francisco Bay Area is a very good core market for life science research and technology and is very much a part of a growing life science industry,” he said.

City fixing hardware problems after traffic signal changes

Alexa Hemken — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:30:02 +0000

Hardware problems that emerged after new traffic signal timing plans were implemented last month—which benefited pedestrians and put Foster City in line with new federal rules—have been fixed.
The new traffic signal timing was implemented early last month and increased pedestrian walking times from 2.5 seconds per foot to 3.5 seconds per foot, said Assistant Engineer Leah Edwards.
That made a big difference at some intersections, said Edwards. For example, on northbound Foster City Boulevard at the intersection with East Hillsdale Boulevard, pedestrians have 12 more seconds to cross the street.
At smaller intersections, such as Bounty Drive and Foster City Boulevard, walking time increased by one second.
The hardware problems, most of which have been fixed, involved the controllers, said Edwards.
When the new timing system was first implemented, “it was discovered that there is some hardware malfunctioning which is not allowing the traffic signal coordination to work properly in some areas,” according to a city staff report for Monday’s City Council meeting.
“Once these hardware issues are resolved a full review of the new timing plans will be reviewed and adjustments will be made as necessary,” said the report.
A consultant performed a signal synchronization study to improve traffic flow and bring traffic signal timing plans current with federal requirements, including increasing time allotted to pedestrian crossings, said the report.

Planning Commission will vote on Carl’s Jr. drive-thru

Alexa Hemken — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:29:46 +0000

The Foster City Carl’s Jr. could be the third fast-food drive thru along Triton Drive if the Foster City Planning Commission approves plans for it next week.
Carl’s Jr. is proposing to reconfigure their site to accommodate a drive-thru order lane, according to a staff report for the May 16 Planning Commission meeting.
When widening of Triton Drive was under discussion—it is now under construction and expected to be finished in June—the owners of Carl’s Jr. provided preliminary plans to show that they could provide the additional right-of-way lane necessary and still have room for the drive-thru lane.
Planning staff are supportive of the idea in the staff report for the meeting.
If the Planning Commission approves the plans during the meeting, the proposal will be final unless it is appealed to the City Council.
An outdoor patio seating area is also planned for the site.

Charter Square transformation coming: site will add 95 homes, small retail space

Alexa Hemken — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:29:34 +0000

A Foster City strip mall that struggled politically last year and has been criticized by planning officials for its poor design will get a facelift if plans for its redevelopment are approved.
Charter Square Shopping Center, the small shopping area that hosts the Foster City Post Office and long-time businesses such as Tokie’s, Chalet Ticino and Foster City Preschool, was the center of controversy last year when San Mateo-Foster City School District officials wanted to take it over to build a fourth school.
Since then, school officials have dropped those plans and are considering a new, roughly $65 million campus at Bowditch Middle School to accommodate increasing enrollment.
Last month, the owner of Charter Square Shopping Center filed an application to construct 95 townhomes and 10,000 square feet of retail on the 4.6-acre site.
That will replace the current 57,680 square feet of retail space.
The plans don’t specify yet the size of the townhomes, said Foster City’s planning director, Curtis Banks.
“It’s still a little early,” he said.
Gary Wong, general manager at Westlake Realty, which oversees the property, also said that it’s too early to tell what businesses may remain at Charter Square, pending feedback from city planners. He pointed out that the city will be conducting a retail study that will address Foster City’s commercial needs.
“We’d like to try to phase it,” said Wong of construction of the project.

New SamTrans plan leaves out major Foster City cuts

Alexa Hemken — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:52:06 +0000

SamTrans approved a new service plan this week that spares Beach Park Boulevard stops from being cut.
The SamTrans Board of Directors unanimously adopted the SamTrans Service Plan recommendations at a May 1 board meeting, approving a plan that will make “significant improvements to the county’s bus service,” the agency said in a statement.
The major components of the plan are service improvements to core ridership corridors, including El Camino Real and major transit hubs in Daly City, San Mateo and East Palo Alto, said the statement.
Other routes are being proposed for realignment to improve ridership and efficiency.
The original proposal included service cuts for Route 251 along Beach Park Boulevard near the levee, but those changes were reversed before final approval.
A small change will still reduce service slightly for 251—the route will no longer make a stop on Chess Drive near Vintage Park Drive.
There are no changes planned for Route 54, which serves Bowditch Middle School students in the morning and afternoon. The route spans Foster City and travels to Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo.
Some of the proposed changes include improving frequencies and streamlining routes to provide better core service, realigning or eliminating poor performing services and adding pilot programs of alternative service models in Pacifica and San Carlos, said the statement.
In the coming weeks, SamTrans will bring forward a timeline for implementing the service changes.
The final recommendations are available online at www.samtrans.com/ssp.