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By Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times, Texas

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Jan. 12–A new year is always a good time to think of home improvement projects.

If you’re not sure where to start, then head to the El Paso Spring Home Show on Jan. 18-20 at the El Paso convention center.

The home show, put on by RJ Promotions Inc. along with El Paso Association of Builders, will feature more than 150 booths of innovative products for remodeling home interiors and exteriors.

“That’s the reason we put on our big show in January — to get people excited about some of the new and upcoming ideas for remodeling and new construction,” said Kevin Linville, director of sales.

Home vendors will showcase products for kitchens, bathrooms, sunroom additions, patios and landscaping, as well as organizational ideas.

The show also will feature HGTV celebrity carpenter Eric Stromer from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. He is known for TLC’s “Clean Sweep,” and “Over Your Head.” He also co-hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, “Home Wizards,” with Cindy Dole.

After doing home improvement shows for several years, Stromer said, he has a good idea of what people need help with.

“I’ve probably been in about 500 people’s homes doing different shows over the years and you really start to understand trends, especially why parents’ houses fail in terms of organization,” he said.

But as a family man with three children younger than 14, Stromer wants people to know he understands their issues.

“I have a couple of great rooms

that are perfect, and then there are these crazy rooms where five teenage boys stayed up all night eating cereal, and it’s hell on earth,” he said.

“My approach on the radio show is that we’re all in this together.”

Antiques buyer and appraiser Michael Amosson with Viking Productions will also be at the show.

He will give free appraisals all three days.

Maria Cortes Gonzalez may be reached at mcortes@ elpasotimes.com; 546-6150.

Make plans

— What: El Paso Spring Home Show.

— When: 4 to 8 p.m. Jan. 18, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 19 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 20.

— Where: El Paso convention center.

— Admission: Adults, $5.95, seniors and military, $4.95 and children younger than 12, free. Discount admission coupons are available at neighborhood McDonald’s restaurants in El Paso or the show website, HomeShowElPaso.com

— Information: 800-756-4788.

___

(c)2013 the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas)

Visit the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas) at www.elpasotimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

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THE WOODLANDS – Experts and exhibitors at the 11th annual Spring Home and Garden Show at The Woodlands will share new ideas and products that can both beautify and add value to your home.

The show will be held Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3 at the The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel Convention Center at1601 Lake Robbins Drive.

Tony Wood, president of Texwood Shows, Inc. and producer of the event, said this year’s show will have a lot to offer.

“Sometimes a small improvement to a home or yard can make all the difference, and spring is the perfect time of year to spruce things up.”

Wood welcomes Massarelli’s Fountains, to the show for the first time. “They are a top-of-the-line producer of fountains and fine stone garden statuary, with each piece handmade by master craftsmen. Each piece is an original.” Locals can find Massarelli’s one-of-a-kind products at Spring Home Outdoor, who will feature a 88″ Massarelli fountain with a 8′ fiberglass pool in their booth. They also carry other landscaping water features, such as disappearing fountains, Talavera and other pottery, benches and urns; along with potted arrangements to complement any decor from The Potted Shop.

Wood said attendees can get creative ideas to transform a backyard into an oasis at the feature landscape exhibit by Stewart Land Designs. “Also, the Belgard Hardscapes Mobile Display is one of our new show features and literally is a semi truck filled with ideas to create your own picture-perfect patio,” said Wood.

Brandon Lynch, a certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, will be featuring the Easy Living by Design booth. “Brandon is with Keechi Creek Builders and will share products and ideas on how to update a home to make it more accessible to meet an owner’s changing needs – a trend as baby boomers age,” Wood said. Discover new products such as walk-in tubs and control centers to adjust lighting and make life more comfortable.

Visitors can stop by the Whirlpool Cooking Stage for live cooking demos and quick and easy recipes from a Whirlpool culinary instructor. Also get an update on the latest convection and easy clean ovens and cook tops, all in one, from Whirlpool Corporation.

“And for a special treat, get a sneak peek of the works of Rick Loudermilk, the featured artist of The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival 2013,” said Wood.

“We are proud of our lineup of expert speakers. They are enthusiastic, experienced and have what it takes to get you started on the right track with your home improvement projects.”

Aspiring green thumbs can meet Kathy Huber, the Houston Chronicle’s gardening editor and listen to Randy Lemmon, popular host of AM 740 KTRH’s GardenLine, who will broadcast live from the show on Saturday until 1 p.m.

John Ferguson, author and organic gardening expert, will share his knowledge on how to use natural materials to create a greener garden.

Ellen Delap, professional home organizer, will offer tips to help you organize your home and life, while certified color consultant Catherine Falgoust will share the latest in color trends.

LaVerne Williams, AIA, LEED certified architect, will give advice for creating a more energy efficient and sustainable home. Mary Scalli, a home staging professional, will share secrets for making homes sell quickly, and John Johnston, president of Designer Kitchens, will provide insight into the latest developments and trends in kitchen design.

“This year’s show is truly a fun event for the entire family – with lots of new ideas to take back home and plenty opportunities to shop,” Wood said.

About the 11th annual Spring Home Garden Show in The Woodlands

The 11th annual Spring Home Garden at The Woodlands will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 2 and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 3, at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel Convention Center at 1601 Lake Robbins Drive, 77380. Tickets are cash only and are $9 for adults, $7 for seniors and free for children under 12. An ATM is located near the ticket window.

