Tonight's city council meeting includes the agenda item for General Plan Update (GPU) of the Kristin Gaspar construct, ERAC (pronounced erase here):
Council Discussion and Direction regarding the regarding the Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC) vacancy, attendance and quorum; and the Housing Policy Report presentation schedule.
This prompted thoughts of how deeply embedded key commercial development companies are in Encinitas city government. (What Gaspar defines as the city stakeholders). The relationships are all intertwined with the past council majority.
And the dance that was the pretense of doing the public's business while actually serving these key players simply spells ERAC to this writer.
So Encinitas thought they were promised a theatre? That was not going to happen with this crew. Not ever . . .
Betrayal is part and parcel of so many city decisions over the years. Remember this summer's cartoon from Mary Fleener, 2nd oldest profession?
Not for nothin', betrayal looms large in Washington, DC right now with lies that are the fiscal bluff.
Remember the mapping exercise, placing 10 dots - each to represent 130 housing units - where you wanted on the map of Encinitas?
This General Plan Update (GPU) restart process was brought to you by the city council majority's scheme described in a whole series, start hereand here if this is new to you.
Despite community-wide frustration and disappointment coming out of the open houses in New Encinitas, Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the Sea, Old Encinitas and Olivenhain; there were 500 people who attended the 2 big workshops to place dots on maps to communicate where they thought high density housing development should be located.
Now, two months later the agenda item on last Wednesday's meeting included an update on this update process. One aspect of the evening's deliberations are captured in clips below. A public speech from Pickering regarding respect for citizen participation and clips of two different responses to the overall public participation in the mapping exercise experience, from Gaspar and from Barth.
The great chorus of voices 500 strong (albeit a few out of towners and overlapping commercial participation stuck in the mix) are a group that must not be placed in a secondary position behind ERAC as the council majority is insisting. It has already been done once, where hundreds and hundreds of community members participated in months and months of workshops and events to only have their voices silenced by Gaspar and the rest of the council majority and community provocateurs and financial players generating fear and discord instead of deliberation and problem solving. In a politically staged process at council and in the press, past community work in the GPU was declared dead under the guise of the monster from Berkley consultant takeover. Bwaahaaa! Not again.
Now there seems to be plenty of time and energy towards redlining and exploration of alternatives (a good thing) that for some reason was absolutely not even whispered of last September 14th. Yes, it does indeed smell badly. But now there are hundreds more from New Encinitas who are quick studies and dedicated activists working really hard. Taking time, exploring things could be a real thing in the real world. Counting on New Encinitas as the sound asleep voter base, little sacks of cash and votes, isn't as surefire as it used to be for the super majority sitting on council and running for election.
Rachelle Collier wrote a wonderful letter in April about this and it is a perfect time for a re-read, especially for the New Encinitas activists. We are all in this together.
What makes ERAC, Element Review Advisory Committee, the big lie is the premise that this is a citizen participation group. This is a hand picked group to bring the council majority the alternatives to housing and land use preferred by the financial backers they represent.
This is business under the guise of public participation. And the formation of this group has nothing to do with the legislative directives to update the General Plan to reflect the sustainability criteria for economic, resource, climate and other future stresses on our community.
This is politics. Everything Jerome Stocks does is about politics of winning. And governing? You must spend many hours reviewing city council minutes and archived videos to find actions in support of the public good versus someone's profits or personal property rights. The entire offensive move of blowing up the General Plan Update is fairly obvious if you track the history. From the consultant interview committee, to the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) selection and presence at the many public workshops, there are layers of half-truths and flip-flopping declarations.
From the very beginning Stocks has maintained his position of plausible deniability by staying far away from involvement at the local level and uttering next to nothing of his deeply embedded position within the SANDAG plans as a member, then as chair, when at the end of each city council meeting he'd give glib, condescending or unsubstantial reports if he reported at all.
"Plausible Deniability - A condition in which a subject can safely and believably deny knowledge
of any particular truth that may exist because the subject is
deliberately made unaware of said truth so as to benefit or shield the
subject from any responsibility associated through the knowledge of such
truth."
Three months ago Mayor Stocks made it clear he is looking at ERAC for the alternatives that best serve his interests. Despite any previous language of just another arm or citizen outreach, the group was designed to serve the council majority.
As with the original inflammatory rhetoric Stocks used last September to blow up the General Plan Update, his arguments are specious. There is no logic. Any complaints could have, should have been handled within the contracted process. Citizens were given false choices when there were solutions at hand. The need for ERAC was and is a lie. Everything about it is a lie. Citizens who have dutifully attended every meeting and schooled themselves know it is a lie. ERAC is Encinitas newest, biggest lie created for political capital.
