Examiner Staff

Belt-tightening measures set

In response to Daly City’s fiscal crisis, city employees will be furloughed without pay and city offices — including libraries — will be closed from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day. Daly City’s adopted general fund operating budget for the current fiscal year is approximately $72 million, according to city documents. Nearly half of the city’s revenue is derived from property tax and sales tax, meaning the economic downturn has had a significant impact on Daly City’s revenue base. To help fill an expected deficit, city employee groups agreed to take nine unpaid furlough days before Dec. 31. Additionally, employees went without salary and...

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Ground broken on new SF General

Mayor Gavin Newsom celebrated the planned rebuild of San Francisco General Hospital’s inpatient care facility at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday. “Now we are moving forward to strengthen General by building a new hospital that the entire city can be proud of for generations to come,” Newsom said in a statement. Construction has started less than a year after 84 percent of San Francisco voters passed Proposition A authorizing city financing of the seismic safety rebuild, which is mandated by state law. The 448,000 square-foot building is scheduled to open in 2015. Additional speakers at the event included Mitch Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of...

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Emergency sirens part of statewide drill

Yes, that was the emergency siren. No, there was not a disaster. San Francisco tests its emergency-warning system each Tuesday at noon. But today at 10:15 the alarms and following message were tested as a part of a larger statewide earthquake drill. Millions of people throughout California signed up to take part in the earthquake disaster drill billed as the largest such exercise in U.S. history. Many schools and businesses on Thursday will practice "drop, cover and hold on" — the minimum requirement for participation. Some hospitals and fire departments will stage more elaborate simulations complete with search-and-rescue missions and people posing as faux quake...

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Private memorial despite public documents

A memorial for the late Gap co-founder Don Fisher is still scheduled for later in the month, though it is not as public as public documents bill it. The memorial will be held on Port property, and public documents from the commission call it a public event. The representative from the Fisher family, however, contacted The Examiner to clarify that the memorial is private, despite what documents from the Port Commission...

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