Wednesday, December 21, 2016

CalPERS to charge cities much more; still not enough to cover pension obligations

... starting in 2018 and then phasing in over 8 years, at which point they'll still be extremely underfunded.

Sacramento Bee:
The cost of that government pension is about to go up again, for California taxpayers as well as some public employees.

CalPERS moved to slash its official investment forecast Tuesday, a dramatic step that will translate into billions of dollars in higher annual pension contributions from the state, local governments and school districts.

[...]

CalPERS’ Finance and Administration Committee voted 6-1 to lower the forecast from 7.5 percent to 7 percent in phases over three years, starting next July.

[...]

The move is a recognition that investment returns are falling and that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which is just 68 percent funded, needs higher contributions from government agencies to solve its long-term problems.

“We’re in a low-growth (investment) environment, and it’s expected to remain that way the next five to 10 years,” board member Henry Jones said.

CalPERS adviser Wilshire Consulting has predicted the fund will likely earn just 6.2 percent a year over the next decade, and critics such as Dan Pellissier of California Pension Reform said Tuesday’s move doesn’t go far enough.

Board members, however, defended the action as a compromise; it will help stabilize the fund while giving municipalities and other government agencies some breathing room before they absorb the impact. Richard Costigan, chairman of the finance committee, said CalPERS officials will continue to look at the fund’s investment strategies over the next year.

“This is just a start,” Costigan said.

The state will start to absorb the impact of higher rates with the start of the new fiscal year next July. Municipalities and school districts won’t start feeling the effect until a year later. All told, the higher contribution rates will be phased in over eight years.
The average Encinitas career retiree (30+ years of service) gets $98,700 per year for life, more than the median household income, and retires many years earlier than private sector workers (source: Transparent California).

76 comments:

  1. The chickens will be coming home to roost. First SANDAG in a state of shock for bad forecasting and now lacking money after the failure of the half-cent sales tax increase. Second CalPERS for also bad forecasting and mismanaging investments. Taxpayers will pick up the bill for bad decisions.

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  2. The point isn't "bad forecasting and mismanaging investments by CalPERS".....its Unions(California Public Employees, Firefighters, etc) and City governments allowing this to occur thru generous pay, pensions, etc.

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    Replies
    1. And no reform in sight...

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    2. I guess Muir will have to get by at Keno's...

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  3. I see doom. The stock market is the highest it has ever been.... what happens when market readjusts?

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    Replies
    1. 26x multiple is pretty expensive, but far from the highest it's ever been. The DJIA and SPY levels are not measures of overvalue or under value. It's possible to be at all time highs and still be undervalued.

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    2. I still say put some cash aside to scoop up some deals should the bottom drop out.

      - The Sculpin

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    3. Cash? Who needs cash when you've got home equity loans?

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    4. As a private sector pensioner, I wonder about the $97,800 number for a 30 year public sector employee. That written, I believe that it is first appropriate to say - thank you for your steady and reliable employment. I worked within a rule of 90 environment in the private sector - which is age + years of service must equal 90 to retire with full benefits. The money part of full benefits was based on the average salary of the last 5 years of employment. For health care, the burden is largely on the employee. So, I wonder - is the $97,800 number for Encinitas retirees inclusive of health care or other benefits or is it cash money? If it is the monthly check - then, wow - yes, the ~$100k is lucrative. I would expect the monthly to be 60-70% of the last five years average.

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    5. Most Encinitas retirees don't get health care benefits. I assume they're on Medicare and perhaps something like COBRA or some other state plan when they retire so much younger than Medicare age.

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    6. The city pays the health benefits separately. The pension check has been based on the amount earned the last year, calculated at 2.7% per year of employment. This amount is often spiked with overtime and unpaid vacation time the last year. There was a bit of "pension reform" done a few years ago, but it only applies to new employees.

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    7. 6:45,

      You sure about that? I thought the city terminated the retiree health plan a long time ago.

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  4. two America's under the Uni-party rule.

    Obama/Bush/Clinton conspired with Unions, the Chamber of Commerce (Tom Donohue) and the lobbyists and K Street cronies to benefit an elite few at the expense of the public.

    California schools stink- Unions get paid
    California roads stick- Illegal Immigrants get free drivers licenses and are automatically "registered to vote".

    Taxes are heaped on the backs of citizens to pay for crony capitalism and to fund government employees like Vina, Rudloff and the others.

