And here's the result: a five-page PowerPoint presentation full of feel-good buzzwords.
Well played, Vina!
Monday, September 2, 2013
SPECIAL EDITION! City of Encinitas Strategic Plan Inside!
So this is what Gus Vina has had City Council doing all year while not addressing the chronic road maintenance backlog, not reforming pensions, and not right-sizing city staff.
And here's the result: a five-page PowerPoint presentation full of feel-good buzzwords.
Well played, Vina!
And here's the result: a five-page PowerPoint presentation full of feel-good buzzwords.
Well played, Vina!
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Very well played by Vina when he tells the council they'll learn more about the plan by next year. Stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteWhat would we say if the old council produced this taxpayer political piece?
ReplyDeletePrediction: Lisa's next newsletter will ask us all to be patient and "give them all a chance.". How long we're supposed to wait is unclear - perhaps until she's off the council?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, all that the Strategic Plan has accomplished is to PUT OFF and delay the public's being able to participate in meaningful goalsetting before an "interim" or two year budget is passed.
ReplyDeleteThe Strategic Plan was actually designed to get Council altogether, as a team, marginalizing any who would disagree with Vina and his hand picked cabinet.
Council, Vina and his cabinet, and staff work as a team. The various commissioners and the general public are not members of the team. At best, we are a concerned "audience," some fans, and some "messengers" with warnings, who are increasingly disregarded, dismissed and yes, marginalized.
When there was a Special City Council Meeting last July at the Community Center, Kristin Gaspar DID have some excellent questions regarding setting priorities in spending. She did not feel, and MANY agree that a multi-million dollar parking garage was necessary on our public bluffs at Moonlight Beach, even though people can now stand on top of it as a "viewing platform." She thought the main priority at Moonlight Beach should have been upgrading the restrooms.
Gaspar had questions about the Open Space and Habitat Fund and the Flooding Funds being DEFUNDED, along with about 15 other funds with earmarked monies, diligently saved, through taxpayers paying our taxes, rates and fees. Jerome Stocks LAUGHED at Kristin's concerns, raised also by many public speakers. Kristin even asked, "Are you laughing at my suggestions?"
Gus Vina piped in that we (meaning Council AND THE PUBLIC) could "weigh in" on priorities, BEFORE the budget was passed, during upcoming public GOAL-SETTING sessions.
However, many Capital Improvement Projects, and many operating expense items, such as hiring more full time employees, have been pushed through BEFORE we could all weigh in, before goal-setting.
Instead of goal-setting, we are having a convoluted, NOT well noticed "strategic planning" process, whereby Council after "retreats" that most of the General Public could not attend (held for four to six hours beginning at 10 a.m., with a working lunch served, gratis, to Council). The STRATEGIC PLAN has already been SET!
The public is now going to be invited to give input according to decisions already made. Council will have to solicit more public feedback to come up with a new housing element, but we are already "too late," for this year's deadline, which was in August.
The first part of public outreach re the Strategic Plan was at Olivenhain Town Hall. There was NO NOTICE by the City on its calendar, or under "Highlights," on the city's home page. A truly public component should be publicly noticed.
I feel like BOYCOTTING any meetings "facilitated" by an unwanted, unneeded "Communications Specialist," or as Vina is now labeling the position, "Community Outreach specialist." Public speakers were right, another layer between the public and Council and the City Manager. Gus Vina wants to answer to no one but Council consensus.
It was unfair that Gus Vina was evaluated by his own hand picked, newbie cabinet, and by Council, who is inexperienced, and who doesn't seem to have the courage or determination to stand up to the City Manager, to question him, or even to solicit public comments regarding his and the City Attorney's evaluations. Council should have justified its reasons for giving Vina an excellent, when people paying attention feel that is grossly undeserved.
That previous July Council Meeting re defunding 17 City funds was July 18, 2012, so a year ago last July.
DeleteHate to say it, but I agree with Lword.
DeleteThe whole SP should have taken about 8 hours...
The rest of the time should have been focused on a Long Term Financial Plan including a 5-7 year CIP.
The whole thing was designed to get Vina closer to his pending retirement.
Sigh.......
Don't be fooled by Gaspar despite her concerns over fiscal issues. She is paid for and owned by developers.
ReplyDeleteIf that were true, I believe she would NOT have recused herself re Pacific View (although I agree, it could have been better had she abstained; but our policy on abstention was unclear, at the time, and in conflict with case law).
