Regarding “Encinitas panel to study golf course issues” (Oct. 22), the U-T portrays the Encinitas Ranch Golf Course as some benevolent entity that pays its special local taxes only if it is doing well.Background on the ERGA scandal here.
I have lived in Encinitas Ranch for 13 years, and paid my fair share of “special taxes” each year no matter how well I was doing financially. When do I get to create my own private “slush fund” to defer any down years I may have?
Forgive the pun, but something is not up to par on the coast when the City Council can approve a plan to rob us of more tax dollars to support a failing golf course that coincidentally just got new sand traps and upgrades.
Shame on those who would allow such a thing to transpire behind the backs of those who would be footing the bill.
David De Vore
Encinitas
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Encinitas Ranch resident writes on ERGA slush fund
In U-T letters:
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r u expecting the rest of the city to pay for your Mello Roos?
ReplyDeleteMr. De Vore...times are tough, but you did sign your CC&Rs, didn't you, Sir?
DeleteERGA should have to keep up its end of the bargain. It shouldn't be allowed to defer payments, and pass the additional costs on to Mello-Roos paying Encinitas Ranch Homeowners, up to $3,000 extra per tax bill.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David De Vore, for an excellent letter. No, ERGA should not have special interest status, which has enabled and encouraged this kind of a slush fund; that's a good name for it.
Council should direct the City Manager to order a forensic audit. I hope you will be going to the subcommittee meetings, David, and that they will be scheduled at a time when working residents of Encinitas Ranch and elsewhere in Encinitas, can attend.
Our city attorney, Glenn Sabine, should have shared a report, PUBLICLY, by now, which Deputy Mayor Lisa Shaffer asked him for at the 10/11 public meeting when the subject of the ERGA development agreement was on the City's agenda.
Sabine was unprepared on 10/11. Although the development agreement is "thick" according to Sabine, he could have known, by the Oct. 11 meeting, the terms and ownership conditions that would be applicable when the agreement is completed; and exactly when, in 2014, the agreement is concluded.
MOVE
ReplyDeleteOr here's a notion: conduct the forensic audit. Why does the city resist doing the right thing? Why does Vina say "we don't use that word around here" when forensic was used?
ReplyDeleteSomething is very off here.
It sounds like Vina is knowingly helping to hide fraud.
DeleteThe HOA should pay for more of the Golf Course Costs. No more City subsidies. Encinitas Ranch enjoys the openspace, Encinitas Ranch pays for the green open space.
ReplyDeleteMan Lynn, you sure have a lot of nothing to say about everything.
Can you please work on being clear and concise?
Your rambling losses a ton of credit on your shoddy work.
Speaking of shoddy work, it's not a question of the HOA vs the city. It's a question of Carltas, the Ecke family development company, vs. the city and the HOA. Carltas got an apparently illegal backroom deal from the city.
DeleteWCV
Someone needs to be held accountable for this.
DeleteIt is entirely between the city and Carltas.
DeleteIt's a shady deal, to be sure. But you have to read those HOA agreements before you sign. Carltas is the same company that switched the low income property designation on one of the houses in the old Barrett American Development in Leucadia. Thanks David Meyer!
DeleteAnonymous at 5:35 am:
DeleteYou are dead wrong in your comments. The Mello-Roos taxes the HOAs pay are not for the golf course, but for the Infrastructure in the Encinitas Ranch area. That's the roads and utilities. The golf course is set up as an independent entity (ERGA), but still benefits from the intrastructure and is supposed to pay a portion of the Mello-Roos taxes.
You may not like it, but Lynn is correct. ERGA's share of the Mello-Roos taxes has been diverted to set up a contingency fund, the so called "slush fund," which seems an appropriate name for it. In the meantime the HOAs have to pick up the difference. In the ERGA board meetings it was never made clear why the contingency was being established, many years after the original agreement was signed. One can only conclude that the golf course was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Actually, Carltas was forced into that decision by Patrick Murphy who wanted to make the Eckes look bad. Wrong information spewed again on this sloppy populist electronic chamber pot. LOL.
DeleteActually, Gail Hano was in charge with Lou Aspell. Blame them for Prop K. There was a public vote on all of the things you are whining about.
