Covering civic issues, news, and the secret life of Encinitas
Sunday, January 3, 2016
You know you're a Leucadian when...
... your city gives you emergency pumps ahead of the storm rather than fixing your chronically neglected storm drains during the last several drought years.
It's all about pretending it's not happening. What is it about our Council that makes them so susceptible to accepting and even promoting the refusal to deal with our very real and fundamental flooding issues?
Can we say "deja vu all over again?" Quote from Leucadia blog in 2005:
"Every time a storm hits Leucadia a small army of public servants shows up. Sheriff, public works, and fire departments block off streets and pump water away from the system (much of their work is overtime)."
Learn about the "Pasco Fiasco" here: http://www.theleucadiablog.com/2005/11/what-is-pasco-fiasco.html. How this outfit stays in business is anyone's guess, but the name "Pasco" shows up to this day on a lot of big projects around town.
Leucadia Blog has no comments, indicating the traffic it hosts - none. The administrator deletes the few comments that do attempt to post. Hopefully the site is hijacked again for good.
Well you know, we can't pay for everything. We have Pacific View to pay for, and a tower at Moonlight as well as a Rail Trail. How are we supposed to find the money for the infrastructure? Give us a break. Signed The Majority of the City Council. That would be Kranz, Shaffer, and Blakespear.
Poor Leucadia. The city puts in an undersized flood drain pipe, says the Coastal Commission wouldn't let them put in the re on mended size, (not true), and takes all the money collected and reserved for flood mitigation and redirects all the funds, (almost $2,000,000.00), and uses it to build a park.
That's right, 8:17. Sheila was the main reason the city forked over $5 million to help N 101's flooding problems with the installation of a new drainage system. It wasn't her fault Pascoe Engineering lied saying that the Coastal Commission wouldn't allow over a 24" diameter pipe.
Sorry 10:17 but that's no excuse. A public servant can not use as a defense that a contractor lied about a public agency's regulations. Based on how you have represented the issue, it was up to Sheila to perform her own diligence and go to the Coastal Commission and verify what the contractor said. If she did that, and regardless of the answer, the contractor's lie would have died right there.
11:29, And what makes you think anyone questioned the size of the pipe prior to it being buried? The specifics of a storm drain pipe size and capacity are an engineer's problem, not a council member's. That's why engineers make the big bucks. But to blame council for technical issues would be like blaming Gail Hano if city hall's roof fell in.
9:04 AM That's what happens when a yokel insurance salesman is allowed to run rampant on the city council for 8 years. The sell-out potential for this type of scenario? - 100%! Small town politics with the background power brokers running the show.
11:29 AM Where does the buck stop? If the contractor lied, why wasn't he sued? If that was also an oversight, why hasn't Sabine been called on the carpet for negligence? This city has a lot of loose ends.
6:03 – I have no idea if anyone questioned the size of the pipes. I only know what 10:17 wrote. I have to assume that the original specs called for a 24” pipe. The contractor said it couldn’t be done. It begets the question “why”? Contractor says CCC won’t allow it. Begets the question why was a 24” pipe required in the original specs? You don’t have to have an engineering degree to come to this conclusion. It should be fairly simple to ask the contractor for verification, or get a second engineering opinion, or contact the CCC. This process is called “diligence”. It’s what a reasonable person does when presented with conflicting or contradictory facts while coming up with a solution.
8:53 – the buck stops at the council with the council members.
then borrows $13 million of DEBT and buys a $4million dollar piece of property for $10 million and budgets $3 million of DEBT to build an unnecessary life guard fort on our beach. Where the Coastal Commission says it doesn't want permanent structures…. WTF?
Vote in some common sense in 2016 and vote our the backward incumbents.
6:57. That isn't flood related, but the city also redirected almost $900,000.00 in eararked land acquisition funds and redirected it to the sports fields.
Why would those lovely Leucadians need a pump?? After all, the city is providing free to the public TEN sand bags for each resident. Just contact Director PRIUM at the public works department, he and his staff are there to help....
