Some rather incoherent commentary from our humble elected officials (on three issues: Intermodal Station and waterfront development, affordable housing, and the City Manager)…

Highlights include:

• Joe Eddy McDonald stating that there would be no delay in the Intermodal Station’s federal funding (but not mentioning the construction delay), plus stating that the surrounding development has nothing to do with the project (starting around 3:30 mark);
• Kris Valstad incorrectly using “i.e.” (at 7:25 mark) and then using it correctly later (which is only more frustrating);
• The two incumbents (Valstad and McDonald) both downplaying the recent affordable housing and open government scandals while the two challengers (Myrna de Vera and John Delgado) pressed hard on the issue; e.g., McDonald at 19:05 mark: “If people base their information on what the newspaper reports, well, then, we cannot run our city;” (of course, the City agreed with 7 of 8 of the grand jury’s findings and 4 of 5 of its recommendations); and
• Valstad and McDonald describing the beauty, tranquility and Utopian features of Hercules as reasons for voters to re-elect them (as if there is no room for improvement).

The City responded last week to the news that the Hercules City Manager is the highest paid executive in West Contra Costa County. The response was rather bland, but it did include footnotes. And it hasn’t garnered media attention.

There was some news made however, or acknowledgment of an as-of-yet unspoken truth. The City outlined the City Manager’s tasks and included: “Negotiate the acquisition and eventual development of the Hill Town property.”

While the City’s obvious attempt to purchase the Hilltown property has been reported here (and here and here), it has only been reported here. The pursuit is not mentioned on the project page on the City’s website nor in any meeting minutes (for the meetings that have minutes). It wasn’t discussed at the Community Update event in April. And it has only existed as an APN (404-040-064) in City Council agendas, as part of the closed session which yields no written record.

So can we now talk about it?

Should the City’s Redevelopment Agency spend $16m or more to purchase the Hilltown property, which to date has a willing private developer and an adopted developer agreement (DOPA)? Does the City need more exclusively residential development? What is it about the property that the City must purchase and develop it itself?

Why doesn’t the City focus on existing and stalled projects — the Intermodal Station, the Waterfront and the rehabilitation of historic structures, New Town Center, Sycamore Crossing, the former Walmart property, the annex, the vacant parcel adjacent to Victoria by the Bay (slated to be a Safeway), Sycamore Park and the elementary school site? (What am I missing? Oh yea, the wastewater treatment facility.)

Is the City biting off more than it can chew? Are residents assured that the City is capable of developing the property? What evidence suggests that to be the case — one block of retail and affordable housing units along Sycamore Avenue, still under construction?

What is the inherent advantage of developing the property as a City if it distracts from other priorities, namely the construction of a train and ferry terminal, the development of a vibrant retail sector, and the establishment of a robust corporate business park?

And when does this acquisition become an issue that will be discussed with the public — after its purchase? And at what cost?

The City has published a questions answered memo with respect to the apparent delay in the construction of the Intermodal Station (with the environmental documents currently a principal sticking point). The memo includes an updated schedule with construction beginning no sooner than April 2011, assuming no unanticipated delays of course. With the expected 30 months of construction, that pushes the planned opening to early 2014.

One thing however. This may be an oversight, or partly Freudian, but the exhaustive list of strategic partners the City provided fails to include the developer/landowner (AndersonPacific), with whom a transfer of property is still requisite for, uhm, the construction of the Intermodal Station to commence.¹ In fact, the memo does not mention the developer or the necessary transfer of property (which clearly remains a hurdle).

It is not clear whether or not this indicates a deteriorated, if not unsalvageable, relationship with the developer, or if this also suggests that the rumor the City plans to seek an eminent domain takeover of the property has merit.

The project manager for the Intermodal Station project — Jesse Harder of HDR — presented an update to the community at the aptly named Community Update event in April. At the 1:40 mark in the video below, Harder, who must have received training to be a guest on Sesame Street, mentions that the City would “have a certified environmental document [EIR] in June.” That, of course, did not happen.

Note: 1:20-1:30.

Last summer the City published a project fact sheet for the Intermodal Station (screencap below), and its first and last bullet points are telling in light of the station’s delayed construction (emphasis added)…

• Hercules Intermodal Transit Center Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the Waterfront Project EIR are being prepared concurrently and should be released for public review by the end of 2009.
• Construction will start on the retaining walls and utility relocations in the second quarter of 2010, barring any unanticipated delays!

The restoration of Pinole Creek continues unabated, providing a sign of constructive life, however meager, along the San Pablo Bay shore.

