Former city officials are questioning the roles of Mayor Catherine Blakespear and other members of the Encinitas City Council after the city awarded a local cycling advocate an $11 million claim settlement following a bicycle accident in Leucadia in 2018.
After suffering catastrophic injuries, Roberta Walker — well known to Blakespear and Councilmembers Tony Kranz and Kellie Shay Hinze years before they took office — received the largest claim settlement in the city’s municipal history, according to Jace Schwarm, the city’s risk department manager.
Blakespear, Kranz and the late Jody Hubbard voted 3-0 in favor of the settlement, according to the city clerk.
Hinze, a close personal friend of Walker, was the only council member to recuse herself from any meetings, votes and discussions on the matter citing a “common law conflict.”
But critics suggest the eight-figure settlement was an example of blatant cronyism, a violation of their oaths of office and possibly an illegal gift of public funds.
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Coast News questions $11 million payout to council crony
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Yes, illegal gift of public funds...that is exactly what happened.
ReplyDeleteNice to have friends in positions of authority. No wonder the Sheriff refused to release the accident report - this person was largely responsible for her own accident.
DeleteRecall Blakespear.
What's up with Hinze and the weird horsey helmet?
ReplyDeleteSeriously though agree illegal gift of public funds. This council doesn't spend taxpayer money, it hemorrhages it.
There are no core values present, nor is there consistency in Blakespear's positions. When she ran the first time in 2014, she was opposed to Prop 46, which would have increased a patient's ability to sue a medical practitioner for more than the cap of $250,000 for malpractice. There would also be a provision for drug testing in certain cases. Her position was based on her claim that her husband, as a physician’s assistant, would not improve his performance by having larger potential payouts hanging over his head when he got sued for malpractice. Yet where her friend is involved, she is OK spending our money to the tune of $11,000,000. While parents of school-aged kids are asked to write checks or send our kids out to hawk giftwrap to fund school programs, her family has found a way to extract money out of the Cardiff School District with a claim of entitlement that her grandfather built the school. We need leadership that represents taxpayers and not a person who makes situational decisions based on how it will benefit herself and her inner circle.
ReplyDeletePffff.
ReplyDeleteAccording to court documents and reports from close friends, Walker suffered multiple injuries — traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, spinal and facial fractures, nine broken ribs, a broken clavicle and sacrum, subdural hematoma and impaired mobility and cognition — and was placed into a medically-induced coma.
I'd say we were lucky.... I would guess Roberta would pay $15 million for that day to never have happened had the City installed bike lanes like they should have years ago. Hence two women would not have been mowed down. More to come.
Waite for the Dr. Jennings Worley payout. Pure negligence. I'm predicting $20 million https://thecoastnews.com/cyclists-death-inspires-bike-safety-advocates-in-encinitas/
And then there is Stephanie Berger-McKenna - https://thecoastnews.com/deputies-investigate-hit-and-run-that-left-woman-fighting-for-her-life/
When will the City quit building forts for the lifeguards and cops on the beach, and get to fixing the deadly roads?
Nobody is denying the severity of the injuries that Walker sustained, but what I remember was Walker advocating for the sharrow lanes prior to her accident. The position taken after the accident was that she was "confused" by the sharrow lanes that she advocated for and helped to pass. Therefore, citizens are asking why citizens should be on the hook for these injuries—even more so when the documents are sealed and Blakespear made a public display to support her friend.
DeleteThe "mowed down" moron is back at 7:28 posting the same stupidity as countless times before.
Deleteaka "MCubed"
Delete7:28 - yes, tragic injuries from driving a bike into traffic on a state highway. Sad but not something that taxpayers should be involved with - that is, $11 MUSD is a ridiculous give-away by the City.
DeleteHere is the next batch of payouts after Stephanie and Dr. Worley's death.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/556935515245051/
This bad design was spearheaded by none other than BIAspear.
Where can I get my BOOPO stickers?
I heard my friends on OC where asking the same question. They heard about the terrible judgement of BIAspear.
Hey, I have an idea. 7:35, YOU print up the BOOPO stickers and we can get them from you. I'll take two, please.
DeleteLet's not forget who the Coast News was backing pre-election.. those political advertising dollars were irresistible!
ReplyDeleteCoast News put their full weight and trust in the mayor's little foot soldier Caitlin maneuvering behind the scenes. The advertising dollars were one thing, her influence with the paper's management was weird.