    Drain the swamp.

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    1. 11:37 You failed the literacy test.

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    2. 11:37 understood the fake news that he wanted to believe.

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    3. I think 11:37 has valid points. The only thing he fails to see is this new administration will be more of the same, perhaps worse!

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  5. http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/opinion/sandags-botched-projections-might-have-been-a-mistake-but-not-disclosing-it-is-a-scandal/?utm_source=Voice+of+San+Diego+Master+List&utm_campaign=d44b7040ce-Morning_Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2357fd0a3-d44b7040ce-81844849&goal=0_c2357fd0a3-d44b7040ce-81844849

    SANDAG's mistaken calculations make its RHNA figures for Encinitas questionable at best. Population growth projected by SANDAG is likely grossly exaggerated.

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  6. It's more than likely. When SANDAG presented its numbers to the City Council at the request of residents, it admitted its projections were inflated. The worst part? SANDAG reps completely unfazed by this and the fact that it was driving higher than necessary RHNA numbers. Pretty much a wink and nod to developers....

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    1. Who did more for Encinitas as a SANDAG representative; Jerome Stocks or Lisa Shaffer?

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  7. Who did less?

    $ssss$ used it as a social club and it was always for his own personal benefit.

    Liar Lisa? No telling what she got out of it.

    Neither of them promoted the most crucial thing this community needed for them to address.

    Lower the tracks and give this community easy legal access and egress to the coast. Stop ticketing all citizens crossing, until we get them lowered or, at the least give us a dozen at grade rail crossings for the price of one of the gawdawful undercrossings' that serve only a limited portion of the citizens.

    I talked to the SANDAG rep at a council meeting and proposed the same, to which he said we don't any money for that. I replied with, how about moving some of the 5 expansion to coast if you really want to do something productive for Encinitas? A shrug was all I got.

    Dave Roberts last summer also said, without our council coming forward and asking for help in lowering the tracks, the supervisors can't do a thing for us. Will the princess be any different? I wouldn't hold my breath, but I can always hope to be pleasantly surprised if she does anything specifically for this untenable dividing situatiion we are living with.

    The lack of will from our council over the years and decades is only too obvious.

    While they give the bar patrons permission to trespass on the railroad right of way and park their cars, those crossing are liable for a $900 citation.

    Don't build any more undercrossings and give us lowered tracks and/or multiple at grade crossings. Tunneling under will only serve to never have the tracks be lowered.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

    Lets hope we get better from our elected reps and that they will listen to the citizens instead of abrogating their duties to the sell out planning dept. More need to be fired Mr Chase, the new acting planning director. Step up and you will have this community support behind you.

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    1. Nobody on the past or present councils has the political courage to advocate for lowering the tracks through Encinitas.

      Nobody in North Coast government has the balls to confront SANDAG and to convince the voting members that lowering the tracks and increasing the freight and passenger rail traffic would benefit the whole county.

      Nobody has the long-term vision. Having that is called leadership. It's shamefully absent.

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    2. Lowering the tracks from Encinitas Blvd. south to Manchester is a lot more difficult than trenching the tree-less dirt patch between LaCosta and Encintias Blvd.. Would it be possible for SANDAG to consider trenching in two parts? For once, giving priority to Leucadia? The Northern section is an "easier" project and since The City wants to "build out" Leucadia, it would be an appropriate placement of funds / lobbying - whatever is needed to get the State or Feds to pay the bill...

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    3. The only stretch that's more of an engineering problem than what was done through Solana Beach in 1995 is from E Street to the north side of Encinitas Blvd.

      And that's a cakewalk compared to this:

      http://www.acta.org/projects/projects_completed_alameda_factsheet.asp

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  8. San Bernardino went bankrupt and is giving creditors a penny on the dollar for debts owed. The only thing that couldn't be slashed??? Pensions! When Encinitas BK's, Muir et al will be the only ones cashing out of the dwindling coffers.

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  9. @6:15 - Yes, trenching south from Encinitas Blvd. is a very big challenge. I know that burying tracks has been a joke on this blog but burying the line from Encinitas Blvd to just south of Manchester could be a wonderful solution.
    Wuppertal, Germany (home to Bayer) is undertaking such a project to remove the tracks from the downtown / topside.

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  10. A simple trench through Leucadia makes sense.

