MONUMENT CORRIDOR BOYCOTT list: 09/01/2010

Mr. Edi "Ed" Birsan

Q & A with candidate Birsan:

NOTE TO OTHER CONCORD CANDIDATES: You may submit your answers too, for publication here, via form or email. See the right hand column of this Blog for contact methods.
The Monumayor.

1. Will Concord ever have an Olive Garden Restaurant?

Yes.

2. What would be the ideal use for the [Concord] Pavilion acreage?

I would like to see it incorporated into a performing arts university complex.

3. Should Monument Boulevard be turned in to a potpourri of international businesses and international cultural activities?

Would be better than what it is now.

4. Should The City of Concord invest in that transformation?

It is a Redevelopment area; the question is whether there is a viable sustainable private investment match plan.

5. Who would make the ideal Chief of the Concord Police Department? Please name names.

Presently I do not know. Elliot Ness comes to mind from the past.

6. Should Concord City workers be required to live in Concord for two years before they are eligible for hire by The City?

No, they should simply be required to work.

However, I think that such a limit would be pushing it for City Council Candidates, but that is up to the people to decide.

7. What is the magic-bullet to prevent groups of males from loitering in The Monument Corridor? What is your action-plan and your time-line to pull that off?

We need to get after the employers who hire off the street and not the hiring hall(s), change signage, work with the store owners to get them to not accept the loitering.

8. Will you be a cooperative Council Member? If, you're going to be the boat rocker how will you ever get any of your proposals past the current machine?

There is going to be a shake up on the Council. As with all collective voting decisions there will have to be compromises, trade offs, explorations of innovated solutions and the general stuff that is the diplomacy of office negotiations. The issue is not always the current machine, but the current battle grounds and what forces and positions can be used to pry the segments of the current blocs away from each other towards a different majority.

9. What is your declared Political Party?

Democrat.

10. How will your political party sway your vision and your votes?

Does not. I am somewhat of an outsider and clearly far from the current clique in the local party.

11. What is your vision for Concord?

A harmonious place for people to live, raise their family and work.

12. Who are your campaign donors?

Available from the City Clerk. Small donors for the most part except a few business friends. I put in 2-3 dollars of my own for every one from others. No money from PAC's so far I do no anticipate any large amounts there if ever and certainly they would have no real impact other than to make me spend more of my own money.

13. Do you have any conflicts-of-interest? Which matters before The Council will you have to recuse from?

I do not believe I have any. Since I am receiving about $75 from a residual on a storage container still in Concord maybe if there was an issue relating to storage containers it would bring some question, but as it is under a non-cancelable lease purchase with an operating company it may be too distant and too minor of a concern. I have no more stocks, just my house on Alla.

14. What is your favorite park in Concord and why?

Todos Santos these days, because of the coffee shops and stores and events around. Previously with the kids it was Ygnacio Neighborhood Park which is near my house.

15. Which library do you go to?

I am the secretary of the Friends of the Concord Library, the only public library in the City by City Hall. I go there every Wednesday morning for volunteer work.

16. What is your plan to promote the smaller businesses in Concord?

First, get the city codes and the chamber of commerce together to remove unfriendly business codes where reasonable.

Second, get the businesses together to recommend what new businesses they want in the town, and then target those businesses aggressively.

Third, work on the issues that prevent new business from coming to town.

17. Is it fair for The City to exclusively spend so much time, effort, web site face time, and funds promoting: Todos Santo's businesses, Fry's, Lehmer's, Ranch-99, and other "plum" businesses?

You are begging for a specific answer here.

Fairness needs to be in relationship to alternatives and to other options. There should be a greater shift to develop other areas in proportion to both the potential as was accomplished at Todos Santos. For example, I think that Costco is the number one sales generator that is close to the Monument. We need to fix up the Four Corners area.

18. Pleasant Hill traffic signals and traffic planning deliberately create gridlock when entering or exiting Concord to or from the west side of Concord. What is your plan for more cooperative traffic engineering from Pleasant Hill at those ingress or egress overlaps?