FREE parking in the Parking Garage behind the Convention Center next to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Six Pines and Lake Robbins, with a covered walkway to the Convention Center. More information about exhibitors, speaker schedules, discount admission coupons and exhibitor special offers available at www.woodlandsshows.com.

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Friday, Jan. 11, 2013 | 2 a.m.

J. Patrick Coolican

We often hear critiques of Nevada’s tax system — that it is unstable and at the mercy of boom-and-bust cycles, that it relies too heavily on the tourism and development industries.

But we rarely hear about our tax system’s biggest problem: It’s regressive, meaning the poor pay a bigger portion of their income in taxes than the middle class, and the middle class pay more than the rich.

So I was heartened to hear former state Sen. Sheila Leslie emphasize this point in a speech Wednesday to the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada in advance of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s State of the State address and the upcoming legislative session.

“What if we were to tax the rich as much as the poor in our state?” she said.

Indeed, according to a 2009 analysis released by the Institute on Taxation Economic Policy, the richest 1 percent of Nevadans pay an effective state and local tax rate of 1.6 percent while the poorest 20 percent of Nevadans paid 8.9 percent.

The middle 60 percent pay 6.1 percent in state and local taxes.

Why does our tax system weigh down the backs of the middle class and the poor?

Because we rely heavily on the sales tax. It’s the largest single revenue source for the general fund — and it is by definition regressive. A person who earns $500,000 per year, for instance, will spend only a small fraction on taxable goods. Their other money is either saved and invested or goes to pay for services, such as landscaping or private tutoring, which are not subject to sales taxes.

A poor person, by contrast, may make $15,000 and be forced to spend nearly all of it to survive, with much of the money spent on taxable goods. Hence the disparity.

A middle-class resident falls somewhere in the middle.

The injustice is exacerbated because the poorest children have less opportunity to rise into the middle class — once considered an inarguable plank of the social contract — because they often attend mediocre, underfunded schools.

A class war? You bet there is, and in Nevada, the rich are winning in a landslide.

Any Nevada tax reform proposal that doesn’t address this unjust disparity is not even worth discussing.

Of course, the easiest method for tax equity would be an income tax. If you don’t want the rich to pay more, fine; everybody could pay the same percentage of their income. A flat tax. Conservatives love this at the federal level, so why not here in Nevada?

In Nevada, however, the suggestion of an income tax tends to be treated like a ribeye at a convention of vegetarians. Still, it’s the best solution.

Barring that, Leslie recommended the next best thing: taxing corporations that are getting something pretty close to a free ride.

“Nevada is one of three states that do not tax corporate profits,” she said. “What if these highly profitable mega-corporations paid a nominal percentage of their profits in taxes to Nevada like they do in other states?” A good question.

Of course, Nevada’s status as a tax haven for corporations has led to widespread prosperity here, right? Oh, guess not.

Leslie also advocated raising taxes on gold mining companies, which enjoy some of the most favorable tax treatment in the country, if not the world, on a nonrenewable resource that can only be found in a handful of places, including Nevada.

I often hear from lobbyists for mining companies and other corporate interests that these ideas wouldn’t really solve our revenue problem or amount to enough money to properly fund our schools. Perhaps, but so what? It would get us part of the way there, so it’s worth doing.

But again, let’s put aside the toxic question of tax increases and focus instead on tax fairness. Assume the same level of revenue. Why should the poor sacrifice more than the rich?

Sandoval has made it clear he has no intention of doing anything about the rank unfairness of our tax system.

I’ll be happily surprised if the Democrats offer a forceful alternative, but I wouldn’t count on it. They usually answer to the same masters.

In Leslie’s words, “Nothing is more powerful in Nevada than the gambling, mining and banking cabal of lobbying interests and their lawmaker friends …”

Access our very best investigative reporting, opinion and commentary.

The seed catalogs now arriving in our mailboxes do more than alert us to plants we may want to add to our gardens.

Catalogs and gardening magazines stimulate our senses with the color and beauty we crave during the dark and often-dreary days of winter.

But with the blossoming Pinterest, gardeners have another great way to connect with the things they love. The online site, which combines social networking with electronic scrapbooking, allows us to envelope ourselves in stunningly beautiful and inspiring virtual environments with the click of a mouse.

At Pinterest .com, images of remarkable gardens, garden projects and landscapes are endlessly available as are those featuring other subjects that appeal to gardeners like food, home décor, health and fitness and special events.

Once you sign up and start “pinning” everything you like to your own boards, you will be invited to “follow” the pins of your Facebook friends or strangers who seem to share your tastes.

Linda Orton, a Master Gardener and co-founder of the Mid-South Hydrangea Society, finds using Pinterest is an easier way to keep up with ideas than ripping pages out of magazines and putting them in folders.

“You’re not cluttering your home with paper, and the visual images are easier to find and use than articles,” she said. “I’m always taking notes, but then I can’t find them. I can always find what I put on my Pinterest board.”

She’s been saving ideas for irrigation systems and building beds for the vegetable garden she plans to start in the spring, and storing information on making hypertufa containers for a program she will be leading on the subject.