    Then from Encinitas Blvd, they could shift the rails under Vulcan/San Elijo via trench and cover. The current right of way could become a park.

    Very expensive. Probably will never happen, but fun to talk about.

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  11. @7:16 - right-on brother.. that is the way forward! This place is worth it!

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    1. Liberal estimate per a 2000 study commissioned by the city: $200 million adjusted for inflation. Lagoon to lagoon, under the four current grade crossings and Encinitas Blvd., many ped/bike ramps across the trench.

      The money comes by reallocating the $5.67 billion and $820 million SANDAG will spend by 2040 on the North Coast freeway and rail corridor, respectively.

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  12. Lower the tracks?? Git 'er done.

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  13. It has to be repeated, that the lack of will of our elected reps to pursue this issue, is only too telling.

    Where have Tony and Lisa been?

    Where will Tony and Catherine stand?

    Early indications are not hopeful.

    Will the princess come forward with a plan to lower the tracks ? She, better than any of the other supervisors, know this issue needs to addressed.

    Fixing this alone will alleviate so many other problems, that the cost would negate much, if any, difference.


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    1. No council member has had the balls to buck SANDAG. That org wants roads, not rails. Kranz plays Mr. Macho, but it's posture, not action.
      Shaffer just joined the club. Only Blakespear has shown the grit to oppose the standing order. She went to Sacramento to speak out against density bonus.

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  14. If the promoters of streetscam, Streetscape, had any legitimacy, they would be on board to do as much as possible to pursue lowering the tracks.

    That they have been completely absent from this, is telling. Their intent is to serve their own private interests.

    If these promoters of streetscape had any legitimacy, they would be on the community's side and going for a lowering of the tracks. The opening of so many advantages to our community, would be to their ultimate advantage.

    Their lack of vision is astounding. Look for traffic to seriously worsen if this disaster in the making is allowed to happen.

    This plan should be put to a public vote. It has gone through so many revisions that the original intent has been lost.

    If the public was aware of what it has morphed into, and even that is hard to tell at any one time, it would not stand a chance.

    We deserve to have a say with whatever final version these few promoters and profit seekers are laying upon the rest of us.

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    1. Who exactly are you speaking for?

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    2. Many of us that support the streetscape understand the importance of lowering the tracks.
      Your diatribe against streetscape is old news, move on. Your arguments are stale and worn out. But to make you feel comfortable....keep it crappy!!

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  15. You wish we would let you and Carris and William and your handful of supporters would let it go, crappy pappy, Charlie boy/man child.

    We are in the middle of the public comment period for whatever iteration this plan is in at the present time.

    12:43pm, I am speaking up for the vast majority of this community who can see what this disastrous plan will bring down upon us all. Who do you think you represent? The majority of businesses on the 101 do not support the streetscape plan. There are a vocal few who appear to be speaking for this community and do not. An honest poll of residents west of the coast highway and business owners on the 101 would be their undoing, just as would a vote on whatever the current plan actually is.

    Old news? Hardly.


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    1. Pro Tip:

      People with an opinion who claim to speak for the "vast majority" are usually wrong.

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    2. If the supporters of the Streetscape plan the draft EIR describes think they represent the will of the majority who live, own property or have a business west of the freeway and between Encinitas Blvd and La Costa Ave, let them prove it by commissioning a professional survey of the people in that geography to find out if they're for or against the plan.

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    3. 7:59- your arguments are as old a stale as your sun dried over baked skin...the facts are these, 1- the streetscape will never be built, the city won't spend the money. There are far more important projects the city has such as buy a old school full of asbestos and lead paint and then renting it out for $1.00 per year. (That's a proven money winner...not. How long before those people have their hand out for a city subsidy??)

      2- the tracks will never be lowered because there are not now, never has been nor will be council members with the ability to see beyond the
      next election and getting that so important firefighters endorsement. Cause it's all about getting re-elected.

      I will be long dead when this city gets around to do either of those projects and I'm much younger and healthier than you.

      Your opposition to streetscape has long been known but your failure to plant so much as 1 flower along the 101 is much better known. Weeds and dirt, weeds and dirt. Your mantra.
      Yeah yeah we get it......
      KEEP IT CRAPPY!!

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    4. Not to mention the city is legally bankrupt, owing nearly $100 million to Calpers...

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    5. "legally bankrupt"

      Wow. EU buried this headline.

      Please provide a link to the court records for. . .

