Destiny Preston threatens public safety if Kranz’s sales tax increase doesn’t pass

Coast News letters:

Destiny Preston, District 2 candidate, recently warned residents that if the 1% sales tax increase (Measure K) fails to pass, there will be “trade-offs” that involve “investing less in public safety.”

The comments were posted on Preston’s and District 1 candidate Allison Blackwell’s BikeWalkEncinitas website in response to a questionnaire but have since been removed. This was done, in all likelihood, under pressure from a public that reacted negatively to such coercive language.

For the record, Kranz has wasted tens of millions of dollars on non-essential services. For example Pacific View which Kranz purchased and then left abandoned for nearly a decade before pouring even more money into it to make it safe enough to even occupy. On top of that, the huge expansion of city staff in a time of near-zero population growth, including the creation of a new and unnecessary permanent city department of homelessness. Homeless and other human services have historically been the domain of the county. Then there's the unsafe and unwanted separated bike lanes that require a city sand Zamboni staff.

Kranz, Blackwell propose high-density housing at Swami’s?

Coast News letter:

There’s only one word to describe the Affordable Housing Task Force: WEIRD.

What would citizens of Encinitas say to high density housing at the Self Realization Fellowship? In our parks? At the Pacific View Art Center? All three are included along with churches and schools on the “Consolidated Potential Sites List.”

The Affordable Housing Task Force was hastily created for unknown reasons, proposed by appointed (not elected) Deputy Mayor Allison Blackwell, District 1 candidate, and Mayor Tony Kranz, mayoral candidate. We have a state-compliant housing plan, so why were they in such a rush now to plan yet more high-density housing?

Can you imagine what those pumpkin fields would be worth if they were upzoned for 4-story condos lot line to lot line?

Cronyism on Parade

Coast News Op-Ed:

“I have an opportunity to apply for an appointment to an open seat on our town city council, and it’s very likely if I do it that I would be the one to get the appointment.”

Mali Woods-Drake (now Mali Shook after her marriage in 2022) disclosed this during an If You Knew Me podcast episode in 2023 entitled, “Deciding between motherhood and personal ambition.”

Mali entered Encinitas politics at a BLM rally at the Cardiff Kook in 2020. From there, she quickly allied herself with then-mayor Catherine Blakespear, Councilmember Kellie Hinze, and current Mayor Tony Kranz.

During her work on their election campaigns, Mali became known for her attempts to silence those who disagreed with her by aggressively branding them “racist” and inviting them to “leave town if they don’t like the direction we want Encinitas to go.”

Since 2020, the council has rewarded Mali’s efforts with a string of increasingly influential appointments to the Encinitas Equity Committee and, more recently, the Encinitas Public Health and Safety Commission. Mali’s growing connections also earned her a board seat on the Pacific View nonprofit, Encinitas Arts, Culture and Ecology Alliance.

Is the city trying to push a sales tax increase again?

Encinitas Votes:

Get ready for new taxes from the Encinitas city council. City engineer director Jill Bankston is circulating a bid for the following: Professional services to provide polling, public outreach and ballot initiative drafting services. Required services will include community engagement, polling services, data gathering, data analysis, report preparation, and drafting of ballot measures for the November 2024 election whereby the City may request voter approval to support funding for infrastructure projects which may include: public safety, transportation, drainage, pavement, traffic calming, mobility, climate action plan, and various identified and unfunded capital projects."

Overspend projects that no one wanted: for example the 101 streetscape of $60 plus million, the green bike lanes with bollards that creates confusion and at least 2 deaths.

Back in 2014, the council majority of Lisa Shaffer, Teresa Barth, and Tony Kranz aggressively pushed for the hiring of push-poll propagandist firm Lew Edwards to promote a sales tax increase. Only the presence of Kristin Gaspar and Mark Muir denying them a supermajority foiled their plans.