This week the ERAC facilitator Peder Norby's contract is on the agenda. Norby is a vitally important scapegoat for Stocks et al. Whether Peder Norby is your best friend or he eats kittens for breakfast, he is clearly serving the agenda laid out by those in charge. He should go.
We all still have our facts, our research, our issues and our feelings for our community. We need to find the real answers and solutions, but to trust the mayor or the council majority to provide this is a big mistake. They made the problem, they can't fix it. And, they don't intend to fix it anyway. Do we have a park yet on the Hall property?
Note: The big lie does not mean that there are no citizens sitting in earnest on this committee. This is by no means mean as personal attack on individuals. Even Stocks best friends my believe they are right in their opinions. What is critical is the silencing of any dissent outside of the majority favored views and goals. That isn't citizen participation, it's manufactured consent and it's a big lie.
Not occupy Iraq -the biggest disaster of the new century, costing more than 2 trillion dollars, massive loss of life and the destruction of a country. No, just go to a meeting at city hall tonight at 6 pm.
ERAC (erase at this blog) is the arm of the General Plan update created by the deputy mayor and the majority council . It's made up largely of developers, real estate heavy supporters and is quickly becoming central to the General Plan Update process.
Although there are genuinely engaged individuals throughout this arm, we believe that all of us must be vigilant to see that no one world view is heard while other views are silenced. There is a great tendency to monetize every single discussion at ERAC and this stifles values conversations and untested future planning into possibly irrelevant constraints of the current fiscal standards. Decisions based only on bottom line arguments limit Encinitas.
As many eyes and ideas as possible need to scrutinize this hasty council-shaped arm for temporary use and the other contributors to the General Plan Update process. Distrust is high and secrecy feeds distrust. So, go witness.
Three years ago Jerome Stocks had to share officially his "ootsie" feeling about one of the members selected for the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) because she had been a paid real estate representative in a re-zoning case. Here's his description.
Conflict of interest questions now? Pfft! Not so you'd notice. In January the city council selected the members of this artificial arm, ERAC, publicized as a redress for the oversights of the previous several years of workshops having missed gathering the opinions of some citizens. Well, that's the ostensible reason when it's pretty clear this is a handpicked group of council majority friends, funding sources and those representing the commercial status quo. The group was never presented publicly, never was described with any kind of criteria beyond "stakeholders" and is on it's own timeline and agenda running parallel to GPAC and open houses and workshops.
Stocks and Gaspar have several times pushed to find out when ERAC will be reporting to the council, making it clear this arm is their preferred arm over all the other arms.
So, we are yet again left with conjecture or taking the council majority's word for things. Said another way taking Stocks' word rather than taking stock. Here is what we can know. ERAC members include donors to Stocks and Gaspar's election campaigns. Some of these men were part of the "ugly baby" demonstration evening last Sept and it was obvious the advance work to organize. And one of Stocks' bestest friends spoke and continues to speak as an un-appointed member of ERAC even as an un-appointed spokesperson to the newspapers. It's not illegal to support the mayor. It's what is said that can become problematic and secret speech opens a real can of suspicious concoctions and feeds "us and them" divisions. Ootsie anyone? Here's a peek at the last meeting.
To be clear, there is no way of really recognizing the genuinely engaged
residents dedicated to looking out for their neighborhoods, the whole
community and those are single minded in ensuring personal or corporate financial
gain above any other criteria. Without being allowed to have had from the outset: a
conversation, presentations, open interviews or recorded statements it remains best guess. Our thanks to those who go to these meetings, who watch and share and who record for us all to see. So far, we haven't gotten much up on the blog. This was just a peek and enough of a look to question the unofficial agendas in the room (especially in the corner by the door, amirite?).
But, the past has plenty of examples that taught Encinitas citizens to be very vigilant. Watch, listen, film and confront cronyism, favoritism or the kinds of things that can institutionalize exclusion through our General Plan Update, those policies that favor a proscribed population in class, race and systematically marginalize other residents.
This happens when only one segment alone is heard and represented. We can still clearly call out, to protest and revise the flaws in massive growth strategies, resource scarcity and inferior development. That's what citizens do.
Update: As yet, no definition for ootsie is available.
Don’t let anyone tell you there is only one way or only two ways of viewing something going on in our fair city (not even bloggers). People arrive at their worldviews through their experiences and information sources and the ever publicized 'gut.' Seldom are things simply black and white because we live in a sea of greys.