A holiday decorating photo sparked her decision to put branches of heavily berried holly branches into two white ironstone pitchers enhanced with bows on the handles.

“It was an easy thing to do, and it lasted about three weeks in my kitchen,” she said. “It was something I wouldn’t have thought of doing.”

Pinterest was launched in 2010 as a closed site available by invitation only. Smartphone apps and open enrollment were added last August.

Its mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing.

Women make up 83 percent of its users.

Master Gardener Sharon Kauerz uses the garden photos on Pinterest for inspiration and information.

“When I see ideas for landscaping and gardening from all over the world, it reminds me that I’ve had some good ideas too,” said Kauerz, who is also collecting photos to inspire a bathroom remodeling project.

She is savvy enough to know some of the gorgeous landscaping ideas presented at Pinterest are not always adaptable to our climate, our budgets and our environments, especially when you must deal with hungry deer and voles.

“I like the pictures, but I also find a lot of useful information on the blogs where many of the photos come from,” she said. “I wish I had more time to spend on Pinterest.”

Ah, yes. Users of Pinterest find it easy to while away minutes and even hours.

“I may spend a lot of time on it on a day off and then go a week or more without looking at it,” Orton said.

Evelyn Mosley used the site extensively to plan the rehearsal dinner preceding the Oct. 28 marriage of her son Todd to Ashley Jackson in Asheville, N.C.

To go with the rustic architecture of the venue, she and her co-hosts tied burlap fabric into giant bows and floated candles in canning jars of various sizes.

They wrote “Welcome Friends” on two pumpkins, but instead of placing them in a wheelbarrow as they were pictured on Pinterest, they nestled them into an old wash tub on the front porch.

“One idea generated another and another,” said Mosley, a Master Gardener who is past president of the Memphis Herb Society. “One guest told us our party should be on Pinterest.”

Frustration can sometimes follow inspiration. As I browsed the site, I was intrigued by a metal chair “upholstered” in sedum and equipped with a sedum-covered “bolster pillow.”

But I came up empty when I tried to find out how the plants were placed in soil. Then on close examination of the photo, I caught a glimpse of a shallow cookie sheet presumably filled with soil on the chair seat. How-to instructions would have been appreciated.

But in most instances, a few clicks of the mouse will take you to the image’s original site, where you can view comments from the creator and, often, instructions on doing it yourself.

Many clicks often come with welcome distractions, like the recipe I randomly found for Mexican Vegetable Soup with Lime and Avocado.

An avid and innovative cook, Mosley stores lots of recipes on her Pinterest pages, including one for the jalapeño popper quiche she took to several potluck parties during the holidays.

It allows her to use up the peppers she and her husband, Phil, grew in their vegetable garden last summer.

They are still harvesting lettuces, greens, bok choys and Savoy cabbages from the box beds they protect with floating fabric row covers.

Mosley pinned her favorite greens cookbook on her Pinterest board. It’s “Great Greens” by Georgeanne Brennan.

Orton accesses her Pinterest boards from her smartphone when she is shopping at the supermarket.”I can check on the ingredients I need to buy for the recipes I’ve pinned,” she said. “I love it.”

Herbal Renewal grants

The Memphis Herb Society is seeking applications for its annual Herbal Renewal program, which provides small grants to nonprofit associations that plan to use herbs in their educational and/or beautification projects.

Grants, which usually run $100 to $250, will be made in early spring.

Applicants must provide a brief statement of purpose for the proposed herb project, an estimate of the total cost, details of the project including the herbs to be grown, and the plan for maintaining them.

To get an application form, send a request to postcoker@hotmail .com with “Herb Garden Grants” in the subject line. Or send a request to Herb Garden Grants, P.O. Box 652, Olive Branch, MS 38654-0652.

SCOTTS VALLEY — The rate increase that went into effect last month for Scotts Valley water customers was modest enough not to raise controversy. But it’s part of a long-running battle whose root cause is meeting the supply and demand for a relatively cheap yet unappreciated natural resource: water.

The district already has conservation rules in place, fining residents who repeatedly waste water through careless activities. For example, ratepayers are prohibited from producing excessive surface runoff while watering grass, lawn or shrubbery, or using water without a reasonable purpose.

But households can take extra steps that save both water and money, and teaching those basics is the idea behind the “Water Wednesdays” series, free, 90-minute talks led by local experts through January.

The district’s water is pulled from the Santa Margarita aquifer, and residents pay about one cent per gallon, LeAnne Ravinale, the district’s water conservation coordinator, told a roomful of residents Wednesday. That’s “a really good deal,” she said, but water is still limited and homeowners’ conservation efforts, however small, can help.

Wednesday’s topic, “Stormwater Management,” was led by Angie Gruys, a communications specialist with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County. In the fall, funding will be available through that agency and Ecology Action so homeowners can purchase and install rain barrels, used to capture and store

rainfall, and downspouts, used to more evenly distribute water captured in gutters, rather than letting it gush toward one area.

Other water-saving features include swales, designed to channel runoff to particular areas, and rain gardens, shallow depressions often filled with small rocks and native, drought-resistant plants.

These and other yard features have numerous benefits beyond conserving water, including creating wildlife habitat, reducing erosion and protecting the foundations of homes, Gruys said. But land features vary, and while the ideas are great in concept, she said, “it’s important to know your site.”

