Anna May's Blog

One bit of irony I’ve faced while serving on the Hayward City Council is the fact that we have:

1) a Climate Action Plan

2) a Green Building Ordinance

…yet City of Hayward employees are still manually writing their time on timesheets!

Though I’ve protested often about such nonsense, imagine my surprise when last week a City of Hayward committee considered an ordinance that could require energy efficiency audits and retrofits when a home is sold!

Are we out of our minds? As if local real estate isn’t already suffering from too much regulation…

…or is it?

(My Niece Gia)

Ever wish you could choose your kids?

I write this on the heels of getting (accidentally) assaulted by my 2-and-a-half year old niece’s toy block on my nose which led to a bruise on my face. Poor kid can’t talk yet so the only way she could express how bad she felt about knocking me in the nose was to cry!

Going back to being able to choose our kids:

Last night I had an incredibly rewarding experience choosing kids — well, teenagers in this case — to be Commissioners for the Hayward Youth Commission in my capacity as Hayward City Council Member. These young people are SMART and dedicated and I was SO proud of all of them!

One of the most rewarding aspects of the process was the people I worked with to choose the Commissioners. The team consisted of the following individuals:

• HARD Director Paul Hodges
• HARD Director Minane Jameson
• HUSD Trustee Sheila Sims
• Councilman Francisco Zermeno

And credit, of course, should also go to City Clerk Miriam Lens who demonstrated her skills in organizing the applications and interviews. Her efforts and the collaborative nature of my fellow interviewers also led to a smoother ability to choose the Youth Commissioners. It was all conducted in such a way that was very collaborative and inclusive and all of us panelists felt as if our voices were heard.

It was certainly a far cry from what I experienced two years in a row working with the Hayward City Council to choose (adult) Boards & Commissions members. Hmm, maybe I’ll elaborate on this later…

Newer homes are nice but to me, the neighborhoods often don’t have that warm, welcome feel to them. The trees are sparse and dinky and these neighborhoods can be way too quiet from folks working all day and night to pay for them.

I can think of a couple “newer” neighborhoods in town that cause me to feel like I’m entering the Twilight Zone.

There’s nothing like a well-established neighborhood with some history to them. Folks who’ve lived there for decades, neighbors who watch out for each other, folks with children and grandchildren who’ve lived there and often come back to visit…

…and TREES! Big, beautiful, mature trees!

June 3rd UPDATE: I did balance my checkbook by the end of last month and organized my tax paperwork to file by October, which is the new filing deadling due to the extension I requested. Progress! 

Regarding the Loan Modification Race between me and my colleague:

By now, my colleague and I both have been sent the paperwork from our bank for a loan modification. We’re both sitting on the paperwork and here’s why:

Personally, I have my doubts about “qualifying”. My gut tells me that since my colleague and I both have reserves, the bank will not consider us as experiencing a financial hardship.

There are a couple things I’d like to do by the end of the month anyway, before I turn in my Loan Mod paperwork. 1) Finish filing my taxes from last year and 2) balance my checkbook.

Hold me accountable!

What better way to learn what a customer/client has to endure than to roll up my sleeves and explore the situation myself?

This week I decided to go through the process of exploring a loan modification on my mortgage just as a colleague of mine is doing. We both have Bank of America loans. My colleague and I are 4 days apart from when we made initial phone calls to our bank. The race is on!

After being transferred several times, here are a few of the questions I was asked by my bank:

Bank rep: “What is your social security number?”

Me: “Same as it was the last few times I gave it to you.”

Bank rep: (Silence. I relented and gave it to him again.)

Bank rep: “Are you behind on your mortgage payments?”

Me: “No. I answered that question already. Twice.”

Bank rep: “Is your net worth more than a million dollars?”

Me: “No! Would I be calling you if I was worth that much?”

Bank rep: “What is your ethnicity? You don’t have to answer ma’am.”

Me: “Green!”

Bank rep: “Irish?”

Me: “No! I wish I HAD more green! Dollars! Green dollars!”

(My colleagues in the office are snickering. I tried not to let the bank rep hear me laughing too.)

Bank rep: “What is a good date of birth for you?”

Me: “Are you kidding?”

Bank rep: (silent)

Me: “Your records should reflect my date of birth.”

Me: (I’m feeling sorry for the bank rep — DOB given.)

(Colleagues still snickering as they overhear my conversation.)

Bank rep: “Will you authorize Bank of America to run a credit check to ensure that you have not recently made any large purchases?”

Me: “I wouldn’t be that stupid!”

Bank rep: “Do you have several months of reserves to pay for housing expenses?”

Me: “Yes.” (This guy doesn’t sympathize with me, I can tell. This is why I never bothered until now to pursue a loan mod.)

Bank rep: “Have you tried to do a short sale?”

Me: “I don’t want to sell. Right now I’m pursuing a loan modification with you.”

