Our New Mayor Teresa Arballo Barth

Lisa Shaffer (new Deputy Mayor), Tony Kranz & Mark Muir with Kathy Hollywood, City Clerk. Patch

Photo via Dave Roberts Twitter. 

(Patch video removed because of autoplay feature.)

Update: encinitasyouneedus video clips and links to more local news stories. First, Stocks and Bond leave and the newly elected council members are sworn in and serenaded.

Teresa Barth addressed the old ways of disrespect and hurt and what the new approach will mean. Unlike the treatment of her where she was accused of not being a team player when she didn't vote with the majority, she spoke about the choice for someone to vote against the other four was a good thing.  It meant a person was willing to stand up to what he or she believes.  She speaks candidly about what she had thought this decision would be and turned to her colleagues for the nomination. The room erupted at the final unanimous vote.

UT-San Diego 

Coast News

No on K - Mayoral Rotation Abused

Today at Encinitas You Need Us blog we posted the letter to the editor / Oped from Councilwoman Barth on why she voted no for proposition K - for an elected mayor for Encinitas.

This blog has followed the ongoing pressure early this last year that Mayor Jerome Stocks, aided by Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar, have put on the council to pass an ordinance to ensconce Gaspar as Mayor.  When this failed they went along with Jim Bond's wish to have an elected mayor in Encinitas.  

Regardless of the explanations (which change over time) for not simply codifying our mayoral rotation system to eliminate bias and political maneuvering, the council majority refuses to acknowledge why.  It is simply to keep the power and influence of that position within the majority group. 

The summary of clips from the latest working back to the oldest on this blog is here.

The clip below shows how emotional Mayor Stocks is about not getting his way on his plans. 

Bonus points if you spot a glimmer of any of these following in this clip: peace, generosity, engagement, humility, equanimity, empathy or wabi-sabi. Anyone?

Mayor, We're Not Amused with Your Massive Waste

Those who are watching are very unhappy with the current council majority marshaled by Jerome Stocks. Besides the unwelcoming behavior, rudeness and marginalizing of the public shown in so many clips, described in the several hundred posts here; he has mounted personal campaigns for his own ends rather than for what he hypocritically terms the public's business.

In the past year this mayor has directed the most wasteful use of staff time and energy, in turn a significant number of the populace's time and energy for what? The two most glaring examples are those wherein Mayor Stocks was embarrassed and he manufactured an official format to retaliate.

When a room full of people turned their backs on Jerome Stocks as their new mayor he blanched and stammered.  Within 6 weeks he'd choreographed a scheme to appoint a mayor who had the most votes at his or her last election and this mayor would pick his or her own deputy mayor.  Of course the whole dance number between he and his partner Kristin Gaspar was to be his coup de grâs to position Princess Narcissus as the first of many of the crony club in the mayor chair.

This effort was thwarted several times, thankfully, by Bond or Muir who didn't play along. Nonetheless - time, energy and using up precious council attention from the people's business to Stock's annual embarrassment to justify abusing Teresa Barth's right to serve her constituency as mayor. See, her embarrassing revelations of Stocks has never been forgiven or forgotten.  This 2012 election's Proposition K - should we vote for mayor position? Prop L -should it be for 2 years? Prop M - should it be for 4 years? It is all part of the original embarrassment of Stocks. He probably won't stop until he can buy the damn title outright.

The second monster waste is based on payback for the whole Arts Alive Banner debacle where Stocks made an ass of himself in treating Maggie Houlihan's image on the banners as a kind of personal threat or rebuke or something or other equally false.  More than a year later and countless meetings, staff assignments, paid outside lawyers, ACLU, bogus subcommittee, tv time, lots of press ink (and digital band width) devoted to Stocks heartless petulance, yet need to justify / blame / deflect, etc.

On October 10, at what was to be the final time this abhorrent agenda item was to be aired, Lisa Shaffer spoke to the essence of this incredible waste.

So, on top of thousands of dollars and hours the council voted to adopt a terribly written and unnecessary sign ordinance for a non-existant risk  to "avoid public controversy or the perception of any such figures both positive or negative." As Shaffer says, "Why is that a legitimate goal for the city?"

