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Thanks for attending! 150 people joined us February 11 at the Bell Building for a lot of information about Wavecrest. Cosponsors included:
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The incumbents won re-election on Nov. 7, 2000, but more than half the voters voted for change. If you would like to help work to improve the board, please drop a note to cusdboardwatch @ sanmateo . org
Learn about the candidates and the issues for the November 7, 2000 election at the League of Women Voters SmartVoter site.
The November 15th edition of the Half Moon Review has an op-ed page article addressing comments from Jones and Palmer about the meaning of the election.
Among other things, the contract puts a cap on developer fees ($8,700) (see page 5 of the Wavecrest purchase agreement), practically begging developers to build the biggest possible houses to get the smallest possible effective mitigation fee/square foot. Why would the Board provide land use incentives?
| Incumbent Jones claims, "CUSD pays $30,000/year in property taxes for the El Granada Land."
How can this be? That would hire us almost one more teacher! Here are the tax records for the specific parcels: As you can plainly see, the school district pays $0 in property taxes for the El Granada property. If, as Jones claims, CUSD pays $30,000/year, that would reflect a valuation of the property at $3 million, a full $1.3 million more than the value used in the land swap calculations. Who undervalues property before trading it?If the district is paying almost $30,000 in "nonuse payments" (as described in the California General Education Code, Section 17219), then even more questions come up. For example, the Executive Officer of the State Allocation Board sets the annual withholding amount based on 1% of the original purchase price ($355,000 in 1965), adjusted for things like the increased valuation of land across the state. Put simply, a withholding of $30,000 per year reflects the State Allocation Board's opinion that the land is worth at least $3 million dollars, far above the $1.7 million value used in the land swap contract. Why the huge disparity? $3 million dollars is no less than 10 teachers for 10 years! And why is the land even eligible for the "nonuse" provisions? Section 17219 makes it clear that there are alternatives. How many years has CUSD paid the nonuse payments? How much has that added to the cost of the land swap? from a reader (7/11/2002): Dear Webmaster@sanmateo.org By conveying this information, I hope to persuade you to modify the misleading and erroneous portion of your website that pertains to CUSD tax payments for property in Granada, CA. It relates to a few informal chats over the recent months. CUSD Superintendent/CFO/Construction_Manager John Bayless did inform me of the history of the tax payment for that property. You can check with him if you need verification, or with Lee Buffington if you don't trust Bayless. JB did say that the high school students annually make a science trip to the property in question, which fulfills the letter of the law for exempting those properties from taxation. One year in the past, someone else besides JB did fill out the (annual) paperwork for the exemption, and that person did not fill out the forms adequately. Thus, CUSD paid ~$28.5K in property tax. Incidently, JB and CUSD staff have done a lot of work to try to recover that $28.5K lost to improper formsmanship. They had to appear in Sacramento before an oddly named appeals board, and then they subsequently have gotten the refund written into legislation now awaiting the governor's signature. I am attempting to get the documentation package together to substantiate this request, although I'd rather not use up CUSD staff time in this way. I also believe that the suggestion that the value of unused lands could somehow be converted to salaries, (Ten teachers for ten years, etc.) is entirely misleading. Capital accounts cannot be used for annual expenses, even via fancy footwork (Rio Salado). There is also a suggestion that annual expense can be capitalized. If you are going to go to the trouble to 'educate' the people who rely on your site, try to avoid such glaring errors. My overall impression after reading this segment of your website is that it conveys that CUSD has a cavalier attitude about costs. This is not reflective of what I find at CUSD. Please consider reworking this entire segment. John Meador PS, JB (in an aside) did mention that he would be happy to facilitate the creation of some ballfields at the El Granada sites, and then said that of course, CUSD can't take the lead on this because someone would make sure that it didn't happen. So, if you'd like to have something for the northern communities, here's an opening for some constructive dialog. |
The Board has declined to take up the issue of whether President Jones has any conflict of interest when making land use decisions, especially with respect to Wavecrest. His land holdings are extensive, and are close to the Wavecrest land. He also owns office space in the downtown Half Moon Bay area.
Ken Jones serves as CEO of Globe Wireless, which has antennas at the south end of Half Moon Bay. Ken Jones founded and is a major shareholder of Ditech Corportation (search on "Ken").
