Caretakers maintain the status quo, a task that boils down to throwing a fiscal bone to every politically powerful constituency and doing so in a manner that does not create career-threatening blowback.Caretaker politicians are fine if the voters are happy with the status quo and there are no long-term problems being ignored. But neither of those are true in Encinitas, are they?
[...]
Caretaker politicians take credit for things that would have happened even if they'd lost the election and some other caretaker politician had held the office: the new school would have built anyway, the strike settled one way or another, and the nation would have exited from the unpopular discretionary war.
The signature accomplishments of caretaker politicians always leave the status quo power structure and constituencies firmly in place [...]
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Caretaker council
Often when reading on national political issues, we're struck by parallels to local politics.
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Let's ban plastic water bottles - wave flags,,,(meanwhile pension debts leads the city closer to insolvency). We were shammed on the Shaffer/Kranz election - Barth is worthless too.
ReplyDeleteWatch for those who run again to make a big deal out of this vote, or at least try to.
DeleteSad how cynical they've made us, but I can't imagine I'm alone in suspecting Gaspar had her company's bottles printed up right quick and just in time for this meeting. I can just see her running on some kind of green platform next year.
Gaspar favors drunken tourism. Can't disrupt the sale of booze.
DeleteIt seems like council members are more concerned with meaningless outside awards rather than what actual citizens think about issues. Mayor Barth highlighted a Patch article about the most walkable cities and how Encinitas moved up the list to 6th place.
ReplyDeleteWas this award given before the toddler was run over and killed a few weeks ago? How does this award relate to what is really happening in Encinitas? They are also proud of our newly vital downtown. Do downtown residents share this passion for drunken tourism?
These awards and self-praise only underscore that we need people at the city who use their time in other ways besides trying to justify their existence.
Yes, we would NOT have been in fifth place (not sixth, as I recall) had the toddler's death been included in the statistics.
DeleteIt was tragic, but the child probably did run ahead of his mother, pushing the stroller. So sad that the person exiting onto Encinitas Blvd. didn't see him. He was probably in a hurry on his way to work. He had some alcohol in his system, too. Not near the legal limit, but any amount is illegal when there is an accident with personal injury.
Our Council has become more about posturing, pretense, and power plays, than really listening to the citizens.
Yep. Cars are super dangerous and humans are super delicate. Measures to make their proximity / interaction to each other safer are welcome improvements. Unfortunately, you'll always have children darting out into the street after a ball; drivers and pedestrians not paying attention and of course drunks thinking they can drive. So heads up, all.
DeleteHere lies the body of Jonathan Day
Who died maintaining his right of way,
He was right, dead right
As he sped along
But he's just as dead
As if he'd been dead wrong.
I think that a point that is being overlooked is that it was pretty inappropriate and in bad taste to boast of improved walkablity on the heels of this terrible loss.
DeleteOuch, ugly claims. I'm not sure you can equate a drunk guy running over a kid to the walkability awards. We certainly don't have walkability on Vulcan....
DeleteJust remember that a short time before the City of Bell scandal broke that they had been awarded for their accounting practices. How often have we heard council and staff praise themselves for various awards that they have won. They often spend days looking for and applying for awards instead of just doing their jobs.
DeleteDo I think that the walkability award is a farce? You bet! Awards like that should go to cities that have outdoor malls where cars can't back over toddlers. Some of the parking lots in Encinitas are so terrible that it almost impossible to park in them or to walk in them. Think of the Bank of America/Walgreens lot, or the Wells Fargo/Boudin Bakery lot. Why did they take out sidewalk in front of Boudin and force people to walk in front of traffic to use the Mission Fed ATM? This lot is horrible! In downtown, other portions of sidewalk disappear to make way for intensive land use by favored developers. How do these things demonstrate walkable neighborhoods?