I think they ran out of the sand bags. Sorry about that. You will have to purchase them yourselves and maybe, the city will give you a discount on a park permit, which is just want they want to happen. Wait for it. It's only a matter of time before the Parks and Rec. Commission will recommend a fee for service at the Encinitas Community Park. Gotta keep those fields in tip top shape.
San Diego's pension reform has been overturned. A technical error by the Mayor's office has nullified the voter initiative. There was a failure to negotiate with the unions on the terms prior to the submission of the initiative; the voters' will has been overruled for the moment.
Just to elaborate further. If this was an initiative "purely" created by citizens, it would have been fine. But, the mayor's office (including paid city staff) helped write the initiative so it is being treated as if the city council put it on the ballot, and not as a citizen's initiative. All it takes to fix this is for a citizen's group to now put something on the ballot with no coordination with city staff. Or, for the mayor to try to negotiate first, and then put this back on the ballot.
With trenching of the rails, the storm sewers could be reconfigured and the pumping from Leucadia Blvd / 101 to Beacon Beach would stop. This pumping from the park to the beach is the most ridiculous bit of harf-arsed engineering I've ever seen. Truly something done by hacks.
They much rather take the cheap and ghetto way out and pump the run off pollutants to local beach that does not have a historic outfall.
I am surprised that Surfrider has not stepped up on this issues. Where is the California Coastal Commision on this issue?
The historic flow for storm water east of Neptune has always been to flow to the north and discharge at the lagoon near La Costa.
Now our City Leaders have decided that instead of addressing the reoccurring flooding issue, they prefer to just periodically pollute our local beach.
I suggest spending the $3 million on DEBT tagged for a life guard tower upgrade on more important infrastructure issues like drainage in Leucadia to reduce flooding and pollution to our beaches.
Pumping the polluted water from the polluted Hwy101 runoff over to our local beach is a crime. Where is the California Coastal Commission, Surfrider, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board when you need them?
I would think there is a serious liability risk here for the City.
12:22 PM Yes, those quasi-environmentalists (SurfRiders) in their petroleum based wet-suits and poisonous styrofoam plastic boards breaking the natural rhythm of the wave sets - they are destroying the beach! It is the butterfly effect. Ban SurfRiders!
No one surfing today you idiot....besides surfing changes the face of the wave which means the wave breaks differently than mother nature intended causing more erosion of beach sand.
Concerned residents need to contact the City (City Manager, so complaints aren't swept under the rug by usual suspect staff), the media, the Coastal Commission and get some attention drawn to this longstanding neglect.
Most feel all the projects are warranted and want to build them all. Watch the council meetings and you will see their priorities. Tony and Lisa pushed the PV mistake. Most are supporting the $3 million DEBT waste of money on the DEBT lifeguard play station taking up precious space on our Beach.
So basically ignoring reality, refusing to focus on infrastructure and instead paying for trophy projects.
With the infrastructure this weak, good luck to the council padding the HEU. The last thing we need is 1,000s more residents to further strain the infrastructure.
Linked is a view of the pumping from this afternoon. Something new is the sequential pumping from the alley behind Pandora Pizza to the Park and then to Beacon... Pumping water to one place to be pumped again makes sense if that first stop is something other than a small basin in a park. Cities in the Midwest US spent billions on "deep tunnel" projects to manager storm sewer overflow. Encinitas seems happy with renting more pumps and dumping on the beach
7:12 PM Thanks for the information. Pumping from another area to the park could be in violation of what the Coastal Commission allowed years ago. The water authority would also be interested in the public works director's disregard of pumping street water over the bluffs. Report the city. The city has plenty of money to pay the million dollar fines. Just ask Blakespear, Kranz, and Shaffer.
8:11 AM The pumps wouldn't be stopped. They're being used for an emergency. Reporting the city would put bring pressure on the council to fix the storm drains.
That's a nice report, it will help collect dust at City Hall. There's not the money to implement any of it, and not the willpower at City Hall to make any investment in Leucadia. But the important thing is for the City to put Floating Zones on top of the flood zone...