We need to get with the PH folks and work something out on the light timing. The insanity around Monument going to Contra Costa Ave drives me nuts as well as some of the interchanges along Concord Ave. We may not be able to do a major traffic pattern rework without a lot of Federal highway funding.
Long term plan I would love to see a trolley car system as the bus systems do not work. But right now they are not economically feasible.

19. When you want to have fun, where do you head to in Concord?

Used to be the Willows Theater; now it is the evening nights at Todos Santos.

20. Name your favorite fun place to take your family, that's within 2-hours of Concord.

San Francisco, ball parks.

21. What is Concord's finest restaurant?

BeniHana is my family's favorite.

22. When you want to "go shopping" do you head for: Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Danville, Martinez, Antioch, or ............................. Concord?

We go to the Safeway on Monument, or Trader Joe's on Treat, lately been attracted to Nob Hill Foods on the border with WC along Oak Grove, sometimes the Safeway down in Countrywood especially if we are going to eat at Sorrento's or Black Bear [Diner].

23. Do you feel the Brenden Theatres are dirty, run-down, and ill-managed?

You are leading the question again.

We go there fairly often. They could do some improvement on the parking lot.

Have not found them to be excessive dirty or run down.

24. When you want to "go to the movies" what theatre comes to mind first?

Brenden then PH Century.

25. Does The Concord Police Department need a Citizen's Review Board?

I do not think so, what it needs is more active participation between citizens, the City Council, the City staff and the police. A Review Board is generally a negative reaction to a very negative environment. We need to change the environment.

26. Does a city of 129,000 people need a $54-million dollar police force? ($54,000,000 per year budget).

Your numbers are wrong. The city spends 53% of the budget on the police. The total City budget is 66-76 million.

It is fairly common across California to spend 50% on the cops alone.

27. Should Concord's Redevelopment Agency boundary extend all the way to the western border of Concord instead of stopping an eighth of a mile east of the City Limits?

Yes.

28. Should Redevelopment money be used for non-infrastructure expenditures?

It has always been that way. It is used to promote construction of office buildings and the like.

It is that manner that funds are regenerated into the fund.

29. Where would you and your wife go on a 2nd Honeymoon?

Hawaii (not that we ever had a first honeymoon).

30. How much time do you expect to devote per month during your term on The City Council?

30 hours a week.

31. Thinking back to when you first visited Concord, what businesses would you like to see come back to Concord?

Red Lobster, a functional air line to Long Beach/Los-Angeles.

32. What attracted you and your family to settle in Concord?

In 1983 it was affordable, walking distance to all reasonable schools (*Ygnacio Valley Elementary, Oak Grove, Ygnacio Valley), a neighborhood pool down the block, walking distance to both Monument and Treat shopping areas (wife does not drive), I was working in downtown SF at the time and it was a reasonable commute by car (BART was not a real option due to my hours).

33. Why are you running for City Council?

After years of talking at the City Council from the public side, participating in committee meetings on the CAC and the RAB, assorted other things I felt that it was time to try to get things done by being on the other side of the microphone. At 60, with the kids grown, the business in a semi retirement stage I have the time, the energy to devote to it and I can contribute to the community.

34. Are you retired?

Semi state as I work about 2-3 days a week.

35. Are you independently wealthy?

Not by a long shot, but the real question is not whether are you independently wealthy but will you be dependently poor!

36. Should there be a cut-off time for Council meetings? A time when meetings should be held over to the next meeting?

There is a natural limit on these things when people begin to drop off. The longest meeting I was at ran to about 1AM in the last 4 years. The problem with holding over a meeting relates to a reschedule of people's time, various aspects of the Brown Act might come in and people who took off and blocked off time to speak and present arguments might be unfairly disallowed an opportunity. So I think we have it now as a matter of choice by the Mayor and that seems to have worked so I would not want there to be some sort of hard and fast rule that people could then abuse as part of a scheme to screw around with the letter of the law.

37. Should the Council Agenda have a published time-line, so constituents can know when their Agenda item is coming up?

I do not think it is practical as you can never judge how long the open ended public comment might run and there is a great variation in the number of speakers that show up based on publicity and interest group activity.

