Encinitas resident and former coach Joe Corder said he recently learned that a clause in the city’s new contract with the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA means the Y could yank the Little League’s use of the fields with only 30 days’ notice.It's the YMCA's property; they can do with it what they want. But this seems like a matter of enough importance that the city should have brought it to the public's attention.
City Manager Gus Vina confirmed the clause was added, but said it doesn’t mean the youth team will lose access to the fields anytime soon. The YMCA has only just started on what’s expected to be a 2½-year master planning process for the area, Vina said.
The organization has launched the planning process to explore ways to “expand and renovate” the YMCA, which is next to the playing fields area on Saxony Road, Ecke YMCA Executive Director Susan Hight said in a Nov. 7 letter to the city.
While the work is still in the early design phase, the letter said the agency anticipates the renovation/expansion project could ultimately “impact one or more of the ballfields.”
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Corder said, “This means goodbye to the Ecke fields.”
UPDATE: It's much worse! The city had the option to renew for 10 years without a termination clause and gave it away without public discussion!
I used to work at that Y in the 70's. Back then it was the Guilford Witney YMCA. He kinda fell by the wayside to Magdalena, but hey, the Eckes were incredibly generous in donating all that property to the Y. I laugh when I hear they want to "renovate and expand" considering how tiny it was in the 70's and how large it is now. Just goest to show one thing. There is no such thing as full grown. Come to think of it, the sign over part of the Guilford Witney Y read: "A Place To Grow". And I thought they were talking about kids.
ReplyDeleteBoth Gaspar and Kranz acted surprised at the deal. Did they not know that Vina signed this contract with the additional wording? Something seems a little strange in the sequence of this thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is what the UT says. It does make me wonder if the Council knew anything about it.
ReplyDeletehttp://sandiegouniontribune.ca.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=2a1641005
I am 7:13 and I didn't click on Surprise that EU put on the header. It is the same article I'm talking about. Sorry about reporting on what was already posted.
ReplyDeleteJust another instance of the way our sneaky city manager operates. Before he gets done with Encinitas, we'll wish we had a council that could have sent him packing. He has no ties here, so why should he care. Wonder what else he has up his sleeve.
ReplyDeleteWhatever it is, 7:36: you obviously have no idea how the city works, the YMCA works, non-profits, Parks and Rec: need I go on?
DeleteIf you aren't a member of the Y, or have a son or daughter that plays Little League: then, really, comments about this subject tell readers much more about you and what you don't know, than any of your fantasies about the city manager.
Try and propagate.
3:58 Your comments add nothing to this conversation. Feel better now that you have shout off your mouth today? Apparently, you suffer from lack of attention or maybe it's you that has fantasies about the city manager. That must be it.
Delete3:58 Looks like your city council doesn't know how the city works, or how the Y works, or how a non-profit works, or how the Parks and Rec. works. Need I go on? Your question should be directed to Gaspar who pulled this item from the agenda at the last council meeting.
DeleteSurprise!
No, this item was NOT "pulled from the agenda," 5:06, which is the term used when an agenda item is pulled from the Consent Calendar to be discussed and voted upon, separately, rather than in all one fell swoop.
DeleteThis topic was brought up by a public speaker during oral communications, which are non agenda item comments by public speakers at the beginning of Council Meetings (or Commission meetings), after presentations. I believe Gus Vina made reply comments re the item, discussing the new contract rather extensively, without directly answering the question of why that phrase was added to the revised contract.
Apparently the City Manager was then given direction by a consensus of Council? I think it's worthy of a future agenda item, but the CM will be reporting back, and will be involved in the meetings at the Y re growth and development.
5:06 Not many who comment here know much about how the City, the Y, non profits or Parks and Rec work either but they will continue their uninformed negative comments anyway. Surprised? Not really.
DeleteWe already wish we had a City Council that would send him packing.
ReplyDeleteEvery day his serves as City Manager the worse off for Encinitas.
