Peninsula Legislators Hold Forum On Coastside Connectivity

HALF MOON BAY, CA - From California State Senate: State Senator Jerry Hill and Assemblymembers Kevin Mullin and Marc Berman will hold a forum on “Keeping the Coastside Connected” from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Thursday at Half Moon Bay High School.

The panel discussion was prompted by a string of utility outages in Coastside communities this year. They included a 20-hour disruption for internet users in January, an eight-hour power outage affecting more than 10,000 households and businesses in February, and a power outage in March that led to the closure of the Lantos tunnels for more than nine hours, creating confusion and gridlock for communities on both sides of the tunnels.

The legislators have invited representatives from Comcast, PG&E, the California Department of Transportation, the California Highway Patrol and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office to participate in the panel discussion Thursday night. The event will be held in the Half Moon Bay High School Multi-Use Room, located in Building F on the campus at 1 Lewis Foster Drive. Admission is free and open to the public to the limit of seating capacity.

“It is critically important for the safety and quality of life of our Coastside constituents that we comprehensively address the coast’s connectivity issues,” said Assemblymember Berman, D-Palo Alto, who represents the San Mateo County coast from Half Moon Bay south to the border with Santa Cruz County. “Bringing all of the parties together is an important first step toward achieving grid reliability and resiliency in the region.”

“This series of events highlighted the vulnerability that exists for Coastside residents when power, communication and transportation are cut off. My primary concern is public safety,” said Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco. “When there is an actual emergency, I want to ensure we have policies and procedures in place for communication among the various agencies, and with the public. My hope is that our conversation on Thursday will start of the process of increasing reliability of these critical services.”

“My legislative colleagues and I are holding this forum to open pathways to solutions,” said Senator Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. “We’d all like to hear what the utilities and agencies that serve the Coast are doing to serve our communities better. Connectivity, reliability and resilience have long been issues for Coastsiders. The responses of bygone days aren’t meeting the needs of our communities today.”

To view a flyer of the event, go to: https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd13.senate.ca.gov/files/hilltunitasflyerc.pdf

For more information, call Senator Hill’s district office at 650-212-3313.