He owns or has interests in Western General Corp., a real estate company, Seahawk Ranch (22495 Cabrillo Hwy), Seahawk Ranch Properties, Lobitos Land Company, and HMB Stone Pine, LLC (Stone Pine office center). He owns something like 250 acres much closer to the proposed middle school than anyone in El Granada, Moss Beach, or Montara. He owns a real estate company. He develops office space downtown. Conflict of interest? By not addressing this question, the CUSD board leaves it up to each of us to decide for ourselves. |
| Incumbent Jones claims, "CUSD pays $30,000/year in property taxes for the El Granada Land."
How can this be? That would hire us almost one more teacher! Here are the tax records for the specific parcels: As you can plainly see, the school district pays $0 in property taxes for the El Granada property. If, as Jones claims, CUSD pays $30,000/year, that would reflect a valuation of the property at $3 million, a full $1.3 million more than the value used in the land swap calculations. Who undervalues property before trading it?If the district is paying almost $30,000 in "nonuse payments" (as described in the California General Education Code, Section 17219), then even more questions come up. For example, the Executive Officer of the State Allocation Board sets the annual withholding amount based on 1% of the original purchase price ($355,000 in 1965), adjusted for things like the increased valuation of land across the state. Put simply, a withholding of $30,000 per year reflects the State Allocation Board's opinion that the land is worth at least $3 million dollars, far above the $1.7 million value used in the land swap contract. Why the huge disparity? $3 million dollars is no less than 10 teachers for 10 years! And why is the land even eligible for the "nonuse" provisions? Section 17219 makes it clear that there are alternatives. How many years has CUSD paid the nonuse payments? How much has that added to the cost of the land swap? from a reader (7/11/2002): Dear Webmaster@sanmateo.org By conveying this information, I hope to persuade you to modify the misleading and erroneous portion of your website that pertains to CUSD tax payments for property in Granada, CA. It relates to a few informal chats over the recent months. CUSD Superintendent/CFO/Construction_Manager John Bayless did inform me of the history of the tax payment for that property. You can check with him if you need verification, or with Lee Buffington if you don't trust Bayless. JB did say that the high school students annually make a science trip to the property in question, which fulfills the letter of the law for exempting those properties from taxation. One year in the past, someone else besides JB did fill out the (annual) paperwork for the exemption, and that person did not fill out the forms adequately. Thus, CUSD paid ~$28.5K in property tax. Incidently, JB and CUSD staff have done a lot of work to try to recover that $28.5K lost to improper formsmanship. They had to appear in Sacramento before an oddly named appeals board, and then they subsequently have gotten the refund written into legislation now awaiting the governor's signature. I am attempting to get the documentation package together to substantiate this request, although I'd rather not use up CUSD staff time in this way. I also believe that the suggestion that the value of unused lands could somehow be converted to salaries, (Ten teachers for ten years, etc.) is entirely misleading. Capital accounts cannot be used for annual expenses, even via fancy footwork (Rio Salado). There is also a suggestion that annual expense can be capitalized. If you are going to go to the trouble to 'educate' the people who rely on your site, try to avoid such glaring errors. My overall impression after reading this segment of your website is that it conveys that CUSD has a cavalier attitude about costs. This is not reflective of what I find at CUSD. Please consider reworking this entire segment. John Meador PS, JB (in an aside) did mention that he would be happy to facilitate the creation of some ballfields at the El Granada sites, and then said that of course, CUSD can't take the lead on this because someone would make sure that it didn't happen. So, if you'd like to have something for the northern communities, here's an opening for some constructive dialog. |
The Board has declined to take up the issue of whether President Jones has any conflict of interest when making land use decisions, especially with respect to Wavecrest. His land holdings are extensive, and are close to the Wavecrest land. He also owns office space in the downtown Half Moon Bay area.
Ken Jones serves as CEO of Globe Wireless, which has antennas at the south end of Half Moon Bay. Ken Jones founded and is a major shareholder of Ditech Corportation (search on "Ken").
He owns or has interests in Western General Corp., a real estate company, Seahawk Ranch (22495 Cabrillo Hwy), Seahawk Ranch Properties, Lobitos Land Company, and HMB Stone Pine, LLC (Stone Pine office center). He owns something like 250 acres much closer to the proposed middle school than anyone in El Granada, Moss Beach, or Montara. He owns a real estate company. He develops office space downtown. Conflict of interest? By not addressing this question, the CUSD board leaves it up to each of us to decide for ourselves. |
The US Dept. of Education Office of Civil Rights CABRILLO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT VOLUNTARY RESOLUTION PLAN (in PDF format; to read PDF files, get Acrobat Reader free).