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By Tom Lochner
Contra Costa Times

Cecilia Valdez began her tour of duty as San Pablo’s new mayor by touting project labor agreements as a kind of win-win-win: a way to raise wages of low-wage workers while ensuring labor harmony and increasing quality and productivity.

The agreements set basic terms and conditions for all workers on a project before its start, including prevailing wages and benefits, and often contain local hiring as well as apprenticeship provisions and no-strike and no-lockout pacts.

Nonunion contractor groups and advocates say rules requiring project labor agreements add costs to projects, a notion unions dispute.

Valdez’s elevation to mayor was part of last week’s annual City Council reorganization. Arturo Cruz is the new vice mayor.

It is the first tour for each in their respective leadership posts since they were elected in 2008 with the support of labor unions and the Contra Costa County Democratic Party.

Several labor and party officials attended the ceremony.

Valdez was vice mayor this year.

Valdez praised outgoing Mayor Paul Morris for “the fantastic job he’s done,” thanked the city’s staff and senior administrative officials, and acknowledged several dignitaries in attendance, including representatives of Rep. George Miller and state Sen. Loni Hancock; former San Pablo Mayor Joe Gomes; West Contra Costa Unified School District trustee Antonio Medrano; West Contra Costa Business Development Center Executive Director Alex

Gomez; former Richmond City Council members John Marquez and Ludmyrna Lopez; and former Pinole Mayor Maria Alegria.About a half-mile from City Hall, at the San Pablo Lytton Casino, low-wage workers and their union remain locked in a bitter standoff with management over wages, benefits and labor practices. A city subcommittee is studying the situation, although the city has no legal power to intervene.

The casino contributes about $14 million annually to the city’s general fund under terms of a 2003 Municipal Services Agreement between the city and the casino’s owners, the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians.

Morris, in a statement titled “2011 Year of Accomplishments” posted on the city’s website, said the city eliminated a $3.2 million budget deficit in collaboration with its unions. He also noted the opening of several new businesses, including Las Montanas supermarket and several stores at the College Center shopping center, and ongoing construction of the Helms Community Center, the Rumrill Boulevard Bridge replacement and a Contra Costa County health clinic on part of the former Circle S mobile home park site.

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Helms Middle School 8th graders Christian Barragan, left, Fernando Ochoa, Kaisaiah Clark,…

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Until this fall, 13-year-old Kaisaiah Clark had never flown on a plane or been on a warm beach. Now his face can be found on television from Los Angeles to Florida.

The Richmond eighth-grader is the newly minted star of a national Chevron commercial.

In the ad, Kaisaiah sits in a mock classroom and demonstrates a robot that can lift a cup. In a split screen, a Chevron geologist talks about the corporation’s support for science education.

After a two-day casting call at Helms Middle School in San Pablo, Chevron flew Kaisaiah and four classmates to a Los Angeles soundstage. The producers chose Kaisaiah for the final cut.

“I would call myself very lucky,” said the youth. “The plane was really scary, but after that, it was really exciting.”

“One of my favorite parts was the beach — I don’t think I’ve ever been to a real beach.”

Earlier this month, Latricha Baker had the startling experience of hearing her son’s voice calling out to her from the television as she was getting ready for work.

“It was so surreal,” she said. “I had ‘Good Morning America’ on and I heard a familiar voice. I look up, and it’s my son.

“It was a proud moment.”

Like many of the adults on set, Baker was surprised at how her son kept his cool as he recited the same handful of lines over and over during the two-hour shoot.

Kaisaiah said he is considering doing more acting, but his primary goal is to become a mechanical engineer.

He loves building things in his spare time.”When I create things, it keeps me satisfied for a long time,” he said.

At a reception at Chevy’s restaurant Tuesday, Kaisaiah remained calm, making eye contact and keeping up conversations as supporters swirled around him. He said he is getting used to the attention. At school, students he has never talked to have been congratulating him.

Kaisaiah is taking a Chevron-sponsored engineering class at Helms and will be building robots like the one he demonstrated in the ad.

Principal Jose De Leon said that the program provides important job skills and praised Chevron for making it possible.

The ad, entitled “Science Rules,” is part of Chevron’s “We Agree” public relations campaign.

IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF CHEVRON COULD HELP FINANCIALLY WITH  PROVIDING EQUIPMENT NEEDED IN OUR AUDIO/VIDEO SECTION  OR PROVIDE NEW COMPUTERS FOR OUR  COMMUNITY CENTER BEING PLANNED FOR HELMS.