38. Should The City of Concord post meeting announcements on local Blogs?

The public notice is given on the City Web site and blogs have copied over the agenda items and the reports on the events. I do not think that the city has to go out to the blog folks each time and remind them, there is a fairly good record of punctuality on posting of agendas and the like.

39. Should The City Council have an email distribution list to keep constituents apprised to what's going on and what's been decided?

I see no problem with that. In fact one of my hopes is that something like the Pulse of Concord would become a monthly City Survey of the community done by email blog survey like the Pulse is now.

40. What college did you attend?

City University of New York: City College of New York (uptown) 1967=71 (BA)

City University of New York: Midtown PhD program (special program at the time allowed some of us to skip the Masters program and go straight for the PhD) 71-72.

Maritime College of NY 75-6? Post Graduate program.

41. What was your GPA?

Have no clue, it was 40 years ago I think we did not have GPA as much as A's and B's etc. Also there were some classes that were Pass or Fail.

42. What outside activities did you participate in during college?

Helped to stop a War in Vietnam, cover the take over the administration building, close the college down, march on Washington, Albany etc, all the usual stuff of the 60's. Plus helped start a game company, designed some war games, got involved in the game and hobby of Diplomacy, started a few international hobby organizations, worked at night in Diners Club Customer VIP department, Burns Guard Night Watchman, etc.

43. Do you have any hobbies or personal passions?

The game of Diplomacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edi_Birsan

44. What are you for and how are you going to get us there?

I am for a lot of things including that most things you have to get where you want to go not where someone else wants you to go. I would like us to get to the point that the opportunities that were afforded to me are available to everyone.

45. Why should we trust you?

I am my own man, I am not owned by any group, I am fairly open to reason, and whether you trust me or not, you get the same result, so why carry the burden of suspicion all the time?

46. Have you ever been arrested?

No.

47. Have you ever been committed to a mental institution?

I was a teenager and went to public high school in New York City, does that count? Otherwise no.

48. Do you have a valid California Driver's License?

Yes, it expires on Oct 7, 2013.

Also have a TWIC Card (allows access to Port facilities).

49. Are you eligible for re-hire at your most recent place of employment (excluding any self-employment)?

I have had my own company since 1986, the prior company that I worked at Interpool (not the police department—that would be Interpol).

I worked from 1973-1986, that company was absorbed and merged three or four years ago and no longer exists.

There would be no prior work condition or the like to prevent me from working in the Industry as an employee.

50. Have you ever failed a drug test?

No, but I have also never taken a drug test!

I am diabetic since 2000 and have had a ton of blood tests, and I have been and am currently in a clinical trial program for a medicine so my blood is tested just about monthly for all sorts of junk, most of which I cannot pronounce.

51. Should Marijuana be legalized and taxed?

Yes.

52. Other than your family, what is your proudest accomplishment?

Ending the war in Vietnam and remaining a patriot at the same time.

53. Name five things on your "bucket list".

a. Visit every country in the World (*59% done though the Europeans keep making new countries which is very annoying);
b. Parachute out of a Plane;
c. Win another World Championship in Diplomacy;
d. Go to Outer Space;
e. Understand the real universal truth of the concept of gravity (has not made sense of what we teach about it, how we teach it, what we think of it and our explanation of its function and nature- since I first encountered it in physics in High School- kept me from pursing a career in physics.)

54. Do you have an Earthquake Emergency Preparedness Kit?

Sort of. I keep forgetting to redo the water bottles in the garage.

55. What special training, licenses, or certificates do you have that would be an asset The City?

Went through the City Leadership Program, the Citizens Police Academy, Homeland Security Check with a TWIC pass.

56. Should Concord be divided in to five-zones and one Council Member elected from each neighborhood-zone?

I am in favor of a combined approach to divide the city into 3 districts North, South, East and have one Council seat per district, then have the Mayor and Vice Mayor directed by at large in the City. This would correspond to the two election cycles of Governor (like now for 3 seats) and Presidential Election (like in 2008 for 2).