DeleteWasn't the payout to Walker by an insurance carrier, or was it from the general fund?
ReplyDeleteObviously by our insurance carrier. But what happens to your premiums when you have accidents, 12:18? The guy who was killed thanks to Blakespear's Leucadia Blvd. improvements will make Walker's $11M look like chump change.
DeleteThese payouts don't come free to the taxpayer.
ya, sure, but if the city is known to be gifting dollars to insiders, that is going to cost a tad more.
DeleteTHe city, with these minor league, tool time hacks in leadership roles, is going to be pegged as a high-risk, dum-dum municipality...
Encinitas needs a recall movement - Blakespear doesn't deserve to be elected to higher office and Kranz is another Dalager.
ReplyDeleteKranz is definitely another Dalager! He met with a Desert Rose neighbor proior to council meetings and invited the neighbor to BUY the Desert Rose property! How convenient for Kranz to broker a deal so that council would not have to make a decision, and the unpaid contractors and years of unpaid property tax bills that the actual property owner did not know about could be paid by Desert Rose neighbors! That would have been a great solution the developers' problems, and the council would not have to be embarrassed. Tony told several residents before hearing the matter that he was voting with the developers since one of the developers had been his son's football coach. That is the level of professionalism and higher level thinking we can count on from Kranz.
DeleteShip of fools....
DeleteLook through an issue of the Coast News and count how many pages of legal notices there are. The city of Encinitas is required to place them in a paper of record. That revenue is the Coast News' bread and butter. Stocks once threatened to pull the legals from the Coast News when he didn't like their coverage of the city. If you were the Coast News publisher, what would you have done?
ReplyDeleteAnd nothing has changed under Blakespear. $tock$ taught her well. Control the news outlet, control the masses.
DeleteYo 8:18pm - Remember Stocks got punted, just like BIAspear will get punted.
ReplyDeleteWe the Encinitas voters are smarter than they think. We can be educated and figure out the true BIA rats.
I will pardon all those dumb asses that voted for BIAspear last election. She almost lost regardless. She would not win today given her montra.
Big Town, not Beach Town. She is ass backwards on Encinitas IMHO.
9:20 In Nov 2020, Blakespear won by 10.04% = 3,829 votes. Total vote count was 38,117.
ReplyDeleteThat's not "almost lost."
And what a dirty fight she engaged in to win by those 10 points. Assume she sleeps as well as her bff attorney friend.
Delete10:10 - Right. Ha.
ReplyDeleteA two term Mayor who originally won over a last minute compatitor Paul Gaspar, and then only won this last one by only 10% is pathetic. She knows she will be defeated in future races. She is toast. Just like Stocks.
Sure wish I had voted for Paul Gaspar! That said, I did make the right decision in voting for the dog instead of Catherine!
DeleteI happily cast my vote for the guy with the dog. Blakespear and her worshippers make a big deal out of her 85% win over him, but he should never have gotten even the 15% he did. Embarrassing that they keep trotting out those stats.
DeleteTo the guy with the dog: kudos for you for running.
12:07
DeletePay attention.
As the state Senate race is now, it's highly likely she'll be one of the top two in the June primary. That means she'll go to the general in Nov. Unless somebody other than the Rep wacko who recently announced steps up, she'll win the Senate seat.
In the event she doesn't qualify in the primary, she can still run for mayor. Who would run against her? Why would the result be any different from '20? Most voters are clueless.
She's a good politician. Social media is not the electorate.
Stocks was the rotation mayor, not elected. In 2012, he ran for his council seat. He disgraced himself in public on TV, so he lost that election.
Who's going to wait until June to start running for mayor? She may have been a good politician, but the trail of slime, public safety messes, and virtue signaling missteps are starting to catch up to her. Will remain to be seen if she can run fast enough to stay ahead of the wave of building ill will toward her.
DeleteDon't remember Stocks disgracing himself on TV, but do remember his trail of misdeeds caught up to him in the end.
How many voters do you think know about everything in your first paragraph? It's all social media gab, not the electorate.
DeleteStocks was slime but what killed his chances was going nuts on TV news in the front lobby of City Hall. He looked and sounded half drunk.
Honestly I don't remember him drunk on TV, but don't doubt it. We did have DUMP STOCKS magnets on every car in our family and the things were showing up plastered everywhere in town.
DeleteTime will tell how much on Blakespear gets to the average voter. "Stay tuned," as deposed city manager Gus Vina used to say.