After a first try fizzled, San Pablo will conduct another community naming contest for the retail-and-entertainment destination that is supposed to rise up some day on the former site of the Circle S and Alvarado mobile home parks.

The winner of the first naming contest in September was “The Avenue,” the choice of more than half of the 473 respondents. But within weeks, a Georgia company with a chain of eight “The Avenue” shopping centers in three Southeastern states gave notice that it has a trademark on the name.

“The Avenue” had trounced two other finalists selected by an ad hoc committee that included Mayor Paul Morris, Councilman Leonard McNeil and City Manager Matt Rodriguez; the other two were Chattleton Square and Chattleton Promenade. A namesake street, Chattleton Lane, exists on the site’s northwestern edge.

A write-in candidate, Placita San Pablo, fetched 62 votes, or 13 percent, to finish in third place. Placita’s strong showing persuaded the committee to include it as a finalist this time, along with Chattleton Square, Chattleton Place — tweaked from the previous contest’s Chattleton Promenade — and La Avenida — Spanish for “The Avenue.”

“This time, we’ll research the names to make sure they’re not trademarked,” Assistant City Manager Kelsey Worthy said Monday, shortly before the council authorized the new contest.

Chattleton Square and Promenade survived the first round without anyone claiming the

rights to the names. Placita San Pablo as yet is untested. And if anyone should lay claim to La Avenida, it apparently won’t be the Georgia company, Cousins Properties Inc.Worthy said Cousins has no trademark on “La Avenida” and that it has no objections to San Pablo’s use of the name.

Rich Kinney, pastor of Revival Generation Ministries in San Pablo, asked the council to add Huichun Village to the mix; the name is a reference to a subset of the Ohlone tribe that is native to the East Bay. But Mayor Paul Morris said the ad hoc committee had done its work and that it was too late to add another finalist.

Kinney could follow Placita’s playbook and campaign for Huichun Village as a write-in candidate, however.

“We walk on their blood; we walk on their burial sites; we trampled all over them,” Kinney said after the council meeting. “We owe them the courtesy of some memorial, that they haven’t been forgotten.”

At the very least, Kinney said, he will advocate installing a historic display in a central part of the shopping center to bring attention to the area’s indigenous people.

These days, the city’s most common reference to Indians is the San Pablo Lytton Casino, owned by the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, a tribe native to Sonoma County.

The new naming contest will likely begin in the new year, to give San Pablo officials time to vet the names.

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A crew of workers from Williams Grading secures plastic tarps together as they work to cover a…

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A landslide, apparently triggered by heavy rains, that damaged seven San Pablo homes in March is now the subject of a court battle.

But who will ultimately sue whom remains unclear.

The owners of three homes in the 5900 block of Hillcrest Road sued San Pablo late last month in Contra Costa County Superior Court. They contend that the city’s design and maintenance of drainage over the years contributed to the March 24 slide that damaged their homes and four others upslope on Wyman Street.

The suit also names the Wyman Street property owners as co-defendants, accusing them of negligent property maintenance that contributed to the downhill damage. The property owners’ attorney predicts there will be other complaints and cross-complaints.

Previously, the homeowners on both streets had unified against the city, appearing as a group seeking help from the City Council. In April, the city proposed an “interim fix” of the slide for $100,000 to $150,000, provided all the affected homeowners released the city from liability for the work and indemnifying it for any third-party legal action. Most of the owners balked.

The plaintiffs are Barney and Sandra Givens, Wilma Thompson and Eloise Hewitt, all represented by attorney Alan Mayer of San Rafael. The Wyman Street defendants are Joseph Romey, Elizabeth Henshaw, Leon and Blanka Walker, Barbara Scott and Evelyn Howell, all represented by Walnut Creek-based attorney Martin Ambacher.

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Pablo officials acknowledged receiving the suit but did not otherwise comment.In April, City Manager Matt Rodriguez said in a news release that geotechnical experts said no city work or property ownership contributed to the most recent slide, but several homeowners disputed that any expert ever said that.

Historical records document a 1958 landslide that destroyed two Wyman Street homes and one on Hillcrest Road. In the aftermath, the city condemned several lots, including the two Wyman lots, and had hillside repairs done, including drainage work.

In late 1979 or early 1980, the city sold the two Wyman lots; a house owned by one of the defendants is on one of the once-condemned lots.

Last week, Ambacher said the uphill owners will file indemnity cross-complaints against each other and the city, unless they file separate actions. At least two will either include claims for damages in their cross-complaints or in a separate action, Ambacher said.