Uh-oh, "master planning." Anytime that or a similar term comes up, you know there's trouble ahead.
ReplyDeleteJust what does the YMCA have in mind as pertained to "growth"? Does that include commercial or residential development?
ReplyDeleteTrying to force us to use that contaminated Hall property park
ReplyDeleteSure be real interesting when these kids playing at this wonderful Hall property end up sick later in life. I don't believe all the contamination has been eradicated.
DeleteMy kids will not go near this park.
6:18- you mean like all the children that have come down with mesothelioma and leukemia from the asbestos and lead paint at Pacific View??
Delete9:46 The final results of what illness they will get has yet to be determined. It takes years.
Delete11:16- the school building is 50+ years old. Neither asbestos nor lead paint is bad for someone in the amounts received.
Delete9:46, lol, yeah, name one. I went through every grade there in the 60's. At least three of my teachers are alive and well too. Did have classmates ultimatley die from abusing drugs. I would have died a long time ago if PV served Tuna on Toast more than once a week. That crap was lethal. Once a week made some turn to drugs.
DeleteThink twice before letting your kid use hall park, or "hell park"as it is affectionately known due to toxic history.
Delete6:38 PM
DeleteSince so much of Encinitas was agricultural before recent development, I'd say there is a good chance that many homes are sitting on land that at one time or another was treated with pesticides. What kind and how much, if any, is unknown but 40+ years ago there wasn't the environmental sensitivity there is now.
As far as the Hall property, they know the type of pesticides used and their reaction in the soils. Under County Health guidelines, any suspected contaminated soil is buried deep enough to not be a threat above or to the water table below. Or is County Health in on the city incompetence?
What did they put the poison on? The flowers that ended up on your table. If that didn't hurt you, how could the park afer decades of being washed with rain water and baking the bright sun? It ain't nuclear waste. I'd damn sure be more concerend living next door to it when it was actively being sprayed.
ReplyDeleteThe toxic fumes from vehicles on the freeway that runs close to this park won't be all that great either.
ReplyDeleteSabine and Vina were supposedly given job reviews recently in a secret session. What ever became of that? "Excellent" again????
ReplyDelete9:25pm those long awaited performance reviews are still scheduled for January. The council moved up a closed session discussion last wed before the meeting in order to allow barth to have her last say in support of these xxxxxxxx characters we are stuck with. Her completely valueless last gasp for him is now history and we won't have to deal with her anymore, at long last. A final conclusion to the review will be forthcoming in January with the new make up and our council will then have the chance to finally listen to the publics clamoring for sending him on to greener pastures elsewhere. Lets hope they are listening.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Vina still around?
ReplyDeleteBarth and Vina can not leave Encinitas City Hall soon enough. By the end of another totally incompetent year under Vina, he will announce his retirement at this end of 2015, and retire when he hits his 55 birthday.
Fire him today. Every day he is at the helm of Encinitas, is a day in the wrong direction. After seeing the beginning of the housing element update, I can understand why Stockton is such disgusting and broke City. A town under Vina's leadership for years.
Gaspar can prove her weight in gold if she leads a coalition to rid us of Vina. Besides Barth, I can't understand why any Council member would support him.
He has provided horrible financial recommendations for the City.
City government has become a burden on the taxpayers. It provides enormous salaries and benefits beyond the norm for the comparable talent in the private sector. 6 figure pensions indebt the city to an ever increasing burden, where services and projects take a back seat funding priority. Now there is question whether civic bankruptcy can even force reorganization of these staggering debts. The public should be made aware of the current and projected pension obligations - then maybe they'd become more involved in the electoral process, realizing that these people in government cannot be trusted to make modifications to a self-enriching system.
ReplyDeleteHear hear.
DeleteDo you hear what I hear?