2:22 - thanks for posting the pdf - It is astounding that in the subsequent four years nothing changed and the discussion stopped. Micro-tunneling through the bluffs is interesting. Would save money on the pump rental.
it would be good if Encinitas addressed the problem like any normal city would and should do - as an infra-structure problem for which a plan to correct is needed. Encinitas appears willing to approve every multi-housing project on and west of the 101. These spaces that often had one or two housing units are being replaced with seven to nine units. There is a lot less dirt and a lot more roof and paved surface. This adds more flow down the east-facing ridge and onto 101. More rental pumps is not a sustainable solution.
The Grand Jury report confirms that 24 inch pipe is the max allowed. It suggests micro tunneling pipes through the bluff to the beach, which effectively puts the same storm water on the beach as the pumps, right?
7:24, Yes, its always better to be safe than sorry. However, Cottonwood Creek runoff has a huge filtration system at 3rd and B street. Not to mention the daylighting that was done to it at Cottonwood Creek Park. As for Leucadia runoff at Ponto, none of it goes into the ocean but a separate basin. Just the heave-ho machines aimed at Beacons from Leucadia Roadside Park aren't filtered.
Too busy shelling out pensions and pork barrel projects to do anything practical!
ReplyDeleteTHINK AHEA
ReplyDeleteD
It's all about pretending it's not happening. What is it about our Council that makes them so susceptible to accepting and even promoting the refusal to deal with our very real and fundamental flooding issues?
ReplyDeleteTurn PV into an ark and load the Leucadians onto it!
Deletehttp://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2001/dec/23/leucadia-drainage-project-begins/
Delete$3.9 million
Can we say "deja vu all over again?" Quote from Leucadia blog in 2005:
ReplyDelete"Every time a storm hits Leucadia a small army of public servants shows up. Sheriff, public works, and fire departments block off streets and pump water away from the system (much of their work is overtime)."
Learn about the "Pasco Fiasco" here: http://www.theleucadiablog.com/2005/11/what-is-pasco-fiasco.html. How this outfit stays in business is anyone's guess, but the name "Pasco" shows up to this day on a lot of big projects around town.
Leucadia Blog??? The infomercial site for Surfy Surfy? It lost significance ages ago.
Deleteyeah, but it still has the scoop on Pasco. It was a great resource and then this blog took over....
DeleteYep and the point being, 8:16, that no improvements have been made whatsoever since the LB post was made over ten years ago.
DeleteBut you knew that.
Leucadia Blog has no comments, indicating the traffic it hosts - none. The administrator deletes the few comments that do attempt to post. Hopefully the site is hijacked again for good.
DeleteToo much light from the archives available to shine on the cockroaches for your taste, eh, 4:48?
DeleteYea - archives - old and obsolete.
DeleteCame in handy for this thread ;)
DeleteKeep hoping.
12:16 PM For what? For Leucadia Blog to become pertinent again? The Easter Bunny will appear before that happens.
DeleteNoooo...to highlight the fact that the city not dealing with the flooding issue is hardly new.
DeleteBut you knew that. You're just embarrassing yourself and should consider giving up.
Well you know, we can't pay for everything. We have Pacific View to pay for, and a tower at Moonlight as well as a Rail Trail. How are we supposed to find the money for the infrastructure? Give us a break. Signed The Majority of the City Council. That would be Kranz, Shaffer, and Blakespear.
ReplyDeletePoor Leucadia. The city puts in an undersized flood drain pipe, says the Coastal Commission wouldn't let them put in the re on mended size, (not true), and takes all the money collected and reserved for flood mitigation and redirects all the funds, (almost $2,000,000.00), and uses it to build a park.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jerome!
DeleteThanks Sheila.....
DeleteSheila actually fought for Leucadia, jerome fought against us...
Delete10:21- ahhhh, no. Neither one of them fought FOR Leucadia, neither of them has ever given a shit about Leucadia. Keep it CRAPPY!!!
DeleteSheila did, actually. For all her faults, Sheila was down with Leucadia. If you don't know that, you weren't there.