Mayer, elaborating on some of the alleged acts of negligence on the part of Wyman Street owners, cited “unnaturally diverted water … from roofs, from the downspouts, from the patio areas” that he said was directed into the hill.

He added that a lot of investigative work needs to be done by a lot of engineers, including borings and other subsurface work.

Meanwhile, Mayer has hired a contractor to do what he described as winterization work on the slope, including removal of some trees. A crew with heavy equipment was working this week on the slope behind the Hillcrest houses.

San Pablo has hired former Pinole and Pittsburg City Manager Marc Grisham as an economic development consultant.

On Monday, the City Council approved a $3,500-per-month contract with Grisham & Associates. The firm is owned by Grisham and his wife, Dana, and based at their Pinole home. The contract is for nine months and totals $31,500.

In San Pablo, Grisham will team again with Matt Rodriguez, the former Pittsburg deputy city manager who left that city to become San Pablo city manager in May 2010.

“When I retired as (Pittsburg) city manager (in June), I said I wouldn’t do anymore government work,” Grisham told the council. “Matt tracked me down.”

Grisham is supposed to help San Pablo with The Avenue, on the site of the former Circle S and Alvarado mobile home parks, described on the city’s website as a future “lifestyle center complete with retail, medical services, housing and open space.” Grisham also is supposed to help in the design of a health care facility in conjunction with the West Contra Costa County Healthcare District, owner of Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, as well as help negotiate contracts, seek out developers and assist with permitting and other government activities.

Grisham said his company stresses “community partnership.”

“Economic development is all about partnerships,” he said.

San Pablo Councilwoman Genoveva Calloway said she knows Grisham from his days in Pinole and that he is “highly

qualified.”Grisham, 61, was Pinole’s community development director from 1994 to 1997, when he left to take a similar position in Imperial Beach. He returned to Pinole in 1998 as assistant city manager and became city manager a year later. He left Pinole in 2004 to take the top post in Pittsburg, retiring there in June.

During his tenure as Pinole’s city manager, Grisham negotiated the purchase of the Pinole Valley Shopping Center and a subsequent ground lease with developer The Kivelstadt Group. He also oversaw development of the mixed-use Fernandez Corner building and the Pinole Senior Village, a residence for seniors with dementia.

In addition, he oversaw the development of the Pinole Youth Center and the purchase of the site that later became the Pinole Shores Business Park, as well as other developments along San Pablo Avenue.

When he left Pittsburg, Grisham cited as his major accomplishments a much-lowered crime rate; reconstruction and remodeling of Pittsburg public schools; and the redevelopment of that city’s Old Town. Officials there also credited Grisham with revitalizing the city’s marina area; dredging the harbor and attracting more people and businesses to the downtown; and shepherding projects of the Pittsburg Power Co. to successful conclusions.

By Tom Lochner
Contra Costa Times

San Pablo Councilman Arturo Cruz is in intensive care following a heart attack and stroke, officials announced Tuesday.

Cruz, who is 37, was stricken Friday. He is in stable condition in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco following heart surgery, according to a news release from San Pablo City Hall.

“We are devastated by the news. He is a very young and capable individual, and to be going through this at this stage in his life is just shocking to us all,” Mayor Paul Morris said in a written statement. “Arturo Cruz is person of good, strong moral character, public service, and faith, and our prayers are with him and his family at this time on his recovery.”

Cruz, who works for the Contra Costa County Health Services Department’s Women, Infants and Children office in Richmond, has served on the City Council since he was elected in November 2008.

A musician, Cruz works with young people and youth groups and is an outspoken advocate of social justice, education and immigrant rights.

Cruz got a visit from his fellow council members Morris, Genoveva Garcia Calloway and Cecilia Valdez and City Manager Matt Rodriguez on Monday.

“He has lots of company,” Calloway said, noting that Cruz was surrounded by family members and friends. “His youthfulness and his positive attitude towards life will help him in his recovery. Pray for him.”

Rodriguez said he found Cruz

alert and in good spirits but cautioned that it will be awhile before doctors determine the effects of Cruz’s stroke and the details of his recovery and rehabilitation.”He’s communicating. He’s reading sympathy cards,” Rodriguez said. “He seems to be very strong.”

*THOSE OF US AT THE BLOG AND MEMBERS OF THE SAN PABLO COMMUNITY ALLIANCE WISH THE  BEST FOR COUNCILMAN CRUZ AND HIS FAMILY AND WE HOPE THE COUNCILMAN HAS A SPEEDY RECOVERY.