Well, 101's certainly more walkable since the downtown streetscape replaced old sidewalks and installed new ones ascending from Encinitas Blvd. Plus the "temporary sidewalks" here in Leucadia have also increased safety for pedestrians; strollers etc that no longer have to walk in the highway to avoid mud puddles. Sure, malls don't have the problem of people getting run over next to a business, but customers do have to park somewhere, and mall parking lots are not exempt from catastrophes. The walk to school is definately safer than it used to be at Paul Ecke Central School with the west side of vulcan paved, curbed and much of it fenced. Encinitas though has an edge on most places for walkability because west of us (25% of the equation) no one can walk at all. Except for Jesus.
DeleteGaspar favors drunken tourism. Can't disrupt the sale of booze.
ReplyDeleteI think that the term "caretaker council" is too charitable for what they are. If they would just let things remain stable it would be an improvement over what is happening. They have give Gus Vina complete control to fast track ruining the city. They are puppets instead of caretakers.
ReplyDeleteGood point; caretaker sounds benign. These five, who happily trip along behind Vina's wrong-minded and harmful actions, are actively hurting us.
DeleteThey could win back respect by replacing Vina and Sabine.
ReplyDeleteThey could, but they won't. While campaigning, both Barth and Shaffer privately told people axing Sabine would be the first order of business (Barth "if only I had another person to back me, I'd do it").
DeleteEither something changed to stop them, or they were just out getting votes for Shaffer with no intention of following through.
In all fairness, Lisa Shaffer did ask for a Request for Proposal for Sabine when I spoke at the City Council meeting a few weeks ago and asked them to do it. No one would second her motion. I cannot tell you why, only that it happened? I was also surprised the Teresa did not second it, given her own run ins with Sabine. As one of the Council members said to me "Glenn has institutional history", whatever that means. I can take a guess, but I think you all have an idea what that term means.
ReplyDeleteLisa Shaffer knew that RFP would NOT go through, Lorril It was good she suggested it, belatedly.
DeleteOn July 10, when the City came out of its closed session evaluations of Vina and Sabine, at 6:14, citizens were entitled to know EXACTLY WHICH Council Members voted to give Vina an excellent, and which Council Members voted to "support" Sabine. The Mayor's instead reporting there was "overall counsel consensus" is illegal, according to the Brown Act. Also illegal is that compensation for executive officers was discussed in a Special Meeting Closed Session.
Before, Shaffer had promised at the first subcommittee meeting re the City Attorney and City Attorney evaluations that there would be an opportunity for online public input. That idea was knocked down at the next insufficiently noticed subcommittee meeting, at which no members of the public were present. Jace Schwarm, Director of Risk Management read unbsubstantiated hearsay form Liebert Cassidy Whitmore to change the City's position to that of not being able to solicit public input because the City could be open to lawsuits for defamation of character by Sabine and Vina, as reiterated by Mayor Barth at the November 13 CC Meeting.
Since I have put in an official public information (CPRA) request, the draft work performance plans for Sabine and Vina should be released, within 10 days of that 11/13 meeting, when they were presented and reviewed. Council's evaluation of the work plans can be, but is not required to be in closed session. The work plans, themselves, even if drafts, are public documents, and must be released. This issue was previously successfully litigated by the Kevin Cummins lawsuit.
Dr. Lorri,
DeleteWe still have Glen. Why? Lisa voted to keep Glen not long ago. She is as responsible as the other 4 for keeping him.
Don't forget to blame the prior council members who also voted to keep him.
DeleteIf there is a formal Council vote in closed session, then the Brown Act requires the Council to detail that in their report of the closed session. However, how each Council member evaluated the performance of the City Manager and City Attorney is not a formal vote and therefore doesn't have to be reported. That's in the legislation and the courts have extended that to the performance criteria.
DeleteMaybe it means that he knows where the bodies are buried. Given what we know about this council and city staff, the other 90% is no doubt even worse.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Glenn is a paid secret keeper!
Caretaker blog is more like it.
ReplyDeleteWell someone has to take care of our city since council chooses not to.
