Is change in the air?
"I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this week’s Encinitas City Council meeting. Instead of the spectacle I saw at the July 11 Council meeting when Mayor Stocks was rude, arrogant, and applied the procedural rules of speaking time limits inequitably (as he has also done in past meetings), I saw a council listening respectfully to the community speakers; a council seriously discussing various aspects of the issues without grandstanding; and I saw Deputy Mayor Gaspar running the council meeting smoothly, efficiently, and effectively without targeting disparaging remarks at Council Member Barth, as she has sometimes done in the past. In fact, I saw the kind of council many of us wish we had all the time–individuals with varying attributes and opinions working together to address concerns and solve problems. What a concept!
Why the difference this week, you may ask? Well, for one thing, Mayor Stocks was absent. The power that Mayor Stocks seems to hold over the Council majority and City staff was missing. The contempt that Mayor Stocks directs at those who disagree with him or irritate him was missing. The animosity that can arise between the council majority and the community was seemingly nonexistent because the majority did not exhibit hostility toward the public, as we have sometimes seen them do and as Mayor Stocks often does.
What can we expect when Mayor Stocks returns? Will the poisonous atmosphere return too? OR will the council majority find the inner strength of character to stand up to a mayor who acts out in ways that are not only self-destructive, but that are destructive to the successful operation of our city."
C.J. Minster, Letter to Coast News for July 27, 2012
