The city of Encinitas and contractor USS Cal Builders are negotiating with the state Regional Water Control Board to try to reduce a $430,000 fine levied against them for twice letting sediment-filled storm water flow off a huge city park construction site and into San Elijo Lagoon.Months after the second offense, the city council unanimously proclaimed City Manager Gus Vina's management "excellent."
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If the city and the construction company can't convince the state to lower the fine, they will be splitting the cost of the $430,000 assessment, with the city likely owing the lion’s share of the bill, city officials have said. The fine is broken into two categories, with part dedicated to the two incidents and part linked to the city’s failure to significantly improve conditions between the first and second offense.
The runoff incidents occurred within four months of each other at the 44-acre park site, which is west of Interstate 5 and south of Santa Fe Avenue.
The public was kept in the dark about the whole thing until late November when a resident learned about it from the water board, almost a year after the first spill. How's that Transparency and Trust™ working out for ya?
How sad. We voted in 3 council people who said they wanted open and transparent government. This isn't it, just in case they are reading this.
ReplyDeleteThe past Council Majority including James Bond and Jerome Stock were offensive, but at least they were upfront! The new sneaky Council majority of Barth, Shaffer, and Krantz, promised transparency, but instead have had more closed session meetings than ever before and have NOT been honest or transparent at all! They are elitists and should be drummed out of office!!!
ReplyDeleteBang your pots.
DeleteDrive them out.
Wow, now we're down to calling Stocks and Bonds transparent? I don't think so. I'll take Lisa, Tony and Teresa any day over Stocks, Bonds and Dallager.
DeleteLet's see 12-16 years of Stocks/Bonds vs. 1 year Lisa/Tony/Teresa.....
So you want us to give LTT 12-16 years to show transparency?? I don't think so.
DeleteBang your pots.
Drive them out.
No, but somebody voted for those clowns, although it wasn't me. As I've said before, Lisa, Tony and Mark have 3 years left, the next vote will be for the mayor's seat and a council seat.
DeletePut the pots away and start thinking about who will run...We're over the pots thing.
$tock$ transparent?? Superficial, maybe. Bond was senile and Dalager a crook. Now we've got the 3 stooges and the Pillsbury dough boy and the Macy's Ditz. Take the fine out of somebody's pension.
DeleteZero leadership, zero accountability. Oh but let's all "strategic plan".
DeleteHey 3:15.... Don't you defame my pots.
DeleteThe pots are fine, but they're not going to drive anyone out of office. That would be called a vote, it's a democracy.
DeleteSo disappointed! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
ReplyDeleteAnd now the water district meetings begin at 5:00 p.m. You can watch them on TV, or live webcast, at least, but not a single member of the public is present, by design, to see the new fee increases . . . On Lisa's motion, of course. She loves to be motion maker.
ReplyDeleteI bet you are… you have nothing better to do with your time.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Lynn's observations. You, 5:37, on the other hand, offer NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteObservations from another planet....just a casual observation.
DeleteI wouldn't necessarily draw the conspiracy conclusion that they moved the meeting to exclude the public. How many people were in the meeting anyway?
ReplyDeleteIf you work, it's hard to get to any meeting before 7pm....
Until Lisa Shaffer's original suggestion of moving the SDWD meeting to 5:00, when she was Chair, and Deputy Mayor, the meetings, for 27 years, had begun at 6:00 p.m. Then more people were present. Lisa Shaffer and Teresa Barth seem mainly interested in allowing time for a break between the two meetings, not in more public involvement.
DeleteThe meeting time should go back to 6:00. Although some people are unable to arrive until 7 p.m., many more can be present at 6:00 than at 5:00. Kristin Gaspar provided numbers from the Labor Bureau to substantiate this simple fact.
Ok, fair enough on the reasoning, although as I recall, part of Lisa's reasoning for moving the meeting up was so that the regular council meeting would not run so late.
DeleteTrust me, when you get up before 6 to go to work, it's starts getting real late at post 9pm.
As for Gaspar, not buying into anything she would pull up. Voting against her for Mayor, no matter what. We have to do better....
