Friday, May 22, 2015

Encinitas wins Golden Fleece Award for Pacific View purchase

Seaside Courier:
The city of Encinitas walked away with the grand prize at a big awards ceremony produced Thursday night by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, but the three city leaders who deserve credit for the win were not present to accept the award.

That’s understandable: the prize was the Golden Fleece Award, which each year is presented by the SDCTA, the region’s leading taxpayer watchdog, to government programs, services or expenditures that it believes exemplify wasteful or inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.

This year, the grand prize went to the city of Encinitas, for its $10 million purchase last year of the abandoned Pacific View Elementary School site. The co-winner was the Encinitas Union School District, which sold the city the 2.8-acre parcel of land and its asbestos-riddled school building at more than twice the appraised value.

29 comments:

  1. Well we all knew Kranz was a winner from the minute he turned on prop A.

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  2. Seaside Courier, owned by Stocks confidant Alice Jacobson. TK Arnold, wannabe Carlsbad city councilman, former poodle haircut wearer and failed LA Times pop music critique. Moving along...

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    1. Shudder to think what you look like...

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    2. 7:49, then think about what I look like as you massage my back.

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  3. When Pacific View is making everyone proud in 10 years, no one will remember what the Seaside Courier was. And how soon that day will arrive.

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    1. In 10 years PV will be up for grabs for development and something tells me the kind of "sustainable" designs this city rubber stamps will do no one proud.

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    2. In ten years people will still be muttering "what should we do with this property?"

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    3. Now everyone, 6 million county residents can guffaw at Tony Kranz, Teresa Barth and Lisa Shaffer for being the absolte pinnacle of bone-headedness. Lucky Gus Vina, 'Geronimo!!!'

      Now, its not just the majority of tax payers in Encinitas that acknowledge Kranz being hoodwinked by EUSD's Superintendent after in the long run paying $25 million dollars for something guaranteed to lose money for the next 50 years: how do we know? Because there is no other example in the country currently, perhaps the world, that can serve as an example for the 'living' museum that Kranz and Shaffer and their 'Mentor' 'Mother' Teresa Barth of the Citizen's Academy, whom together have committed an incredible amount of future good dollars now to follow: so much so that they couldn't fund normal maintenance for the City this budget go-round and with Banjos plinking in the background, drooling Tony laughs that no one will ever forget his name: not because of the toxic sponge that P.V. is: but because of he and his (and allies) dense, ignorant hard-headed and inexplicable actions in spending $25 mil for a difficult property that was really valued at $3 mil, not $4 mil, not $10 mil certainly not $25 mil. If only there were a way to have Teresa to be stuck with the bill for this malfeasance? Along with the MIG tab.

      Tony, Time to hold onto Lisa's apron-strings again in 2016 as Lisa flies off without a broom, with you admiring her shoes as you fly off the city council dais and into a poor farm where you both will be forced into hard labor to pay off the $25 mil.

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    4. 12:26- The city won't even have plans drown up for PV in 10 years.....The streetscape in Leucadia has been on the drawing board for nearly 15 years, the city can't even plant some flowers, unless you count those that JP planted.

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    5. Streetscape is an expenditure - converting the zoning for developers to have their way will turn profits for the lucky developer and city coffers. There will be no hesitation in pursuing the "infill" developers so dearly love.

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    6. 8:49- Streetscape is fantasy.

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    7. Exactly my point, 10:41. Developers fighting their way onto PV when the time comes is not. Rather, it is a certainty.

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    8. 8:49 - Streetscape does not change zoning. Stop making shit up. "Infill" space is limited to the hotel & time shares in the 2000 block that was approved 20 years ago. No doubt developers droll for the few vacant small lots left on N 101 for 2 miles (like they do anywhere else in Encinitas), but infrastructure improvements has never discouraged them from building wherever and whenever they want.

      10:41 - as if you have an imagination.

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    9. 7:38 - I guess I did not make my point well. Streetscape is an expenditure that does not require a zoning change: true. 10 years from now when the zoning is up for grabs on PV - well, let's just say that your friends' "boutique hotel" plans will not be as grandfathered in as he/she hopes. Prop A my friend, Prop A.

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    10. "Zoning up for grabs in 10 years at PV" = wrong. "My friend with the boutique hotel" = wrong. But I kind of hope you're right about the grandfathered in part. The stale design that keeps getting renewed is pretty generic - even for the early 90's. If Leucadia ever gets a hotel there, it shouldn't look like everywhere else USA, but compliment the entrance. It could happen.

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    11. 5:15 - check yourself. The hotel dude's names is known.

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  4. The current allowed uses are for a Swapmeet until they clean up the building. Who ever heard of a $10 million or more correctly $20 million dollar Swapmeet? Typically Swapmeets take place on property like drive in theaters that are no longer viable. I have never heard of buying a coastal property for that use!

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    1. Well then you have a lot to learn about Encinitas ......

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    2. What about the lot just north of the La Paloma? It has been a flea market for years.

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    3. Did it cost $20 million dollars of taxpayers money??

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    4. Its NOT $10 mil, its $25 mil, for something guaranteed to lose money forever and something most residents don't even know about to this day.

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  5. Quite a few people supported the idea of acquiring Pacific View for 5 million or less and I have not met one person who supported paying 10 million. At least fix the eye sore rotten eave out front.... wait ... better yet fix the potholes on Vulcan that showed up since the rain.

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  6. Scott Chatfield thinks10 million is just fine. Go over to the Save Pacific View site and you will find many who think money grows on trees.

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    1. Many of those many are sorry they ever signed what turned out to be a horribly wrong-minded idea. Oh, and try asking him to remove your name now: not gonna happen.

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    2. 3:15, name one.

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  7. 3:15 - No one changes their mind after the sign a petition in Encinitas, silly.

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    1. If you're taking a shot at Prop A and you're a betting person, you'll want to bet that many more said "I got confused and scared and I trusted my council" than said "I got confused and really meant to hand over my voice and my town to the developers and the council whose campaigns they finance. Surely they know better than I do what's in my best interest." Silly.

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  8. 3:15 and 2:44- You both have valid points and that's what is scary. Over at the Save Pacific View website people will see how amazing the purchase was, how Scott and others, like Kranz, are sooooo happy, etc. I haven't tried to get my name off, as I never put it on in the first place. Someone who did, have you tried to take it off? The only reason this is important is because if the City uses the Save PV website, then whey will think they truly have the mandate of all of the people on that site. So, if you didn't want to pay 10 million, ask Chatfield to take you off the list. It wold be investing to see if he would and second how many names would be left?

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    1. And whether the City and Tony especially would support finding out how many really support it. They're all about transparency, right? Riiiight.

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