Now Kranz has his supermajority, and needs money. In addition to the boondoggles mentioned at Encinitas Votes, Kranz also needs a multi-million-dollar city bailout of the "volunteer-funded" Pacific View fiasco, the vastly expanded city staff including the new, permanent homeless bureaucracy, and tens of millions for payouts for injuries and deaths due to negligent street design.

Decrepit Pacific View will require millions of dollars to fix

 Union-Tribune:

The aging, former elementary school that city officials have talked for years about transforming into an arts, culture and ecology center is going to require a multimillion-dollar renovation before it can be put to use, a city-hired consultant has found.

And, there’s no money immediately available to fund even the cheapest of the four renovation options suggested by the consultant, the city manager told the Encinitas City Council during a special meeting last week.

“Right now, we don’t have a path for funding for this project,” City Manager Pamela Antil stressed.

The City Council, led by Tony Kranz and Lisa Shaffer, borrowed $10 million to buy the abandoned facility in 2014 with the hope that a volunteer group of aging hippies would fix it up for free. The fiasco won Encinitas a Golden Fleece nomination, and the property remains an eyesore more than seven years later.

City to dump another $1 million into abandoned school, hire social media propagandist

 Wow! They sure are flush with cash down at City Hall!

Union-Tribune:

Encinitas should pay for renovation work at the long-closed Pacific View property, hire a communications specialist and focus on two housing-related issues in the coming year, City Council members agreed last month.

[...]

The council’s fourth item on the top priorities list was improving the city’s online presence by hiring a communication specialist. Blakespear said other cities do a better job than Encinitas in regularly communicating online with residents.

“We can mobilize for things that are urgent, but we don’t have a consistent presence,” she said.

Kranz noted that the city did have a communications specialist some years ago, but her efforts sparked controversy.

Marlena Medford was hired by former city manager Gus Vina in late 2013. She established the city’s Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts and won two state awards for excellence in communications, but one of her innovative communication efforts --- the use of the e-townhall system called PeakDemocracy to collect comments on a proposed citywide housing planning document --- generated huge controversy in Encinitas.

The Peak Democracy and Pacific View boondoggles were two of the most amusing episodes of city council incompetence in recent memory. Take a stroll through the archives here:

Peak Democracy

Pacific View

Hyatt announces luxury resort branding for Leucadia beach hotel

RusTourismNews:

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced today plans for the first new-build Alila resort in the Americas, located in Encinitas, Calif., a quintessential beach town in San Diego’s North County Coastal region. Developed by JMI Realty and Fenway Capital Advisors, Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas will add to Hyatt’s growing Alila brand portfolio, joining Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort, as the brand’s second hotel in California and the U.S., along with 14 other luxury properties worldwide. The Alila brand features luxury hotels and resorts in unique locations, distinguished by innovative eco-design, a strong commitment to sustainable tourism as well as rare and intimate destination experiences.

Situated along coastal bluffs and overlooking Grandview and South Ponto Beaches, Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas will be a luxury oceanfront hotel with 130 guestrooms, including 16 suites. Expected to open in early 2021, the resort will offer an ocean-view restaurant with rooftop patio, a pool with pool bar and an infinity-edge hot tub, a luxury Spa Alila and spectacular wedding and events venues, all with panoramic Pacific Ocean and lagoon views.

Keep Leucadia Ritzy!

1/29/20 City Council meeting open thread

Special meeting tonight on the Pacific View debacle, held at the Senior Center.

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Arts group still in way over its head on Pacific View

Back in 2014, the City Council, led by Tony Kranz, borrowed $10 million in high-cost taxable bonds to buy the abandoned Pacific View elementary school. Councilwoman Lisa Shaffer offered a vision of a thriving arts center despite most arts uses being expressly prohibited by the zoning.

Nevertheless, a new vastly underfunded but panglossian arts group was hastily formed to receive the taxpayer largess and promised to turn the dilapidated buildings into something of use.

Six years and millions of taxpayer dollars later...

On this week's council agenda.

EACEA [Encinitas Arts, Culture and Ecology Alliance] did not ask to extend the ROEL [Right of Entry and License Agreement] and it expired on December 19, 2019.

