Encinitas Ranch Golf Course scandal begins to see daylight

Thanks to Tony Kranz requesting the long-simmering ERGA scandal be brought before council, the public is finally starting to learn about it.  The story, as far as we can tell, goes like this:

ERGA is a public-private partnership between the city and Carltas, the Ecke family development company.  In 2008 and 2009, ERGA made two payments to the city to repay loans that Carltas owed. These were apparently illegal gifts of public funds to the Ecke company.  The payments were reportedly approved by the ERGA board including former city manager Phil Cotton, but no record of the vote or justification for the payments exists.  The gift to Carltas came at the expense of Encinitas Ranch homeowners, whose CFD fees were raised.

Recently when an audit was requested by HOA representatives, His Excellence Gus Vina limited the scope of the audit to exclude examination of the 2008-09 shenanigans, creating the appearance of a cover-up.  That's our preliminary understanding; please correct us if we're wrong about any parts.

Watch here as long-time local watchdog Gerald Sodomka explains, starting at minute 8.  And check out the aggrieved homeowner at 40 minutes.

The sums of money here are not enormous -- a few hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer handouts is trivial to the fabulously wealthy Eckes.  But the flippancy with which the ERGA board gives away public funds to private corporations, and the eagerness of Encinitas city staff to cover it up, smack of serious corruption.