Why indeed?  Public controversy and public perception are Mayor Stocks' seeming fixations. He can grow furious if he is called out, exposed or challenged.  His failing in his own very fragile self-regard here has cost the city far too dearly.

Sometimes candidates could stand to be embarrassed, when they behave in contemptible ways.

According to Mary: Not-So-Special "Prop K"

You Can't Get Along

 

"Where is the outcry for this issue?" She answers simply, "This is an issue because you can't get along."  Kathleen Lees attempts to make a centrist, non-confrontive series of statements regarding the last minute agenda item tacked onto the July 11, 2012 Special City Council Meeting, the proposed ballot initiative for an elected mayor in Encinitas.  At the core she was naming the problem.

One of the reasons a series of complex posts were presented this last week was this very comfortable, simplistic rendering of the majority's unacceptable treatment of their elected colleague, Teresa Barth, for years.  This is a kind of incivility that millions of people around the country witness each and every day in our culture. It has become a culture of bullys and bigots.  Right here in our council the regular attendees, advocates for their own neighborhoods and interest groups (like last nights skateboarders, dog owners, scientists, traffic critics, sports enthusiasts and league businessmen) all want their voices heard and documented. Even the most outspoken, the bossy, the curmudgeons, the preachers and the politically wonky are supposedly given that right in a democratic system's bill of rights.

The posts on this blog, the clips here and the archived hundreds all show a majority council made up of those who would deny a fully open government, who show intolerance for dissenting opinions, make false acusations and manipulate the process for political gain. The political goal of a zero sum game means a complete blackout of their opposition.

As the clip text states:

Jerome Stocks and the majority on the council over the last six years have shown over and over again their utter contempt for Teresa Barth. Yet even today, with the simplistic "he said, she said" model of reporting by  local news it is all too easy to see controversy and a parity in viewpoints that just doesn't exist. Stocks simply refuses to allow Teresa Barth any position, any voice or any credit as a colleague. She has been "othered" since the day she was elected. That is reprehensible, but even more unacceptable is that Teresa Barth represents the voices of the thousands and thousands of Encinitas voters who have had their votes erased by disenfranchising their choice, their elected official.

We must demand to be heard.  Moreover, it is our moral duty to stand up to the bullying that our elected official is made to endure, despite her consistently respectful demeanor and robust support of the entire community.  If we are attacked for supporting our own right to voice our opinions our defending our public servant we simply don't have to play along.  Confrontation is our right, despite what Mayor Stocks or Deputy Mayor Gaspar may label it this week.

They're still Terrified of Teresa Barth

They are nothing if not relentless in their goal to completely silence Councilwoman Barth and the large number of voters who she represents. The goal in repeatedly bringing back and attacks on Barth seems to aim at destroying her opportunity to come out of exile as the Encinitas preferred mayor. What the hell scares them so much?  Like clockwork every 6 weeks there is some sort of Stocks led power play, masked as a kind of populist move to legitimatize the selection of mayor as fair and civil. 

Review following 2011 mayor selection evening when people turned their backs as Stocks and Gaspar ensconced themselves in the positions of leadership.  

At February 15, 2012 these two acted in concert to introduce a 2 year mayoral scheme that would make Gaspar mayor. This Mayoral Mambo was out of the blue and thankfully didn't get enough votes from their own team. 

Here is what Teresa Barth said at that meeting.  Even now, five months and two council attempts later to get questions answered by staff go ignored.  This is also revealed in the post that follows this clip.

This post from Encinitas You Need Us Blog is a reprint.  It is one of the popular posts on the blog.

They're Terrified

It was highly entertaining in these last few days to read all of the comments following Jerome Stocks embarrassing letter in responding to Teresa Barth's letter in Encinitas Patch.   First, it was appropriate for Barth to publish her perspective as her voice on the council is so consistently ignored, dismissed or drowned out by four others of the super majority. On the other hand Jerome Stocks gets his bully pulpit on the dais, control of the agenda, a North County Times (NCT) reporter who acts practically like his publicist and other media focus and framing.