DeleteSabine- is the Encinitas cloud. Com of buried secrets
DeleteWe didn't want a Caretaker Council, taking care of special interests, staff and various insiders at the expense of the majority of the public, the "little guy." Most people who vote aren't following the deceptions and machinations of our Caretaker Council. But we voted for our new Council Majority because we very much wanted a change from the status quo, not more posturing, pretense, and photo ops.
ReplyDeleteThere must be a balancing of the public's right to information, and open government, as opposed to our city attorney and city manager's rights to "privacy." The balance is in the citizens' favor, according to statutory law and court precedent.
Sabine and Vina have less rights of privacy re the public's opinions of them being publicly disclosable documents, with respect to their evaluations, because these executive officers are PUBLIC SERVANTS! There is case law and Government Code to substantiate that. There is no law to substantiate the attitude that Council has that Vina and Sabine are part of a "secret club," not accountable to the public, as stated in Lisa Shaffer's latest newsletter:
"Our November 13 Council meeting started with a special meeting to review the performance plans for the City Manager and City Attorney. The Council had this discussion in closed session because employees are entitled to privacy with respect to their performance evaluations and it's hard to discuss a performance plan without discussing actual performance . . . " [They do NOT have an entitlement; it's up to the discretion of Council, and is NOT required, but allowed by the Brown Act, for there to be closed session evaluations]
Shaffer further adds:
"There is no direct line between the public and the CM and CA in terms of accountability. They report to the Council, and it's our job on the Council to reflect the public interest through the direction we give to them. " [That's also FALSE. The City had every right to keep its previous promise, through Shaffer, Gaspar and Kathy Hollywood, to solicit online public input, which could have been verified, through the registered voters' rolls, according to the Clerk. The CM and CA ARE accountable to the public.
Online input would have encouraged more direct accountability. Council is directly accountable to the public when they are up for re-election. Barth, Shaffer and Kranz are NOT keeping their campaign promises of trust, transparency and public accountability of public servants.
In fact, Barth before ran on "Putting the Service back in Public Servants." What a laugh!
Previously, through machinations at a separate Council policy and protocol subcommittee meeting, Shaffer and Barth tried to take away the right of citizens to give one another time donations, up to two time donations, for a total of nine minutes, when we are speaking to Agenda Items, as has been the tradition in Encinitas since inception, as far as I know. Only because concerned activists came forward, and the other Council Members didn't go along with Shaffer and Barth's plans, was Barth and Shaffer's planned policy change defeated.
We have been deceived, and let down. Shaffer and Kranz would not have been elected had they not signed the Right to Vote initiative. After being elected, they quickly "changed sides." The majority of the voters who supported Prop A will not forget that. All of their arguments published in the Sample Ballot, against the grassroots initiative, thus far have been proven to be false, and without merit.
Well Lynn what do you plan to do about it????
DeleteBarth, Shaffer and Kranz - the Three Stooges! Woop Woop Woop
DeleteI don't know where she finds the time to write in these blogs, keeping Leucadia crappy is a full time job.
DeleteI made an entry further down but I just read Lynn's piece again all the way through. The Brown Act legislation and case law give the CM & CA the expectation to have their performance reviews in private, although they have the option of requesting it be done in open session. Unfortunately, Lynn is dead wrong about the case law. One case even confirms that the performance review criteria can be done in closed session. Each Council member's evaluation is not a vote and therefore doesn't have to be individually reported in the closed session report.
Delete"performance review criteria CAN be done in closed session," but that is NOT mandatory. But whether or not the indiviaual evaluations take place pubicly or in closed session, Council DID TAKE ACTION to give CM Gus Vina an excellent and to "support," CA Glenn Sabine. That action, after evaluation CONSTITUTES A VOTE.
DeleteAccording to the Brown Act, which is part of California Govt. Code, EVERY VOTE, WHETHER PRELIMINARY OR FINAL, AND WHETHER TAKEN IN CLOSED SESSION OR OPEN SESSION, MUST BE REPORTED TO THE PUBLIC.