Before they get too ambitious, homeowners should first survey their land to find out where the stormwater flows, where improvements can be made and figure out whether they are up for the costs of the projects and maintaining them once complete. Free consultations can be scheduled by calling 831-464-2950, ext. 22 or emailing agruys@rcdsantacruz.org.

The next talk in the series, “Rainwater Graywater,” will be held Jan. 16, followed by “Indoor Water Efficiency Basic Plumbing” on Jan. 23 and “Waterwise Landscaping” on Jan. 30.

Follow Sentinel reporter Kimberly White on Twitter at Twitter.com/kwhite95066

Meet the mayor

Alice Patino made history when she was elected as the first woman mayor of Santa Maria

BY RYAN MILLER

Though the first woman to get elected to the Santa Maria City Council did so in 1930, such a victory wasn’t repeated until 1999, when Alice Patino secured enough votes to do the same.

On Dec. 18, 2012, Patino made an even larger mark on local history when she was sworn in as Santa Maria’s first-ever woman mayor.

The Sun sat down with the new mayor on Jan. 3 to talk milestones and money, safety and the city, business and being mayor. (The Sun’s questions are in bold; her responses follow.)

THE ARRIVAL: Alice Patino’s mayoral status was just a couple weeks old—she was sworn in on Dec. 18—when this photo was taken on Jan. 3.PHOTOS BY STEVE E. MILLER

First of all, how do you like to be addressed? Are you going by mayor? Do you like madam mayor? …

When my husband addresses me, I say … “You’re supposed to say madam mayor.” Oh, I really don’t care. I’m still not even used to being called mayor. … I was driving around two days ago, and I thought, “I really got elected mayor.” You know, I’m whispering it to myself.

That’s really funny. … So what does it feel like to be Santa Maria’s first woman mayor? … When I first saw that, I thought, “Oh no, that’s got to be wrong.” … It’s pretty amazing it’s taken this long …

You know, I’m very proud of being the first woman mayor, but at the same time I just still think of myself as the mayor—and the responsibilities that come along with it and the things that you have to do transcend gender, so it really doesn’t matter. But I do see when women talk to me … women are really excited about it. … I think individually we put limits on ourselves and we shouldn’t, and … I’m not saying at age 10 or 8 that I said, “Ooh, I want to be mayor of Santa Maria.” I think we just sort of grow along different paths, and people limit themselves, their growth in many, many ways. You need to try things out and see if it fits and continue and go on in whatever role that you want to play. I like to cook. Cooking’s the same thing. You experiment with a lot of things. You make a lot of bad mistakes. You try them out on your family, but you don’t try them out on guests, you know. So it all works the same.

At the recent City Council meeting, you talked a little bit about your family. Could you tell our readers maybe a little bit more about where you come from and your background?

My grandparents came and settled here in 1928. And they came from Mexico—the Rodriguez family. They were the first Rodriguez family to settle in Santa Maria. They raised eight [children], there were eight siblings, my mother being right in the middle. My dad came here from the Midwest and was stationed at Camp Cook. My parents met and got married. And at one time we had a large family here—very, very large. In my family, it’s just my sister and I, but I had lots of cousins to grow up with and an extended family, so that was really, really nice. And then I married my husband, who was born and raised in Santa Maria—sees no reason to leave, other than to go hunting and fishing—and he also had a large family and extended family. We had two boys, two fine young men. They went all through school here, as my husband did. … I was raised in the military, so we went and came back, and we went and came back. So I lived in Germany, I lived in Japan, I lived in Alaska before statehood … Ft. Bragg, N.C., Salt Lake City, Utah. We were able to move around a lot and enjoyed other cultures. Diversity doesn’t bother me as much as maybe it bothers other people, because I find there’s so much color in other cultures, in their food and their music and the way they live. So I enjoy the diversity.

It’s boring otherwise.

Oh gosh, I know. Well, you know, in the Mexican culture, for instance, we learn how to dance at a very young age. I could never understand how these people didn’t know how to dance by the time they got to high school. “I mean, what? You don’t dance? What do you mean you don’t dance?” … Because in the Mexican culture, you know, you eat, you drink, you dance.

Jumping a little more into the specific mayor side of stuff: Being the mayor, you’re kind of the face of Santa Maria, but not everyone knows what the job actually entails, so … what are your responsibilities or duties as mayor?

THE CHANGE-OVER: When Alice Patino took the seat from outgoing mayor Larry Lavagnino, she became the first woman to hold the title in Santa Maria.

You run the meeting.

The City Council meeting?

The City Council meeting. You help put the agenda together. … I make appointments to boards and commissions, like the Parks Commission, like the Planning Commission, like [Community Development Block Grant]. And then we also serve on different boards and commissions, like I’ll be serving on [Santa Barbara County Association of Governments] and [Air Pollution Control District]. And we have quarterly meetings with the schools; we have quarterly meetings with the airport district. We meet with all these entities in Santa Maria so … we know what’s going on here. And, like in the school meetings, we meet with the superintendents and a couple of board members. And we do that with the airport district so that we know what’s going on in our community.

Do you have any meetings with larger bodies, like supervisors at the county or the APCD that would involve …

SBCAG does. That’s SBCAG.

Oh yeah. Thank you.

