Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Our county will be one of the best places to view the highly anticipated solar eclipse on Sunday – the biggest event of its kind in the region in two decades. The “ring of fire” eclipse is expected to begin at about 5:13 p.m., when the moon starts its transit in front of the sun. The full annular effect will be visible for 4 1/2 minutes starting at about 6:26 p.m. Sunday, though the exact time and duration will vary slightly depending on location.

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This Wednesday, the Nevada City Council will consider an ordinance to pass a three-eights of one percent (.375 percent) sales tax increase and put it on the Nov. 6 ballot. You can expect some rancor as residents show up to protest.

Still, Nevada City’s sales tax initiative stands a chance of passing (many residents are pragmatic, not anti-tax ideologues). A sales-tax initiative to pave city streets passed previously, for example.

But City Hall first will have to take steps to make more cuts on its end.

To be sure, cuts have been made – staff reductions, furloughs, part-time positions for City Manager, Police Chief, City Engineer and City Attorney, two-tiered pensions and so on – but reader Steve Dodge made comments that will resonate with others:

“NC should make the appropriate cuts . . . Do we need a full-time Planner and Parks and Recreation Director? BTW the last sales tax hike was to go for redoing the streets. Seen any of that activity lately? I wonder where the money is going?”

Whether the sales tax measure passes or fails will largely depend on the attitude of City Hall toward its constituents. They will have to navigate the era of widespread government discontent – just like our governor.

In the past, City Hall has shown some signs of arrogance toward citizens; that will not be well received this time. A dose of “humble pie” is called for.

Many citizens still are angry about City Hall’s perceived inflexibility about merging the police department with Grass Valley or the county Sheriff to cut costs. It will come up again.

The recent water rate hike caused a public outcry, with concerns that the increases – under a complex formula – were not explained well enough.

The sales-tax hike resolution and background is here, including a discussion of its biggest ongoing financial “elephant in the corner” – a General Fund “negative balance.”

A resolution calling for an election on Nov. 6 to ask the voters to approve a three-eighths of one percent general transactions and use tax.

The city has a negative balance in the unrestricted General Fund reserve in excess of $250,000 instead of a recommended minimum balance of $500,000, resulting in a $750,000 reserve balance shortfall.

Due to the General Fund negative balance, the city continues to need tax advances from the County although we are slowly reducing that amount, it is a sign of weak financial standing.

Employees continue to be on a 12 day/year furlough program which typically is intended to be temporary in nature and is an inefficient savings.

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“I’ll Have Another” won the Kentucky Derby and now the Preakness this weekend. Next up, the final leg of the Triple Crown at Belmont Park in New York. A nice surprise. California-trained horses finished first, second and third in the Preakness. I had the third place horse “Creative Cause,” since I don’t like to bet on favorites. No Texas-trained horses were in sight.

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I noticed this batch of campaign signs as I filled up the Chevy truck near the “76″ station in Nevada City this morning.

The “So Nate, aren’t 2 terms enough???” sign was poked in the ground under a “Nate Beason (for) Supervisor” sign that was more appropriately placed inside a fence according to code.

The “Elect George Smyrnos” sign is about 25 yards away from the Beason signs, across the street. (Smyrnos is running a negative campaign against incumbent Judge Tom Anderson, fueled by inflammatory/uninformed columns by The Union’s publisher/editor that are posted on Smyrnos’ website).

At least this Smyrnos sign carries a “positive” message (elect me!), though I saw one inappropriately poked in the ground by the attractive “Welcome to Nevada County” display on Hwy. 49 a few weeks ago. Whoever put it there showed poor taste, and it has since been removed.

I presume the same people who supported Sam Aanestad in his criticism of a website allegedly linked to “dirty tricks” campaigning by Doug LaMalfa the other day also would object to posting negative campaign signs in our neighborhoods. I would.

Negative campaigning is for losers. Let’s send them a message at the polls — and when we see it happening.