There are certain complications in doing this, including the fact that it would complicate the production of ballots since we are creating another zone in addition to all the other district lines that divide the city.

However, it has a certain appeal to me as a mixture of regional and city wide seats that could balance the constituent claims and prevent blatant localism as well as bring in a reasonable degree of representation for those constituents that are truly city wide such as businesses.

57. Should Concord annex some of the fringe business areas so that businesses in those fringe areas would start contributing more Sales-Tax revenue to Concord?

There could be a some work around the issue, but it will take a little of finesse from the legislature which may be beyond the capacity of the current group.

I have spoken to Mark DeSaulnier and Susan Bonilla about my 'Unified City' concept to absorb pockets of land but the economic grab bag by the state and county is a real problem in practice.

58. The footprint of Concord will grow by 50% if Concord develops and annexes the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS). Is this a prudent idea?

Factually incorrect. The total land area is of the CNWS is 5200 acres which is a 25% increase, However, 65 per cent or so is to be park and open space. So the amount of developed land is considerably less than the amount perceived in your question.

The population anticipated by the Village plan that was adopted is 28,000 people which is about 22 per cent increase in population.
I advocated for a smaller population and development area... I lost that battle.

59. Which Concord main arterial streets are a full capacity during peak times?

I have been stuck on Clayton Road, Oak Grove, Treat and once or twice on Monument during the peak time.

Have not been on Ygnacio Valley and Concord Ave or Concord Blvd recently during peak.

60. What outside obligations that take up a lot of your time do you intend to give up so you will have more time to serve The Council?

Obligations... none. Desires... I would cut down on my hobby time, some impact on my Domestic Local Rotary projects (but that is supposed to be handed off next year anyway).

61. What part of Concord would you like to see spiffed up?

The Monumnet Corridor and Four-Corners comes to mind.

Hillcrest has problems as well.

62. How will you balance The Budget?

Generally by putting equal amounts of revenue and expenditures.

In all seriousness we have to go line by line at what we must do, what we can do and figure out what is left with what we want to do.

63. What was your favorite car?

1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic I kept it for 10 years, put 357,000 miles on it.

64. Where did you go on your first date?

06-04-1966 to Central Park in New York and the movies to see Madame X in Times Square with Paul Newman and I think Sophia Loren coming attractions were Born Free (this would be my wife now of 36 years).

65. Does The Council have a written Code-of-Ethics?

It has sort of a code woven into the procedures of the Brown Act, the oath of office, the procedures of running a meeting in the City Code as well as a host of state forms that have to be signed. Additionally candidates sign a statement of fair play.

66. Who is The Sergeant-at-Arms at Council meetings?

Typically this is the Chief of Police or his designated rep.

67. Should The Council Chambers have metal detectors?

Would rather it had odor detectors. No...

68. Do you have the stones to be a good City Council Member?

Yes, but I have to keep the stones out of my kidney.

69. Do you believe in limited-government?

What would be the concept of unlimited-government?

The arguments are never about the limited vs. unlimited the questions are always at what point do we put a limit.

We do not allow people to have 30 story buildings in the middle of Canterbury Village even if you own the land and we all believe in property rights. The question is where is the limit.

70. What is the core-mission of The Council?

The Council is to act as the legislature (approve budgets, major policy decisions etc) of the City and to select the City Manager and act as the elected representatives in the interplay between government and the people.

71. What is the core-mission of The City?

By definition of the early constitutions in California, the two main functions were Fire Protection and Police/Public Safety Protection. We have a consolidated Fire Department which takes that out of the Concord City role.

72. Should The City limit city taxes?

Not sure what you mean here. We cannot change the taxes charged by others.

I am the only candidate that got up on the proposal to create a sales tax by the city of half-cent to ask that this 'temporary emergency' measure be allowed to be removed by the Council as soon as the emergency was over. The City Council refused. Any limit on ourselves by the Council could be changed by another council.

In general I am not in favor of artificial impractical limitations that are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

73. Which City Services should be farmed out to the Private Sector?

We have already done quite a bit. The real question is which ones CAN be farmed out in an effective manner.