Yet the Stocks letter is a gigantic overreaction to Barth's statement of her experiences.  He and his cronies have treated this woman's minority voice on the council with irrational fear.  What kind of power toppling abilities does she have that motions, agenda item requests, counter arguments, insights from other California cities, advocacy for residents, (even a vote for the mobile home tenants for God's sake) might she bring down for them?  These mighty majority act like theirs is very fragile platform. They may be correct. There are hours of meetings which are pretty fact-free or so orchestrated for confusion it is difficult to mount rational responses. There is not a lot of 'there' there.  We know its been years since anything has been built or accomplished.  Even the General Plan Update (GPU) is being sold as a hoax by the council who brought it to life.

Undeniably there is a great deal of money behind these big boys.  Nobody needs to be told that, although it would be helpful if we could be reading in the press the names behind those who back this cabal at city hall.  It is well past time for that preliminary investigation.

Yet, these comments in the letters here and here are a wonderful sign that there are so many articulate, informed and savvy people paying close attention to these (mental and emotional) lumbering brutes who think the city is theirs and the inhabitants are all asleep or imbeciles.  Wide awake comments at NCT's, A"So Much For Democracy" Raspberry discussion thread brought another batch of insight and resistance, though the regular majority's gang were still there crying about that mean (how dare she) Barth and anyone who would attack poor Stocks and Co.

If you wrote a comment speaking out for Barth, against the Crony Club - give yourself a pat on the back.  Several comments were inexplicably deleted.  I hope they might be recovered as they belonged with the rest.  Imagine if 40 people responded rapidly to an engaging story for challengers to the monopoly or to a hit piece.  This would be a revitalized, engaged community before the election was even under way.

6 weeks later . . . 

Mayor Stocks argues again and Deputy Mayor Gaspar has full blown Poutrage

following Councilwoman's speech and the many remarkable speakers in support of democratic process, dissent and Teresa Barth personally.

Activists / Advocates Speak Out - A Sampling of the Dozen

2012 Council Candidates also speak out. 

Lisa Shaffer published her statement prior to the this March 28 meeting and EYNU captured it. And Tony Kranz spoke out at this meeting with his own unique experience and perspective on the faux populist and criteria arguments.

Wed. night - Now 16 weeks later (whoops their skipped opportunities). This winner take all crowd in the majority again can waste time - supposedly on the people's business - to distract and abuse the public on this political attempt to garner complete control of the city council process in Encinitas.

This ordinance is STILL poorly written, still without answering repeated questions for more detail and still politically driven, and not much more. Nothing is broken here, it's fixed. The personal grudges of this majority are frightening in their relentlessness and viciousness. What do they fear? And a special note to the old guy who has vowed to bow out and vowed to change the mayoral selection to an elected option. Sometimes you just don't get what you want. Please let go of your grudge from years ago. You and Muir can take the higher ground.

ATTENTION:  All hands on deck for Wednesday, July 11, 6 pm special council meeting to be held at Encinitas Community Center.  The financial bamboozlement of the Hall Property park and the Moonlight beach improvements will be item #1,  this mayoral grab action is #2 on the agenda.  Bring your cameras and enthusiasm.

Our Mayor Tightly Wound

Editor's perspective

This view is not reflected in candidate's positions, council member's positions or other citizens.  It is in fact honed from a life of observation and views related to social justice and citizen participation echoed around the country. 

It's almost a national pastime for those who hold all the power to routinely blame the victims of that power that they wield. Ask anyone who has been silenced or marginalized by institutionalized practices of wealth and power.

Encinitas has its own beach town version in our local political scene, funded by great wealth in land use and construction (among others).  There are big political and financial players in the region who do not want anyone to challenge the control this council majority who serve them has maintained for a decade. Stocks, Gaspar, Muir and Bond are their representatives.  The upcoming election is one of many threats to this established power base.  Gaspar as mayor, no matter who wins or loses the election will be a way to keep the overlords happy.

Councilwoman Barth Encourages Citizen Participation

This clip is the bit that led into Gaspar's poutrage in the preceding post below.  For those who watched Gaspar lash out at Barth without any truthful evidence - again - this clip shows how desperate the mission must be to get that contrived ordinance in place.

It really isn't about Teresa Barth.  It isn't about poor Ms. Gaspar having her own problems with what she claims does and doesn't offend her.  This is raw political power maneuvering, framing and the dozen speakers and many dozens more watching at home and in the council chamber and those who watched clips after know this. 