ReplyDeleteGaspar recused herself re PV because she said she didn't know enough about it. I respect her decision. It kept the "dynamic" of Council the same, as Dalager had before recused himself re PV due to a conflict of interest. When Kristin Gaspar came in, she voted, with the rest of Council to get appraisals. She voted for more open subcommittee meetings, not more secret meetings. If she were pro development, Gaspar would not have recused herself, but would have voted with Jim Bond and Jerome Stocks to "let the school district worry about it," in other words, to sell the land, to the highest bidder, AFTER the City rezoned it, in cooperation with secret agreements made with EUSD by Phil Cotton.
I know that Gaspar did get some development money, and that UT recommended her. But a lot of Kristin's money was also from Professional Associations, such as Dr.'s and Dentist groups.
DEMA and Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association have been extremely PRO-DEVELOPMENT. They have sponsored and have been sponsored by Teresa Barth, Lisa Shaffer and Tony Kranz, as well.
Lynn,
DeleteThe aim of L-101 is to enrich and enhance our community for the benefit of everyone. From our little events like Light up Leucadia and the Facade Grant Program to our bigger ones like LeucadiART Walk and the Farmers Market - or of course beneficial projects we support like Leucadia Streetscape that DO NOT employ the financial hellacost of a Redevelopment Agency or Business Assessement District. You can't ball up our board into one PRO DEVELOPMENT entity because a few on our board wanted a unanimous vote against Prop A (which vote failed to reach consensus by the way). If I think a new development is good, I'm all for it. Likewise, I and others on our board bark at the ones we believe work contrary to the way things ought to be here. Or at least seek to make those developments better when nothing else can be done. A few others however think no development at all is best and are being called the KLCC who believe they can make Leucadia what it once was: "a vast wasteland".
As far as sponsoring council candidates, L-101 has never done that. As far as council sponsoring L-101, we've happily had plenty of support from the city - from financial support to taking time out of their busy day to attend our events or publicly endorse us.
As someone who places logos on our event posters, I can't remember Greystone, Pardee, Manchester, Shea or any other big time development corporation pitching in a penny - let alone out of state mega-developers or realty dynasties. But in their defense, so far the only developers or architects on our board are those who've made the best improvements to buildings on our corridor. "Pro-development" is an unleashed pitbull. Pro-good development is L-101. But only part of the time does that refer to brick and mortar while most of the time it refers to safety, efficiency, beauty, prosperousness, convenience and having a good time in the process. So join already.
The MAJORITY on the Board of Directors of L101MA, Fred, did OPPOSE Prop A. We know that you didn't, thank goodness!
DeleteI don't know how much L101MA contributes to its "sponsorship," of the Sunday Farmers' Markets. How much of the rent from vendors there does L101MA receive? Is it split between L101MA and the PTO? How much money does L101MA get from the various vendors with booths at Artwalk? The only thing that didn't reach "consensus" on L101MA was for the Board to be UNANIMOUS in opposing Prop A, right? Who, besides you, on the Board of Directors was in FAVOR of Prop A. The water provided for the Artwalk is donated by Jerry of Captain Kenos, and I saw that the Little Moore donated water, too.
L101MA cannot, as the kind of non-profit that it is, legally campaign for candidates. However, ALL of the 101 Mainstreet Associations and the Chamber of Commerce SPONSORED THE STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS EVENT. How much money was raised for that event, with tickets at $20.00 a head, with the exception of Council of course, who got free tickets!
That event had a State of the City Subcommittee, which included Gus Vina and Peder Norby. The L101MA boasts of leveraging influence in its "symbiotic partnership" with Council. L101MA gets the most money from Council of ANY of the business associations, $30,000 per year. The Chamber of Commerce now receives no city subsidy. These subsidies should all come out of the community grant program, and should have to compete with other non-profits, there, for funding.
The City should be making a portion of the rents from Vendors at various street events. Perhaps it does, when the street is closed down, as in downtown Encinitas? But it seems that the City should be collecting some fees from the Artwalk, as well? Perhaps it is. These events could be a "win-win-" for everyone, but the money shouldn't be used for lobbying for roundabouts, or against Prop A, without that being reported on Tax Returns and as part of financial disclosure statements required by the Fair Political Practices Law, which is also part of Government Code. Peder Norby, as former 101 Coordinator, worked closely with all the 101 Mainstreet Associations, and essentially convinced them to rebrand themselves to that "generic" mainsteet designation.