I do not know if we have explored enough of the combined metropolitan service concepts that I aired in several Council public comments last year and the year before. For privatization people have talked about the legal department, some of the basic parking enforcement, arguments abound on the police issue- not sure what is reasonable from the outside. There is often a real drop in quality work over a time period with some privatization and the danger of playing into a monopoly hand where you are trapped by outside vendors. The Pavilion is an excellent example of that.

I know the city is constantly looking at it, and we currently have a host of outside consultants in the city (I have asked for a listing of them and Dan Keen has said he is working on it).

74. Should the Concord Municipal-Code be pared back to reflect 2010 Concord?

Not sure what you mean here, clearly there is something that you are not happy with.

Municipal Codes and General Plans interplay to provide a look forward to the future.

What I have wanted to do and so stated is to have the business community review with the city the City Codes to get rid of things that are hurting their development of jobs of business, as well as go over the City codes to get rid of things that intrude into our lives (like having to park on the left side of your own driveway if you are allowed to park an oversized vehicle/trailer etc) and go too far.

75. What kinds of expenses are City Council Members reimbursed for?

I believe it is directed or approved travel. Going to the Conference of Mayors sort of thing.

76. What is the salary of a City Council Member?

Was $1300 a month and they agreed to a 5% charity donation in early 2009.

Note I was the one who brought this up from the public comment section stating that if the Council is ordering furlough days and cutting the salaries by 5% then they should do the same to themselves. Took I think 2-3 months for it to happen but it happened.

77. What is the term of a City Council Member?

4 years currently. With elections in the Presidential Cycle (2 seats) and Governor's cycle (3 seats as is now).

78. Are there Term-Limits for being on The Council?

No, but I stated on my web site that if I am elected I would limit myself to just one more term.

79. Can Concord citizens make Concord City Government a lifetime career?

People are making city government a lifetime career. I believe we have people in the Parks department there for over 25 or 30 years. We have cops that have been around for 20+ years (in the past I think 30 was heard).

If you are talking about City Council as a lifetime career= it is not really practical not would I suggest it.

80. Is there a test to qualify to become a City Council Member?

Yes it is called an Election. And what I have found out is that the skill set to pass the test and get elected does not overlap very much with the skill set needed to be a good City Council Member. One of the more obvious aspects of our system but one which really just smacked me on the side of the head.

As for the few appointees, the 'test' is the interviews and the background measures that you bring to the body politic.

81. Do you live a healthy lifestyle?

Since I have lost 35 pounds in 6 months I would suppose that the answer has to be no. A Healthy Lifestyle should have weight stability and the stress of the campaign is screwing with my body.

82. Do you live "green"?

In some things, yes in some things no.

83. Do you salt your meals before tasting them?

Depends on who is the cook.

84. Should Concord create a "Tool Lending Library"?

Never thought of it. Having worked in an industry with a heavy repair function using tools, the common problem of tools going missing has brought most companies to require that workers bring their own base set of non-power tools.

So it may not be a practical item for the City.

85. Should Concord provide services that compete with Private-Sector services?

Well since there are private security firms, private charities, private camps, private maintenance companies, you might say that this is already happening and the real question is to what degree and for what purpose. I would be very worried about a private Fire department or police department.

86. What is Concord doing right?

We have done a great job with Todos Santos and we are still attracting business. We have made some inroads into reduction of the staff. We have gone through an astounding process with the Base Redevelopment program regardless of where everyone is on the outcome.

87. What is Concord doing wrong?

Closing down police sub stations, giving out bonuses and special pensions.

88. How many times have you needed to dial 911 in the past two years?

Once; called Concord PD direct though.

89. Should the Concord Human Relations Commission have been disbanded?

No.

90. How do you feel about Subsidized-Housing?

It has a role.

91. Are Food Banks effective?

Yes, they have feed the hungry, desperate, home bound, aged and weary.

92. What clubs do you belong to?

Rotary.

93. How will your club memberships influence your Council decisions?

The four way test [Rotary] is pretty cool.

