Phil Graham running on fiscal responsibility, doesn't mention pensions

Graham for Council:

We should be proud that the City of Encinitas has had balanced budgets for many years. This fiscal prudence is important because our state and national economies ebb and flow. By planning for the long term and spending the city's revenue as carefully as we would our own, we can stop wasteful spending, abuse of our citizens' tax dollars, and plan for unexpected economic downturns.

Don't almost all California cities run nominally balanced budgets even as they let pension liabilities balloon and infrastructure decline? Is that really something we should be proud of?

Does Graham know anything at all about Encinitas finances or is this just a generic, feel-good statement suggested by his campaign consultants?

The same vagueness and vapidity applies to the rest of the issues on Graham's site. Graham may be an intelligent guy and may have some good ideas about Encinitas, but you certainly wouldn't know it from his web site.

Encinitas Forward launches blog

A new blog has popped up covering the Encinitas election: Encinitas Forward. Though the creators are anonymous, it's professionally designed and, so far, quite even-handed in its treatment of candidates and issues. The creators are paying for sponsored Facebook links, so somebody's investing at least a little money in this.

Here's the blog's first poll: Do you support or oppose Measure T, the Housing Element Update?

Shaffer: dirty tricks and debate-dodging cowards

Lisa Shaffer's newsletter:

Well, campaign season is in full swing, with several campaign kickoff events last weekend. Accusations of dirty tricks are already being made. Let me offer my view: telling the truth is not negative campaigning. Comparing one candidate's position and record against another, if done accurately, with sources noted, is not a dirty trick - it's educating voters. Distorting your opponent's record and misrepresenting votes - that's dirty politics. Claiming you're taking the high road while anonymous PACs spend enormous sums sending hit pieces on your opponent IS negative campaigning. Candidates are clever enough to maintain plausible deniability about negative mailers on their behalf, but if they wanted to keep things clean and positive, they could publicly disown the negative efforts and ask anyone who supports them to stop.

I also believe that refusing to participate in a debate organized by the League of Women Voters, even after being given a variety of dates to choose from, is cowardly and disrespectful of voters.

UPDATE: Though Shaffer weirdly refuses to tell anyone what she's talking about, Shaffer supporter Dennis Lees writes in the Coast News that Kristin Gaspar is refusing League of Women Voters debates.

8/24/16 City Council meeting open thread

The current city council has continued prior councils' practice of not providing written summary minutes of council discussion, but only "action minutes" which state the outcomes. Encinitas Undercover will provide a forum for observers to record what occurs at each council meeting.

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Prop T impact on Old Encinitas

Having previously written about the impact of Prop T's upzoning on Leucadia, the Waves to Ride blog now turns its attention to Old Encinitas:

In Old Encinitas, the parcels proposed for upzoning line both sides of Highway 101 from Encinitas Boulevard to K Street, include City Hall and its parking area, and four lots between Quail Drive and Quail Gardens Drive on the north side of Encinitas Boulevard.

Note these adjustments to the Highway 101 specifics: The parcels on the east side stretch from Encinitas Boulevard past K Street to where the open ground becomes the railroad right-of-way. The parcels on the west side stretch from the bluff above Cottonwood Creek in Moonlight Park to the north corner of K Street.

WtR doesn't think City Hall will be turned into condos; we disagree. Sell that property to a developer to put a huge 3-story luxury condo building, and the windfall will help cover up quite a bit of past fiscal mismanagement.

Here come da judge!

Judge Tony Brandenburg joins the city council race.

There are now five candidates for three seats, with a fourth seat opening up if Blakespear wins the mayor position.

Tony Brandenburg is a retired Superior Court commmissioner, current planning commissioner and long-time Olivenhain community activist. Unlike the other four candidates, we're not aware of his partisan affiliation.

Waves to Ride blog analyzes Prop T's impact on Leucadia

Waves to Ride:

The HEU doesn’t require three-story buildings to line Highway 101 in Leucadia, but if the commercial strip there is upzoned to allow them, you can bet at least some will be built.

Anyone who doubts that should check the six three-story mixed-use monstrosities that march north from the corner of Phoebe Street. They were allowed under the city’s North 101 Corridor Specific Plan before voters passed Proposition A.

After June 2013, Prop A required buildings above two stories or 30 feet to be approved by a vote of the people. Hence, only two stories since. The proposed HEU, affectionately called “At Home in Encinitas” by city staffers and council members, effectively cancels Prop A in designated areas of the city’s five communities.

If approved by voters, the HEU will upzone every parcel fronting on 101 from the Leucadia Creek Apartments at address 1786 to the north corner of Leucadia Boulevard at addresses 902/914 with two exceptions: Sea Bluff and Pacifica condos.

North of Diana Street, the HEU identifies the zoning as both AHE-GC-X30 and AHE-101SP-X30. As far as we can tell, the two codes mean the same thing: At Home Encinitas-General Commercial-Mixed Use 30 Housing Units Per Acre; 101SP = 101 Specific Plan.

North of Diana, the zoning will let property owners build three-story buildings that can be either all residential, or commercial on the first floor and residential on the second and third floors. Although the building heights will be limited to 38 feet, stuff on the roofs can push the heights to 48 feet. Developers of buildings with five or more housing units who invoke the state Density Bonus Law can raise the density from 30 to 41 units per acre.

Click on over and read the whole thing. They don't allow comments, but you can comment here.