      Naw. Can't even pretend. We need drone strikes for people who use "literally" and "legally" to mean anything but.

      Delete
  16. OMG... Marr's rantings are back. Should we expect Crazy Cameron to join in?

    Of Course. Here comes the wild eyed comments...

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    1. 7:02am Character assasination as a way fo suppressing free speech, what a small-minded little man you are.

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    2. No. Suppressing free speech is when you call people names, then privately petition WCV to delete posts of others, claiming to be too fragile to read criticism of yourself.

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  17. 7:02 is slimy Mikey crawling out of his burrow again to share his blinders on perspective. His limited cognitive mental condition seems to only be able to focus on a citizen who is out of the game.

    What he expects to gain by continually resurrecting a citizen who has put her time in, is beyond comprehension.

    He only wishes he had a semblance of the respect she has earned through selflessly giving back to our community.

    As for Mikey, he takes and takes. Giving to him, doesn't enter the picture.

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    1. "He only wishes he had a semblance of the respect she has earned through selflessly giving back to our community."

      If I ever reach the point where I write drivel like this about myself in the third person, please shoot me.

      Please.

      Just end it quickly.

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  18. 4:41 and 4:46- Are you effing kidding me? With all of the bullshit that is really going down in our community, our county, our State, and our Federal government, we should be worried about this? Have another toke.

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    1. 4:41 and 4:46 _ thank you for the loving Christmas posting. It would not be a holiday without you. And this year with Christmas and Hanukkah on the same day, your love is extra special. All understand that your bile and hate are just a front for such a cute loving baby boy.. soooo cute!

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    2. 10:10,

      Happy Holidays.

      Happy Pagan Winter Solstice Holidays that were jealously co-opted by Christianity in a vain competition for gullible followers.

      If you'd like to disagree, please point us to the chapter and verse of the Bible that establishes the date for the birth of the Christ.

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    3. The Wall Street Journal had a good article on this very topic written by Gerry Bowler in the Review section. It's in the Saturday/Sunday 24th/25th edition.

      - The Sculpin

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    4. "greenery, gift-giving, drunkenness, dancing, cross-dressing and nighttime disorder"

      Christmas hasn't changed a bit at my house!

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  19. Shheeez.... someone has some serious religious issues.

    Why all the hate? Is your house in order?

    on another note, the comments from Rambling Marr and Crazy Cameron are to be expected. There will always be the small percentage of the pollution that just don't get it and try like hell to get the other 95% with common sense to see things there way.

    Watch there use of the words, "We" and "all" when it should be "I". Too funny. Those two wackos crack me up.

    I wish Cameron would have run for Council. That would have made the elections so much more entertaining.

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    1. She did in 2012.

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    2. Cameron ran in 2014.

      When 7:01 fails the literacy test, he fails the credibility test. His brain needs to improve.

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  20. Go at it grammar grandma. I gave you some good stuff to work with this morning. My siri skills need to improve.

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  21. 8:01 how do you know it's a woman, or is it just easier for you to act like a sexist idiot?

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  22. Jewish Supremacists double down on hatred, intolerance and racism....and people ask why the entire world despises them and it's no wonder they seek to destroy free speech in order to suppress any criticism of their endless lies, deceit and subversion.
    http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/358415/israel-doubles-down-on-east-jerusalem-settlements-after-un-vote/?utm_content=sisterhood_Newsletter_BreakingNews_Position-2&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sisterhood%20Redesign%202016-12-27&utm_term=Sisterhood

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  23. 5:14pm is Thomas Roger Ogden relentlessly spreading his hate. Why has he chosen EU to deposit his pollution?

    Any notice is good notice, apparently. Go away Roger. Stay away Roger.

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  24. Guess again. Wrong again, as is usual. Not Sheila, not Lynn, not Julie. The obsessiveness of constantly bringing their names up, says more about you than them.

    Leave them be. Leave them out of the conversation. They rarely, if ever post here anymore these days.

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    1. So true, this woman is literally obsessed with defaming Sheila,Lynn and Julie. She must be one bitter broad!

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    2. Mikey had a sex change?

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  25. Yeah right. We know the twisted mind and many discussions about "we" in the strange mind of those two twisted sisters.

    Watch. The Marr rants and crazy chatter will continue about senseless claims about streetscape from a pair of uneducated old bitties that don't have anything else to focus on in their dwindling years of their life. Shame.