Great Post… I knew we had a caretaker council as soon as they supported Sad Sac.
ReplyDeleteIt has always been clear to me he has no idea how to effectively manage a city.
Look at his performance with Stockton and Sacramento. That is the future of Encinitas.
I hope next Council is better.
This blog should be called (THE WORID ACCORDING TO LYNN).What a pathetic joke it has become.
ReplyDeleteLynn is more respected than any member of our current council, Gus Vina, Glenn Sabine and the majority of city employees.
DeleteYou are a loon....
Delete8:32 Lynn scares you because she speaks the truth. Because you can not argue facts you attack, name call and ridicule. It is very transparent.
DeleteObstrctionista
DeleteI think the blog is great much more accurate news. Councilmember should take note. They're definitely a caretaker Council.
ReplyDeleteIf this council was any good it would have many of the managers in the city replaced.
ReplyDeleteThere are at least a half dozen city employees that need to be canned immediately. Why doesn't the council get it.
ReplyDeleteWho would they be and why?
DeleteIf, as a resident, you've had any dealings with planning or engineering, you would know who they are and why. The "usual suspects."
DeleteLYNN - WE..., US..., ETC... WHO DO YOU ACTUALLY THINK YOU REPRESENT IN THIS COMMUNITY???
ReplyDeleteShe represents those who don't want encinitas exploited, and citizens lied to, marginalized, bullied. If you don't think Lynn is well supported in her watchdog efforts you are wrong.
ReplyDeleteWill you let Lynn speak on your behalf? Will you put your name on that?
DeleteWill you put your name to the defamatory remarks you make about a citizen? There are lawyers in this town who would support her right to free speech on political matters. Personal attacks against an individual do not have that same protection.
DeleteYuragerk is my name.
DeleteIn reply to 3:13
DeleteThe Sacramento Bee newspaper has a story how pension costs are rising and the ave California city will see an increase in pension costs of 50% over the next 5 years. Are you listening COE???
ReplyDeleteEarlier reports noted that 5 retired Encinitas city bureaucrats were collectively receiving about half a million a year in pension benefits. What happens as that number increases - the city becomes a mere vehicle to pay these hogs off. What merits these outrageous benefit packages, other than self-serving internal policy setting. This City Council won't touch this - it has to come by initiative, like in San Diego. These "public servants" are looting the Treasury.
DeleteEr, it's now 6 looters sucking the city dry for $725,000.
DeleteAnd that doesn't include the King of all Looters, Mark Muir, who is reported to be pulling down about $170,000 per year, making $900,000 just for the top 7 looters.
And we have more fatcat looters retiring each year. The fire chief who followed Muir is already retiring after jacking up his salary to jack up his pension for life.
Welcome to the kleptocracy.
WCV
One word: Unsustainable!
DeleteSo, what do we do, what are the concrete steps to A.) bringing the issue to light B.) Making changes to current pensions. C.) preventing future high pension amounts.
DeleteEverything else is hot air. Starting to see the same things repeated over and over on the blog with no solutions, but plenty of name calling.
And what did these 6 do for our precious city to deserve such compensation??
Delete8:06,
Delete2 options:
1) elect a council that gives a damn, or
2) do a pension reform ballot initiative.
Both avenues have been successful elsewhere.
WCV
Hey.... Here's a crazy idea.... Let's do both.
DeleteOk so where are the Prop A people to do the dirty work? Oh yeah most of the money for prop A came from Olivenhain to stop any low income housing going there....so we can't expect any help from them.
Can we expect any help from you Anonymous at 7:04 am? Send your email to WC, and he will forward it to the Prop. A people. The original plan was to do both the Right to Vote initiative and also a Pension Reform initiative. But the timing didn't seem right for pension reform. The issue is now more front and center.
DeleteCan you write a check to help get the effort started?
A check?? And have a name that the city staff/ union goons and seek out to harass and torment ??? I don't think so. I'll toss a $100 bill to get you started. Where do I send it??