Maybe the deliberate framing to make Gaspar the victim works for the powers that be.  This doesn't mean the press should continue to lap up what they've been spoon fed.  I'm talking to you Jon Horn, Barbara Henry and Wehtahnah Tucker. Enough with the false equivalency when one lone voice to represent half of Encinitas is shut out and public speakers are treated with barely veiled contempt. Thankfully, there are so many willing to be vigillant.  As several speakers said, they didn't want to be at the city council meeting for more than 4 hours last Wednesday night or any night.

Press

Council postpones decision on mayor selection process

Encinitas mayor proposal tabled after heated debate

City Council to Continue Talks on Mayor Selection Process 

Gaspar Poutrage

So much for the shiny, smiley version of Kristin Gaspar. This was no Gaspar the Friendly Ghost in the crony machine. Last night we all witnessed Gaspar the Toxic Host as she spewed venom at Councilwoman Barth that seemed to be coming from a lot of dark and nasty places.

Person after person spoke articulately about item #9 on the consent calendar, all were in opposition to making Stocks and Gaspar concocted mayor selection process the official policy.  The big surprise is that Bond and Muir found some gumption and at least postponed any vote. Or, at least that didn't mind openly defying the mayor to avoid bad public image.

Gaspar went into full poutrage. Don't take my word. Check this out, Gaspar insists that she is somehow a victim of big, bad Barth:

100% support for Teresa Barth? The lies continued. What alternate universe does Gaspar inhabit, or what universe inhabits her? Try as she might to build a false case that Teresa Barth is deserving of vile treatment she endures, the proof is obvious.  Pick a week, any week and watch closely.  It's especially obvious in person.  Last night's open cruelty showed no friendly ghost here this deputy mayor, no illusions.

Press Updates:
Patch editor Marlena Medford missed the mark in describing yet another mayor temper tantrum as Stocks banged his gavel and stalked out AFTER snarling at the audience about their lack of decorum.  Absolutely no sense of the irony . . . , but the comments catch that very quickly.

Spoiler: Mayor's Speech for Tonight's Meeting 3/28/12

Several Encinitas residents have offered for all of us the brusque, dismissive proclamation from Jerome Stocks in answer to criticism of the questionable legality of tonight's item #9 ordinance on the consent calendar.  Hubris, thy name is Jerome.
Sample #1

On Mar 28, 2012, at 11:48 AM, "Milton Saier" wrote:

Dear Mr Stocks,
Who should run Encinitas – the voters, or the cronies on the Council? Today (Wednesday, March 28), the Council is likely to vote for a change that would anoint Kristin Gaspar as mayor for the next two years, regardless of who the voters elect in November. Fearful of the growing anti-incumbent movement in our city, you and Gaspar contrived a proposal that would make Ms. Gaspar the mayor for the next two years, based on the 2010 election. Under the current system, the mayor is elected by a majority vote of the Council. Without the proposed new change, when the voters elect new Council members in November, that new majority could elect someone else, such as Teresa Barth, who has never had the opportunity to serve in spite of her popularity and her 6 year tenure on the council. Under the proposed new ordinance, Ms. Gaspar would be anointed Mayor and could choose her own Deputy Mayor. The proposed ordinance change is unfair, undemocratic and poorly written. If the council passes it, as expected, the purpose of democracy will be defeated. I therefore urge you to rescind your proposal.

Milton Saier
xxx Quail Gardens Ln., Encinitas, CA 92024,

From: Jerome Stocks

Date: March 28, 2012 2:59:28 PM PDT
To: Milton Saier
Subject: Re: Council meeting today

With all due respect, the new policy puts the voters' top choice as Mayor, and the City Council has no voice in the matter. I'm sorry Ms. Barth is bitter about letting the voter's decide because she wasn't the top vote getter, but that's life.

You're email is myopically focused on the imminent situation and doesn't take into consideration that as we move forward this new policy will afford greater stability and predictability for the leadership of our city.

Further, this decision was reached at a publicly noticed meeting in February and this is merely the codification of the decision previously made.