Norby wouldn't answer my public info requests related to L101MA and its lobbying activities, on how its money that it makes through the Farmers Market and the Artwalk, and its other activities is spent.
I thought it was WRONG the way the majority of the Board of L101MA opposed Prop A, and that fact was touted on all the advertising against it, along with the other "mainstreet associations," and the Encinitas Preservation Association. So many lies and distortions of truth were flung about, it was disgusting, all backed by our turncoat council majority.
Teresa Barth would never got to go to New Orleans for the Mainstreet USA without the Mainstreet Association's "sponsorship" of her, through the State of the City address event, and other activities that are "public/private" partnerships. They can be a good thing, but Teresa was asked, but REFUSED, to repeat the State of the City Address at a regular council meeting, as an agenda item, so the public could "weigh in" on the State of the City without having to "pay to play."
Kristin Gaspar and Mark Muir both offered me one of their free tickets, so I could attend the State of the City Address, but I boycotted the "event." Soon thereafter Teresa and Tony defriended me on Facebook, because I shared that I thought the State of the City Address should have been provided at a Council Meeting, as has been done, traditionally, even when in the past it was once before also given at the Chamber of Commerce.
DeleteLeucadia has never been a "vast wasteland." We were given second class status, in a lot of respect. Previous Council, with Dalager, Stocks and Bond on board, along with Peder Norby, did want to set up a redevelopment agency in Leucadia, declaring us blighted. So they WANTED to ENHANCE that image of Leucadia as a blighted wasteland. That same RDA mentality is still present in the minds of a few, who do NOT live adjacent to 101, with the exception of you, Fred.
Anyone who opposes the roundabouts that L101MA lobbies so hard for, every chance they get, giving advertisements, trolling the blogs to call people names who might disagree, gets attacked, personally, and always anonymously, without the attacker(s) ever bringing up a single relevant fact, only name calling.
If you took a survey of all the businesses along N101, I'd wager that the majority of them would not be in favor of four one-lane, three way intersection roundabouts along the RR corridor and Historic State Highway 101. That was what was documented, before, through the survey done through the Chamber of Commerce. Maybe someday we'll get to vote on it, as the citizens of Cotati and Del Mar did, voting NO on roundabouts, just as Encinitas citizens voted YES on Prop A.
What a crock of $)(&t
DeleteYes, the majority of the L-101 board were against Prop A, but you have to consider that they were just as exposed to the lies that were published against it as everyone else - and we only won by 475 votes city wide. That's not a landslide ya know. But no matter when the public is misinformed, bad choices will result - whether by board members or not. But that's water gently flowing under a bridge at the moment.
DeleteThere was a milk toast "please don't use our logo" request made to the NO camp by L-101 that should have had more teeth in my opinion - as it was completely ignored and they continued to use people's names and business logos without their permission. I think that's akin to sending a message out that anyone should be able to use our expensive logos for ANY cause they like.
As far as L-101 finances go, you should have been to our Membership Meeting and seen the pie-chart along with our treasurer's report. You can probably get a copy of last year's pie chart at our office.
The Farmer's Market is 100% the brainstorm baby of L-101, toilfully babysat by it's management every week and it's home is graciously offered by Paul Ecke Elementary. All parties recieving money from it are happy with the portion they get. (Especially the many repeat vendors with their awesome variety!) So, if anyone had a gripe about L-101's share of money from the Farmer's Market, it should be one of the two other pro-active parts of this prosperous synergistic trinty and no one else. No complaints so far from them.
Lastly, the majority of the L-101 board was very much against a Redevopment Agency - as was the entire city council. (And the council voted it down twice - ten years apart from each other - thanks to much effort from the public's desire to be informed.
L101 is a chamber of commerce going by another name. The board, the board, the board. They have no legitimate authority. They're not elected by the public. In effect, they're self-appointed. The org represents far less that half the merchants in the corridor. The org gets $30K per year of taxpayer money from the city. A tiny manipulative minority is trying to impose its will on the great majority. Why should a small group of merchants run the show?
DeleteRun a better show. I'll join.
DeleteIn 2010, 66.4% of Gaspar's campaign contributions came from out of town.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I recall much of that, if not most of that, being out of area physical therapists. Gaspar's husband calling in political favors, not developers buying the election.
DeleteWCV
If you cannot ask your school chums for help, who can you ask?
DeleteThe point is she doesn't have local support.
DeleteThere's your "some developer money," Lynn, and not an inconsequential amount. Again: election year, and she's trying to set up her votes.
