Your Custom Text Here
Will Holsinger paid Clique Factory $5000 to generate a fake Twitter following and post attack tweets from multiple fake Twitter accounts in the 2014 Harbor District election.
Read the last page of Will Holsinger's Form 460. Notice the $5000. payment to Clique Factory midway down the page.
(Click the button and read Will Holsinger's Form 460.)
Half Moon Bay Review - Editorial by Clay Lambert
The San Mateo County Harbor Commission scheduled a meeting on Sept. 17, but three members — all currently candidates for re-election — had other priorities. Consequently, there was no quorum. Voters learned more about candidate priorities from their absence than they ever would have from their presence at the meeting that night.
Jim Tucker was attending services for a friend who died and says he told staff he couldn’t make it. That is certainly understandable.
Instead of attending the commission meeting on the evening of Sept. 17, Robert Bernardo was at the Oyster Point Yacht Club for a gathering that was ostensibly meant to “celebrate the anniversary of the McAteer-Petris Act,” credited with stopping the fill of the San Francisco Bay. The announcement of the event praises Bernardo at least as much as any worthwhile legislation and, whatever the intent, Bernardo acknowledges that he used it to raise money for his own campaign.
When questioned later, he said he had hoped to make both the meeting and the fundraiser, and he acknowledged that attending to the fundraiser — instead of the office he hopes to win with that money — was not his finest decision.
“I was trying to do too many things,” he said.
Will Holsinger said that personal commitments “took me out of the county that day.” That’s strange because he appears in a photo taken that night and posted on Daly City Councilman Ray Buenaventura’s Twitter account. In the photo, Holsinger seems to be having a whale of a time, yucking it up at Buenaventura’s campaign kickoff event instead of attending the Harbor Commission meeting.
Will Holsinger standing next to the "Gone With The Wind" poster.
Just down the street at the Municipal Services Building in South San Francisco, the commission was to have discussed the soon-to-be-vacant general manager’s position behind closed doors. Staff was prepared to present a special rate for visiting boaters at Oyster Point Marina. Ironically, the commission was going to discuss canceling meetings in December and January.
Forget duty, it would seem to be common courtesy for commissioners with other priorities to tell colleagues Pietro Parravano and Sabrina Brennan they needn’t make the trip from the coast to South San Francisco. Fortunately or unfortunately, you needn’t worry about the district’s contracted attorney, Steven Miller. He plans to submit an invoice for his time, compounding the waste of tax dollars that night. (Reached on Thursday, Miller declined to say how much he would bill the district.)
What are voters to make of candidates who value the money used to attain office more than the duties of the office itself? What is the message from sitting elected officials who don’t bother telling their colleagues, let alone the public, when they have other commitments on meeting nights? What are they saying when they rack up campaign dollars even as they waste yours on staff and consultants called to meetings that don’t take place?
You will decide in November.
We're delighted to learn that Pietro Parravano was removed from the Roots of Change Stewardship Council in 2011. It's good to know that the citizen initiative to broaden awareness about this crooked commissioner is successful.
Michael Dimock, President of Roots of Change tweeted the correction below on June 26, 2014.
Commissioner Holsinger's 2014 campaign website neglects to mention that he bullies women.
The board of Harbor Commissioners appointed Will Holsinger twice, once in 2012 following the death of Commissioner Sally Campbell, and a second time in 2013 following the death of Commissioner Leo Padreddii.
Will Holsinger lost two Harbor District elections, the first was Nov. 2, 2004 and the second was Nov. 6, 2012.
Click this image to watch the video.
In June 2014, Jean B. Savaree, attorney with Aaronson, Dickerson, Cohn & Lanzone, ended a 25 year engagement with the San Mateo County Harbor District.
In March 2014, Jean Savaree informed the board of Harbor Commissioners that her firm would not renew its contract with the District. The announcement followed a heated meeting where Commissioner Will Holsinger accused Savaree of "poor legal scholarship" and disagreed with her findings. Read about the "research" Will Holsinger disagreed with and his repeated harassment of the only woman member of the Harbor Commission.
