Sloppiness or secrecy, that is the question.

Editor Note: ERAC - at this blog - is pronounced erase, with a soft "C", as in Encinitas rather than a hard "C" as in club.

ERAC = Do Over? or Disappear?

ERAC (Element Review Advisory Committee) note of concern received this weekend:

"[ . . . ] looking at the agenda for the January 25 Council Meeting Item 6 addresses the staff recommendation that Council make appointments to the Element Review Advisory Committee with an effective date of January 26, 2012. I accessed the staff report associated with this agenda item and noted the following:

• The report consists of an email to Council from Patrick Murphy, Diane Langager, and Mike Strong. In the Background section it states, "Council reviewed the applications at their January 18, 2012 meeting." Those of us at the January 18 meeting know that this is not the case.  Agenda item (Item 4), which stated "Council to meet with applicants for Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC)" was tabled. In regard to the wording of Item 4, Gus Vina stated that "the item in error says that we were going to hear the applicants, and that's not what we are going to do tonight."  

• There is no list of applicants or the positions on ERAC for which they applied accompanying this report. The public was not allowed to hear the applicants and now the public isn't even given a list of who applied to review before the meeting? Sloppiness or secrecy, that is the question."

 Editor Note: List of applicants was included in January 18, 2012 staff report. The point being, this list should have also been included in this week's agenda packet. Was it only a week ago that this funny smell was named?

Update: Lisa Shaffer's excellent summary of this gigantic screw-up at City Hall is now posted at Encinitas Patch.  Go read the whole thing for a condensed version of the whole sordid story.  Here is a sampling:

COUNCIL CHAOS: When the draft update was released, Council members Jerome Stocks and Kristin Gaspar disowned what had been done and prior Council direction. Stocks berated the staff for bringing their “ugly baby” to the Council, asking everyone to say how beautiful the baby is. Ms. Gaspar pushed for a new round of public meetings and another advisory committee, the Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC). On Dec. 15, the Council agreed to create Ms. Gaspar’s proposed Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC), and another round of public meetings. However, the Gaspar proposals were not well thought out, and implementation of them is again creating some chaos.