[...]

In order to use the current buildings, they would need to be improved to make them safe and clean for public use. In September 2015, a Preliminary Design Report was completed by Westberg+White for the rehabilitation of the Pacific View site. The design report provided three options with estimated costs. The cost estimate at that time to restore the Pacific View school buildings and site ranged from $3.9 million to $4.4 million.

More history of the Pacific View fiasco can be found in the Encinitas Undercover archives.

Encinitas Monopoly game

From the Inbox, taken at the Encinitas Ranch Walmart:

(click to enlarge)

I wonder what the rent is on the Pacific View square.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Vote!

Lease revenue bonds are Encinitas' favored method of financing unpopular purchases and projects.  This way the City avoids the public vote that would otherwise be required if floating a General Obligation bond.

Lease revenue bonds should have a revenue source to repay the bond.  Here is Pacific View school's revenue collected to date since its $10M purchase in 2014: $150, or $30 per year.  Because the City can't repay the $10M with $150, it quietly raids other taxpayer-funded accounts.

Now the City plans to partially fund Streetscape with $22M in lease revenue bonds, again in order to avoid a public vote.  And as with the school, the City once again has no identified revenue source to repay the bond.  What accounts will be raided this time?  

After being given a $10 million taxpayer-funded, debt-financed facility, Encinitas Friends of the Arts hosts event in old Senior Center

Del Mar Times:

The diverse traditions of five different countries will be explored at Passport to Dance, with performances by companies representing Spain, China, Indonesia, Ireland and the United States. Presented by Encinitas Friends of the Arts (EFA) the event takes place on Saturday, May 11, 7-9:30 p.m., at the Encinitas Community Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive, Encinitas, 92024. In keeping with EFA’s mission to celebrate diversity through arts and culture, the event will foster an appreciation and fresh awareness of ancient and modern traditions while raising funds for much needed arts programs in the city.

What the heck did we go $10 million into debt for at Pacific View?

Planning Commission delays Pacific View over traffic and noise concerns

Four years after the city council borrowed $10 million to buy an abandoned school, the site has fallen far short of the council's dreams.

Coast News:

The Encinitas Planning Commission punted approval of the proposed revitalization of the shuttered Pacific View Elementary School site to April, citing a lack of details in the plan.

A group called the Encinitas Arts, Culture and Ecology Alliance wants to transform the school site, which has been closed since 2003, into an arts, culture and ecology center called the Pacific View Academy of the Arts.

The commission voted 4-0 last week to postpone its decision until April to give the group a chance to address concerns raised by commissioners and neighbors about the parking, lighting, number of events and noise.

Four years after spending $10 million for abandoned school, city proposes modest improvements

Coast News:

Plans to transform the shuttered Pacific View Elementary School site into an arts, culture and ecology center are headed to the Encinitas Planning Commission for approval this week, more than four years after the city purchased the old Pacific View Elementary School site and selected a group to steward its restoration.

[...]

Plans also call for the project to be completed in two phases: Phase 1 would include basic facility improvements, disabled access and restrooms that would allow the group behind the project to slowly begin programming.

Phase 2 would include the full implementation of programming, improvements to the parking lot area, new fencing and interior site landscaping.

Mayoral forum

Do you like the status quo or are you ready for something... else?

Coast News:

Blakespear deftly offered detailed answers to the dozen or so questions, while Elliott, a self-described “metaphysical broker,” frequently pivoted back to his desire to build affordable housing for the city’s municipal workforce.

While not offering much detail about the plan, he alluded to building hundreds of units on the grounds of the old Pacific View Elementary School “as opposed to turning it into a garden,” alluding to the current plans to turn the property into the so-called Pacific View Academy of Arts, Culture and Ecology.

Housing update from Task Force member (and Prop A advocate) Bruce Ehlers

From the Inbox, forwarded from Housing Task Force member Bruce Ehlers:

High-density housing, Encinitas style

$3500/month for one bedroom in Pacific Station.  With a view of the back wall of Nixon.