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Editor’s note: Once I was with another journalist who had come upon a press-weary Bill Gates backstage at a tech trade show in Atlanta. I figured she could help me ask him some tough questions about Microsoft’s antitrust trial, a big deal at the time.

I’ve never come across this, however:

“Will Smith is in the middle of a press tour for “Men in Black 3″ and got more than he bargained for while in Moscow this week,” according to the Huffington Post.

“Smith was walking a press line when a reporter stopped him to give him a hug and attempted to kiss him.

“According to TMZ, the man involved in the incident is a TV reporter who likes to kiss celebrities.

The rest is here.

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I have enjoyed tech IPOs over the years, but I steered clear of this one. I used Facebook today, however. Good luck to the Facebook rank-and-file. I hope they visit our county real soon.

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“A small but increasingly vocal group of freshman Republicans are publicly rejecting the idea they are beholden to Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform pledge for their entire congressional careers,” according to Politico.

“One such member, Scott Rigell of Virginia, has openly rejected the pledge, explaining on his website that it would prevent Congress in some cases from eliminating corporate loopholes or government subsidies because those changes would have to be revenue-neutral. The math, he said, just doesn’t make sense.

“And Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) told the Los Angeles Times he wouldn’t be signing the pledge again — or any pledge for that matter — not because he wants to raise taxes but because he wants to close certain loopholes to help pay down the deficit.

“Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) scoffed at the idea the pledge was some sort of blood oath. A number of other offices of freshman members told POLITICO their bosses had sworn oaths to do what was best for their districts, not Americans for Tax Reform.

“’I signed that thing in the desert of Afghanistan,’ West said in an interview. ‘I got home and they wanted me to sign again during my campaign, and I wouldn’t, and Grover started yelling at my campaign manager. Grover is a nice guy, but I think he’s a little misguided.”’

The rest of the article is here.

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A sculpture of a Nisenan Indian dancer by North Auburn artist Douglas Van Howd is now the focal point of Downtown Auburn’s Central Square.

The statue is installed on a brick base and finishing touches, including the addition of bronze oak leaves at the dancer’s feet, are in place.

Here’s a photo that I hired foothills photographer Ben Furtado to capture for the official Placer County Welcome Guide, coming out next month. Some background on the Nevada City Rancheria and its Tribe of Nisenan Indians is here.

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“For the first time, racial minorities now represent more than half of the children born in the U.S., according to new census figures,” Politico writes.

“African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities made up 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the year ending July 2011, accounting for 2.02 million births, up from 37 percent in 1990, according to The Associated Press.

“During that time period, there were 1.99 million white births, 1.05 million Hispanic births, 0.61 million black births, 0.25 million births that were classified “two or more races,” 0.19 million Asian births, 0.07 million Native American births and 0.01 million Pacific Islander births.

“’This is an important landmark,’ Roderick Harrison, a former head of racial statistics at the Census Bureau, told the wire service. ‘This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders.”’

The rest of the article is here.

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“The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck’s, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town,” according to the L.A. Times

‘”Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares,’ said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck’s, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. “He told me even he can’t get Facebook shares.”

“The social media company’s projected $100-billion valuation heralds a new era of prosperity in a region famous for minting fortunes. (Facebook goes public on Friday).

“Luxury cars are flying off dealers’ lots. In San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties combined, luxury vehicles accounted for nearly 21% of new car registrations from April 2011 to March 2012. That’s almost double the national average, according to automotive research firm Polk.

“Although the Bay Area has yet to fully recover the ground it lost since its July 2007 peak, home prices in some of the most desirable parts of San Francisco and Silicon Valley are rivaling the bubble years.

“In Palo Alto, not far from Facebook’s headquarters, the median home price in the 94306 Zip Code hit a record $1,606,750 in the first quarter, according to DataQuick, a residential real estate information firm in San Diego.

The rest of the article is here.

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