DeleteI would say A is the perhaps the hardest part, because it will be really tough to get anyone with the pensions as their main issue elected, I can guarantee you that right now. B.) seems way more likely, and I would support that.
Deletepressure state legislators to tax pension recipients 50% for any pension over $50,000/year.
ReplyDeleteYes, Obama and Brown will certainly support your improbable and probably illegal solution.
ReplyDeleteThats why you don't vote for such idiots. If you do, you are part of the problem, not the solution.
ReplyDeleteLet those collapsing the system pay their fair share for their system. Its what needs to happen. Its either they pay it or you pay it for them. Which is it?
The union goons...err union mafia won't allow it.
DeleteIt's a criminal syndicate.....
Just be like NCTD and fire anyone approaching pension age...
DeleteIt does have the feeling of them demanding that we pay them for protection since they seem to always know what is best.
ReplyDeleteTo everyone. If you get an email from "me" at an email address beginning with "fredson" please ignore it and do not send any money. I'm not in Spain, I don't need thousands of dollars for an operation for a cousin. Got 11 phone calls so far today asking about this crap. That email was hacked this morning at 5:30am and they robbed all my incoming and outgoing emails. Hopefully they re-emerge.
ReplyDeleteHi Fred,
DeleteI got your supposed email, and I thought that it was very romantic in a Hemingway sort of way! And who couldn't use a trip to Spain to get away from Encinitas politics. Give me the Spanish Civil War over local city politics any day!
Fred, I have sent you $500. Now that I know this is a scam please refund my money. I'll stop by later and you can give me cash.
ReplyDeleteMe too Fred :)
ReplyDeleteWait your turn Dr.Lorri.
DeleteFred: It sounds like you got a computer virus. It's common for an email address book to get hijacked by certain kinds of virus. Do an anti-virus scan.
ReplyDeleteReally??? Fred got hacked?? Wow. Are you Hewlett or Packard??
DeleteYeah, it really sucks. Over 5 years of emails sent and received gone. Plus, no one's been able to email me since I changed my password at that address. Gotta admit though, it feels a little like rebirth for me electronically - not knowing if I'll ever see all the correspondence I've hoarded for 5 years. But I dread the day I need to retrieve any info for sure. Fortunately, e-people are savvy about not sending their money to vague, expensive and far fetched requests. You know, except for Dr. Lorri and 11:56 and 1:09! ;)
DeleteHewlett, with a highly recommended virus shield, 1:03. The only thing I've done differently recently is put ads on craigslist. (None of which got responses and of course now may never.) Oh well, upward and onward as Fred Wilhelm always says.
DeleteMaybe, the government or the city council hacked in.
ReplyDeleteNaw. Just some random thief. They're not uncommon.
DeleteFor reference...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/sep/21/history-of-encinitas-city-council/all/?print
Lisa Shaffer will be addressing an audience on ethics at MiraCosta on Friday. It would be interesting to listen to her talk about how ethical this current council has been. Betraying their own campaign promises and turning away from supporters does not seem very ethical. I hope that many community members attend and ask questions since many people work and are not available.
ReplyDeleteYou mean like her admitting that she submitted several sheets during the citizen 'dot-exercise' and the told the public, "Everybody does it." or month before last when she hurriedly released 'confidential' city information to residents: really ethical stuff like that?
ReplyDeleteWhat's this? The "what's up with Fred news page"? Were you selling your "Hottest Flappers of the 20's" collection? Stay focused geezer!
ReplyDeleteIf Freds a geezer, your a loser 11:09am. If you can't say something nice, then don't…..
ReplyDeleteActually, Hottest Flappers of the 20's collections are very big this year. Thanks for the commercial.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-PRESSLER-THOS-D-MURPHY-PIN-UP-PRINT-FLAPPER-BATHING-BEAUTY-OCEAN-SO-BLUE-/291011481127?pt=Art_Prints&hash=item43c1a2ce27
ReplyDeleteAnd that's hipster geezer, to you.....
ReplyDelete