I hope this information is helpful to you,

Jerome Stocks
Mayor (the last council selected mayor)
City of Encinitas

On Mar 28, 2012, at 3:50 PM, "Milton Saier" wrote:

Dear Mr. Stocks,
First you should know that I have never met Ms Barth; nor have I ever communicated with her. I do not know her feelings at all, even second hand. You certainly are quick to jump to conclusions.

Second, I see this move for what it is: undemocratic, unfair and a misrepresentation of the voter's wishes. However I do understand YOUR intent, and this makes me question your qualifications for the position you now hold.

Sincerely,
Milton Saier

On Mar 28, 2012, at 4:09 PM, Jerome Stocks wrote:

Dear Mr. Saier,

We will need to agree to disagree because I can't wrap my arms around your contention that the voters choosing the Mayor is undemocratic, unfair, or a misrepresentation of the voters wishes.

As for me jumping to a conclusion, I didn't. Ms. Barth has not been shy about her perspective on this issue.

JS

From: Milton Saier
Date: March 28, 2012 5:13:00 PM PDT
To: Jerome Stocks
Subject: Re: Council meeting today

You can't be as stupid as you sound.

Sample #2

On Mar 28, 2012, at 3:49 PM, "xxx" wrote:
City Council Members,

I hope you will not vote to approve item #9 that is on tonight's agenda's consent calendar. I believe that changing the way our Mayor is appointed or elected needs to be fully discussed and vetted. I do believe a change needs to happen, but not like this.

When I voted for city council members during the last election, I was not aware that I would in turn be voting for who would fill the position of Mayor. If we are going to have an elected Mayor, then the voting citizens of Encinitas need to know this when they are voting.

I understand that the Mayor put this on the consent calendar because he wants to pass an ordinance and that two public hearings are required. However, I watched the council meeting when this was discussed. To me it looked like it was almost scripted. It was discussed quickly and the motion appeared to come out of left field, next thing you know the Deputy Mayor seconds it, it gets called for a vote and the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council Member Muir vote aye and Council Members Barth and Bond vote no. There was no discussion and the public was caught off guard, and I don't believe the council had any staff analysis on this option.

There were several other options presented but they did not EVEN have a chance to be discussed by the council or staff recommendations.

The ordinance is VERY unclear as written. When would it go into effect? If we are going to have an elected Mayor, then let's have a truly elected Mayor. Adopting this ordinance does not follow a logical and ethical course.

I urge you to not approve this item. It is just plain wrong and not ready for council vote.

Thank you for your time,
Lisa Leslie Encinitas, CA

On Mar 28, 2012, at 4:15 PM, Jerome Stocks wrote:

With all due respect, the new policy puts the voters' top choice as Mayor, and the City Council has no voice in the matter.

You're email doesn't take into consideration that as we move forward this new policy will afford greater stability and predictability for the leadership of our city.

Further, this decision was reached at a publicly noticed meeting in February and this is merely the codification of the decision previously made.

I hope this information is helpful to you,

Jerome Stocks

Mayor (the last council selected mayor)
City of Encinitas
Sent from my iPad

From: Lisa
Date: March 28, 2012 4:28:04 PM PDT To: Jerome Stocks Subject: Re: Council Meeting Consent Calendar item #9

I do understand that part of the ordinance you want approved. And it has merit. But it needs to be put in place before elections take place.

We do need to take out the way the Mayor is selected. It should be either a vote or a rotating basis that is not a vote by the council.

What I am asking is that people know when they vote that their vote is going to affect who is Mayor.

With that said, when is this ordinance supposed to go into effect? If it should pass?

Sent from my iPhone
Might have typos

Gaspar the Empty Boast

A month ago Casper the Friendly Ghost haunted my thoughts and mental images.  Well, it's morphed into Gaspar the Empty Boast for pretty obvious reasons to anyone paying attention.  Pick a meeting, any meeting and you'll hear some self-adoring declarative statement from Gaspar.

But, these statements, boasts are largely illusionary if the majority council script needs to read differently for those in charge, those funding the majority campaigns. Like Mayor Stocks and the other council majority members Bond and Muir who haunt city hall; consistency, actual facts, alternatives to exclusively self-referential anecdotal judgements are rare.