DeleteLIke they need help looking bad?? Patrick Murphy "forced" them into it? Right.
DeleteYou are a developer insider on the wrong side of things...we can pick from the usual suspects list of wannabe spoilers.
Carltas was not forced into anything. Patrick Murphy quit to work for Carltas, and then returned to work for the city. Carltas held the trump card of the threat to annex to Carlsbad instead of Encinitas and played the card to get want they wanted. That didn't quite work out right.
DeleteCarltas got a profitable development with all infrastructure paid for by Mello-Roos taxes,, homes and condos paid for by purchasers, and a shopping center paid for by leaseholders. Carltas hoped to get a golf course built and paid for by public golfers. That didn't quite work out right.
Disregard the first "That didn't quite work out right." Only the second was intended. Carltas got what they wanted with the annexation.
DeleteShe is helping regardless of the number of words. At least she cares.
ReplyDeleteObstructionista .
DeleteThere's a big scandal lurking beneath the controversy about the Encinitas Ranch Golf Authority (ERGA). The odd arrangement of a public/private partnership between the city and Carltas (Ecke) benefited Carltas much more than it benefited the city. When City Attorney Sabine refused to supply any information about the Development Agreement, which set the whole thing up and expires next year, suspicion only deepened.
ReplyDeleteEcke has owned the city government from its inception. Remember Gaspar (amongst others) pictured at their parties? They're all beholding to their rich Over Lord. Sabine is in the thick of it too - how do you think he has survived? Small town politics, owned by the Land Barons. Don't expect anything to change except by ballot initiative.
ReplyDeleteActually, Sheila, if you remember, when the City incorporated the Ecke's were not part of it: it was only years later when inheritance issues arose that Prop K hit the ballot and a majority of voters approved allowing the Ecke Ranch holdings to be added to the City. Perhaps you've been watching too many reruns of Dynasty and Dallas to adequately 'remember' what the truth is? Envy is sooooooooo ugly.
DeleteI don't think Sheila's on here, but she spoke to the ERGA issue several times over the years. Bottom line, you're getting hosed if you're part of that HOA. The city never should have agreed to the deferred payments...
DeleteHere's some background:
Deletehttps://thecoastnews.com/2013/10/council-subcommittee-will-look-into-encinitas-ranch-golf-course/
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/09/encinitas-city-to-consider-changes-in-golf-course/all/?print
The city isn't really benefitting from the current arrangement, but Carltas and ERGA sure as hell are...
And one more..
Deletehttps://thecoastnews.com/2011/05/community-commentary-mello-roos-taxes-are-going-up/
Stop blaming Ecke for all the city problems . Not one Ecke voted for outrageous salaries, pensions or failing infrastructure. Last I checked they have sold their propery in enc and moved their business elsewhere.
DeleteGet a life people.
The Eckes still own land in Encinitas. Who do you think owns the Encinitas Ranch shopping center? And they still have a profit-sharing deal with the golf course. Family members still live in Encinitas and still have a lot of influence on the council.
DeleteThe ER shopping center is dying. Poorly designed and even more poorly shopped, most Encinitians go to the Forum for yoga pants.
DeleteContinued attacks on the Eckes reek of class warfare. And BTW every Encinitian has benefited from the Ecke families generosity. Even the haters.
The one with the Target, the Barnes and Noble, the Marshalls etc? I don't think it's dying, plenty of cars this Saturday when I was in there. For the record, I buy my yoga pants at Don's house of Yoga in Santee. No one said the Ecke's were all bad, but they are involved in Carltas and other development arms. I have heard very good things about Paul Ecke and his involvement in the community. But that's separate from this stinky deal with the golf course, where the light deserves to be shown.
DeleteShine the light all you want, to throw shit on the wall and hope it hits Ecke because he was there when the wall was built is nonsense.
DeleteAs for the mall?? It's dying, compare it to the Forum any day, anytime.
"Hope"?? Why do you think the city is fighting so hard against an audit? Why was Kranz so bent on steering the conversation away from the apparent Carltas (Ecke) wheeling/dealing?
DeleteIf a forensic audit is conducted, it's gonna hit.
There is a huge difference between dying and being the most successful and busy.