The meetings are not running so late, now. Moreover, when there is so much on the Agenda, extra special meetings can be held. We sometimes need more than three CC Meetings a month!
DeleteRight, but at least they were making an attempt to keep them on time. You're posting the above at 11pm. I'm usually asleep by 9, because I have to get up and go to work.
DeleteIn the UT article it sure sound like the state engineer Rebecca Steward is going to hold the city's feet to the fire. I want to know when the council members were first told about the illegal discharges into Rossini Creek The whole scandal is sad for me too. I expected better. The coverup may fall on City Manager Vina.
ReplyDeleteAnd I want to know why the sediment discharges were not tested for toxicity. That failure to adhere to Best Management Practices shows a complete lack of transparency.
DeleteAnd what will you do with this information ??
DeleteI would expose it to the general public through letters to the editor, or blog comments . . . word of mouth.
DeleteAnd what does that accomplish ??
DeleteBringing malfeasance to the attention of more of the general public should light a fire under Council, that if they do nothing, they are complicit in the failures to uphold the public trust.
DeleteThese failures will be brought forward at the election in November.
Name one council not guilty of complicity in the failure of public trust?? They are all guilty.
DeleteTell us something new??
Tell yourself something new. If the malfeasance and malpractice, through the City's not following Best Management Practices is brought to more of the public's attention, that should have an effect on Council, who should NOT have unanimously given the City Manager an excellent, nor unanimously "supported" the City Attorney.
DeleteFor crying out loud lady , everyone knows the city should not have green lighted Vina nor Sabine. If you think shaming them over Rossini creek will drive them out then you are simply out of touch with the real world. They don't care... About the creek, about out of control spending, about salaries nor pensions. All they do care about is growing govt. that's it, grow govt so big that it's unstoppable.
DeleteIf you want to stop them use your 3 minutes to bang pots not bore them with monotonical nonsense. If each speaker banged pots for 3 minutes, they'll run from the council chambers.... And don't tell me it can't be done it can. Bang your pots in morse code. Completely legal.
"Everyone" does not know -far from it! Nothing though like a nice, juicy fine or lawsuit against the city to make it into the U-T and wake up a few. Much if not most of this town is asleep and think we're safe now that Tony and Lisa got in and Prop A passed.
DeleteIt's all about holding feet to the fire in the most public way possible to educate residents and engage them in their own community.
Lynn is right (again) and we need to show the ways of our council in these matters. The creek mistake was bad enough, the coverup or lack of transparency shameful!
Delete3:47, I have to agree with Lynn on this one, we have to hold their feet to the fire. It will eventually build enough momentum at the right time, like it did for Stocks and Dallager. The pot banging thing would probably just get you tossed out by the deputies.
DeleteWe have Democracy, not anarchy. We elected the 5 council people, and we can vote them out.
I think it's painting way too broad a statement to say all they care about is growing spending. Let's see you run for office and do a better job...
So 7:31, you are happy with the job being done??
DeleteBring back Stock! Dump the others. STOCK'S HAS MY VOTE!
ReplyDeleteVoting for yourself?
DeleteEven Jerome knows how to spell his own name, maybe Jim Bond after a couple of afternoon Bourbons.
DeleteBring him back for the tar and feathers.
DeleteThe Contractor, with inadequate expertise, apparently, and the Consultant who was supposed to be monitoring, were both hired under Stocks, were they not? Seems as though more public information requests are in order, to expose the cover-up.
DeleteThe responsibility falls on Vina. His oversaw the financing and the hiring of the contractor/consultant. He rushed it through to please Stocks. Stocks was out 5 month later. What is Vina's excuse now?
DeleteAgreed, Would love to know more on what went on when on the park runoff debacle.
DeleteVina is also responsible for the Planning Department and the Engineering department. He likes people who are inferior working for him. There are also lots of financial issues like the golf course issue, the GPU, and funds that he drained to build the park.
DeleteWe won't find out what went on with the park runoff debacle until the city council demands an explanation from Vina under threat of termination.