Aaronson, Dickerson, Cohn & Lanzone first engaged to serve as Harbor District legal counsel with the appointment of Kenneth M. Dickerson in 1989, and he was succeeded by Marc L. Zafferano in 1998, and by Jean B. Savaree in 2011.
We confront bullying and aggression head on. Harbor Commissioner William Holsinger has crossed the line too many times. The unacceptable bullying must stop now.
San Mateo County board of Harbor Commissioners
January 15, 2014
RE: Item 6 of the 01-15-2014 Harbor District Board meeting - Records Management: Destruction of Records
Dear President Bernardo, Harbor Commissioners, Board of Supervisors, members of the public and other elected officials,
I respectfully request that the following email content be read into the public record.
I am Dr. Mary Larenas and unfortunately, as a working professional, I will not be able to attend the Harbor Commission meeting tonight in South San Francisco. Therefore I would like to use this correspondence as a means to express my deep concerns with a pattern of behavior by certain Harbor Commissioners and staff.
Throughout 2013, there has been a progressive attempt to limit and restrict public comment, curtail the efforts of certain Harbor Commissioners who attempt reform, access to Harbor Commission meetings and information about the inner workings of the harbor management. To date there have been motions adopted by particular Harbor Commissioners and staff which curtail public comment, restrict Commissioner questions and actions, end video recordings of meetings (critical to those of us who cannot attend all of the meetings), hide financial records, and now an attempt to destroy records (Item 6) that may shed light on harbor activities. One only needs to review past videos of meetings to view the progress of these behaviors and restrictive actions - unless these are among the records to be destroyed.
These actions to limit, curtail, restrict, hide, serve to only deepen my concern with the direction the Harbor Commission and harbor staff is heading, which is towards a total lack of transparency.
Therefore I am asking that Item 6, on the 01-15-2014 Harbor District (HD) Agenda; Destruction of Records be pulled and no action taken on this matter until further investigation.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Mary Larenas
Moss Beach, CA
Dear Dr. Larenas,
On behalf of the San Mateo County Harbor District, thank you for your email and for sharing your concerns.
This serves as an acknowledgement that I have received your message and intend to read your letter at tonight's meeting for the public record.
Please note that with regards to agenda item #6 related to records disposal, Harbor staff have reviewed each of the file boxes again have found that two items are in fact, duplicates. They are copies of originals, so they may be disposed of. The original items remain in the District’s archives for permanent retention. One other item has been removed from the list for disposal. All other items on the list remain eligible for disposal.
Thank you,
Robert Bernardo
President
San Mateo County Harbor Commission
Tel. 650-794-1810
January 13, 2014
President Bernardo and Commissioners
San Mateo County Harbor Commission
Re: January 15, 2014 Consent Agenda Item 6 Records Destruction
Dear President Bernardo and Commissioners:
I respectfully request that you remove Item 6 from the Consent Agenda and put on HOLD any records destruction until such time that the public’s questions on the SMC Harbor District’s financial irregularities have been answered by an independent audit.
Also, there seems to be a conflict with some of your listed records for destruction and your Resolution 19-96 Retention Schedule which states retention for Checks – 10 years, Minutes – Permanent, Resolutions – Permanent, etc. I would like to know who is responsible for this oversight.
I am concerned that the recent trend of the Harbor District to limit the public’s access to information by first removing the video broadcasts of their meetings, then moving to Action Minutes (which hides the discussion of an item) and now the destruction of records give me the impression that the District is trying to hide something. This is not good for the Harbor District or any other elected government body because it leads to the mistrust of our elected officials.
I urge the Commissioners take a more cautious approach with the district’s records until the public’s need to know has been satisfied. I would also suggest, for historical reasons, that all documents be digitized for future research and investigations and retained indefinitely.
Thank you for your public service.
Sincerely,
Bill Kehoe - Moss Beach
Dear Mr. Kehoe,
On behalf of the San Mateo County Harbor Commission, thank you for writing and sharing your concerns regarding Consent Agenda Item #6 related to the Harbor District's records management and disposal policy.
As you may know, it is a common practice for most government agencies to have a records management and disposal policy. The Harbor District's policy comes from a Board resolution adopted back in July 17, 1996 (Resolution #01-14) which provides a formal procedure for proper records disposal.