The geotextile fence has not only retarded the flow of sediment into the creek, it has all but stopped water in the opposite direction. (The elevation of the creek water surface is greater than that of the surrounding clay soil.)

The sun sets, yet the RV storage site persists as an eyesore for the surrounding community. (The land could be redeveloped as townhouses and apartments, and the City of Pinole has pursued its purchase in the past, ultimately to no avail.)

Steel sheet piles are temporarily stacked on-site and will be installed to improve the global stability of the creek channel (either for the duration of construction or as a long-term preventative measure; I am not familiar with the design).

Environmental documents need to be finalized and certified prior to construction commencing for the Intermodal Station. The draft EIR was scheduled to be released earlier this year with construction slated to begin this summer. Alas, that will not happen (summer officially ends September 23). And there will likely be no press release.

It wasn’t too long ago — December 2007 — when then-Mayor Ed Balico stated unequivocally that construction on the station would begin that August (or August 2008), and that it was the hard work of the Council that made it happen…

Well, it has been that August plus two years. Should the station’s eventual construction — staff and Council remain adamant that the project will, in fact, happen at some point — still be considered an accomplishment for the City Council, or is it more appropriately labeled as a medium-sized public works project that was woefully mismanaged from the outset (originally scheduled to open in 2005; current estimate 2013)?

And are things only going to get worse? (It pains me to write this.)

The City does not yet own the land on which the station will be built. The City and the developer (AndersonPacific) are battling over the terms of the land swap and corresponding developer agreement (DOPA), and the two now-warring factions are currently at a standstill. The dissolution of the project team may lead to the station’s indefinite delay, leaving Waterfront residents, commuters and taxpayers in the lurch. Still.

The salary represents a 10% raise over the previous year, you know, for a job well done… “Hercules’ Nelson Oliva was the highest-paid city manager in West Contra Costa last year, earning $278,568, according to salary records furnished by the region’s five cities. Oliva’s 2009 earnings consisted of a base salary of $219,999 and unspecified other earnings of $58,568. He also enjoys a zero-interest $250,000 housing assistance loan granted by the city in 2007.“

The San Francisco Chronicle reports this morning about the British invasion of Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the Bay Area, including a list of seven opening in 2011. Notably absent from the list is the proposed location in Hercules (originally scheduled to open in 2012) — the planned anchor tenant of Market Town, the first phase of the New Town Center project (and current site of interim Market Hall).

The developer of the project — Red Barn Co. — has recently pleaded its case to the City Council, promising that it has no intention of pulling out from the project despite the poor economic conditions that threaten the project’s indefinite delay.

Call it the luck of the draw. The random alphabetic order for this year’s election (determined by the Secretary of State) starts with: R, T, Y, C, W, O.

In Hercules, the random alphabet results in the following ballot order for City Council candidates:

• Kris Valstad, incumbent
• Joe Eddy McDonald, incumbent
• Myrna de Vera
• John Delgado

In a typical mid-term election, when the general voting public does not recognize the names of the councilmembers (let alone their faces or policies), the incumbents have an advantage — unless the voter is presented with evidence otherwise, say, a slew of Contra Costa Times articles highlighting mismanagement and possibly downright fraud and negligence, they will generally vote incumbent. The fact that the incumbents are listed first and second is yet another advantage for the typical, arguably underinformed voter — making it easier as the voter slogs his/her way through the endless California ballot (i.e., initiative upon initiative).

A silver lining for the challengers is the oft-reported and so-called anti-incumbent sentiment among the voting public this year. However, whether or not the sentiment resonates and filters down to the local level, including in Hercules, is anyone’s guess and is likely not a campaigning tool worth relying on.

Councilmember Don Kuehne is calling for a change in the composition of the City Council and is endorsing challenger Myrna de Vera in this year’s election.

de Vera was Kuehne’s campaign chair in 2008, and Kuehne is simply returning the favor, however the endorsement does buck an obvious trend since all five then-sitting members of the Council had supported Don Kuehne (and not challenger John Delgado) in the last election.

Kuehne will only be able to endorse one other candidate — either Kris Valstad or Joe Eddy McDonald, who both had endorsed Kuehne, or in the case Kuehne has gone rogue, he could endorse the other challenger as well, John Delgado.

de Vera can take credit (at least some) for propelling the outsider-turned-insider Kuehne into office, however no one has taken credit yet for Kuehne’s rather dismal performance as a councilmember thus far, including Kuehne himself. (That would require accountability.)

UPDATE — Myrna de Vera was a significant member in Don Kuehne’s 2008 campaign committee (and ran the show, according to some sources) but did not hold the position of chair. The position apparently did not exist.