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    1. Mikey, why not take a long walk off the Oceanside pier? The water is refreshing this time of year.

      You'd be missed only by Stocks, Gaspar, and Meyer.

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    2. Many people use the so-called "royal we." They could be speaking of themselves and other family members who hold the same or similar opinions.

      Who is anyone, who relishes giving anonymous digs, to call others out by name in a derogatory manner?

      Mike Andreen was part of Encinitas Chamber of Commerce when he did a survey of businesses along 101. The majority polled did not favor what was Plan 4A, five roundabouts, four of them one lane roundabouts, through Leucadia on Historic State Highway 101. This information was officially published in Encinitas 1st, the newspaper, with MA as editor, published through the Chamber of Commerce.

      In addition, thousands of locals signed petitions against having multiple one-lane roudabouts in a row. The planned configuration would result in bicyclists being forced to circumnavigate through one lane roundabouts with one lane northbound traffic, one lane southbound, as well as traffic entering from side streets. They would lose their cushy eight-foot wide bike lane north of Leucadia Blvd. No room with roundabouts.

      Bicyclists and motorists' sight lines would also be degraded by the back-in angled parking. There would be net loss of parking due to loss of dirt parking along the tracks. Any paved parking would have to be paid for through the City's leasing and maintaining the land through NCTD; undoubtedly, it would have to be paid parking, as opposed to free dirt parking.

      A few bullies are trying to force their way through their business, development, real-estate connections, on Council.

      This conversation is off the topic of CalPERS, but what is relevant is that SANDAG and CalPERS are attempting to usher through changes, which run contrary to what most people want. According to petitions, polls and a City sponsored survey in October of 2008, most people questioned, when informed about five or six roundabouts, are firmly against the plan. They, we, I, do favor more amenities for N101, including watered landscaping and preserving what's left of the canopy.

      PS: 8:41 on Dec 26, what a Grinch you are, and far worse. When you say, "Please shoot me," be careful what you ask for, jerk. That wasn't Marr or Cameron, as others have pointed out. And who are you, coward, to attack them by name, when you are so afraid to reveal your own? But we already know your identity, your cowardliness, and your mean spirited ways of attempting to circumnavigate the truth.

      Delete
    3. 8:41 here.

      I have not written anyone's name. I didn't have to.

      Delete
  26. Its my nice made up word for old hag. I'm trying to be nice.

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  27. 8:41, you are dead wrong: Here's what you FALSELY wrote, and you know very well whom you had applied it to:

    ""He only wishes he had a semblance of the respect she has earned through selflessly giving back to our community.""

    If I ever reach the point where I write drivel like this about myself in the third person, please shoot me.

    Please.

    Just end it quickly."

    No one was writing that about herself. In fact, that comment was authored by a male. So don't be so quick to wish demise upon yourself, jerk.

    You, or whoever is writing about "old hags" is ageist and sexist. But you revel in that, don't you? Your attempts to contradict the facts by ad hominem attacks and bogus innuendo will never work.

    adjective: ad hominem
    1. (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.
    "vicious ad hominem attacks"

    You're vicious, alright, and a lying bully.

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  28. -- Oh whatever. Old bittie or old biddy. In the end they are still just uneducated old hags. They repeat themselves until agnosia and think they speak for more than themselves. Ha.

    - Longtime Leucadian

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  29. taxpayersd Dec. 29, 2016 @ 10:30 p.m.

    On January 5, 2017 the Planning Commission will be asked to approve another satellite brewery, Culture Brewing Beer Tasting Room out of Solana Beach. The planning staff recommends approval with this justification - "The proposed project, as conditioned, will enhance the Coast Highway 101 commercial corridor by providing a unique community-serving, tourist-related use in Downtown Encinitas. The project will maintain and enhance the existing pedestrian oriented-environment and economic viability of the downtown. The proposed use (beer tasting room) and façade improvements will provide a ground floor use that will contribute positively to the desired pedestrian-oriented environment along South Coast Highway 101." The new façade includes a roll up door and open air design.
    Mayor Blakespear promised to preserve paradise, and what better way than more bars.

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  30. Another alchohal serving establishment?

    Come on Encinitas City Council- the downtown seen is already packed with bars. This only make Encinitas that much more like PB and Huntington Beach.

    Remember Council- We the citizens want to prevent that and keep the home town family feel. Approve something good for the community.

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