94. What is Concord famous for?

Blue Devils, CNWS, The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (G), the largest city in the County, its people.

95. What gives you the most joy day to day?

The thought that some sort of goodness will ripple out through time and multiply.

96. Should Concord restrict the number of sex offenders that can be dumped in a particular neighborhood?

I would love to see the introduction of EXILE from the US as part of these sort of problems, but it is not legal.
If we could restrict it, then it would be great.

97. Buchanan Field (airport): Airport or Condos? What other uses, if any?

Not Condos, I would like to see the airport service expanded somewhat.

98. What can Concord do to raise revenue without raising taxes?

Tip Jar at City Hall Permit Center?

Revenue comes from fees is another form of taxes.

Revenue from services provided runs into an awkward situation in that the purpose of government is NOT to make a profit off of its citizens.

We could get into some franchise advertisement, and hosting of events that generate revenue.

99. Who do you think is the best Ambassador of Concord?

The Blue Devils.

100. What are your thoughts on Eminent Domain?

It should be restricted to infrastructure developments and very special cases.

101. Is a man's home his Castle?

I think he has to check with the wife on this one.

102. Have you ever been scared in Concord?

Other than family issues with sick kids, wife, self, first experience with an Earthquake swarm was spooky.

103. Should CPD cruisers be equipped with bikes, Segways, etc.? Should CPD Officers wear running-shoes? Should all Officers and staff be required to meet quarterly fitness challenges to remain employed?

The cruisers having bikes is sort of conflicting. Equipment is a cop department thing.

There is a fitness requirement but whether it is quarterly or not is again within the realm of cop policy. Most cops I have met are in better shape than most teenagers.

104. What's your favorite local shopping center?

Countrywood.

105. Should Neighborhood-Preservation staff be more pro-active when they're out doing inspections? Should they be required to do a visual check of the houses adjacent to the one they're inspecting?

I always viewed them as roving inspectors not as focused ones.

106. Where do you see Concord in twenty years?

The final stages of the development of the remains of the Weapon Station in the midst of a debate on the Tidal area celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Concord State College and the stunning defeat of the Stanford Cardinals at the hands of the Concord Eagles.

107. Where do you see yourself in twenty years?

I will be ashes scattered about the city and hills.

108. Which Blogs do you follow?

Claycord, Halfway, Mister Writer, Lemon Lady, Smokey, Monument, MDUSD, Calitics, Rough and Tumble, and My Diablo Valley.

109. When was your last visit to Mount Diablo?

2 years ago when I brought a French visitor to it.

110. Do you drive a Prius?

No, I have a Malibu (2008).

111. What does Helen Allen hide in that hairdo?

Pennies she does not want to pinch.

112. Does Mark Peterson wear a rug?

I could tell you but I would be prosecuted by the DA's office.

113. What brand of hairspray do you think Bill Shinn uses?

Not hair spray, Brylcream from the same tube he had in 1958.

114. Would Guy Bjerke look good in a beard?

No.

115. Should Council Members be limited in time when speaking or rebutting, as the general public now is?

This is the responsibility of the Mayor to monitor and run the meeting. Some things the Council needs to take more time to talk about.

I also feel that the 3 minute routine is rather restrictive and that there should be regular meetings with the Council members outside of the 3 minute drill and I would like to see some 'presentation days' where there could be 5 minute scheduled public talks put on the agenda.

116. How much are you planning to spend to become a Council Member? How much of that will be personally funded?

On one level whatever it takes.

I expect to spend 2 to 3 dollars for every one that I receive.

117. Open question: What do you have to say, in closing?

I cannot believe that I answered the whole thing.

Now what????

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

MONUMENT CORRIDOR BOYCOTT list for Tuesday....

Monday, September 13, 2010

MONUMENT CORRIDOR BOYCOTT list for Monday....

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Monumayor interviews Concord City Council candidate Edi "Ed" Birsan....

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Day Labor News....

Friday, September 03, 2010

Edi "Ed" Birsan's latest Pulse-of-Concord Survey....

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