Fortunately, the loading dock immediately below has been a lot quieter since Whole Foods left.

Council gun-shy on open space acquisition after Pacific View fiasco

San Diego Reader:

A 33-acre Encinitas strawberry farm landed on mayor Catherine Blakespear's wish list this week when the real estate agent representing the family owners offered it to the City of Encinitas.

"It's just north of the San Elijo Conservancy," Blakespear said. "We don't have the money to buy it but I'd like to be able to."

[...]

The tumultuous multi-year effort for the city to acquire and repurpose the Pacific View property from the Encinitas School District left the city's leaders feeling a little timid about venturing into land acquisition again, Blakespear said. The city bought the 2.8-acre property for $10 million in 2015, issuing bonds to pay for the purchase.

Years after the council's $10 million Pacific View purchase, the buildings remain dilapidated and unoccupied and have yet to live up to the council's vision.


City Council rendering of Pacific View site

Baird failed to disclose gifts and travel from yoga foundation as he was mis-stating benefits of yoga for EUSD

Coast News:

Encinitas Union School District Superintendent Timothy Baird attended conferences in Massachusetts, San Diego, Carlsbad and other locations all on the dime of two organizations linked to the district’s yoga program.

But Baird did not report the travel payments — considered gifts under state law — on his statement of economic interest forms, commonly known as “Form 700s.”

Baird said he didn’t report them because he didn’t have to — the school district’s conflict of interest code doesn’t require him to, he said.

[...]

For the most part, the state allows for local jurisdictions to set their own conflict of interest policies, with the exception of one bright line: State law require that any elected officials and administrators in organizations that manages public investments are subject to broader reporting requirements that are laid out in the Government Code 87200.

[...]

In Encinitas Union School District’s case, however, a decision in 2010 makes the case for less disclosure harder to argue.

According to Encinitas school records, the district adopted an investment policy in 2010 that starts with the following language, “The Board of Trustees and the Superintendent support prudent investment of all revenues received by the district. All district monies shall be deposited with the San Diego County Treasury as provided by law and invested as part of the San Diego County Treasury Investment Pool.”

Great reporting here by the Coast News' Aaron Burgin. What poetic justice if Baird's asset-stripping scheme on Pacific View led to his downfall on failure to disclose yoga gifts.

Background on the shady connections between Baird, the yoga foundation, and a compromised SDSU researcher here.

And from the Inbox:

This article does not even address his 2014 trip to Turkey funded by USD's iPad pushing think-tank or his 2015 Mediterranean cruise which was also likely funded by USD. Neither of those trips were reported either.

Cardiff Town Council protests high-density switcheroo on tonight's agenda

Cardiff Town Council:

Dear Mayor Gaspar and Councilmembers Blakespear, Krantz, Muir, and Shaffer,

I am writing to you regarding the inclusion of "Site C-3" (several parcels in Cardiff's Commercial District) in the Sustainable Mixed Use Plan (SMUP), also called Environmentally Superior Alternative. This plan removes 7 sites from and adds a SINGLE site to council's Modified Mixed Uses Places (MMUP) plan. Removing net 400-500 (going from approximately 2400 to 1987) units obviously seems like a superior alternative.

I suggest an Even More Environmentally Superior Alternative - Remove the SINGLED out Cardiff Commercial District from the plan. Why should this site receive special treatment?

1. This is the ONLY site added by staff in creating the SMUP (see below e-mail).

2. The inclusion of this site is NOT DEMOCRATIC. All the other sites on the SMUP came from the MMUP, which is more democratic in nature, because it was based on multiple engagement exercises with the community. This site could have been put on the map by a single person on city staff. Not democratic.

3. The people of Cardiff (and greater Encinitas) never got a chance to weigh in on this site, since this site has not been on suggested on many of the other maps. This seems like an END-RUN, more so since one of parcel comments states, "Developer Interest."

4. This is a massive change to the DEMOCRATICALLY DERIVED CARDIFF SPECIFIC PLAN. Hence, likely not the preferred place for density in Cardiff.