That’s OK. SBCAG, yeah.

Yes, the council of governments, right?

Uh huh.

So how is being mayor different, or is it different greatly from being a city council member?

I think people look at you differently … because they want to know what your goals and objectives are. They want to know what you’re going to do; they want to know what you’re going to do for the city. And I think it’s a greater responsibility because you need to provide direction, you need to provide leadership.

Do you feel like your time on the council kind of led to this being mayor? Did that inform it? I mean, obviously you got the experience from that, but …

Yes, because it gives you a better background. You see areas that maybe you would like to improve upon—and that’s not taking anything away from Mayor [Larry] Lavagnino, because I think he was a very good mayor, and it’s going to be difficult to—if you want to, you know, how about a cliché—fill those shoes, but with Mayor Lavagnino … and with Mayor Centeno, there was a great deal of infrastructure put together in the city. And we have a city that has a great infrastructure. We’ve got the water lines, the wastewater, the landfill, the purchase of new land for a landfill. We have the way the streets are taken care of in Santa Maria. Go to Napa, Calif., and you can see the big difference. It’s like you can’t drive down the street in Napa without hitting 10 million potholes, and Napa’s a wealthy community. We have the Maldonado center, we have fire stations, we have all these things that provide services for the city of Santa Maria—as I feel they should. I think that’s the first thing you do is you provide services to the citizens. And we have the new regional hospital, which we weren’t responsible for as a city, but we certainly did help with the permitting, and we were partners in it. But there are areas … where we need to start cleaning up neighborhoods. I think we need to get code compliance more involved. A woman said to me today at a luncheon I went to, “Who do I call about my neighbor’s yard? Nobody lives there, and the weeds are just growing out of hand and they’re growing into my yard, and the place looks a mess.” So I told her who to call. I need to be a resource, a conduit so people can get things done, because they are the eyes and the ears for all of us that sit on the council. It’s amazing what bothers some people and what doesn’t bother some people. But people want their neighborhoods cleaned up, they want the alleyways cleaned up. They want lighting. They want their neighborhoods safe. All of this came out of the town hall meeting, and it doesn’t matter what socioeconomic group, what area of town you live in—people pretty much want the same.

You know, that sounds kind of glove-in-hand with some of the stuff that [Police] Chief [Ralph] Martin was saying.

Absolutely.

Was that coordinated at all, or do you guys just have a similar philosophy?

Probably similar philosophy. When he first got here, I did speak to him about, what is the common thread with some of these shootings that have gone on, and answers that I didn’t have. … I know that if I have questions, people out there also have questions. And then you also have people who think, well, things should have been handled differently or could have been handled differently, and those things I don’t second guess on our police department. Because I think we have hard-working young men and women in our police department, and they want to do the best job they can, as any of us do. But you’ve got these milliseconds where you have to make a decision. How many of us can make these decisions in a millisecond when someone’s life is at stake? Probably not too many of us. So I don’t criticize them for the job they do. I do want to be supportive of our police department and make sure that they have the kind of vests they need, or the apparel they need—any kind of technology that’s going to make their job easier and better and more effective and be very supportive. From talking to Chief Martin, policing today isn’t done like it was, say, 10 years ago. Some of those methods are outmoded. I think he’s going to be bringing us up into this century with updated policing technology, and I think that’s important—anything that’s going to make our city safer, make people feel better about their neighborhoods. I think it’s extremely important, and I think he can do it. … I’ve always liked the community-based policing, but of course we had budget cuts that we needed to make, and unfortunately, that was a victim of the budget cuts. But with the Measure U—not that it’s the panacea, and I keep telling people, “It’s not going to cure everything”—but we’re going to get a lot done, I think, with Measure U.

THE OFFICE: Alice Patino is stepping into the mayor’s office after serving as a city councilwoman since 1999.

People can be jaded when there’s … the idea of just having government being this sort of “they-take-our-money-and-what-do-we-have-to-show-for-it?” But I get the feeling that right now we’re really seeing the results of some of that already. Referring again to the Chief Martin interview, he talked about being able to fill some positions that had been vacant [and] we have the new building that’s on the way. There’s some very tangible and tactile things that [are] cropping up now in Santa Maria to show this is actually what this money is going toward. It feels almost like there’s a little bit of a corner being turned.

Yes.

Is that kind of vibe permeating the city?

I think so. Have you been in the old building?

Yes.

Have you seen all the wires across and everything? That looks like spaghetti … and nobody knows where they go to or where they’re going or where they’ve come from or anything else. I just think, oh my gosh, that’s scary to me. Or going down into the basement, where the communication system is … . We need a police station, and we need a communications system that is top notch. Just like we have in everything else—in our fire, in our library, in our hospital—we need that communication system, because it’s not all about catching the criminals. It’s about being able to communicate public safety in the city.

Safety is one thing that Amy Asman, our managing editor … had brought up a lot with Chief Martin as well. … The police department obviously last year came under a lot of scrutiny and faced some criticism. And there was a change in leadership, but we’re talking about turning a corner, and there’s still people in the community who … don’t necessarily feel safe. What would you like them to know in terms of the direction we’re going now, in terms of the city and the police?