DeleteCity council should question what Vina asks them to do. Next week's council meeting Vina wants the council to approve selling a small piece of city property so a developer can complete his building. These will be million dollar houses. The city property is about 2500 square feet. The city's appraisal came in at a ridiculously low price of $16,000.
ReplyDeleteCorrection - the city property is 0.2 acre or 8712 square feet.
DeleteVina is a tool and a fool.
DeleteCouncil needs to Fire Vina! NOW!!!!!!!
I wonder if Vina gets a new kitchen out of this deal. This story has a familiar ring to it!
DeleteCalifornia drought emergency declared by Gov. Jerry Brown
ReplyDeleteRemind me again, why are we building more houses in this arid desert that is currently overbuilt, has limited energy, shrinking water supply, too much traffic and too many people in general?
I say plan on reducing the population of So Ca is the responsible and smart growth plan.
Current politicians and planners need to pull their head out of their ass and quite letting developers profits drive the development of So Ca to resemble Easter Island.
Voters are a bunch of dumb shits. Reject the pro-growth sell outs Gaspar and Muir. Reject the irresponsible super sell out growth monger Vina.
Demand your City Council members fire Vina. He is very bad for Encinitas.
Our lack of infrastructure to provide parking, to maintain our roads, to provide water at reasonable rates, has to constrain the City's ability to keep issuing permits. After a Level 2 drought is declared, our City, by previous ordinance, is to stop issuing new water meters, correct?
ReplyDeleteI read that since we agreed to purchase a guaranteed amount of desalinated water, our water rates are likely to increase 30%. But they have just been increased, over five years, to at least 30%! So will our water rates be increasing by 60%. And many "incidental" water fees have been raised by up to 300%!
This increase was on Lisa Shaffer's motion, with NO ONE from the public present in the audience, since Council moved the SDWD meetings back to 5:00, an hour before when most people can arrive, at 6:00. Six P.M. was the time that the SDWD Meetings had started for 27 years, since Encintas' incorporation in 1986, before Lisa Shaffer's insistence on changing to 5:00.
Lisa Shaffer, Teresa Barth and Tony Kranz want to be able to take a break between the SDWD Meeting and the CC Meeting. But this ends up NOT saving confusion, but causing LESS transparency and public participation. Many locals will be shocked when they see their water rates going up and up, including the water meter rate, which is like a regressive tax.
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ReplyDeleteWater is and will continue to be the key issue for our region. Building permits should not be issued without the question of where the water those homes will use is coming from.
ReplyDeleteAs for the anti-Barth, Kranz, and Shaffer line of thought for moving the water district time, I can't help you.
But Gaspar says" Happy New Year" in her expensive, glossy family/business mailer sent out recently. She has started her mayoral campaign early. Maybe Barth needs a make-over and can do a few bicycle spins in her round-abouts while headed to Pacific Station for her soylant green.
ReplyDeleteAll you have to know about Gaspar is the bogus We Love Encinitas thing she and her husband were behind..
ReplyDeletehttp://encinitasundercover.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-fingerprints-on-sham-charity.html
It provides a direct link between her and David Meyer. Her candidacy last time was a front for the developer interests in this town and it will be in the Mayoral race as well...
Don't be fooled...
Yes, Gaspar is a developers' shill. She is dumb as a brick and needs to be uploaded with agenda - looks like she and her husband know what's good for business - their business!
DeleteDon't insult me -
DeleteA. Brick
Just got her happy new year card, er advertisement, er campaign flyer...Sure smells bad already.....
ReplyDeleteGot her campaign ad / new year greeting. What a hustle and a good way to alienate voters. Barth is no better so somebody with a brain please run.
ReplyDeleteThe husband looks like Sluggo the block head in those fliers...
DeleteKick back city in action . . .
Gaspar using the family anglefor publicity - pathetic. Where is her dog Spot? Worked for Cal! Come on down and git yer chiropractic work done fer reduced cost and vote fer me fer Mayer! YEEEEHAAAWWWW
ReplyDelete(Ya likes them country boots I be a'wearin'?)
Barth needs to show up on her bicycle with Toto in the basket.
The Gaspars' business is physical therapy.
ReplyDelete