Wednesday, July 8, 2015

7/8/15 City Council meeting open thread

The current city council has continued prior councils' practice of not providing written summary minutes of council discussion, but only "action minutes" which state the outcomes. Encinitas Undercover will provide a forum for observers to record what occurs at each council meeting.

Please use the comments to record your observations.

18 comments:

  1. Looks like the Code Enforcement Department is still not doing its job. The two women who spoke during Oral Communications made a good point that issues like overtaxed septic tanks are a health hazard for neighbors.

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  2. Catherine Blakespear was the only council person to vote in favor with the public speakers, who all asked that for an appeal on Saxony, the road should not have to be widened, for one home on the block, by two feet, because that would not enhance driving safety, but could create a hazard with a dangerous S curve.

    Muir's knee jerk reaction seems to be to go along with whatever the Fire Marshall asks for, whether or not it is in accordance with State fire code, or exceeds those requirements. State code only requires 20 ft. on Saxony, not 24 ft.

    I also was glad CB pushed not selling the old Fire House property on McKinnon. Sorry if that's spelled wrong.

    The city doesn't need to sell off its real estate assets, and shouldn't. She made a good point. Tony and Lisa were weak on this issue, but ended up going along with the plan to allow the air ambulance folks to lease the property while the city tries to push through a residential rezoning, with the intention to sell at a higher price. I agree with Catherine, selling is a mistake. And Lisa Shaffer was so amped for another closed session. She didn't want to do real estate negotiations in public. Glad she has promised not to run again, more than once. She doesn't stand for transparency. None of Council seem to appreciate the Brown Act, but publicly complain about being constrained by it.

    I didn't get why Council, seemingly with the exception of CB, is so gung ho on taking public/semi-public property out of the public domain. That's the same thing Tim Baird did with PV, but he made sure to get top dollar. The old fire station should stay public property, and will have to, without a public vote. I'll be voting no on that, too.

    Tony's councilmember initiated item wasn't really a big success. Staff looked bad, and I was glad Tony called them on that. But he didn't follow through with what he first brought up.

    We before had, for $1.1 Million plus a draft General Plan Update. What failed on that was the Housing Element, which underwent a "restart." But previous council, including KG, specifically said that the whole GP update wouldn't be thrown out. In other words, as Tony said, we should already have a draft circulation element update, put together and presented by MIG, the former contractor, whose services were terminated.

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    1. Baird didn't take PV out of the public domain, but had promised to help potential developers get through the City's rezoning process. When the City purchased PV, the rezoning issue became moot, for at least 10 years, at which time Barth et al negotiated a deal whereby PV could be sold by the City, with an option to EUSD to possibly buy it back.

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    2. EUSD certainly tried to get a zoning change to residential in the years preceding the purchase of the property by the city. Jerome Stocks failed to get enough votes on the council to do it. Baird wanted the zoning change, R-15 was talked about, to increase the value of the property. Stocks made his famous comment of not negotiating with the school district with a gun to their head. EUSD had sued the city. The Public/Semi-Public zoning was too limiting. Now there is Prop. A, which will require a public vote for a zoning change to residential.

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  3. The City needs to sell its excess property to pay for all the debt incurred on the huge Sports Complex, Fire Station building scam, $3 million dollar life guard tower, and the $10 million dollar purchase of land for a $4 million dollar piece of property.

    This existing City Council is clueless and bad for the future of Encinitas. They are all about increase DEBT, public spending, and more tax review to pay for the bigger government - meaning higher density. I am directly opposed to that philosophy. Dump all incumbents next election.

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  4. review = revenue. typing is behind this morning. Sorry for the typos.

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  5. What's the argument to keep this property long term?

    There is no identified public use or service need addressed by the property. The city should bundle the rezoning of this parcel into the 2016 housing element vote, which will probably pass. Then they can sell the property for more money than is possible under current zoning.

    Remember, we bought new land for the new fire station. Selling the old station parcel isn't a net reduction in city real estate assets. It's part of a land swap from the old fire station to the new one. It makes no sense for the city to own land it doesn't need.

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    1. The argument to keep it is that it should remain in the public domain, just as PV should, despite it's overly high purchase price.

      Public assets should not be privatized to pay for excessive contractor fees, excessive pensions, and too often lax public employees.

      New City Manager, a resident of Olivenhain, doesn't need a $500 per month car allowance and $100 per month cell phone allowance. Council cannot seem to "hold the line" on salary and benefits for executive officers, the City Manager and his/her cabinet.

      Cabinet members should go back to being simply heads of departments, or directors.

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  6. Vote no for all incumbents. They are useless, hopeless, uneducated and inexperienced. I had to laugh when Muir stated he had to go with the Fire Department. Does 2 feet really matter when the rest of Saxony is different. I think not. Muir----big pension hog. Here piggy, piggy.

    If any of them had half a mind, they should watch the state legislature channel and get updated on many things. You don't have to take a trip to Sacramento to figure out what is going on in this state.

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  7. Muir has got to be one of the worst council people ever- he is a dolt!
    All he does is ruin a council chair...

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    1. 4:03 Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a chair this is!

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  8. If you have not read next weeks CIty Council agenda, especially regarding Pacific View, may I suggest you do so. Since the City only has 10 years to keep it zoned the way it is, it may take that long to actually get anything done. And the things that they are proposing, including swap meets, are not what many of us had in mind, or that is my impression from this blog. Frankly I am getting very very tired of Kranz and Shaffer. Hopefully they won't run again, or if they do, they won't get reelected. Say what you will about Muir and Gaspar, but to me they are not spending every cent this City has on things we cannot afford. I remember Barth saying the 10 year zoning was put in so that future Council's could revisit it. I call B.S. om that. The way the PV Activation plan, as it is called, is going to take at least 5 years to even get off the ground. And, as I have said on many an occasion, the City is trying, in every way that they can think of, to do an end run around Prop. A. We need to keep a close watch on this. It must be nice to spend our taxpayer money when it isn't their own money. I don't know about any of you, but I, for one, am getting pretty tired of these projects when our streets are in disrepair, our downtown is beginning to look and feel like Pacific Beach, and Kranz and company keep wanting to spend. I say let him go to work for Leichtag. They are already violating Prop. A and yet no one is calling them out on it. And anyone who does, is an obstructionist.

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    1. 6:43 Say what you will about Gaspar and Muir. Both have not been able to stop the spending (even though they vote NO), but the money is still going to be spent. The two are useless, and they should just stay home for all the good they don't do.

      This is their way of playing politics so they can get reelected or Gaspar can move on to bigger and better things (hopefully, far, far away). Maybe she'll enjoy the I-5 traffic commuting back and forth to San Diego if she thinks she can get a job with the county.

      As a mayor, dump the BIOTCH.

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  9. Dump them all. Except CB

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    1. Blakespear is all over the map so far. She says one thing, asks questions, makes comments and BAM votes the other way.

      Brainless indeed.

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    2. Go by her votes not by her PR. Last meeting was enough to convince me that she is for developers and may potentially become a developer herself. None of the council majority have voted any differently than Jerome Stocks would have on issues of community character.

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    3. Bad $ign - Blake$pear is just another $pecial intere$t plant.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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