Archive for January, 2009
Poisoning the information
In today’s Alameda Journal newsletter from “former councilmember” Barbara Thomas which is so rife with bad information that it hints at why she was so spectacularly voted out of office in her run for reelection in 1991. (she received barely 20% of the vote in 1991, just beating Don Roberts for fourth place).
Postscript: Alameda Power & Telecom
This week brought with it an epilogue of sorts in the story of Alameda’s telecommunications adventure: The release of the former Alameda Power & Telecom’s annual (independently audited!) financial review.
The report had to be held to include details of the sale of the telecom business to Comcast, in November, and it offers hints about the remaining financial burdens it could impose on the utility’s remaining electricity business in its wake.
At its hearing earlier this week, Public Utilities Board president Ann McCormick said that despite the telecom’s losses, the city’s electric utility is doing well.
“We’ve got a full snapshot of the telecom. Obviously, it’s not what we’d like to see. But the utility is still strong,” McCormick said.
The newly monikered Alameda Municipal Power is still talking with its bondholders, several of whom are suing the utility, in an effort to “negotiate settlement of the remaining debt service due.” The folks at AMP don’t expect the outcome of the suits to have a “material adverse effect” on the utility, which has $36 million in insurance to cover judgments and claims, according to the financial review.
The two litigants – Nuveen Funds, which held around two-thirds of the $33 million in the telecom’s main bond series, and Vectren Communication Systems, which held another series offered when the utility bought out Vectren’s right to build and operate the system – estimated their losses at around $20 million, according to court papers.
The utility is also still in talks with the city regarding repayment of the $2.2 million loan it issued to help finish construction of its network – a cost that could, along with a bevy of legal and other expenses, spark a new wave of interfund transfers from the city’s electric business, on top of the $43.616 million it has already donated to the telecom.
Meanwhile, the telecom’s capital assets, which in 2007 were valued at nearly $42.3 million, fell to a value of $14.6 million after the sale in 2008 – a $27.7 million loss. And that $14.6 million is money that’s being use to pay off the utility’s bondholders. In 2008, its balance sheet showed it to be nearly $25 million in the hole, including the bonds due – and even with the interfund transfers from the electric utility on the books.
AMP spokesman Bill Garvine questioned the assets-to-sale-price comparison, though. “You sell for what you can get,” he said, comparing the sale of the telecom to that of a baseball card with a high book value. “We did the best we could in the market.”
Johnson: Island needs chain stores
I took a gander through my Google Alerts for Alameda last night (and it is amazing how much news our little Island generates, folks!) and found this interesting item regarding a forum of East Bay mayors, including our own, about retail development.
The forum was sponsored by the International Conference of Shopping Centers in an effort to find out what city leaders want in terms of retail development and how to encourage retail development, according to the story, from the San Francisco Business Times.
A representative from Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ office said his city is working on a strategy to make retail happen in key redevelopment areas, the Business Times reports. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said his city’s main concern is attracting infill retailers and looking for ways to revitalize high-traffic areas. Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson said our city needs more chain stores. Per the paper:
Alameda needs more chain retail, Mayor Beverly Johnson said, since many of its residents leave the island city for most of their shopping and the city neglected to encourage retail development for many years.
The city, which gets fewer sales tax dollars per resident than any other in Alameda County, has two new chains, Kohl’s and Orchard Supply Hardware, coming to Alameda Towne Centre, though the council also passed a loopholey big-box ban late last year. Plans for a Target at the to-be-built Alameda Landing are … well … I’ll get back to you on that.
School ’shopping
Alameda Unified is reaching out to you, dear reader, on two important topics in the coming weeks: They’ll be hosting workshops on the budget and elementary school curriculum dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity. And you’re invited.
Next Wednesday and Thursday, February 4-5, they’ll host forums to lay out a proposed elementary school curriculum dealing with family diversity, inclusion, and anti-bullying/anti-slurs. They’ll also address the law and policies, statistics, K-12 action plan and the district’s responsibility to ensure the safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, family members and staff.