 

Beware the illusions, the woman must be challenged.  How can she use the term moving forward over and over again, while virtually putting the breaks on a 2-year process and starting over?  How can she demand speedy turnaround in one breadth and caution slow going in another?  Words often become nonsense if we search beyond the giggling feel good sound of them all. We deserve much better than empty words, even if read well from a script. See previous post, Bullies' Articulately Rendered Figurehead* discussing Gaspar's script reading.

*BARF

Mayoral Mambo

The dance team of Mayor Jerome Stocks and Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar showed highly choreographed routine at the Feb. 15, 2012 council meeting's "discussion" of the mayor selection process. Their fancy footwork kept a fast tempo.  From start to finish, after the public speakers, the entire dais ensemble clipped through this mayoral "discussion" in less than 39 minutes.

This video clip below only includes the leading mayoral mambo, excluding Bond's mumbo jumbo ballot measure distraction (18 minutes), Muir's pirouettes via his role to make motions, turn the tables and stay in the background (under 4 minutes). Teresa Barth was ignored; move along folks nothing to see here. But, do look here for her dramatic solo. (plus other questions = 6.5 minutes) All of this was outside the featured principals' dance number shown below.



With real flourish the team hit their rhythmic drum beat again and again, that the mayoral selection process was broken and needed to be fixed. They have that backwards because the fix needs to be broken up. If this vote isn't upturned, eliminated or disallowed, no challenge to the council majority may have the power of the mayoral position for years.

The next mayor would have to be Gaspar as she had more votes than Barth in the last election.  This was assured by Gaspar's-Stocks' framing. Leading with the concept of highest vote getter as the measure of voter participation - which they assure us (like an immutable fact) is the solution to citizen's criticism.  (Speaking of which, remember when next highest vote getter, Tony Kranz, was overlooked in favor of friend Mark Muir in filling Maggie Houlihan's vacant seat?)

But, they add another obstacle qualifier, consistency. This would disallow any new election winner with the highest votes who wasn't an incumbent.  Finally, Gaspar-Stocks trot out operational experience in order to position the last 2 years of a 4 year term for the top vote getter as a condition.  This shoehorns Gaspar alone into the mayor seat in 2013-2014.  And, big leap finish . . . in the mayor seat to campaign for 2015.  And remember, they have included in the mayor mambo the turns for deputy are totally decided by the mayor.  Our girl, Gaspar has already proven that with enough money behind a candidate, he or she doesn't have to have any political experience, knowledge of issues or grassroots community support as long as there are big dollars, political moves and a script.  Classy.  That's some fancy sidestepping of our democratic principles with a smile right there, folks.

Tuesday is Dues-day: Mayor Rotation

We are at a critical place in Encinitas.  The next 9 months demand dues. Today is Dues-day.

Our dues?  Paying attention . . . Yes, by simply schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported you can legitimately call yourself a citizen, an advocate for democracy.

Being vigilant is being an activist, not the crazed lunatic portrayed by those in power.  If larger numbers of people are informed and paying attention, we make changes. Simple math.  There are only a tiny minority trying to garner power, land and influence over the many thousands simply wanting to live a quality life.

Each Tuesday is Dues-day and a post on some basic aspect of local government will feature some facts, a video clip (called Citizen Tip), some links or images to build up our sense of the process and how this has historically played out at city hall.  This week the mayor rotation is one of several important agenda items for the Wednesday city council meeting at 6 pm.

This clip shows how year after year the council majority have kept Teresa Barth from assuming the role of mayor. If letting a majority keep someone from serving as mayor is the current policy, it may be legal. It isn't ethical or representative. As James Bond says, "that's okay, but it's not good policy."



This post isn't offering the solution, just engaging the conversation and providing the background. These last three years show mean spirited displays of political power and failures to match words to deeds.

Our Mayor Stocks blog has written almost a half dozen posts on mayor selection seen here. We must demand much more and demonstrably a whole new batch of council members.

Democracy isn't free.  We're all paying the price of turning a blind eye to the goings on around us in our government.  So much has been trashed, so much done in our names that neither benefit us or our communities or the resources all around.  Locally this has cost us representation of growing majority of voters as the city council is made up of a super majority serving primarily commercial, developer, wealthy investors over the majority of residents or the common good.  Even if these four council people believe they are doing the work of the people, they have consistently marginalized and silenced Teresa Barth as well as dissent, minority views and transparent government practices in general.  And that is not democracy, even if they wrote a code or ordinance saying it is.

