Erase (ERAC) has the official gimmick capacity to transform all that was accomplished over nearly two years of the General Plan Update.Via this official gimmick capacity:
- the super majority financial backers are ushered into a front and center advisory position.
- the staff and the consultant are made into the prime culprits of blame game.
- the super majority’s voter base in New Encinitas is preyed upon by fear tactics from unreliable sources and persistent accusations from the council dais.
- the super majority’s nemesis, Barth, is politically maneuvered to play along or be tar brushed with their imaginary plot.
- the super majority’s enemies (actual citizens participating in the process) are called names and erased.
The anger directed at the staff was a foil. They were sacrificed on the pretense of a community outreach failure. Instead, he erased the GPU contracted structure, process and timetable in a 1.3 minute rant. A rupture in what had become a well oiled machine towards updating the General Plan was forced through this first big lie.
An opening had to be made for the majority’s financial backers and the majority’s voter base.
Stocks was the set-up. Step two, Bond denigrates the community participants who had spent hours of their own time contributing in the designed process while elevating the business community as the more important voices. Like Stocks, Bond did a 180 on the process he’d agreed to and praised consistently for more than a year. Then mayor, Bond effectively erased all goodwill generated by this citizen process and democratic participation in favor of pay to play.
Enter the speakers including the council majority financial backers like developer, Meyers; Stocks’ BFF Andreen plus business, real estate and property owners who self-identify as the most valued people, business and property owners on El Camino Real. Threats of “businesses will all leave if these update changes happen” were central to the majority of the presentations.
Sincere revelations of individuals feeling left out and uninformed, just like business fears of change were issues that did need to be heard by the council and dealt with by the council. A four month review had been built into this process to accommodate that very thing. Staging a protest for political positioning is another story.
But even if there was a massive failure in reaching New Encinitas and getting their viewpoints heard and recorded, solutions were far simpler than what actually had been scripted for Gaspar to present.
Offensive step 3 is “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” a radically extremist reaction to responses already anticipated and planned for in the contracted process and approved timeline. Again, a ruse is scripted to give language to a takeover with words like stakeholders (read: financial backers), This takeover erases the contracted process and timeline in favor of a majority council-centric process.
The most divisive step so far, put Gaspar as stage manager creating a new process, with new schedule, new stakeholders group via subcommittee forced on Barth. Despite breathless protestations over costs, Gaspar maps changes that will cost many months and hundreds of hours of staff time, council time, consultant time, commissioners time far in excess of a process that wasn’t broken. Every sentence Gaspar reads from the playbook is misleading, falsely framed, unsubstantiated and clearly intended to confuse.
In the midst of this majority theatrical, Barth is backed into playing a part. With civility she places the community interest at the heart of her response. She stresses the contracted four month period is a respectful approach for the community to digest the draft and let business review. But, this one voice can’t balance the power play being foisted on the city government. Barth remains a touchstone for the community at large, despite majority’s repeated attempts to paint her as an enemy.
Well, a feature of the majority plan was an attempt to discredit Barth, to rob her of her formidable reputation as a superior civil servant whose stance is inclusive rather than divisive. With absolutely no way for anyone to verify her accusations, Gaspar dumps a fetid pile of grievances on a crowd leaving the room and to a dais of baffled looks, again, with the script.
This was so pathetic it gained no traction. Gaspar is an embarrassment as parrot for the more hateful features of the majority exhibited years prior to her presence. But it isn’t just bad behavior. What this cost, what was lost hasn’t even begun to be tallied.
On Wednesday, March 7, 2012 the planning staff will be asking council to approve more than $43,000 for the thrice re-designed community outreach mailer printing / mailing and additional consultant fees. Five months have been lost that could have been used for review and increased public input. Instead there has been bad will, distraction and a whole series of secretive meeting changes, agenda changes, false applications and absolutely zero public scrutiny of this ambushed and erased General Plan Update process.
Taxpayers are essentially paying hundreds of thousands of dollars and precious time to campaign and fund raise for Stocks and Muir. Classy.
Post Script – Mayor Stocks BFF and Gaspar’s purported mentor is bragging that council is going to re-boot the General Plan. Erase (ERAC) to start over looks like a plan.