Maybe they need to learn more about what the police are doing. Because knowing what the police are doing … meeting with them, I feel Santa Maria is a very safe city. It doesn’t scare me to go out and walk around in Santa Maria. I have people come up and talk to me, and they won’t go any further than Macy’s and they won’t go on the west side of town. I live on the northwest side of town. I shop on the northwest side of town. And I don’t find Santa Maria scary. … And I know bad things happen in all cities. I just heard on the news about all the murders they had up in Oakland, and I think, Oh my gosh. You know? Hundreds in Oakland. And even Chief Martin said Santa Maria’s really a safe city.

THE JOB: The new mayor is ready to tackle several aspects of life in Santa Maria, including the city’s business climate.

Earlier in the year you talked to the City Council about the possibility of a … citizen’s review board, and ultimately the council decided not to move forward with that, but is that something that’s still on your—

Yeah, I would like to see it. I just really feel like that board could be real ambassadors for the city of Santa Maria. I think they could bring a lot of, maybe, issues to the attention of the City Council and deal with them at that level. … Even after some of the shootings we had, people were making … uneducated comments. And I think on a citizens’ review board, if they heard a group of citizens—or even some of those questions asked—they would probably feel more comfortable about the answers. And think it gives more transparency to the police department.

So is that something that you’re looking at pursuing this year?

I would like to pursue it, yes. … I even questioned, “What is the common thread here?”—and to find out there isn’t any common thread, and these were bad guys pulling guns, you know a lot of it is [AB 109], with the … early release of criminals … . They’re going to come back into communities, they’re going to have problems … and I think those are things that we need to address. It’s a whole new wrinkle in social issues that we need to address. In the time I’ve been on the City Council, there’s been a rise in domestic violence. I get the report from the weekend. It used to be zero. Every now and then, you’d have one, two. I mean, it gets up to 11 and 14 a weekend … and we know not all of them are being reported. … That really concerns me. Those are issues we really need to deal with in the city. We’ve seen a lot of the … school shootings, the shooting in the theater; we know these are a lot of mental health issues. We don’t have mental health beds for people here to speak of. How do we deal with all the mental health issues in our community to make it a healthier community? We’re limited in money to deal with some of these things, but I want to keep in good communication with our state senator and with our state assemblyman to see what’s available out there. We can identify our issues, we can identify our problems, but I also need help from the county and from the state to get these things done. And I think it’s an important thing to do, and I will be meeting regularly with both my state senator and with my state assemblyman.

Now the district’s redrawn, it’s Capps and Achadjian, right?

It’s Hannah-Beth Jackson and Achadjian. She’s the senator.

Oh she’s the—right. Because Capps is Congress. I know these things. I really do know these things. (laughs)

I know you do. (laughs)

SBCAG and—

I know you do. So we need to have more connectivity, and they need to know what’s going on in Santa Maria, and we need to tell them what our needs are. And then Capps is our congresswoman.

Right.

And so, I think I’ve built a relationship with her office and, as the new mayor, I will build a relationship with Sen. Jackson and with Assemblyman Achadjian. I think it’s important for our city. And I think they want that also.

What are your thoughts on transparency and local government? You’ve talked a lot about that already, but do you have any—

You know, I think our City Council has always been transparent. There’s always accusations. … Probably the further you get up, like in the Assembly and in the Senate, there’s a lot less transparency. We have the Brown Act that we have to go to. The Brown Act does not pertain to the Assembly or the Senate, so they can do all the backroom deals. We don’t, since I’ve been on the City Council, we don’t get together and scheme how we’re going to do things. And most people on the council are pretty like-minded and care about Santa Maria and the future of Santa Maria.

Money is on everybody’s mind these days. What are your thoughts on job creation, furloughs? It seems like pretty regularly we get something from [city spokesman] Mark Van de Kamp saying … there’s another city furlough. How do you plan to address the city’s current financial situation going into your—

We’re going to go into urban forestry and plant money trees (laughs). Yeah, we’ve been a pay-as-you-go city, and so we don’t spend what we don’t have, and I don’t believe we can spend anything that we don’t have. So, with Measure U there, it helps us, but we’re still going into a deficit in the next year. The state comes down and is taking money from the [Redevelopment Agency], the state comes down and takes money from us and cities and counties, and we’re left there going, “Why?”—wringing our hands—and they’ll give us some phony explanation. And then people even … pass initiatives thinking, “OK, the state can’t get us anymore.” We’re just going to have to address those fiscal responsibilities as we continue to go on, and that means … you know, our bargaining groups have been so good at giving concessions because they know the problems that we’re having to deal with. And until we can ride this out, this economic storm … part of it is to be able to create a business atmosphere. And I think sometimes people have a difficult time because in order to pay for services, you have to have taxes, and you have to have businesses coming in and providing that. And every now and then we have people objecting to certain businesses that come in, and that’s not being business-friendly. We may not like that business personally, but there are people out in the community that do like it, and we have our parameters, we have our permitting process, we have all of the restrictions that come from the state and from the county, and by the time it comes to the city, I don’t think there’s any need for any more restrictions or any more fees or taxes on these businesses. And that’s why I think it’s really important that I meet regularly with [our] state senator and our state assemblyman to say, “Hey, when you’ve got these bills that are job killers, I want you to know what you’re doing to us as your constituents, because I don’t want that to continue to happen.” And I can give them instances where it’s been very, very difficult doing business in Santa Barbara County, as well as doing business in the state of California. They need to be hearing from me on a regular basis … .

