County Supervisor Talks to Pacifica About the Issues

At Tuesday’s Pacifica Chamber of Commerce Elected Official Forum & Coffee at the Community Center, San Mateo County Supervisor Carole Groom spoke to a room full of Pacifica residents, introducing herself as well as some of her legislative priorities, which include universal health coverage, increasing the County's stock of affordable housing through transit-oriented development, environmental protection, maintaining and preserving County parks, and growing the local economy.

This was the Chamber's Government Affairs Committee second meeting in a series of meet and greets with elected officials and business leaders who can make a positive difference in Pacifica. Local business owners, members of the Chamber's staff and board, library, school district, and city council were there, including mayor Len Stone.

Groom was elected to the Board of Supervisors in June 2010 and served one year as President of the Board in 2011. Prior to Supervisor Groom's appointment in 2009, she served nine years on the San Mateo City Council. She serves on the California Coastal Commission, San Mateo County Library Joint Powers Authority, San Mateo County Transit Agency, and Transportation Authority. So when it comes to Pacifica, Groom understands the public transportation, library funding, parks, and Highway 1 issues that are all facing the City, she says.

To work toward positive solutions on these issues, Groom recommends, “The people of Pacifica having the will to find the right project and get ready to defend it,” she said. When it comes to widening Highway 1, Groom says she doesn’t have a position on it yet but when she sees some plans, she’ll “dig in,” she says.

Groom was positive about the work being done to rebuild Sharp Park Golf Course with a new irrigation and drainage system to coexist with the red-legged frog and keep the course open. She was also upbeat about the plans for Palmetto Main Street and new library, which she said the only issue there is funding.

Literacy programs and funding County libraries are on the Measure A spending list but not a priority, she said. She continued with an update on Measure A and said that “we are not going to do any spending this year.” She also explained that they are moving to a 2-year budget and will fold all the Measure A projects into that budget.

She listed priorities that are on the table when it comes to spending the Measure A funds, such as infrastructure in the county.

“We haven’t looked at it and need an inventory of all infrastructure to see what needs renovating and replacing,” she said.

Park maintenance and bettering mental health services are also two important issues in Groom’s book.

“We also need to look at programs we’ve had to cut because of lack of state funding such as health and human services programs,” she said. “Bolstering our mental health services for young people and in the schools is important in light of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, so we are working with Anne Campbell at the County Office of Education on that.”

When it comes to the county jail, Grooms says, “You probably heard a thing or two about us building a new jail. A little bit of controversy there. We are bulging at the seams at the facility, and we really think realignment is an opportunity for us to do a better job of rehabilitation for our prisoners and having a new facility that is more modern will enable us to do that — a stronger drug rehab and mental health program not just for prisoners but also for people in the community to keep them out of jail and have a more productive life.”

Read more on Patch:

• Today Your Sales Tax Goes Up
• County Supervisors Discuss How to Spend Measure A Funds
• CURB's Campaign Against New Jail Heats Up
• County Celebrates 10 Years of Universal Coverage for Children