DeleteThat's right, 8:17. Sheila was the main reason the city forked over $5 million to help N 101's flooding problems with the installation of a new drainage system. It wasn't her fault Pascoe Engineering lied saying that the Coastal Commission wouldn't allow over a 24" diameter pipe.
DeleteSorry 10:17 but that's no excuse. A public servant can not use as a defense that a contractor lied about a public agency's regulations. Based on how you have represented the issue, it was up to Sheila to perform her own diligence and go to the Coastal Commission and verify what the contractor said. If she did that, and regardless of the answer, the contractor's lie would have died right there.
Delete- The Sculpin
11:29, And what makes you think anyone questioned the size of the pipe prior to it being buried? The specifics of a storm drain pipe size and capacity are an engineer's problem, not a council member's. That's why engineers make the big bucks. But to blame council for technical issues would be like blaming Gail Hano if city hall's roof fell in.
Delete11:29, And its in the city attorney's lap to right wrongs like that. Where was he?
Delete6:06 PM
DeleteThe city attorney's duty is to cover the asses of the city council. Nothing more.
9:04 AM That's what happens when a yokel insurance salesman is allowed to run rampant on the city council for 8 years. The sell-out potential for this type of scenario? - 100%!
DeleteSmall town politics with the background power brokers running the show.
11:29 AM Where does the buck stop? If the contractor lied, why wasn't he sued? If that was also an oversight, why hasn't Sabine been called on the carpet for negligence? This city has a lot of loose ends.
Delete6:03 – I have no idea if anyone questioned the size of the pipes. I only know what 10:17 wrote. I have to assume that the original specs called for a 24” pipe. The contractor said it couldn’t be done. It begets the question “why”? Contractor says CCC won’t allow it. Begets the question why was a 24” pipe required in the original specs? You don’t have to have an engineering degree to come to this conclusion. It should be fairly simple to ask the contractor for verification, or get a second engineering opinion, or contact the CCC. This process is called “diligence”. It’s what a reasonable person does when presented with conflicting or contradictory facts while coming up with a solution.
Delete8:53 – the buck stops at the council with the council members.
- The Sculpin
9:45, I'm certain a lot of incompetent engineers will be glad to hear that.
DeleteGet Kranz to rename Leucadia to Venicadia.! Worked for Spock week! He can serenade contractors in his gondola!
Deletethen borrows $13 million of DEBT and buys a $4million dollar piece of property for $10 million and budgets $3 million of DEBT to build an unnecessary life guard fort on our beach. Where the Coastal Commission says it doesn't want permanent structures…. WTF?
ReplyDeleteVote in some common sense in 2016 and vote our the backward incumbents.
6:57. That isn't flood related, but the city also redirected almost $900,000.00 in eararked land acquisition funds and redirected it to the sports fields.
ReplyDeletePro tip: Don't buy land in a natural drainage swale. Also, during heavy rains, don't attempt to drive through a natural drainage swale.
ReplyDeleteThis message brought to you by Common Sense.
Not matter the cost, nor price that must be paid....KEEP LEUCADIA CRAPPY!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy would those lovely Leucadians need a pump?? After all, the city is providing free to the public TEN sand bags for each resident. Just contact Director PRIUM at the public works department, he and his staff are there to help....
ReplyDeleteI think they ran out of the sand bags. Sorry about that. You will have to purchase them yourselves and maybe, the city will give you a discount on a park permit, which is just want they want to happen. Wait for it. It's only a matter of time before the Parks and Rec. Commission will recommend a fee for service at the Encinitas Community Park. Gotta keep those fields in tip top shape.
Delete1.) It's spelled Leichtag, not Leechtag.
ReplyDelete2.) Neither of those spellings is mentioned in the 2011 article you linked to.
3.) The article says nothing about any tax fraud lawsuit.
Other than that, great post.