Wednesday’s forum is in the multipurpose room at Otis School, 3010 Fillmore Street, and Thursday’s is at Washington School, 825 Taylor Street. Both run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The district is also hosting a second set of meetings to discuss the impact of the governor’s proposed budget on our schools. The first is to be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. February 11 at Henry Haight elementary school, 2025 Santa Clara Avenue. The second will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 2 at Wood Middle School, 420 Grand Avenue.
Alameda Snapshot: Dinning Tradition Ole’s Waffle Shop
Was craving breakfast and thought of a evening photo I took of Ole’s a few evenings ago. For those who don’t know Ole’s Waffle Shop is an Alameda Tradition. On the weekends, the line and wait can be long. It is a true American Diner and the staff is always friendly.
The Farmer in DC
Michael Pollan, who recently came to Alameda to speak for a Library Foundation fundraiser, made a call to the President-elect (whoever that was going to be) but now President Obama, to instate a White House Farmer (much like a White House chef). Voting ends tomorrow, but a local Alameda organization is in the running to [...]
Green Living by Janet Marchant: Expect Greener Winters Across Our Nation, Thanks to Stimulus Spending!
Count Me In headed toward bankruptcy
The online registration and payment company that is being sued by the Alameda Education Foundation for non-payment of parent fees has been pushed into involuntary bankruptcy by some of its former clients, according to this press release the company sent out Wednesday.
Three Alaska sports clubs that had been clients of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Count Me In Corporation asked a federal bankruptcy court to take over the company, which they said owed them a combined $174,401.34, on December 22. According to the release, the court did just that on Wednesday.
I checked in with Page Barnes, the attorney representing AEF in the suit, about what it all means for them. She said it means her court action, which claims the company owes the nonprofit $40,000 in parent registration fees for enrichment classes, will be stayed while the bankruptcy court sorts out the mess.
Terry Drayton, who is the head of the eight-year-old company, has said it owes $5 million to 220 sports clubs and nonprofits across the country. He said the company has been actively seeking a buyer in order to pay back the money it owes.
Mark Irons: A perspective on Alameda Point
Mark Irons is an Alameda resident and a self-described environmentalist who has been active in local politics since arriving in Alameda in 1991.
by Mark Irons
Lately I have become preoccupied with three issues regarding Alameda Point: the possibility of renegotiating the cost with the Navy under the new Obama Administration, the impact from rising tides due [...]
Alameda home sales up
Alameda homes sales and prices in December were up over the previous year, according to a new report from real estate stat-gatherers DataQuick Informaton Systems.
Home sales this past December rose 4.33 percent over sales in December 2007, they said, and the median home price of the 29 homes sold in Alameda that month was $650,000, an increase of $23,000 from a year earlier. Alameda’s home values are second only to Pleasanton’s in Alameda County.
The service attributed a rise in Bay Area sales to bargain hunters purchasing foreclosed properties. It noted that those seeking to purchase higher-price properties were having difficulty getting financed.
The data service also noted what they’re calling a “temporary” drop in foreclosure activity for the final quarter of 2008; here in Alameda County, notices of default – the first step in the foreclosure process – dropped 8.2 percent over the same quarter last year.
But the service did note a 63.8 percent rise in the homes lost to foreclosure, from 1,026 homes in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 1,681 in the same quarter of 2008.
DataQuick president John Walsh was reluctant to speculate on whether the numbers could mean a new wave of foreclosures is in the offing. California’s foreclosure numbers dipped late last year after a new state law requiring lenders to take additional steps to help borrowers stay in their homes took effect, but rose again in December.
“The bigger question is whether or not the housing market has hit a low and is dragging along bottom, or if the markets that so far have remained unaffected by the foreclosure problem are due for a fall. With today’s atypical market trends, it’s impossible to predict,” Walsh said.