Do you think—like, realistically, I know you’re just stepping into this mayoral role, and you’re going to be forging some relationships with them—do you think that they’re willing to listen? … What kind of impact do you think you can have on that?

Right now, in speaking and knowing Hannah-Beth Jackson and knowing Katcho, I think I’m going to have a good reception, and I’m looking forward to that. When I have dealt with Lois Capps … you need to inform them about the issues, what the problems are and what the needs are for you and what they can help you with. So that you’ve got this whole thing solved and all you need is their yes vote on it or you need the money from them. But I think you need to go in not just with the problems, but with the solutions, and that they’ve been thought through. And I think they’re going to be real receptive to us. I do want to see us working together. I see what’s going on in Sacramento and I see what’s going on at the federal level … everyone does, and we just shake our heads at how dysfunctional they are. …

So that’s one thing you’re excited about tackling. What are some other things you’re excited to tackle as mayor?

I’m excited to tackle the neighborhoods and the cleaning up of neighborhoods and working with code compliance. … I want to make sure our permitting process is streamlined. I plan to get together a group of businesspeople who’ve had to deal with this in Santa Maria [and staff] and say … how to get from point A to point B and not make it so onerous. What can we do? I don’t want to just say, “OK, we need money for this and we’re going to raise the fees here, we’re going to raise the fees there,” and making businesses do things that are unreasonable to do, whether it’s the landscaping, whether it’s the parking.

Signage.

Whether it’s signage. We passed [regulations saying] no one could have boa flags up. Do we ever enforce it? No. We said you can’t have sandwich board signs out there. And as a business person, if this helps my business, then why aren’t you going to let me have it? “Oh, we have three people who don’t like sandwich board signs. We had three people who didn’t like boas.” To me, it was a real personal thing with them. It didn’t make business sense, necessarily. Say you can have sandwich board signs, then you can regulate them and you can say, “OK, you know it can’t look like a third-grader did it and put up poster boards and stuff.” Business are changing, and they are having to be very competitive, and they have to do what they think is best for their business. I don’t know their business, necessarily. I don’t know how a tire business runs. We were in the dry cleaning business for years. I know how a dry cleaning business runs and I know what you need to do, but I don’t know your business, I don’t know different businesses, small businesses around here, and I think that we have to be very, very supportive of the small business man, small business person, because they have a difficult time. Very difficult. And when they come to the City Council and they say, “Please don’t do whatever it is you’re going to do,” and then we do it anyway, we’re not listening to them. And at the same time, we have to have expectations of them, too: that they keep up their property, they don’t have stuff stashed back there, that they have the right signage, they don’t have all the windows covered with, you know, all kinds of signs … so that Santa Maria looks like the kind of All-America City it should look like.

What are your thoughts on the open seat [on the City Council] right now? Do you have any leanings?

Oh sure, I have leanings (laugh). We just came off of an election. It has nothing to do with personalities; it has to do with fairness that the third-place—and we’ve done this before, we’ve appointed the third-place vote getter.

When was the last time that happened, do you know? I don’t need a date, but did that happen while you were on the council?

Yeah, that happened with Marty Mariscal. Yeah. And I think it’s very appropriate that when you have … 9,217 votes, that person has a constituency—just as the 9,000-some that voted for me, the 9,000-some that voted for Mr. Orach. I don’t care if it was Ms. Zuniga, Mr. Orach, or Ms. Waterfield. It’s just the honest and right thing to do.

I think that just about wraps it up. I’ve heard your phone buzz several times, [but] what is the biggest challenge you’re facing right now … ?

Probably getting organized and prioritizing and figuring out my office hours and how I’m going to address issues and—you know … people send me e-mails or letters and how I answer them, how I respond, because it’s important to respond to people. And I also want to get going on the businesses in our community. And I’ve done that in the past, where I’ll walk the streets and go into businesses and introduce myself. … People are surprised. They don’t even know what to say, so they usually don’t even answer me negatively. “What can the city of Santa Maria do to help you with your business? What little thing? I mean, empty the trash better, give you bigger bins? You know, all this.” (falsetto voice) “No, I think everything’s going fine!” You know, like who is she? But I want to hear from businesses and their challenges. Businesspeople are too busy to come to these meetings that we hold. They’re busy running a business, and their businesses don’t go from 9 to 5, and so I think it’s important for me to go to them and find out what we can do better in the city of Santa Maria. We can see what Parks and Recreation does because we can drive by the parks, we can drive by the gyms. The schools are a completely different entity in their own. But we can certainly drive through our business areas and we can drive through our neighborhoods and see what needs to be done.

One question I did forget—this is kind of jumping back a little bit—but when we were talking about money as well, that’s also a major thing that Rick Hayden works with … in terms of being the city manager. What’s the mayor’s relationship to the city manager? … A lot of people hear “mayor” and they think, “Oh the mayor runs the city,” but there’s also the person who manages the city, so what’s the relationship there?

It’s got to be a good relationship. I just don’t depend on him, [it’s] all the department heads I work with also, so I have to have that working relationship with the city manager, because the city manager is going to do what the city council wants done, and I have to be able show some leadership and responsibility in that: what we need to do and how we need to do it.