ReplyDeleteRemember her sneakily bogus "I love Encinitas" business?? That is the real Gaspar, and over the next 14 months we need to be mindful of that.
Council should have NEVER approved that "I love Encinitas survey, every other year, JUST BEFORE ELECTIONS, for three years, a $66,000 contract.
DeleteALL the public speakers spoke against it. Council KNEW it would be used in favor of the incumbents. Teresa Barth voted for it, too.
By approving that survey, ALL of Council was subsidizing their future campaigns.
There is nothing in this plan that Vina and others couldn't have already done without spending the money on the consultant.
ReplyDeleteThis is a disgraceful waste of money. It was not about this underwhelming written product. It was about the process of Vina and Barth bullying other council members to act like a team--in other words, all vote as a unit so that Gus can get what he wants and taxpayers are left in the cold.
Now that they have wasted months on this, they will try to make our General Plan, Our Consititution subserviant to Gus' Stategic Plan. This is just a tricky way for him to try to set himself up for more power.
Its just delay tactics to get him closer to retirement.
ReplyDeleteThe SP has no value. The content should have only taken 4 to 8 hours to complete. Whats next in Vina's stall tactics?
Barth is doing D work in giving Vina an excellent review.
Time for new blood.
Gaspar didn't recuse herself from the Pac. View issue, she abstained from voting, claiming she didn't have enough time or info. Hello, it's your job to have that knowledge and represent the people of the community. Even james Bond called her out at the time. Recusing is for a potential conflict of interest, ie Dalager not voting on Downtown issues because of property ownership. If she recused herself, she had no standing to do so.
ReplyDeleteGaspar did recuse herself and walked out of the council chambers. She was not in the room when the vote was taken and returned afterwards. It turned out that the council procedures counted an abstention as a YES vote. This only came to light when Lisa Shaffer abstained and City Attorney Sabine said it counted as a YES vote The rule has been changed and an abstention no longer counts as a YES vote.
DeleteDid Gaspar know this at the time? She may have had no standing to do so, but it had the desired result, which was to avoiding voting on a motion.
Gaspar is not to be trusted: http://encinitasundercover.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-fingerprints-on-sham-charity.html
ReplyDeleteSad Sacks plan has pushed him 9 more months towards retirement, without a serious look at the long term financial condition of Encinitas due to the spiking costs of Pensions and Maintaining the new Regional Sports Park.
ReplyDeleteHis plan is working flawlessly. In one year and 4 months, he will announce he is retiring in 6 month and 5 months later, a report will come out that shows Encinitas in the same condition of Stockton and Sacramento regarding its Deficit spending, DEBT, and inability to fund any Capital Projects due to its financial troubles and huge staff costs.
Oh- Did you see they have this great piece of paper called the Strategic Plan, that has text that was cut and pasted from the latest General Plan update? This is water Vina is asking Council to waste their time instead of seriously completing an accurate Long Term Financial Plan. Sigh.....
Sad Sack wins- Citizens Lose -- Brought to you by your none effective City Council.
Peter Wies with Oceanside announced his retirement a month ago.. he is 54..... How old is Vina?
ReplyDeleteWhy is our Council so blind? or our they stupid?
The council is stupid.
ReplyDeleteHow did anyone decide to scoop up Sad Sac? Didn't they look at his past performance?
DeleteWas the job description to identify someone with a history of bankrupting other cities and hiring unneeded employees to serve him personally? That seems to be what he has done since taking over here.
He is the WORST City Manager in the history of Encinitas. Bring back Cotton!
There's an incentive problem. Politicians want city managers who will ignore long-term problems and pretend everything is OK long enough until the politicians are termed out or moved on.
DeleteThat's what they wanted from Vina, and that's what they got.
WCV
Did they know that each of them would become unelectable in the bargain? NOBODY wants this council to return.
DeleteActually, it was Maggie and Teresa that demanded Vina.
DeleteKranz and Shaffer better step up or they will look as pathetic as dal laugher and stocks.
ReplyDeleteBarth's already there....
ReplyDeleteJust went to the City website. This SP is such a huge waste of time and all the information is already available to all the council members.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is Vina never took the time to learn the different values of the Encinitas communities.
Check out this line- "By identifying specific issues and priorities, the City can create Community Visioning Plans. That process will lead to the final Phase Three, in which current efforts, levels of service and allocation of resources will be aligned with Council goals."
Right at the beginning of phase three is when Vina announces his retirement at over $200,000 per year all from our tax money.