Records disposal is a fairly routine activity, and the Harbor District reviews its documents about every couple of years, with the most recent being in 2007 and 2010. The ultimate goal of this policy is to dispose of records which are no longer useful in conducting the District's day-to-day business. Basically, we contract with a professional shredding company to handle proper disposal.
Per our policy, some documents that are never destroyed include: Board minutes, Board agendas and personnel files. The California Government Code (Sec. 34090) requires that all public records be retained for 2 years. We are in compliance with legal mandates such as this.
At tomorrow's (1/15) meeting, the Board will review and consider the list of items slated for disposal. Those specific items are listed in the Board packet (also available on the District's Web site) for members of the public to review as well.
I hope this better explains our policy and the need to dispose of documents periodically. As an agency that has been around for 80+ years, policies such as this help keep the harbor business moving more efficiently to better benefit the public that we serve.
As always, thank you for sharing your insights and ideas with us.
Warmest regards,
Robert Bernardo, President
San Mateo County Harbor Commission
Tel. 650-794-1810
Commissioner Bernardo,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comments, however, referring me to your two documents, Items for Disposal (Exhibit A - Records for Destruction) and Resolution 19-96 (you erroneously referred to Resolution 01-14 which is on this Consent Agenda) , was not needed since I already read them and cited both in my comments.
Instead of telling me something I obviously already know, it would have been better to address my direct question about the three discrepancies I pointed out between the documents. And to be clear, I stopped looking after I found the three, there maybe more, but you need to direct your staff to explain this.
Let me list them again:
It seems to me that you are violating your own Policy and Procedures 2.1.4 adopted by Resolution 19-96 on July 17, 1996.
Again, this Item 6 should not be on the Consent Agenda for Jan 15, 2014 and should probably be delayed until after the SMC Grand Jury gives it report on its ongoing investigation. You are risking the integrity of the Harbor Commission in the public's eye.
Sorry for having to be so blunt but your email completely ignored the comments I took my own time to look into and I found it unacceptable.
Sincerely,
Bill Kehoe - Moss Beach
PS. I removed the other elected officials on this as they do not need to be drawn into this level of conversation but I did cc their aides as an FYI.
Dear Mr. Kehoe,
To answer your question about the three file boxes listed below, I have just directed Harbor staff to double-check every box meticulously tomorrow morning to ensure that there are no discrepancies with our district policy regarding records retention/disposal.
If there are in fact, instances of potential violation of our records management policy--staff will alert the Harbor Commission at tomorrow evening's meeting during the agenda report. That way, we may pull these specific items off the list.
I hope this is helpful. Thank you.
Warmest regards,
Robert Bernardo
Will Holsinger is nothing more or less than a hand picked puppet of an entrenched board of harbor commissioners.
This is a guy that was appointed by the existing Board members (not voted in) initially to fill a vacancy on the Board. When the seat opened up for election, he ran and was severely beaten. But that didn't stop it from happening again.
The board of Harbor Commissioners appointed Will Holsinger twice, once in 2012 following the death of Commissioner Sally Campbell, and a second time in 2013 following the death of Commissioner Leo Padreddii.
Will Holsinger lost two Harbor District elections, the first was Nov. 2, 2004 and the second was Nov. 6, 2012.
January 2011 swearing-in of San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner Robert Bernardo with Senator Leland Yee. #SMCHD pic.twitter.com/LGwbDTJodn
— Citizen Access TV (@CitizenAccessTV) April 8, 2014
Half Moon Bay Review - Letter to the Editor
Good old boy' politics at the harbor district
During the January meeting, the presidency of the commission - for the third consecutive year - went to James Tucker by a 3-2 vote.
The importance of the presidency of this board far exceeds the title. On the harbor commission the chairman, or president, basically sets the agenda and, thereby, determines the "direction" of the district. Last year, during Commissioner Tucker's second consecutive term as president, serious consideration was given to allowing only the president and general manager to place items on the agenda. This would effectively squeeze out input from the two independent members. The accepted procedure on most public agencies nationwide gives all members a right to place items on the agenda.
—Sally Campbell, Harbor Commissioner
Can We Please Stop Fighting About Gardens
Community Garden Alliance | Copyright 2023