DeleteEncinitas will never declare bankruptcy. The Pension info is out there, has been out there and will continue to be out there. Most people don't care. This is a rich guy town now people, the millionaires who now own houses here aren't really concerned about this stuff...
DeleteThe amendment to the lease was noted in the December 2013 city council agenda report. Staff recommended passing.
ReplyDeletehttp://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=939&meta_id=35987
Did Vina highlight the 30-day termination change for council discussion in December and explain that the YMCA had other plans in mind, or did he sneak it through?
DeleteSome of the council members seemed surprised and dismayed last week.
EU - Based on 12:10's link (thank you), it's pretty clear there are only 2 things to discuss - the 10 year renewal, and the new termination provision. It's section C.1 and C.2. The memo then refers you to the actual amendment #2, and again it's pretty obvious. So are you saying that Vina has the ability to hide things in plain sight? That's how he "sneaks it through"? Look, I love a Vina bashing just as much as the next guy, but jeeze - the dude's just doing his job - the council should at least put the effort in to read what he gives them!!!
Delete- The Sculpin
Sculpin,
DeleteThe difference between what's important and what's boilerplate is not always obvious, especially when you have people of varying levels of education and experience responsible for making decisions involving large quantities of written material.
The termination clause is one short paragraph in a 15-page document, which is just one of several agenda items on a typical night.
If somebody doesn't highlight it for them, they're likely to see this as just a routine renewal.
EU - Totally agree with your latter comment. But I have to believe that at one point, some or all council members were renters, so they know what it means to extend a lease. If they understand that, then it should follow that they have a clue about a termination clause (hint: it's in the name). So then what happened?
Delete1) They never read it, therefore they're now surprised
2) They read it, didn't understand it, and were embarrassed to ask a question, and are now surprised,
3) They read it, thought they understood it, but are now surprised they didn't really understand it, or
4) They read it, didn't care one way or the other, it wasn't worth remembering anyway, and they're surprised anyone remembered!
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
I really hope Blakespear reads through this stuff - she's our only hope......
- The Sculpin
Vina already has Blakespear wrapped around his grubby, greasy weaselly fingers. Too late .
DeleteYou mean Blakespear has followed Shaffer and Barth per their instructions and allowed herself to be wrapped!
DeleteIt's part of Vina's job, and staff too, to highlight any important section of documents given to the council, if only to bring it to the attention of the council members. Even Shaffer, who claims to read everything, missed this one.
DeleteI would have thought that a change to a 30-day cancellation clause should have been discussed publicly. It will be now. Vina has a way of "going along" with influential players in the city because it helps him. It doesn't necessarily help the city or the public.
The whole brouhaha is another example of the public acting as a watchdog on the city.
So, after nearly a year it's highlighted that on December 18, 2013 council approved extending the Ecke Sport Fields lease with the YMCA for another 10 years as spelled out in the original contract. What everyone here are upset about is the additional "Termination for Convenience" clause added. Surely this highlights yet again city manager Vina's evil intent so let's review (repeating some of what has been pointed out above).
Delete1. Contract extension authorization was on consent. Although Donna Westbrook spoke that night about the Community Park (Hall property) contaminated soils. Shelia Cameron pulled item 8E off consent to discuss contractor selection. Neither the council or the public pull the contract extension off consent.
2. On page 2 of the staff report the "Termination for Convenience" clause addition is clearly identified under section C Agreement Renewal and Amendment, subsection 2 Amend Agreement - Add Termination for Convenience and then goes on to discuss it.
3. Council is expected to fully understand all agenda items whether or not they are on consent. If they have questions prior to the meeting they can always ask staff to explain. Whether or not all council members understood the ramification, if any, of adding that amendment, there was nothing discussed at the meeting as the item was approved as part of the consent approval.
4. Including "Termination for Convenience" clauses in leases has become a standard practice. Also, it doesn't always mean the lease will ultimately be terminated. It may mean that either party has the ability to renegotiate the lease terms if the situation changes. (People with more extensive property lease experience may want to weigh in here.)
