Truth is, Stocks and his dance partner Gaspar do not advocate for a smarter, greener Encinitas to be a leader in low-carbon, low-water and low-waste policies and practices. For several years the showboating for solar panels and charging stations (great options) and his shiny Nissan Leaf is about ostentatious toys for the "I'll show you mine, it's bigger than yours" club.
Conservation, innovation and alternatives? Not so much. Marketing is the whole package. Stocks' cluelessness can be astounding. Salting the earth? Not to worry. Round-up? It's safe. The goal appears to be keeping expectations as low as possible, no risks, no local funding, demand nothing of developers, ignore several years of study and keep mouthing truthiness. By all means don't ponder the future and the realities that lie ahead.
This meeting was a little over a year ago and five months after Gaspar (in a more scripted, word-filler version than Stocks) all but killed the Environmental Work Plan that had been in the works for a couple of years and intended to be a work in progress guide. They did achieve their goal of putting crony Alice Jacobs, unquestionably the most unqualified candidate ever to apply on the Environmental Commission. Only having the presence of Teresa Barth and Maggie Houlihan helped salvage some of the Environmental Commission's resolutions. Here, in the July 2011 meeting she asserts the victory of a "shell" plan like it is a point of pride. This past week it appeared more stalling and deconstructing were the goals in rejecting the staff / commission recommendation.
It is particularly prescient though for being a precursor to the gutting, killing and reworking the General Plan Update to her overlords' specifications. As much as the public and Councilwoman Barth, candidates Shaffer and Kranz have acknowledged genuine concerns from the community regarding their right to have input - the right to address development - we question Gaspar's motives and processes. Most salient to the red herring of funding concerns above we will continue to ask the question, how much has it cost to gut years of staff time work, workshop expenses, inventing new groups and staff time to implement? Who's driving and where are they headed?
Neither Stocks or Gaspar have offered any vision for the future for Encinitas environment, land use, housing, traffic or much else. Truthiness - for backers and base to fill in the blanks or the completely uninformed to nod at smiling words that sound like something.
