At a loss this morning for how to best characterize last night's special council meeting and the performance success of City Manager, Gus Vina and Parks and Recreation Director, Lisa Ruloff I found City Council Candidate's Lisa Shaffer's
Facebook entry says what many of us were thinking. I for one reject the tired cliche of lemons to lemonade, but find Shaffer's perspective thoughtful and visionary. Such a truthful take compared to the local
stenographers reporters for the council in the local news stories
here,
here or here .
Last night the City Council approved borrowing $8 million, reprogramming another $7 million, and spending over $19 million to build what is called the "full park" (ie, skatepark, dog park, and ball fields) at the Hall property off Santa Fe, as well as improvements at Moonlight Beach. The vote was unanimous, and if I had been on the Council and presented with the same question, I would have said yes, too. The community has waited long enough for a dedicated dog park, a public skate park, and additional playing fields. I strongly support organized sports, having played myself, and with 3 of our 4 girls having been on soccer and softball teams growing up.
There are many things that might have been done differently that might have enabled us to make these investments with less debt, with the ability to consider other financing options or phasing.
But the new team, led by Gus Vina and Lisa Rudloff, made the best of what they inherited, and fortunately interest rates are low, so lemonade is being made from some lemons and some sugar. I look forward to joining the rest of Encinitas in enjoying the new park.
Question: Am I the only one confused here? what happened to concern over funding etc.? I had to leave early, perhaps I missed something....like windfall grants or....?
Lisa Shaffer for Council 2012 Yes, there are concerns over financing. The City Attorney, selected and empowered by the Council majority (who we can change in November), assured the Council that the financing strategy was legal. Does that mean we should incur debt without a public vote? NO. Not in my view. But that was not offered as an option because continued City delays put us up against a funding deadline from the State for the Moonlight Beach money. By bundling Moonlight Beach and the Park, the degrees of flexibility on the overall vote were severely limited. It shouldn't have been presented that way, but it was. The new debt puts us at risk of not being able to address future needs such as stormwater drainage adequately - if we wanted to undertake a major capital project to address flooding, we don't have the borrowing flexibility.
The issues were not discussed and debated the way they should have been. The reality is that the way the package was presented and the way promises have been made to many important constituents for many years, the Council had no good options. The problem needed to be fixed long before we got to this City Council performance.
That's why I said that if I had been presented "with the same question" I would have said yes. But I would have tried hard before getting to this point to have provided opportunities for more open discussion of options; for planning that gives time for consideration of new questions that arise; and for including ordinary community members in stakeholder discussions, since we are all stakeholders in the Park.
Question: Ok, but bottom line Stocks gets to say to the voters "I built this park"...no?
Lisa Shaffer for Council 2012 Yes, you're right. Everyone on the Council said yes - we are ALL building this park. Of course there's no doubt there will be a groundbreaking with photo ops for all the Council members who are running this year. Absolutely. And all of us in Encinitas will be paying for it. But don't forget the other bottom line, which is that our kids and our dogs and our families will ultimately have a nice park, even though it comes at quite a high price financially and otherwise.
I don't want to be misrepresented as being against any of the important constituencies that the park will serve. I'm for a better process for making big public investments in a way that brings the community together rather than being divisive as this has been for the last 10+ years.
