When is $1 worth more than $1 for Dublin residents? When we spend that $1 at Dublin-based businesses. How can this be? It’s an economic principle called “The Multiplier Effect” which says that an increase in money spent locally creates a ripple effect as businesses and their employees in turn spend their earnings locally. This creates a virtuous cycle where a higher percentage of every dollar spent at locally-owned businesses gets redeployed back into the local community. Studies conducted in Maine and Austin, TX found that locally-owned retailers…

The highest paid public employee in most cities is usually the city manager. How much a city rewards its city manager is a generally reliable indicator of how well compensated the rest of the city employees are. San Ramon City Manager Herbert Moniz received a gross annual salary of $356,542 in 2009. That amount represents a handsome 10% increase from his 2008 rake. Given Moniz’s oversized compensation package, the fact that nearly half of the 2009 top 20 compensated public employees in the Tri-Valley work for the City…

The City of Pleasanton recently approved plans to extend Stoneridge Drive out to El Charro Road at the future site of Staples Ranch. Once completed, Staples Ranch is expected to showcase an 11-acre retail plaza, 17-acres of parkland (including an ice skating complex), the 45-acre Stoneridge Creek Pleasanton senior continuing care community, and Hendrick Automotive Group’s 37-acre luxury auto mall. While the City of Pleasanton may have approved the extension, it gave itself a contingency clause. Pleasanton will extend Stoneridge Drive to El Charro Road only if Livermore…

Prime Outlets is still planning to open a discount outlet mall on El Charro Road in Livermore directly across from the future Staples Ranch development in Pleasanton. Simon Property Group inked a deal with the Lightstone Group LLC in December 2009 to acquire Prime Outlets. As part of the anti-trust review of the acquisition, the FTC ordered Simon to shed three of the Prime Outlet sites – St. Augustine in Florida, Grand Prairie in Texas, and the Livermore Valley site in California. Based on this revised agreement, Lightstone…

On September 1, 2010, Chevron will be launching its one-month-long Fuel Your School program in partnership with DonorsChoose.org. Chevron hopes to provide public schools in Alameda County and Contra Costa County with funding up to $1M for projects that focus on science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). Obtaining funding is easy. Teachers simply submit their science, technology, engineering, or math projects to DonorsChoose.org. Projects are approved and funded by DonorsChoose.org up to $2,000 per project in the order that they are received. Participating Chevron stations donate $1 for…

Dublin Unified School District (DUSD) is moving quickly to complete construction on the $28M Kolb Elementary School. The eagerly-awaited school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2011 with students in grades K-3, according to the March 23, 2010 report by the SCI Consulting Group. The K-3 students that were going to be attending nearby Fallon School will relocate to Kolb Elementary School, and Fallon School will only serve grades 4-8 for the 2011-2012 school year. Grades 4 and 5 will likely be added to Kolb Elementary…