The bank rep apologized about the government questions (I wondered what country I was transferred to — the bank rep had an accent.) He said the paperwork would be Fedex’d to me.

(They can afford to Fedex me the paperwork?)

Will keep you posted…

Join us for an education mini-forum!

Saturday May 15th from 10:30 a.m. – noon

Hayward City Hall, 777 B Street, Room 2A

Our featured speaker is Dr. Marlena E. Uhrik. Dr. Uhrik is a long time resident of the Bay Area and currently lives in Sacramento. She has been working at the California Department of Education (CDE) since 2005. She is with the CDE P-16 Policy and Information Branch where she is an Education Programs Consultant.

An educator for over 40 years, she has her Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership and has taught everything from pre-school students to graduate students from around the world. She worked for Hayward Unified School District for 10 years as the Coordinator for Safe and Drug-free Schools and Communities and Tobacco Use Prevention Education. She also served on Hayward’s Human Services Commission and was one of the adult advisor for the Youth Commission before moving to Sacramento.

Dr. Uhrik is the Founder and past Executive Director of Hayward’s “The Kids’ Breakfast Club” which received recognition in the US House of Representatives Congressional Record in 1993. She has received numerous local, state and national awards and recognition for the work that she has done for children and their families.  She was the recipient of the Community Hero Award in 1996 and as a result ran as an Olympic Torchbearer. She has started Our Kids’ Community Breakfast Club in Sacramento and in August 2009 received the US Presidential Award for Service.

Dr. Uhrik is an award winning published author, is married and has three grandchildren living in the Bay Area.

RSVP for the event by calling Anna May at 510-886-ANNA.

Last night I had an event where I explained to my supporters why I am not running for re-election to the Hayward City Council. I felt that I owed them an explanation and promised they’d understand once I got done with them!

It started this way. What did I promise when I ran for the 2-year term in 2008?

• Fresh voice (fresh indeed!)
• Putting Hayward on the map
• Bringing together business and government
• Focusing on Senior Citizens and Kids
• Bold leadership

What am I proud of during my term?

• Filmmakers came to Hayward, increasing our City’s attractiveness to the public and bringing in employment and a jolt to economic development (I didn’t say this last night but I’m taking the Hayward Film Task Force with me when I leave the City Council!)
• Business & Government further involved with each other, i.e. finally having a Council Member with extensive business background serving, leading to the first ever Hayward Chamber of Commerce mixer at City Hall, which had the highest number of attendees at a mixer in Hayward, (ever! from what I’ve been told)
• Increased focus on City of Hayward-centric issues and being the only Council member to speak out against exporting dollars outside the City limits to fund outside groups. We MUST focus on helping to strengthen the groups that ARE located within the City of Hayward first and foremost!
• Hayward-Yixing China Sister City relationship. Yes, China is the next super-power and we can learn from each other. (Ask me about my trip to China last year when the Vice Mayor of Yixing told me that I should be proud of having ancestors from the Hunan province of China, since Chairman Mao was from there!)
• Proudly earned the nickname “Pest” for being relentless

Schools are THE most important factor that families consider when buying a home and even rental rates are affected by the quality of the schools. As both a real estate broker and City Council Member, I know from every-day life how important this issue is in my community. There’s NOTHING the City Council can do that’s more important than what the School Board can do in this community right now.

Last year I started asking folks in the community if they’d be interested in running for school board for the November 2010 election and NOBODY was interested until I said I’d step up to do it, then joined by another high-profile running mate. Now SO MANY people have been inquiring about being our third running mate! Where was everybody last year when we were trying to get others to run?? I suppose now people have HOPE.

(Since I’m leaving the City Council, by the way, I will be moderating a Candidate Debate next week for the Hayward City Council candidates for the June election.)

The 80’s…perfect.

What I mean is the 1980’s.

That was when my generation came of age.

The nostalgia of the music, the clothes, the eyeliner, the….well, maybe not the hair, although I wish I had as much hair now as I had back then!

For those of us who came of age in the 1980’s, we may not be thinking of retirement the way we should be. Or perhaps we’re taking care of our parents or grandparents who are retired and need care.

Or if you’re lucky like me, I joke with my healthy but dramatic mother about how she better not give me grief or I’ll “put her in a home”!

Image via Wikipedia

Life is not always about WORK. When we LOVE what we do, it doesn’t FEEL like work at all!

CLICK HERE for my April calendar of Events. There’s a spicy event called “Wine, Women & Shoes” and men are most certainly welcome! (This event benefits the St. Rose Hospital Foundation.)

Also, take note of the dates that I will be moderating two upcoming Candidate Debates for Hayward City Council and the Alameda County Supervisor races.

Hope to see you there!

This weekend I had a great time hosting a Client Appreciation Dinner at the local swanky hot-spot. We had a great time! CLICK HERE for photos!