In order to build real community for Encinitas, these disparate worldviews need to be addressed if we are to connect the dots of really large issues of living our lives and local government issues. It could take years if we did it with real leadership and community involvement. For now we’ll need to seek where we can find alignments for some immediate sense of victory and hope.
One thing has aligned our community and gives us immediate hopeful anticipation. That's a fervent belief that our Mayor Stocks and this majority rule needs to end with this 2012 election. Encinitas Undercover blog, tongue in cheek called this Jerome Stocks unites Encinitas showing the growing number of cars with the Dump Stocks bumper stickers.
Less clear cut has been the General Plan Update process. ERAC (erase) in particular has been a hotbed of divisive energy from the deliberately accusatory onset. Everything about the forming, the application process without proper vetting or criteria, the completely non-transparent, non-public approach to member selection, the ‘volunteer’ facilitator running all of the ERAC meetings (and upcoming open houses, workshops) and the dubious weight that will be given any ‘findings’ of this group sends to the council majority should give us pause. These are clear warning signs that the process, the motives and the goals demand scrutiny and conversations, lots of communication and more disclosure.
Bridging differences is extremely hard work. For those more interested in being elected than in governing it gets much simpler - especially with a great deal of outside funding. This is important because it has always been the offensive movesof this council majority to pit neighbor against neighbor, business against environment, community against community to create division. In the past the big discord delivery system was the Hall Property. Via distortion, omission and outright lies throughout his campaign, Stocks painted his election opponents as anti-sports, anti-park. His majority council member colleagues did the same. In past campaigns he also claimed anti-business and improper FPPC smears against Maggie Houlihan. Fear, division and claiming success for others' accomplishments have worked well for the mayor.
Wednesday night, April 18 Stocks has scheduled a state of the city speech. I suspect we’ll see what will provide the 2012 official gimmick with its capacity for creating polarity and distrust for his campaign assault. I predict GPU, with ERAC (erase) specifically as the savior for all prosperity. You can be sure the unfunded pension liabilitywill not be addressed honestly. Expect blaming for screw ups, great photos and fantasy deadlines for, Hall Property, Moonlight, Santa Fe underpass and Leucadia Streetscape. Oh, maybe he'll figure a way to shoehorn his greenishness with his electric car, home solar panels; plus he'll claim the future electric charging station and farmers market as his self-promoted green badge.
Let’s not let the Stocks campaign propaganda talking points or the General Plan Update misinformation, including nationally funded conspiracy theories, our local provocateurs or our divisive deputy mayor split our communities. What could be more divisive than having each open house pick where the big density numbers should be located? That begs for people to revert to their worst natures. I hope that we can show this council majority and the city staff and facilitator Norby that we want a united community, despite our different worldviews and our varied community characteristics.
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.
Jerome Stocks threw his offensive tantrum last September paraphrased as, “I want control of the General Plan Update (GPU) through the council and the planning commission. Alternatives to the status quo that come from this community process are unacceptable.” Because the actual words he used amounted to rejecting a contract process and contract schedule long known and heartily approved by him, by the entire council. But he couldn’t say that. It’s illegal.
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.
I'm shocked, shocked I say that one of the Deputy Mayor's friends was selected for the ERAC group last night. (Pronounced erase at this site.) The council majority selected Roger Bolus for the New Encinitas Representative. Thing is, it isn't a bit clear that he even lives in New Encinitas. Quail Gardens area is considered Old Encinitas.
And that is only the beginning. Does the name ring a bell for anyone?
Here is a clue - a Gaspar team member allegedly yelled out at a Leucadia candidate forum in 2010. Those close by said he called Teresa Barth a whore, stupidly misogynist hatefulness considering she was defending Kristin Gaspar against discriminatory remarks about her being a mother. She looked right at the man and asked, What did you say? And, no, he didn't reply; he left the forum with his buddies. Here's a clip snippet.
From an observer at the forum:
When these guys came into the room they drug extra chairs up from the back and took over two seats reserved at the front by event organizers. So, sitting behind them it was clear they were belligerent and bullying before anyone even started to speak.
Did anyone else notice (or get video coverage) of one or two taking off the Gaspar shirt while walking out? Was that an attempt at stealth or a rejection of their candidate? This same crew was at the Olivenhain forum.
During that time, Leucadia Blog identified Roger Bolus, Rotary Club President, as the central figure above, while local papers hadn't even asked the questions.
But, just because Roger and his cohorts allegedly acted like bullies and attempted to harass and strong-arm Kristin Gaspar's opposing candidate they were not arrested or even accused of doing anything illegal. So, by the kind of narrow reasoning so favored by the deputy mayor, mayor, councilmen Bond and Muir and the city attorney; justice can be reduced to Just Us.
