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By Ken, March 30, 2010 9:33 pm

San Carlos Police are on the lookout for a gang of robbers who entered an open door of a home on the 1300 block of Hull Drive – in the north part of town just off El Camino Real – tied up the resident and made off with money and jewelry.

Police said the daylight robbery, at 11:15 a.m. on Monday, involved several suspects, described as Hispanic and between the ages of 20 and 30. After tying up the occupant, the suspects ransacked the entire house before fleeing, they said. The victim received minor injuries but required no medical treatment.

Police are investigating.

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By Ken,

Once again, surveillance video has proven to be critical in a San Carlos police investigation – this time resulting in the arrest of a suspect in the December armed robbery of our Best Buy store.

According to detective Sgt. Marti Overton, San Carlos investigators distributed still photos of the gunman to Bay Area law enforcement agencies. One detective noticed that the suspect resembled a man in a wanted photo from another jurisdiction, for a different crime.

San Carlos officers then obtained a $1 million arrest warrant and the suspect, Anthony Byrd, 24, was arrested at his East Bay home on Sunday by Hayward Police. San Carlos detectives searched the residence and found numerous pieces of suspected stolen electronic items, including flat screen TVs, computers and gaming consoles, said Overton.

On the evening of Dec. 29, the robber entered the Best Buy store at San Carlos Marketplace on Industrial Road, loaded a cart with selected items from the shelves and headed for the rear exit. When he was confronted by a store employee, the man brandished a handgun and made his escape.

Faced with a 25 percent rise in major crimes in the city during 2009, San Carlos Police have chalked up a series of key arrests lately. The department has a clearance rate of 75 percent for violent crimes – nearly twice the California average. And just a few weeks ago, police cracked what they believe was a highly organized burglary ring after a house in the Oak Creek area (upper Eaton) was entered and $30,000 worth of goods was stolen.

These successes come as the city council is considering a city staff recommendation to dissolve the police department and outsource all law enforcement functions to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department.

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By Ken, March 24, 2010 11:12 am

Sign our online petition against outsourcing!

FINALLY, San Carlos residents are beginning to understand what’s at stake if the city outsources the police department to the San Mateo County Sheriff and the fire department to CalFire. Overwhelmingly, speakers at Monday’s city council budget session criticized city manager Mark Weiss’ recommendation to dismantle the departments, and some council members felt more options were needed to solve a $3.5 million budget deficit. Weiss had offered what he called his “Two Paths” approach: farming out all of public safety or slashing parks and recreation, including the possible closure of the Youth Center.

Despite the concerns of residents, a majority of the council seemed to espouse the parks-at-any-price option and instructed the city staff to further explore outsourcing police and fire. The proposals from the sheriff and CalFire may soon be joined by a proposal from Redwood City, which could offer a contract for services or some type of consolidation. It’s not known whether this would be limited strictly to police functions or might also include the fire department, which is shared jointly by Belmont and San Carlos.

If the city thought that few people cared about public safety, Monday’s meeting was a revelation. The council might also want to consider the fact that an online petition against outsourcing that we’ve started at Change.org is approaching 200 signatures. They might want to consider that a group of Central Middle School youngsters, concerned about the fate of their firefighters and police officers, have collected hundreds of signatures from fellow students urging the council not to break up the departments. And they might want to consider that an online poll from fellow blogger Chuck Gillooley (www.whiteoaksblog.com) is running two-to-one against outsourcing.

There is no escaping the fact that this issue is convulsing our city, perhaps as never before in its history. Just look at the media circus this has caused, with three Bay Area TV stations, local newspapers and even The New York Times covering the story. San Carlos has become the embarrassment of the Bay Area. So much for “The City of Good Living.” Our image is going down in flames.

Police and fire protection represents the foundation, the bedrock of city government, and for anyone to speak of these dedicated men and women in terms of numbers and costs is hard to swallow. Nothing personal about this, insists the mayor and some council members, it’s only business.

I’ve got news for them. It’s VERY personal.

Continue reading 'The Personal Toll of Outsourcing'»

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By Ken, March 19, 2010 9:14 am

A proposal by San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss to hand over our police department to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office raises a host of questions, including the one that everyone is asking: Will it make us safer?

There is little doubt that regionalism in public safety is becoming a trend. Just this week it was announced that Burlingame and San Mateo are taking the first steps toward a merged police department. Millbrae and San Bruno are in talks to do the same thing. As cities struggle to find solutions to their budget challenges, consolidations look very tempting, especially if the savings are substantial.

In San Carlos, the city needs to close a $3.5 million budget gap, and Weiss has presented a “Two Paths” plan; with one option that drastically cuts all city departments — including Parks and Recreation — and another that pulls all of the savings out of public safety by outsourcing police to the sheriff and the San Carlos portion of the fire department to CalFire, the state agency.

The way that the city staff is embracing the outsource concept, Two Paths are looking more like One Track – and a fast one at that. In the first council budget session last Saturday (the next one is this Monday, March 22, at 6 p.m. in city council chambers) , the city management put up rosy numbers that would purportedly save millions on the outsource option – and provide the city with a fat surplus, to boot. Officers would drive around in the same cars that say “San Carlos Police.” There would be no loss of jobs. No closure of parks and recreation programs. All of the fun stuff in town would continue. And we all live happily ever after!

What could be wrong with that picture?

Continue reading 'Outsourcing the Police Dept: Lingering Questions'»

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By Ken, March 12, 2010 4:34 pm

Outsourcing San Carlos Fire Department to State Agency Sparks Firestorm of Questions

ALARMS are going off everywhere – except, apparently, in City Hall — over a proposal to outsource the San Carlos portion of the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department to the state-run CalFire agency.

