The city of Half Moon Bay will not be making its usual loan payment for the public library this month after San Mateo County agreed to pause payment for a year.
Since 2019, the city has been on track with its loan payments of about $286,000 every April and December until the pandemic hit. In June of this year, the city said it had to redirect funds to deal with a sudden decrease in revenue and unanticipated COVID-19-related costs.
The county, which gave the city $6 million in an interest-free loan to construct the new library, agreed to the deal so long as the city would pay two years’ worth — $1.14 million — in full in fiscal year 2021-2022. The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution for the updated loan terms on June 23 after the city approached the county in late May.
The move means the city didn’t have to come up with $572,000 in time for the upcoming fiscal year 2020-2021.
County Board Supervisor Don Horsley said he had no qualms granting the extension given the county’s good working relationship with the city of Half Moon Bay.
“We’re all struggling and we’re not going to force the city to reduce services,” Horsley said. “And if it came to it, we would extend the loan again.”
During the pandemic, the library has offered a range of key services, including free WiFi, flu shots and a site for Ayudando Latino a Soñar’s weekly food pantry. Though the library has moved to curbside pickup due to shelter-in-place orders, operations have not been impacted by the loan deferment. Library operations are run by a separate joint powers agreement that is funded by a countywide tax levy in place for decades.
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And yet, while they “or-mouth” to the County about their Library Payment, arch the last part of tge Dec. 1st HMB City Council MeetingVideo where they are preparing to take money from reserves to complete a year- Ed bad purchase of 880 Stone Pine! https://youtu.be/jopu4Uhe2N0 That’s a lit of lettuce for a 20 acre Corporation Yard that they have been leasing from POST! ( Who was tired of carrying them) l guess they hope to get money from another Bank, after the cash sale is completed and pay Bavk their reserves. But the scheme sounds fishy to me, not to mention risky! Why hasn’t the Review poked around about this? Maybe they did. It want to pay attention thru until five hours and 20 minutes into the meeting 5:19:32. They waited to discuss it until the County Boys had already signed off Zoom! John CharlesUllom, what say you? I do not know if that property is even within the City Limits, do you?
Proof that Magda and Reed conspired with Horsley and Groom to flea flicker the taxpayers of Half Moon Bay:
From: Peggy Jensen
Date: November 20th, 2015
To: Carole Groom cgroom@smcgov.org>; Don Horsley dhorsley@smcgov.org>; Alicia GarciaAGarcia@smcgov.org>
Cc: Peggy J~nsen pjensen@smcgov.org>; Mathew Chidester mchidester@smcgov.org>
Subject: Funding options for Half Moon Bay Library
All,
Via this email, I'm asking Alicia to set up a meeting for the four of us to discuss full funding options for the Half Moon Bay Library project.
I spoke with Madge Gonzalez, the City Manager today. The City Attorneys believe the initiative on the June 2016 HMB ballot would prohibit the City from borrowing any money for the library. I assume the prohibition would be effective the date of passage, but have asked Madge to confirm the effective date.
There is currently a $4 million gap in funding for the library. At the City Council meeting on December 1st, the size of the library will be set and a design concept will be selected. Magda said the size will be determined by cost. The current proposal is a 22,000 square foot building. If the County is willing to loan the city the gap funds for the library, Magda said the City Council may put more funds from reserves toward the project. The city would like a loan from the County, ideally one that doesn't require principal payments until after 2019. Magda's preference is to solve the funding issue early in 2016.
Alternatively, we could wait until after the June election and enter into a lease back arrangement if necessary. There are also other options we could discuss when we meet, hopefully in early December. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Peggy
Thank you John for providing context and thank you David E!
It will be interesting to see how HMB City will come up with the annual funds to operate the new homeless shelter.
The article below suggests that it costs approximately $10k / year to operate one unit. 50 units translate to approximately $500k in annual operating cost...
https://calmatters.org/housing/2020/06/motel-conversion-homeless-housing-california/?
The Review was adamantly pro spend as much possible on the new library. Thus the lack of context. The editorial board is quite aware of how the situation evolved. Clay in particular dislikes direct public participation. Clay even let Big Finance Rick publish an article titled, "Do Not F Half Moon Bay": -- https://www.hmbreview.com/opinion/matters_of_opinion/do-not-f-half-moon-bay/article_149f7dfa-072b-11e6-ac49-a31a60d09a41.html
The editorial board knows that the loan the county gave us was negotiated behind closed doors. Clay has seen the emails. In another context, he might have been outraged. but as the powers that be at the Review wanted that library built as big as possible, the Review called it good government.
The exact same behind closed doors politics resulted in the creation of Horsley Hospitality For the Homeless. They already have folks living there even though there is no real plan. They had to in order meet provisions of the "FREE MONEY" that was just too good to refuse.
Of note. The City will not be paying for the operation of Horsley Hospitality Suites For The Homeless. The County "Pinky Promises" to take care of everything. Here is the plan:-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_swear
Our fair city decided to pile on Eblovi. At first, the city took no position . In the end, Reed Gallogy and Magda Gonzalez published a self back slap in the city letter claiming they defended the First Amendment.
We all owe David Eblovi a huge thank you for this break. Big Finance Rick Kowalczyk wanted to use lease revenue bonds. Eblovi scared them so bad with the meer prospect of Measure F that the then City Manager, Magda Gonzalez, and Don Horsley arranged a backroom deal for the loan package. If not for that move, our city would be in default.
Think about that folks. There are emails that prove all of the above. Clay has seen them. If not for the efforts of David Eblovi, efforts for which he paid a big price, efforts that were backed by Penrose, Ruddock, and Rarback, we would be in default on our library payments.
Which leads to the question of why the City would want to borrow three million to buy a corporate yard when we can't afford the library. And does anybody believe our fair city will be able to pay twice as much next year for what it can't pay for today?
We have Wimpy leaders who think they can have their burgers today and let others pay for them next Tuesday.
That's hilarious. Thanks for the revisionist history to start off the year.
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