2011 IN REVIEW: More booing Gaspar

Logan Jenkins of San Diego Union Tribune
January 9, 2011.

"A soft brick — the Bonehead First Play award — to freshman Encinitas Councilwoman Kristen Gaspar for failing in dramatic fashion to live up to her campaign pledge to bridge, not widen, the bitterly personal schism on the Encinitas council."

"By nominating her political supporters (and likely mentors) — Councilmen Jim Bond and Jerome Stocks — for mayor and vice mayor respectively, Gaspar, 30, demonstrated one of two things about her political character:

She’s either naive or she’s secretly spoiling for a fight while pretending to be Ms. Sweetness and Light."

Another alternative is that she is the hand selected spokesmodel, a "seemingly" non-threatening, young, white, female, family-friendly delivery system for the majority talking points. This is only effective with the wrong-headed, thick-headed or heads up the ass sheeple.

2011 IN REVIEW: "Reindeer Games" Award

The North County Times printed an editorial December 20, 2010, a roses and raspberries piece that blasts Stocks, Bond and the then newest to the club, Gaspar.

It's only a short paragraph or two but well worth following the link here.

Great line:

"Newly elected councilwoman Kristin Gaspar ---- who opined during the campaign that the council "has too often been distracted by petty personal feuds and hyper-partisanship" ---- deserves special censure for making her first official act a motion that only reinforces those feuds."

These Reindeer Games are captured in the video clip below. Gaspar's bit begins at about 1:10 into the clip. (Trigger warning for gag reflex.)

Letter to the Editor

Discord in Encinitas

By Rachelle Collier

In response to “Encinitas mayor choice raises ire again” (San Diego Union Tribune North Coast, Dec. 17), about Councilwoman Teresa Barth once again not being appointed to be mayor or deputy mayor for Encinitas at the special council meeting Dec. 13: [click to link to video & blog background]
There were quite a few of us there, who silently protested the much-anticipated oversight of appointing a hardworking council member who truly represents the people of Encinitas. We made no comments because the City Council majority does not listen unless your ideas and comments mirror theirs.

The question is who are we? The council majority spins it that we are agitators. The truth is we are the people of Encinitas, coming from each community with a reason. We do not attend council meetings because we have no life, or nothing better to do. We are there because we have business at the city, neighborhood issues, questions and concerns. Some of us are on town councils, boards, HOAs and Main Street associations, but all of us go to City Council meetings because we have an interest in improving this community.

Unlike some of the Encinitas council majority, we are courteous and concerned with making this city a better place to live. We are not beholden to special interests, some of whom were there at the council meeting and, of course, did not stand up. Why should they? They are being represented quite nicely by the new Encinitas City Council majority. So to those who still wonder who we are, we are the citizens of Encinitas.

Food Fight Mischaracterization

Citizens Turn Their Backs on New Mayor & Deputy Mayor

HISTORY UPDATE: see below clips



Outgoing Mayor Bond is rewriting history here (as he is wont to do). This video is his previous description of the tradition pattern of rotation known for over twenty years as the method used to select a new mayor.



First Time Teresa Barth is in line as mayor, December 8, 2009:

San Diego Union Tribune article December 11, 2009 regarding Jerome Stocks:

"Stocks didn't explain his reasoning at the meeting. But in a phone interview yesterday, he said he was sending Barth a message that she had angered the council majority with personal attacks and a lack of leadership since 2006."

Teresa Barth had boycotted closed sessions by the council and the 24-hour notice used to label all closed sessions as special in what one critic describes as and obvious construct to circumvent the law. The city subsequently changed noticing without acknowledging these tactics.

Barth also responded in 2009 to Orpheus Park neighbors by asking the City and her Council colleagues to halt trees being cut down until someone could explain to these citizens why it was necessary. Mayor Dan Gallager reacted to the public and press attention with email blasts against Barth saying,

"I will NEVER vote to appoint into that position anyone who does not have the competency to work through the system to obtain their goals, and instead spends their time fueling Chinese fire drills and planting discord, solely to keep the spotlight on themselves."