Stocks Detox Continued

SANDAG Ex-Chairman Stocks & Executive Director Gallegos

Jerome Stocks is being removed from everything he controlled in Encinitas and the region.  Stocks falling from grace has come at a pretty steep price tag of misguided notions of legacy in his mayoral capacity and now in his chairmanship of the San Diego Association of Governments primary project.

The most recent failure relates to his trumpeted claims to fame with SANDAG's 250 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), the first of California's Regional Plans to address transportation over the next 40 years. This plan was supposed to comply with the state law requiring its transportation plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years.

On January 21, 2012 the governor's office and state Attorney General Kamala Harris said "the SANDAG plan didn't go far enough to get San Diego drivers off the road and into buses, trolleys or bike lanes." This reported in Voice of San Diego by Rob Davis.

Next, Senator Kehoe addressed the Attorney General's and the public's criticism in her bill which would have, among other things, put transportation budget monies into the mass transit first.  All of the Interstate 5 widening posts written for Our Mayor can be found here.  The final one from April 27, 2012 meeting speaks to the Kehoe bill opposition Stocks single-handedly muscled through the Encinitas city council via his compliant cronies.

Within a week and despite outdated, non-relevant information, no staff analysis and even after almost 20 public speakers who waited up to 5 hours, some with expert testimony delivered around midnight, the resolution he wrote passed. This whole five hour meeting is the Encinitas machine in motion.

Fast forward to this week's news that San Diego County Superior Court judge upheld a lawsuit challenging the SANDAG

Tuesday's ruling, which mirrored a tentative ruling issued before Thanksgiving, said Sandag’s plan failed to clearly define its effects on greenhouse gasses, how to mitigate them and didn't adequately explain decisions within the plan.

Specifically, Sandag’s environmental review didn’t conform to an executive order issued by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.

From KPBS

This is a vindication of the well informed Encinitas citizens who attended meetings and challenged Jerome Stocks and the SANDAG and CalTrans plans to ignore quality of life, community character, public health and climate change in order to maintain the status quo that serves Big Oil above all else.

50:10 alternative plan pdf 

Misinformation Minute Launch

The August 22 meeting of the City Council was filled with the usual fact bending, staged exchanges, history revisionism, false assumptions, insubstantial staff reports, outright lies and other standard fare.  Sitting through these without feeling frustration and anger is difficult.  Culling through it all again to capture clips feels like punishment.  So today the clips below capture the essense of falsehoods in a minute.  For seasoned council watchers little more is needed, for people new to the scene it's a taste.

 Whoops! Forgot one (posted 11:52 am)

No Comment

See Encinitas You Need Us blog for more factual information on these subjects.

2011 IN REVIEW: A "Light of Day" Raspberry

This and the next ten or more posts are a look back at last year when Jerome Stocks, then Deputy Mayor, and his pals on the city council were called out by the press, by art lovers across the US, by a judge as well as the plaintiff in a major lawsuit, by the late Maggie Houlihan's friends, family and supporters and by citizen activists. These are just a sampling of the publications, public speakers for this last year. There is much, much more and a new year to come.

As 2011 ends, North County Times editorial dated December 19, 2011 gives a final raspberry to the Encinitas city council majority Stocks, Bond and Gaspar for "fighting a misguided battle against its own residents." Yes, it's a repeat of our previous coverage of this Cummins lawsuit raspberry.

". . . Kevin Cummins was forced to go to court to find out how the city makes decisions on financing and scheduling road repairs is ridiculous. It's frankly disappointing that now the taxpayers have to foot the bill for both sides of this ridiculous litigation, but it's also not fair that Cummins bear the cost of insisting that local government officials obey the law they're sworn to uphold."

More on this lawsuit at Leucadia Blog.

2011 IN REVEIW: Judge's Disclosure Order Appealed

From the Coast New, June 9, 2011:

"After a two-hour closed session June 3, City Council voted to appeal a judge’s ruling that requires the city to disclose a draft report of road conditions that it previously refused to release to the public."

"The 4-1 vote, with Councilwoman Teresa Barth dissenting, came after half-a-dozen speakers urged the council to comply with the judge’s ruling and make the draft document public. Tony Kranz, a former City Council candidate, asked the council to make its deliberations public."

"[ . . . ] Barth further reasoned that a bright line rule on what the city could disclose to the public and when, would only come from the creation of a so-called “sunshine ordinance.”

"Transparency is the foundation of an ethical government,” she said. “Local policies that go beyond the minimum requirements of the Brown Act and the Public Records Act help to strengthen public trust and confidence in their government. That is why I support a sunshine ordinance for the city of Encinitas."

Cummins blasted the council’s decision to appeal.

“This all could have been avoided at multiple stages if the council had been willing to openly discuss this issue and follow the letter and spirit of the law,” he said.

“The closed session documentation shows what a mess they (the city) made. They can’t get out of their web of deceptions,” he said. “The draft (report) was dated December 2009, the final March 2010, and in summer 2010 denied the public access to the document saying it was still draft, and changed their story when they got to court,” he said. “They were simply trying to avoid releasing the report.”

“The California Constitution clearly states ‘The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business, and therefore…the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny,’” Barth said.

In the comments there is this gem:

"I’d like to ask Encinitas residents, has it been worth it to have Glenn Sabine cost us $80,000 for the first lawsuit that he lost, or would everyone else have liked to have had them turn over the information to Kevin? To add insult to injury, they are going to take it to court a second time and lose again! Dan Dalager was in a minor league as compared to Sabine!"

Raspberry to City of Encinitas

A raspberry to the city of Encinitas for fighting a misguided battle against its own residents.

Our Mayor, City Attorney and our City Government all deserve sand in their stockings this year.

Just in time for the holidays. Read more, read the whole story at today's North County Times.

That's the naughty side, the nice is Kevin Cummins. This Encinitas citizen's pursuit of city pavement report documents is a gift to the community. Clarification: his relentless pursuit is a gift, the report? Not so much.