The city staff doesn't care about sand bags nor the residents, it's all about salaries and pensions.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego's pension reform has been overturned. A technical error by the Mayor's office has nullified the voter initiative. There was a failure to negotiate with the unions on the terms prior to the submission of the initiative; the voters' will has been overruled for the moment.
DeleteJust to elaborate further. If this was an initiative "purely" created by citizens, it would have been fine. But, the mayor's office (including paid city staff) helped write the initiative so it is being treated as if the city council put it on the ballot, and not as a citizen's initiative. All it takes to fix this is for a citizen's group to now put something on the ballot with no coordination with city staff. Or, for the mayor to try to negotiate first, and then put this back on the ballot.
DeleteWith trenching of the rails, the storm sewers could be reconfigured and the pumping from Leucadia Blvd / 101 to Beacon Beach would stop. This pumping from the park to the beach is the most ridiculous bit of harf-arsed engineering I've ever seen. Truly something done by hacks.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, our city engineers are woefully lacking.
DeleteThey much rather take the cheap and ghetto way out and pump the run off pollutants to local beach that does not have a historic outfall.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that Surfrider has not stepped up on this issues. Where is the California Coastal Commision on this issue?
The historic flow for storm water east of Neptune has always been to flow to the north and discharge at the lagoon near La Costa.
Now our City Leaders have decided that instead of addressing the reoccurring flooding issue, they prefer to just periodically pollute our local beach.
I suggest spending the $3 million on DEBT tagged for a life guard tower upgrade on more important infrastructure issues like drainage in Leucadia to reduce flooding and pollution to our beaches.
A plaque honoring oneself looks better on a trophy lifeguard tower than a storm water pipe. There is your answer.
DeletePumping the polluted water from the polluted Hwy101 runoff over to our local beach is a crime. Where is the California Coastal Commission, Surfrider, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board when you need them?
ReplyDeleteI would think there is a serious liability risk here for the City.
From an environmental perspective, what's the difference if the storm water hits the ocean at Beacons or a mile north?
ReplyDeleteOnce it hits the ocean, currents move it along the beach anyway, right?
12:22 PM Yes, those quasi-environmentalists (SurfRiders) in their petroleum based wet-suits and poisonous styrofoam plastic boards breaking the natural rhythm of the wave sets - they are destroying the beach! It is the butterfly effect.
DeleteBan SurfRiders!
Wrong . Historic discharge to lagoon provide natural cleaning system for runoff. Beacons discharge pollutes where people play in the surf zone.
ReplyDeleteNo one surfing today you idiot....besides surfing changes the face of the wave which means the wave breaks differently than mother nature intended causing more erosion of beach sand.
DeleteConclusion: Surfers are killing your beach.
Okay 10:25, what would you have them do this week? Remove the pumps and let nature take its course?
DeleteOr do you have a time machine in your garage?
Fix the problem in a long term perminant solution.
DeleteGuess what genius ?
It's going to rain and flood again like it has 100 before.
Geeze. Some thick skulls out there.
1:14 I would say you are a genius, but I can't because your spelling is so bad. Talk about a thick skull.
DeleteMeanwhile, back at the ranch....
DeleteConcerned residents need to contact the City (City Manager, so complaints aren't swept under the rug by usual suspect staff), the media, the Coastal Commission and get some attention drawn to this longstanding neglect.
When they have nothing, they always ee the spelling Nazis. Weak.
DeleteI agree with the comment about the neglect.
But we sure will have a fancy lifeguard PlayStation for our lifeguards to play in . What a waste of taxpayer dollars .
3:12 not to pick on you, but have you written your letter? I have.
DeleteBetter than writing a letter I talked to our council members
DeleteBetter yet. What did they say?
DeleteMost feel all the projects are warranted and want to build them all. Watch the council meetings and you will see their priorities. Tony and Lisa pushed the PV mistake. Most are supporting the $3 million DEBT waste of money on the DEBT lifeguard play station taking up precious space on our Beach.
DeleteSo basically ignoring reality, refusing to focus on infrastructure and instead paying for trophy projects.
DeleteWith the infrastructure this weak, good luck to the council padding the HEU. The last thing we need is 1,000s more residents to further strain the infrastructure.