He has been around for less than a year, correct?

Mn-nn.

Is it a little more than a year? Well, about a year. … And you’re here for two weeks now. And Chief Martin has been interim here for several months and now just recently [was hired]. … All the top spots, it feels like, at the city are people new to that particular position. Is that coloring, at all, how the city is running, do you think? What’s the vibe … ?

I think the vibe is excitement, positive, growth, we’re going to move forwards. We probably all have these fresh ideas that we want to inculcate in the city. I just think that it’s a real positive thing. I know Rick has got ideas on how he wants to do things. I certainly do. And the chief has ideas. … He’s seen how things are successful and can work here, things we can take advantage of and the knowledge of other people he knows. You don’t have to go out and reinvent the wheel. I think it’s really positive. … There isn’t anything I feel negative about, you know? And I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I think together we can put together good answers. And people out in the community aren’t afraid to tell me what they think the answers are, and that’s good. Whether it’s at church, whether it’s in the grocery store or walking to the library or to the bank—any place I go, people will stop and tell me how they think I should do different things. And I think that’s important.

Well, what do you have next on your schedule today? What are you rushing off to next? Or is this the end of your day?

I think, I don’t know. I’ve had several phone calls. This may not be the end of my day. I never know.

Send comments to Executive Editor Ryan Miller at rmiller@newtimesslo.com.

18 hours ago  |   

York Guardian

by HILARY CATON

West Park Healthcare Centre will be hosting a public meeting regarding its expansion project Monday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m.

“There are big changes happening from the original application,” said York South-Weston Councillor Frances Nunziata, who will be in attendance.

“We want the community to know there are changes from the first phase, so when construction starts people will be aware.”

Also on the agenda is a discussion about new signage for the West Park hospital that will help direct residents to the health care centre.

“West Park hospital is a real jewel, but the problem is it’s hidden,” said Nunziata. “So, we’re finally getting a visual of where it is (with the new signage).”

Residents will also be informed further about a new traffic light that will help divert vehicles from residential streets, to create a safer entrance and exit to Emmett Avenue, a request that, according to Nunziata, has been 20 years in the making.

Landscaping ideas will also be discussed as well as an update on the new gateway slated to be positioned at Eglinton Avenue West and Emmett Avenue.

“This is good news for the community,” said Nunziata. “I want everyone to come out and see the benefits of this expansion, it’ll be very positive.”

1. More melting snow today. The temperature peaks at 46 degrees during a mostly sunny day, and even the overnight low is above freezing at 34 degrees. Sunrise is 7:14 a.m., sunset is 4:37 p.m.

2. New London Landmarks holds a workshop tonight on Hodges Square neighborhood revitalization and landscaping tonight at 7 p.m. at the Polish American Veterans Club. All residents are welcome to share their ideas.

3. Live in the Post Hill area? The Post Hill Neighborhood Association posted in our events calendar to let us know that their monthly meeting is tonight. This starts at 6 p.m. at the Public Library of New London.

4. Got a photo or video from around town to share? Put it up in the Pics Clips gallery.

5. Ernest Shackleton led a team to within 97 miles of the South Pole on this day in 1909, the farthest anyone had gotten toward this point at that time. The first mission to successfully reach the pole occurred in 1911.

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MILLBURY, Mass. — Millbury Boy Scout Tim Born is Troop 110ʼs newest Eagle Scout.

Born recently passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review and was honored along with 84 other new Eagle Scouts during the Jan. 4 Eagle Scout recognition dinner, attended by more than 400 other Eagle Scouts from the area.

A junior at Millbury High School, Born has been involved in Scouting for nearly 10 years since he began in 2003. He is a member of St. Brigidʼs Youth Council, a member of The Friends of the Asa Waters Mansion and involved in several school clubs and activities. He also enjoys working part-time at Rayʼs True Value Hardware.

The rank of Eagle Scout requires the Scout to complete a community service project; Born’s project was an easy choice for him. Since his first volunteer event at the Asa Waters Mansion at the age of 9, he knew this was a special historical building with a dedicated group of volunteers. Born offered to do his project at the mansion and worked with the task force and landscaping committee on ideas. They agreed on creating a welcoming entrance garden on the School Street side of the property and repairing the stone wall.

Preparation for the project began in March 2012. Several months of planning included meetings, communications, approvals, permits, and organizing help and resources. Born solicited donations of labor, materials and financial support from Rayʼs True Value, Ramshorn Landscaping, Rogerʼs Farm Supply, Farmerʼs Daughter and Echo Brook Nurseries, along with family, friends and his Scout troop.

He then organized about 15 volunteers to begin the physical work in late June. Phase 1 was to remove more than 400 square feet of sod, roots and overgrown bushes, as well as repair the historic stone wall along the side of the mansion that faces the Millbury Post Office. Work continued with soil amendments, removing rocks and roots and planting roses, hydrangeas, and an Eastern Redbud tree.

Finally, existing bulbs, perennials and azalea bushes were transplanted and 2 yards of mulch were spread. Careful watering, weeding and fertilizing continued into the fall. After more than 150 service hours, the “team” is looking forward to seeing the new blooms in the spring.

Born is the son of Pauline Tranter of Millbury and Jeff Born of Northbridge.

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