August 22 , 2024 -  SMC Supervisor Ray Mueller

Ray devoted much of his talk to the Coastside’s infrastructure needs, emphasizing the disproportionate risk we have in major storms.  He detailed his and the County’s fight with AT & T over its attempt to terminate land lines, which will come up again this year, and the struggle (finally won) to get PG & E to site a permanent equipment yard on the Coast to alleviate the problem of getting equipment here when roads are out. We are painfully aware of our vulnerability on the Coastside, and Ray is committed to build redundancy in systems to give us backup capability.

Another topic was Seton Coastside, and the struggle to get the current owner to open, furnish and staff two emergency rooms in the Moss Beach facility, now conveniently closed due to dubious storm damage.  One of the conditions for a  County loan to the current owner was to re-open emergency services, and the owner of Seton is trying to re-negotiate that part of the deal.  It was noted that Dignity will likely open an urgent care center here, so there will be at least some extraordinary service, mut Rotarians familiar with distinctions in service levels quickly pointed out that urgent care won’t take true emergency cases, and the bottom line is that a Seton-based emergency room can at least stabilize an emergency patient so the patient can be moved.  The issue of helicopter removal was pointed out, with two hospitals (Mills Pen and Stanford) capable of accommodating this, but helicopters won’t fly in risky weather.  This is a high priority for Ray.   

The discussion turned to coastal erosion.  An all-agency consortium agreed that hardening the sewage treatment plant and system is the most pressing measure.  There is discussion about cutting away a piece of the jetty to restore some of the accretion of sand along Highway 1that happened until the  jetty was built.

With the little time that remained, Ray managed to get in some summary comments about the increasing demands of food insecurity, certainly affecting our low income populations, the priority of creation of housing and some comments on stiffer sentencing for fentanyl and certain other drug-related crimes.  He also commented that the State’s Labor Standards Enforcement staff has become more aggressive in citing and fining violators of labor laws.

Ray has a staff of six to support his office and welcomes input from citizens.  We look forward to having him speak again.