BIAspear would have lost the last Mayor race had Julie launched the BEACHTOWN NOT BIGTOWN one month earlier.
ReplyDeleteThunder would smoke Blakespear in any future Encinitas election.
BOOPO.
Speculation.
DeleteEverything in life is speculation. Meaningless comment.
ReplyDeleteI hope we get to see Thunder smoke BIAspear in the next election. It would be awesome.
What might even be fun to watch Thunder smoke Kranzablabber.
BOOPO!
My heart is beating and pumping blood throughout my body. That's not speculation. Neither are thousands of other things in life.
Delete10:28 - OK maybe speculation in the past but the future is all speculation.
ReplyDeleteYou could be dead as I write this comment.
You have to admit, it would be so fun and so likely that Thunder would smoke either BIAspear or Kranzababble in the next election. Those two sold out Encinitas twice as fast as Jerome Stocks and he was horrible.
BIAspear made BOOPO
10:28 ain't dead.
DeleteSun will set today and rise tomorrow. Those events are in the future, and they're not speculation.
DeleteOmmmm - 12:29. Not a guarantee. Have you studied the solar system? Planets get taken out by asteroids all the time.
DeleteIts safe to say, the sun will likely (statistically speaking) rise through the rest of your short life, but there will be a time when that does not happen. Hence speculation.
6:22 I'll bet you your net worth the sun will set tonight and rise tomorrow morning.
DeleteSix pages of legals in this week's Coast News.
ReplyDeleteanything about stupid anti-vax dum-dums?
ReplyDeleteAnything about 1 million illegals let into the United States by the Alzheimers riddle ding dong biden and the fake black harris?
DeleteWatch your loved ones suck for air - Thanks Donald!
ReplyDeletethanks Donald? Not the chinese?
Deleteyou leftist commie buffoon
6:09 - you're the dum dum refusing to be vaccinated or wear a mask. You and dumb fucks like you are responsible for the devastation and lingering effects of this pandemic. Suck it you fascist traitor. Did you club any police officers today? Blue lives matter? Not to Trumpy assholes.
Delete10:00...you need help. It's sad your parents were brother and sister as it did you no favors.
DeleteWell. What is a vaccination called that does not prevent you from getting the decease it was supposed to prevent?
ReplyDeleteOh I think I know: a failure or its not a vaccine, its a gimmick. When is a real vaccine going to be available?
What this has the appearance of is another program to double down on humans getting jabs such as flue shots that really do not protect you from getting the flue. Covid is just another virus just like the flue. Live with it or die from it. It really doesn't matter.
Your life is meaningless. I hope you are enjoying it.
5:53 It's a measure of how close to brain dead you are that you don't know how to spell flu, the disease. The other flue: a duct for smoke and waste gases produced by a fire, a gas heater, a power station, or other fuel-burning installation.
Delete1:10pm - Its a measure of what a dumbass you are with such a waste of a comment. You tell siri off all day long you worthless piece of shit.
DeleteTry and use your mind for once.
Right, 7:00, you just got spit out of a flue — waste gases.
DeleteEnglish is a ridiculous language with illogical rules for spelling and grammar. Anyone commenting about spelling corrections on a blog is even more ridiculous and likely has zero going on in their life.
DeleteDon't worry too much there is nothing you can do. Your life is meaningless and AI is coming for you not to mention COVID.
I think Elon is likely much smarter than you and this is his take on AI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Osn1gMNtw
Please spell check this and I hope you meet your goal today to go and buy more toilet paper.
There's a big difference between a flue and the flu. Kinda sloppy to get the reference wrong.
DeleteVillage idiots out in full force starting 9 pm last night hijacking yet another thread. Y'all must really have it bad for Gonzalez.
ReplyDeleteI do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein.
ReplyDelete"Mark my Words AI is far more dangerous than nukes"
Musk already said it and I believe Him.
-Good Morning!
Village idiot up early.
ReplyDeleteLove it. If our village idiot is familiar with the quotes of Einstein and Musk, we must have a really smart town.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I do not think 9:45am fits in norm. I bet she gets her information from CNN. Ha!
And as for you and your source, any guesses who you rely upon for he latest?
ReplyDeleteThree come to mind. Faux Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN.
You see what you want to see.
You hear what you want to hear.
Harry Nilson appears to have been quite the visionary 50 years ago with his The Point album and short animated video. That it is somehow still relatable says much about how far we have progressed, or not.