As citizens we all have the responsibility to be vigilant. Jean-Bernard Minster demonstrated that last night when he demanded the criteria for ERAC selection and exposure to the public's scrutiny. This week's public demands for open government is only the first ripple in a great wave of dissent coming.
Editor Note: ERAC - at this blog - is pronounced erase, with a soft "C", as in Encinitas rather than a hard "C" as in club.
ERAC = Do Over? or Disappear?
ERAC (Element Review Advisory Committee) note of concern received this weekend:
"[ . . . ] looking at the agenda for the January 25 Council Meeting Item 6 addresses the staff recommendation that Council make appointments to the Element Review Advisory Committee with an effective date of January 26, 2012. I accessed the staff report associated with this agenda item and noted the following:
The report consists of an email to Council from Patrick Murphy, Diane Langager, and Mike Strong. In the Background section it states, "Council reviewed the applications at their January 18, 2012 meeting." Those of us at the January 18 meeting know that this is not the case. Agenda item (Item 4), which stated "Council to meet with applicants for Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC)" was tabled. In regard to the wording of Item 4, Gus Vina stated that "the item in error says that we were going to hear the applicants, and that's not what we are going to do tonight."
There is no list of applicants or the positions on ERAC for which they applied accompanying this report.
The public was not allowed to hear the applicants and now the public isn't even given a list of who applied to review before the meeting? Sloppiness or secrecy, that is the question."
Editor Note: List of applicants was included in January 18, 2012 staff report. The point being, this list should have also been included in this week's agenda packet. Was it only a week ago that this funny smell was named?
Update: Lisa Shaffer's excellent summary of this gigantic screw-up at City Hall is now posted at Encinitas Patch. Go read the whole thing for a condensed version of the whole sordid story. Here is a sampling:
COUNCIL CHAOS: When the draft update was released, Council members Jerome Stocks and Kristin Gaspar disowned what had been done and prior Council direction. Stocks berated the staff for bringing their“ugly baby” to the Council, asking everyone to say how beautiful the baby is. Ms. Gaspar pushed for a new round of public meetings and another advisory committee, the Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC). On Dec. 15, the Council agreed to create Ms. Gaspar’s proposed Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC), and another round of public meetings.
However, the Gaspar proposals were not well thought out, and implementation of them is again creating some chaos.
Musical homage to Kevin Cummins and the many other advocates for Sunshine Ordinance in Encinitas. See further information about tomorrow's, January 18th meeting below.
More seriously, open government is well and truly the most fundamentally important issue in all of the city issues. Councilwoman Barth has consistently spoken out for open government. This video clip spells out her views on the public's right to know.
The whole KC and the Sunshine Band intro relates to what's lurking in the Consent Calendar where it doesn't belong?
Calendar definition: "Items on each Consent Calendar are matters which are routine, and it is anticipated they will not be discussed separately. With a motion "to adopt the Consent Calendar" the City Council approves all Consent Calendar Staff recommendations, as shown on the agenda. Items may be removed for discussion by submitting a "PINK" speaker slip to the City Clerk".
If you guessed "Destruction of records in accordance with retention guidelines and pursuant to Government Code." you'd be right. By no stretch of the imagination could record destruction be considered routine or unworthy of public discussion. Citizens and Candidates have championed open government and the need for sunshine ordinances for years.
We as citizens have the right to our distrust. This council majority has consistently failed us. Their votes tell us they want us to keep our expectations tiny. This council majority headed by Mayor Stocks have battled sunshine ordinances and recently cost the city taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars by refusing to be open and forthcoming with a single pavement report. Kevin Cummins' lawsuit has been covered several times already at this blog here, here & here.
So, no doubt Kevin and others will pull this item from the Consent Calendar and be present for the other agenda items. Update: Schedule conflict with event to unveil art banners may empty the room.
Whoops! Another confusing message from city staff. And this is most critical for New Encinitas residents becoming involved in city government through the General Plan Update. First applicants are on the agenda to interview with the city council and then essentially told they are NOT needed for the council to make decisions. Sit down and be still? The applications were received more than a week before this meeting and only now volume and time constraints are considered?
Dear Applicants for the Element Review Advisory Committee (ERAC):
Due to the volume of applicants and time considerations, the applicants will not be interviewed on January 18, 2012. On January 18, the City Council will receive the applications and provide direction. You are welcome to attend the January 18, 2012 meeting. You will be notified of the date the Council makes the appointments.