We all want rural community character until our Range Rover tires might get wet.
ReplyDeleteNot an accurate capture of the issue, but you do know that.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Fw5Mj7zkQ
ReplyDeleteLinked is a view of the pumping from this afternoon. Something new is the sequential pumping from the alley behind Pandora Pizza to the Park and then to Beacon... Pumping water to one place to be pumped again makes sense if that first stop is something other than a small basin in a park. Cities in the Midwest US spent billions on "deep tunnel" projects to manager storm sewer overflow. Encinitas seems happy with renting more pumps and dumping on the beach
7:12 PM
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. Pumping from another area to the park could be in violation of what the Coastal Commission allowed years ago. The water authority would also be interested in the public works director's disregard of pumping street water over the bluffs.
Report the city. The city has plenty of money to pay the million dollar fines. Just ask Blakespear, Kranz, and Shaffer.
Yes. Report them.
DeleteStop the pumps. Flood all of Leucadia during El Nino.
Put lots of homes, businesses and streets underwater.
Block passage of emergency vehicles.
Flood baby, flood.
Just make sure you create a paper trail so your neighbors will know who to thank for making this important point.
8:11 AM
DeleteThe pumps wouldn't be stopped. They're being used for an emergency. Reporting the city would put bring pressure on the council to fix the storm drains.
Been there, done that. SD Grand Jury 2012 findings ignored: http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/grandjury/reports/2011-2012/StormDrainsLeucadia.pdf
ReplyDeleteWell...
DeleteThat's a nice report, it will help collect dust at City Hall. There's not the money to implement any of it, and not the willpower at City Hall to make any investment in Leucadia. But the important thing is for the City to put Floating Zones on top of the flood zone...
2:22 - thanks for posting the pdf - It is astounding that in the subsequent four years nothing changed and the discussion stopped. Micro-tunneling through the bluffs is interesting. Would save money on the pump rental.
Delete6:53,
DeleteFloating zones.
I see what you did there.
Yes, but didn't it make grand press?
ReplyDeleteNot really. Very few heard about it and the City of course let it drop like a hot rock.
DeleteMay be time for another citizen-brought suit. On which weak leg would the City try to stand?
it would be good if Encinitas addressed the problem like any normal city would and should do - as an infra-structure problem for which a plan to correct is needed. Encinitas appears willing to approve every multi-housing project on and west of the 101. These spaces that often had one or two housing units are being replaced with seven to nine units. There is a lot less dirt and a lot more roof and paved surface. This adds more flow down the east-facing ridge and onto 101. More rental pumps is not a sustainable solution.
ReplyDeleteCan I get a Grand Jury to tell me how to make the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich?
ReplyDeleteI thought Grand Juries were used to determine indictments in criminal cases.
Grand Juries are there to rubber stamp the District Attorney's allegations.
DeletePerhaps the second time around they won't be as forgiving or quick with the ink pad....
DeleteAnother potential spin on the Leucadia street flooding - it's the new surf spot - Hwy 1!
ReplyDeleteThe Grand Jury report confirms that 24 inch pipe is the max allowed. It suggests micro tunneling pipes through the bluff to the beach, which effectively puts the same storm water on the beach as the pumps, right?
ReplyDeleteThe storm drain that collects water from the Encinitas Ranch to Cottonwood Creek is 96 inches in diameter.
DeleteDifferent pipe.
DeleteBuilt in a different place.
At a different time.
9:13, Not.
DeleteBoth pipes deliver pollution to the beach. Don't swim or surf at Moonlight Beach after a rain storm.
ReplyDelete7:24, Yes, its always better to be safe than sorry. However, Cottonwood Creek runoff has a huge filtration system at 3rd and B street. Not to mention the daylighting that was done to it at Cottonwood Creek Park. As for Leucadia runoff at Ponto, none of it goes into the ocean but a separate basin. Just the heave-ho machines aimed at Beacons from Leucadia Roadside Park aren't filtered.
ReplyDelete