This is soooo pathetic- This is what the General Plan is for and that is way staff is to prepare long term Financial Plans that so how the City is implementing the General Plan.
Dump Vina and bring in a City Manager that will complete the update to the General Plan and lead a serious financial outlook discussion and develop are related long term financial outlook.
If Vina wants to learn what is important to each of the five communities, he can watch the videos all the endless meetings regarding the last effort for the general plan update. Its all been said before many times. He just needs to listen. Actually, he just needs to be fired.
What City Council needs to do is have a concise goal setting meeting (s) and develop a long term financial plan including a 5 year Capital Plan. Quite wasting more time on this nonsense!
Vina was already here for most of the General Plan update meetings. I remember talking to him, and he commented about the large number of citizens attending, more that had turned out for any meeting in Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteHe's heard what the citizens want: to preserve community character, in other words, to preserve what Encinitas is. He spent a lot of time at the first Olivenhain Strategic Plan meeting expounding about how hard community character is to define. The audience disagreed with him. The problem is that his vision for Encinitas is the polar opposite of that of most citizens. He wants to development Encinitas as fast and dense as possible, and then retire.
Vina started July 1, 2011 and attended the last GPAC meeting under Patrick Murphy at which point he began to understand what the citizens disliked about Patrick! Yer wrong, as usual.
DeleteVina was in place when MIG consultant Daniel Iocafano was still giving presentations to citizens. I know, because several people talked to Gus about the process the night of the last survey.
DeleteSeveral hundred 8-page surveys that citizens completed from the last event sit in a box unprocessed. If it is true what Vina and the Council want to know what we think, why didn't they process the data? Citizens took hours of their time to listen to Daniel Iocafano present his biased comments for which he was paid thousands of dollars, and then we filled out the surveys that nobody has considered. So what was the purpose of paying MIG and many Encinitas staff members overtime to hand out surveys for which there are no results?
Could it be that they are trying to avoid hearing that we don't want to change Encinitas but want to preserve our community character--just like the MIG consultants concluded from their own investigation? Over and over again, citizens say the same thing about our City. Leave it alone and keep the General Plan as it is! A few months ago, the election on Prop A proved it again.
The next election may be another wake up call if we can't get council to be more responsive to those who put them into office.
6:01, you REALLY think Vina has not been on the receiving end of all kinds of public input, from countless emails to sitting through every council meeting? Please.
DeleteSounds like yet another insider post. Could even be our enamored mayor or Vina himself.
Although Vina receives a lot of emails and phone calls, he answers almost none.
DeleteHis office is like a black hole where citizen feedback goes in and disappears without a trace.
There is nothing more compelling to him than the $200,000 pension that we will be stuck paying him until the day he dies. Every decision and recommendation is made out of consideration for how to sustain his own pension.
Encinitas is just a pension piggy bank to be broken open and looted.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that City staff is going to the Council and saying, "if you sign this, it is not illegal. Let us do your jobs for you."
ReplyDeleteBasically, there is nobody representing citizens any more. Gus is running the show and running the City into the ground. Our council is a passive body and ineffective body.
For years people who attacked Teresa Barth said she lacked leadership skills. Many who supported her through thick and thin are beginning to agree with them.
From 7:50 - "For years people who attacked Teresa Barth said she lacked leadership skills. Many who supported her through thick and thin are beginning to agree with them."
ReplyDeleteFINALLY YOU SEE!!!!!!!!
Idealism is never practical..........
- The Sculpin
Au contraire. Idealism can be practical. America was founded by idealists, and it worked for 200 years.
DeleteThe question here is whether the politicians' ideals conflict with their constituents' ideals.
WCV
Ha!!!
DeleteNo, WCV, idealism by its very nature can not be practical - it's an ideal! That to which is to be attained but never reached! That is why, should you see the Bhudda on the road, you must kill it. Granted, there are elements of an ideal that can be put into practice, but they are typically hard fought for and their continued existence is tenuous at best. 200 years is a great run, and it will require much vigilance and debate to go another 200.
- The Scuplin
And El Presidente Gus Vina's idealism? Pull up the moat and hire a spin doctor. Time to overthrow this banana republic dictator and his minion city council.
DeleteI have seen the future. Well, in a movie anyway. Check out "Idiocracy". You'll learn an important lesson or two. One: Electrolites do not help plants grow. (But hey, maybe they'll kill goat heads! Sounds like time for an independant experiment....)
ReplyDelete