Guess Who Loves Encinitas?

The recent news of the Gaspars being the ones behind the We Love Encinitas fliers, using the taxpayer funded Citizen Satisfaction Survey as a campaign device to promote Jerome Stocks and Mark Muir (dismal failure) prompts another question.

Why was Teresa Barth left off the 2nd mailer? She obviously loves Encinitas too. The following clip is from the Sept. 12, 2012 meeting when the True North consultant responsible for the Citizen Survey was questioned about the results.  It is worth watching the entire meeting with the advantage of knowing that the intended use in the campaign was a foregone conclusion for the council majority, the consultant if not the city manager.

It was clear several days before the election that the clumsy attempt to sway voters with Gaspars' We Love Encinitas mailers was doomed to failure.  The fliers and the sneering comments against Candidates Shaffer and Kranz and their supporters being the 2% who didn't love Encinitas insulted people's intelligence and sense of basic ethical standards.  

Despite the above clip, we heard that Paul Gaspar claims Teresa Barth indicated she didn't love Encinitas.  This isn't a direct quote as this blogger had to hear it on the grapevine.  But, it was so patently a lie and downright slanderous something needed to be said.  These twisted kinds of defense will only continue to poison the council's environment.  And that is indefensible. The new majority won't stand for it. 

And just one more clip to remind us what the current majority had to say about the survey when it was proposed March 28 of this year.

Note how Barth attempts to follow through on Bond's critique of a survey in an election year and she is cut off by our Mayor Stocks.  Deputy Mayor Gaspar uses the city manager as fall guy technique to force the vote.  She has used this bullying before with Gus Vina here and here. (Hopefully, this blogger won't be the only one crying foul if she continues with this in the upcoming year.)

A word about the whole point of the Citizen Satisfaction Survey.  So, presumably it was for the new City Manager, Gus Vina, to get information.  He defends it after the fact in his November newsletter, dated the same day Marcos Gonzalez of Coastal Law Group released the search results for the We Love Encinitas records.

The irony du jour is that there is a 6 pm public meeting tonight, Nov. 27, at City Hall on the Hall Property Park with only the most vague description on the city website. News of this via Patch appeared early today or late last night only because Councilwoman Barth saw it on the city website and alerted the press.

Doesn't that perfectly illustrate Barth does love Encinitas and goes above and beyond without grandstanding?  If the city manager will check out the citizen responses to city communication in the now infamous Citizen Satisfaction Survey, it would be clear to him that posting on the website alone isn't very effective.  City Manager Vina, please try harder to be a real ally serving Encinitas citizenry.  Continuous improvement . . . amirite?

What about the Rats?

The City Manager Gus Vina cancelled the City Council Meeting scheduled for this Wednesday*.  He made this decision last Wednesday despite protest.  The official response from city staff when people notified by email called to enquire was that there just wasn't anything on the agenda.  As Vice Malarky President Joe Biden said in last week's VP debate, "malarky."

We wrote about the rats, the neighbor's dilemma following the Sept. 17 meeting.

The staff was to follow up on the neighbors' concerns in the case of the rat infested hoarder house at 703 Passiflora Avenue.  What's the story code enforcement?  More importantly, what's the story Glenn Sabine? As stated by the public speaker,

The Code Enforcement Staff were praised for working 100's of hours, diligently. But, it has wasted thousands of taxpayers dollars. The City Attorney is charged with failing the people of this city while protecting the property rights and privacy of the hoarder above all else.

This neighborhood has suffered for 4 years without a solution.  It has been 5 weeks since the item was placed on the future agenda list.

Rats indeed.

And here's a thought, what about a meeting devoted to oral communications? Like the January style Goal Setting?  Maybe to address what community members feel about progress on named goals?

No, the excuse offered was a facile one - we don't trust it for a minute.  This is political.  Mayor Stocks is under fire and is feeling sick. Apparently the City Manager is on board or on notice.  We can only guess as usual.

* Corrected to read Wednesday rather than today.

Campaign Note: As long as you mention the source, please feel free to copy this and any other post on this blog to submit to local papers, for flyers or your own emails.  Use the Facebook and other share icons below. There are nearly 500 posts between this blog and Encinitas You Need Us, with concentrated facts, council video clips and quotes. Linking to these blogs, Our Mayor and EYNU will only help spread the information throughout Encinitas.  http://ourmayorstocks.blogspot.com and http://encinitasyouneedus.blogspot.com

Dump Stocks ~ Fire Muir ~ Stop Forrester  

Myths Encinitas

May we please, my dear neighbors, finally once and for all bury the trope that the council majority is fiscally conservative? And as this whole clip and many more demonstrate we have a pretty clear indication the council majority is not now and maybe never was fiscally responsive.

The opening of this February 17, 2010 video clip includes Councilwoman Barth's actual example of fiscally conservative governance with her motion to freeze all pay raises for the council members at the onset of this nation's economic recession that began the previous year. In a rare win, this motion carried despite Houlihan's puzzling vote switch.

Beginning at 1:18 is the discussion of then City Manager Phil Cotton's more than 10% raise. Remember, Phil Cotton is retired military drawing a pension and is over retirement age.

Judge for yourselves. Is Jerome Stocks' argument one of a fiscal conservative or even a fiscally responsive leader?

Designated Fall Guy

No matter what the mayor keeps repeating, what the deputy mayor echos or what the city manager says in this clip; nobody really believes this guy made this decision on his own.

 

Scapegoat is probably the more appropriate term; that is, person who takes blame for another's action.

boob,chump,doormat,dupe,easy, mark, fall guy, fool, goat, gull, mark, patsy, pigeon, pushover, sacrifice, schmuck, sitting duck, stooge, sucker, victim, weakling.

Ugly words and ugly behavior on the part of those in charge. Let's get this guy some new bosses.