5. Looking long term, the original lease provided for a 10 year extension but there is nothing guaranteed after that other then the two parties may want to continue the arrangement. So at best removing the amendment guarantees 10 years. Since the YMCA is in the early stages of developing a master plan, if they feel hamstrung by an inflexible lease, they may not want to renew it in 10 years.
6. The YMCA is a vital player in the Encinitas community and any expansion plans will depend on donations to build. I can't imagine them being insensitive to the role those fields play in the community. The whole reason for the community park is the need for more fields in Encinitas not just shifting them to another location especially when the new fields won't have lights installed anytime soon, if ever.
So I get that this has to fall on Vina as he is the answer to every problem here and his firing would magically solve just about every city problem, except those of the city attorney and council. But I don't see the problem here. Several of our self-appointed community watch dogs didn't have a problem with it at the meeting. Maybe they were overstretched.
"It's the YMCA's property; they can do with it what they want."
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised that the Ecke's gave the land without any intent on its usage.
Wasn't there a lot of discussion on this board about who truly owned the Pacific View site? Is there to be any discussion about who truly owns the Ecke Park sports fields?
Bottom feeder, you and the finally, at last, outgoing Teresa can continue your love fest with vina all you want. You are in denial as much as Teresa has been over the last couple of years about vina's manipulating tactics that we have seen so clearly and our council has been blind to. Come January, the new make up will have a chance to clean house and send this coastal weasel [Kudos to Andrew] packing on out of here. Will they? Not likely, but if they do, they would gain much public favor of the kind that cannot be bought anywhere for any amount. Hope springs eternal council. Please listen to us.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't read a word the Sculpin said. His point is on target. Council needs to do their job, and read the document. Maybe they don't care? Maybe they didn't read it, maybe they don't give a rats patoot about the Y. All are possible. It's a reach pinning this all on Vina, and an obvious go to.
DeleteShould and could he do a better job? Of course. Should he have pointed this out? Sure. Who's to say he didn't? The point as always is, you could probably dump Vina, but unless you really dip into the coffers to go after a Rick Cole type, you will probably end up with another middling beurocrat like Vina. Cotton was even worse on the intelligence scale, as was Kerry Miller.
You can continue your fantasy about replacing him, and it will be as good as your fantasy of Sheila and Julie winning....
-MGJ
Judging by the reaction of the council, it appears Vina didn't point this out to the council. Council members get $200 a meeting and work part time. Vina get a quarter of a million dollars a year and works full time. Plus the Parks & Rec Department is under his responsibility, employees work full time, and there is a big payroll. It's fair to hold someone accountable.
DeleteKerry Miller was hired with a history from South Lake Tahoe, and Gus Vina was hired with a history from Sacramento. The histories were ignored. Phil Cotton was an internal hire and a place holder. The responsibility clearly is with the council to hire a competent person who doesn't dazzle with fast talk during the interview. Actions always speak louder than words.
7:35 AM
DeleteSee 11/25 10:52 AM above but here is the condensed version:
[The] Contract extension authorization was on consent. ... Neither the council [n]or the public pull[ed] the contract extension off consent.
... On page 2 of the staff report the "Termination for Convenience" clause addition is clearly identified under section C Agreement Renewal and Amendment, subsection 2 Amend Agreement - Add Termination for Convenience and then goes on to discuss it.
[The] Council is expected to fully understand all agenda items whether or not they are on consent. If they have questions prior to the meeting they can always ask staff to explain. Whether or not all council members understood the ramification, if any, of adding that amendment, there was nothing discussed at the meeting as the item was approved as part of the consent approval. ...
I don't expect the council to remember everything they do so when the council appeared to be caught off guard that's understandable. But once the action is reviewed they should remember why they (in this case) acted as they did. If they are having second thoughts, fine, but don't act like this is all new. It was a 2 page report with the staff recommended actions, including the contract amendment, clearly highlighted.