A report issued yesterday from City Manager Mark Weiss’ office suggested that the city could save $1.2 million to $2 million a year by turning over all firefighting functions to CalFire, formerly known as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). The idea is to help offset an expected $3.5 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year.

The San Carlos City Council will review the proposal, starting with a Saturday, March 13, budget work session that will be held from noon to 5 p.m. on the second floor of the library, with the public invited to attend. See the full city staff report.

In the context of these deliberations, there has been ongoing strife between San Carlos and Belmont over the cost-sharing formula for running the jointly-managed Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department. Reportedly more heat was generated this week at a meeting of the fire board, which includes two council members from each of the two cities.

Also, San Mateo County supervisors may have concerns over what might become of the department’s hazardous materials response team, which is responsible for serving the entire county. As the county’s designated hazmat unit, the department receives nearly a half-million dollars a year from the county. The team includes a vehicle, special equipment that can deal with toxic leaks as well as terrorist attacks, and special training for firefighters.

But there’s more – much more – that the city council is not getting from the city staff report, which was prepared by Assistant City Manager Brian Moura.

Apart from taking a hard look at the accuracy of CalFire’s numbers, or the city staff’s mathematics, there are major issues swirling around the operations of CalFire, its relations with communities that have contracts with the agency, and skyrocketing cost increases to the state government that have drawn attention in Sacramento and could well have repercussions for any community with a CalFire agreement.

Continue reading 'CalFire Proposal: Smoke and Mirrors?'»

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By Administrator, March 4, 2010 12:15 am

City struck by auto burglaries

March 04, 2010, 02:56 AM

Daily Journal staff report

At least 10 cars had smashed windows and items taken during a crime spree in San Carlos Tuesday night between 6:17 p.m. and 11:32 p.m., according to police.

Police believe one person or party is responsible for all the break-ins.

One woman’s purse was stolen with $700 inside. GPS devices and other electronics devices were also taken, said San Carlos police Cmdr. Jon Read.

The spree was primarily contained to the western edge of the city in the hills, Read said.

A vehicle on the 2800 block of Brittan Avenue was the first to be burglarized just after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Police responded to another call at 7:34 p.m. in which personal items from the passenger-side floorboards were taken from a vehicle. Police responded to several more calls that night including one on the 900 block of Crestview Drive at 7:47 p.m. in which a backpack and sunglasses were stolen.

The burglar or burglars struck again on the 200 block of Crestview Drive when police responded to a call at 7:57 p.m.

Police responded to another call just two minutes later on the first block of Maple Way where a car’s window was smashed and an iPod stolen, according to San Carlos’ police media bulletin.

Police responded to a call on the 500 block of Emerald Avenue at 8:07 p.m. and then were called back to the scene of another auto burglary at 8:10 p.m. on the 100 block of Crestview Drive.

The last call police responded to that night related to the crime spree was at 11:32 p.m. on the 3300 block of Brittan Avenue. A makeup bag was removed from the vehicle, searched and discarded nearby.

San Carlos police are working with neighboring law enforcement agencies to see if any other cities have seen an uptick in these types of crimes and whether a suspect has been identified. Read reminds residents to not keep valuables locked inside their cars.

Editorial Comment

It’s getting painful to continue to hear the City’s constant retort of “we have no money.” Well, homeowners don’t either. We pay embarrassing amounts in property taxes and yet live in a city constantly crying for more money and considering turning off half of its street lights while these crimes continue unabated.

And when we are victims of crime, we are resigned to there never being any resolution, because of course there is no money. (Yes, we’ve heard.) So we’ve lost our property and a little faith, and we’re left with a city that wants more money while homeowners see more crime.

Seriously… what the hell?

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By Administrator, March 1, 2010 7:24 am

By Shaun Bishop
Daily News
Posted: 02/24/2010 09:27:58 PM PST
Updated: 02/25/2010 12:45:28 PM PST

Three people have been arrested in connection with two of the 19 residential burglaries reported in San Carlos over the past four months, police said.

Jessica Lawler, 18, was arrested Feb. 16 and charged with committing two burglaries that occurred in January, including one in which three handguns were stolen, said police Cmdr. Jon Read.

San Mateo County prosecutors charged Lawler, of Sunnyvale, with two counts of residential burglary, three counts of grand theft and two counts of attempted residential burglary, all felonies, said assistant district attorney Karen Guidotti.

Lawler pleaded not guilty last week and is in custody on $100,000 bail. She faces about nine years in prison if convicted on the seven charges, Guidotti said.

Read said the two burglaries occurred in January, about a week apart, at homes in the southwest area of San Carlos near Eaton Avenue. He declined to name the exact locations, citing the “complexity of the case.”

Two men were arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property from the burglaries. Damien Vaka, a 31-year-old Belmont man, was arrested Feb. 9 when a probation search turned up one of the stolen handguns, Read said.

A third suspect, an East Palo Alto resident, was arrested about a week ago on suspicion of possessing stolen property from one of the burglaries. Read said he did not immediately know the man’s name because he was arrested by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office street crimes unit. The sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment.

Detectives are analyzing evidence to determine whether the three suspects in custody have ties to 17 other burglaries that have occurred throughout the city since November. It is possible police could turn up additional suspects, Read said.

“Whether or not (Lawler) committed all 17, we don’t know, but we’re obviously going to be looking into this to see if she did anything else,” Read said.

Vaka pleaded not guilty Feb. 11 to three felony charges — possession of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of concentrated cannabis — and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

He remains in custody on $125,000 bail and faces about five years in prison if convicted, Guidotti said.