DeleteObviously the Forum is popular and busier that Encinitas Ranch Mall, but I my perception is the Encinitas mall is doing just fine. They should let their trees and vines grow more. Way over trimmed/cut. The landscapers need to be told to let thinks grow. They love to cut shit.
Maybe need a landscaper as a City Manager so they can cut out most of our deadwood. We have such bad deadwood our trunk has rot and smells like ass.
The Forum is nicer, no doubt. But the Target Mall as I call it, isn't going anywhere. The Target, Stater Brothers and other big box store will keep that engine running for years. If there were no cars in there, I'd agree, but as long as it's a struggle to get in and out of there, I can't...
DeleteCould there just be fewer parking spaces per shopper at The Forum that makes one think it is busier? Harder to park doesn't have to mean busier in terms of actual sales or health of stores.
DeleteQuite right...what so many of us were thinking ;)
DeleteThe Forum is visually more pleasing with nicer shops. Better restaurants with a nice fish pond. Tonight the Enc Ranch had the usual Thursday night rice burner car show. Ohh wow. I wonder how much those guy drop in coin ???
DeleteGood point, 7:28. The Forum has a much smaller, tighter parking lot. If you moved all those cars over to Target, Ross, Stater, etc., there would still be a lot of empty asphalt.
Delete9:41 PM
DeleteThe Thursday night car meet up isn't a car show. It requires a city permit and this group doesn't have a permit. Target doesn't want them gathering in the Target parking area. It's a free for all.
Don't go to the town center on Thursday night.
9:41- the Forum is a better planned mall. Better planning means better results.
Deletecome on folks, apples and oranges: utilitarian, get your basics mall vs, high-end specialty stores. This all has nothing to do with the smell of a very off situation between Ecke/Carltas and the city.
DeleteYes it is a different topic altogether. So what's your point??
DeleteThank you 6:54! Someone who understands real estate! Careful now, lest ye be branded a "developer".......
Delete- The Sculpin
If you like your rice burner you can keep your rice burner. Until you can't because I and others smarter than you decide for you what is best. After all, your rice burner substandard, didn't you know? Bet you are glad government is here to save you from yourself. My how incompetent all you non-government workers are.
DeleteDrag strip in the Target parking lot!!!!
DeleteAnd better restaurants, buco de Pepto and Casa de bandini vs buffalo chicken wings and panda excess.
Delete9:22, my point is you seem to be more worried about minimizing the fortune the Eckes make off the Target center than about how residents are getting ripped off by them in a very, very apparently shady deal with the city.
DeleteBut I'm sure you have your loyalties.
Wtf?? As a taxpayer and citizen of the city I don't want anyone ripped off. I'm sure there are a history of shady deals in this town that don't include the Eckes.
DeleteIn my opinion the Forum is a better shopping center, better managed, landscaped, and utilized. The Eckes will have to pump millions into EncRanch to win back the customers that now frequent the forum. Perhaps they will, most likely they won't.
Kranz gets to scrape up the excess caviar at the Ecke's Christmas swaree if he diverts the discussions away from their insider interests.
DeleteThat is very interesting. I heard Tony went to a private party with Jon Lynch and Papa Manchester od the UT, any truth to that? He voted with the high density developer lawyer Marco Gonzalez on upzoning desert rose and then supported the developer lies on prop A. Kranz sure seems like he has his cronies. Is Kranz running for Mayor of Kronyville?
DeleteLast one, promise..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theleucadiablog.com/2010/05/golf-course-rumors-put-to-rest.html
So why does EMMA show two different S&P bond ratings - one as A- and another as AA-.
ReplyDeleteAre these the same bonds? The golf course bonds were recently refinanced by ERGA to take advantage of lower interest rates. Almost a million dollars was added to the borrowing without increasing the annual repayment cost. This was done to make improvements to try to halt the death spiral of increasing course deterioration and falling revenue caused by fewer golfers.
ReplyDeleteBoth Carltas (Ecke) and the city didn't want to put more money directly into the golf course, making it look like both have budgetary problems. Neither is required to do it legally. The city made the problem worse by suspending the repayment of the loan to Carltas for five years, even though it was said at the time that the suspension would have no fiscal impacts on the city. Really?