And this goes to prove once again that the mayor is not too bright. She is trying to juggle too many things and the city will suffer because of it.
DeleteNote to Gaspar: Read the stuff the staff gives you BEFORE the meeting.
1:18 PM
DeleteYou do know that the issue last Wednesday was brought up in open communication. It wasn't on that night's agenda. It was on an agenda last December.
Oh sure, this isn't a biased message from the @Home folks:
ReplyDeleteUpdating Encinitas' Housing Plan
The conversation about future housing in Encinitas is picking up, and we're listening. Join the conversation ... visit e-Town Hall and tell us where YOU think we should plan for future housing in Encinitas!
Here are some comments we've heard so far:
• Mixed use opportunities are the best option
• We need a central location or key activity center for people to gather as a community
• New housing should emphasize walkability
Let the market decide. Not everyone can/should live at the beach. Someone has to live in Kettleman city, might as well be you.
Delete10:48 You haven't addressed the point.
DeleteEveryone has a bias, it's inherent. If you want to be heard, be heard.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know who the crazy lady is in Leucadia who drives a golf cart?
ReplyDeleteWhich one , there are several??
DeleteWhy is someone crazy because they drive a golf cart? Perhaps this is her only affordable means of transportation.
DeleteWhy do people who golf drive a golf cart? Are they crazy? They could walk and get exercise.
I'm asking because I have a friend who has had to kick this person out of a business repeatedly and eventually ban her altogether.
DeleteIt's an older woman with a doorless electric car. She comes in, bothers other customers and never buys anything.
Just thought someone here would recognize the profile so I can give my friend some information.
Sounds like one or more councilwomen we have.... Call the sheriff.
Delete2:52 It could be Gaspar all dressed up other than her Wonder Woman outfit, or it could be Teresa Barth since she will soon be out of a job, or it could be Shaffer wondering what it's like to ride in a golf cart.
DeleteTake your pick, but call the sheriff.
I know who that is: Charlie Marvin's ex wifey. She's already been 86'd from The Mailbox Station for threatening employees.
DeleteSend her to the Shelter for libations.
ReplyDelete7:35 AM
ReplyDeleteYou are right on. Vina should be pointing out differences in contracts.
On another contract/grant application on the Nov. 12, 2014 council agenda,
the council approved a resolution giving absolute power for three years to the Public Works director or his designee. Council is out of the picture. The public is out of the picture.
The council doesn't want responsibility.
This is the resolution -
RESOLUTION 2014- 63
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ENCINITAS
FOR DESIGNATION OF APPLICANT' S AGENT
WHEREAS, the City of Encinitas has applied for grant funding from the California Governor' s Office of Emergency Services,
WHEREAS, the California Governor' s Office of Emergency Service has selected the project for funding; and
WHEREAS, the California Governor' s Office of Emergency Service requires the City of Encinitas to appoint an authorized representative to enter into contract with the State;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Encinitas
1. THAT the Director of Public Works, or his designee is hereby authorized to execute for and on behalf of the City of Encinitas, a public entity established under the laws of the State of California, this application and to file it with the California Governor' s Office of Emergency Service for purpose of obtaining certain federal financial assistance under Public Law 93- 288 as amended by the Robert T Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988, and/ or state financial assistance under the California Disaster Assistance Act;
2 THAT the City of Encinitas, a public entity established under the laws of the State of California, hereby authorizes its agents to provide to the California Governor' s Office of Emergency Service for all matters pertaining to such state disaster assistance the assurances and agreements required.
3 THAT this is a universal resolution and is effective for all open and future
Disasters/ Grants up to three( 3) years following the date of approval below
PASSED AND ADOPTED this
12th day of November, 2014, by the following vote, to wit:
AYES. Barth , Gaspar, Kranz, Muir, Shaffer.
NAYS. None
ABSENT- None.