It's a big weekend ahead for the people in Encinitas who celebrate the Holidays.
Parade
Saturday, December 1st. The Tree Lighting in the Lumberyard at 5 pm is the apparent kickoff. The parade itself begins at 5:30 at D Street and will end at J Street in downtown Encinitas.
Kringle Mingle in Cardiff.
Sunday, December 2nd, 1-5 pm at Cardiff Town Center.
Councilwoman Barth and her husband Don donated the tree she is standing beside here. Goodwill to all seems to be a theme with this couple with a special love of the coastal community where they live.
Update: For those who are confused, the point of this post is that Barth and her husband personally give of themselves and financially (like the donation of this tree) - outside of her elected role as a council member. I'd ask if anyone can name another council member who does the same, maybe even those who have severed for more than a decade?
Sadly, we have precious little donated by the very wealthy of this community for the goodwill of all beyond the requisite allotments for the CRC, Botanical Gardens, etc. This isn't meant to be critical of any donations of any amount by anyone at all. There are generous souls among us.
It is still an indictment of sorts to the scrooge-like history of the most wealthy. There are individuals who are more than able to buy the Pacific View property (with money that wouldn't even be missed in the fiscal world they live in) and give it to the city. Don't hold your breath.
12/1/12 Updates: Apologies for date, day confusing post. Holiday PSA writing fail.
Let's take this week's city council meeting scheduled today, Nov. 28, 2012. There is nothing on the agenda. Just as well to not have to sit through hours of Jim droning on, Mark mouthing catch phrases, Kristin moving forward (using hand gestures) and Jerome's sarcasm.
This very last meeting is really a lame duck meeting. Anything that is really outstanding for the agenda is best dealt with after Dec. 11, with the changing of the council members and selecting a new mayor and deputy mayor.
And James Bond will no doubt be fêted yet again. Just how many of these is this town going to plan? The image above represents the apathy cheerleader - fitting for this mood of boredom. It also fits James Bond to a tee. He had hundreds of ways to describe why people shouldn't bother to come to city council meetings, attend workshops or be engaged as a voter. He could ramble on for 10 minutes or more about how he once bothered and learned it just didn't matter. Change is impossible and it's best to trust those on the dais. Move along folks . . .
Sixteen years were already too long, James Bond knew this and decided not to run in 2008. Then at the last minute his vanity or some other bad influence led him back into election campaign mode. This was way past Bond's sell-by date and the community had to wait it out, as did staff and colleagues.
Once or twice this year he did halt the juggernaut that Stocks and Gaspar created together with their leadership positions in running the meeting to serve their own ends. We can thank him for that. So, let the guy have his last bows tonight.
Boredom is from more than this meeting tonight. Where is it written that the binge consumption - be it holiday foods, retail products or entertainment be practically the only news of the day? It is a real feeling of drift to be secular, not participating in holiday and generally a non-consumer. Possibly it is also the after effects of Manchester buying up NCT and Patch editor Marlena Medford turning over that role to Daniel Woolfolk. *Sigh*
Then there is the shitstorm of misinformation, hysteria, silliness and sex in the MSM that drives one to drink or otherwise shut down mental function to survive. General's genital drama, Twinkies, Grand Bargain, War on Christmas, War on Men versus real undeclared and unaccountable Drone Wars and Murder of Gaza and Climate Change. Maybe this backdrop of crazy and horror just exaggerates the dearth of local stories.
Lastly, it has been a reoccurring thought for some years now that we have got it totally wrong. If you observe nature all around it's apparent that this is a time to turn inward and to slow down. The days are short and the nights are long. It is a time to conserve energy as it gets cooler. It is a time for interactions to dramatically drop off, for sleeping longer hours and needing less to eat with the minimal energy expended. These messages are everywhere in the trees, the birds, critters and waterways.
So, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. There will most likely be light posting from now until Our Mayor goes dark on Winter Solstice, something we all share whether we celebrate or not.
The recent news of the Gaspars being the ones behind the We Love Encinitas fliers, using the taxpayer funded Citizen Satisfaction Surveyas 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 meetingwith 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 hereand 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?
"The goal for the corporations is to maximize profit and market share. And they also have a goal for their target, namely the population. They have to be turned into completely mindless consumers of goods that they do not want. You have to develop what are called 'Created Wants'. So you have to create wants. You have to impose on people what's called a Philosophy of Futility. You have to focus them on the insignificant things of life, like fashionable consumption. I'm just basically quoting business literature. And it makes perfect sense. The ideal is to have individuals who are totally disassociated from one another. Whose conception of themselves, the sense of value is just, 'how many created wants can I satisfy?' We have huge industries, public relations industry, monstrous industry, advertising and so on, which are designed from infancy to mold people into this desired pattern."
Videos of Walmart Workers on Thanksgiving Day orders to work.
Just in time for holidays, Brave New Films has a 5 year anniversary gift set of 10 dvds. Creator Robert Greenwald:
Since 2005, we've been fighting for a more just America with such films as Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Have you seen them all? Do you know a passionate activist that would love our work? We have our first five years of videos compiled into one big box set including the ones mentioned above PLUS Iraq for Sale, Rethink Afghanistan and hundreds of shorts. And you get the full length doc Koch Brothers Exposed. This is the perfect gift for a like-minded friend or family member this holiday season!
Maybe activists could chip in and purchase a set for the Encinitas Planning Department.
Last October 7th people were passing out this flyer at the annual Olivenhain Oktoberfest. People were outraged that the taxpayer funded Citizen Satisfaction Survey had been manipulated to serve as propaganda for Stocks campaign.
On Oct. 12 Encinitas Undercover posted the background on the mailer after the widespread delivery of this piece to people's homes.
"Think about that: Jerome Stocks' backers are getting tax deductions for sending out what are, for all practical purposes, campaign mailers. I suspect the IRS will frown on this charade and those involved will face legal consequences. But even if not, what was Stocks thinking? On the heels of sign-gate, to serve up another prime example of cutting corners and bending or breaking rules for political gain? How much more blatant could he be in validating the complaints of his harshest critics?"
Yesterday we learned that the person responsible for the mailers via the Secretary of State database thanks to Coastal Law Group responding to inquires for information.
Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar's Husband, Paul Gaspar!
Entity Name: WE LOVE ENCINITAS COMMUNITY ADVOCATES
Entity Number: C3515796
Date Filed: 10/22/2012
Status: ACTIVE
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: 140 ENCINITAS BLVD STE 105
Entity City, State, Zip: ENCINITAS CA 92024 Agent for Service of Process: PAUL GASPAR
Agent Address: 140 ENCINITAS BLVD STE 105
Agent City, State, Zip: ENCINITAS CA 92024
So, it isn't listed here whether this a non-profit or 501(c)(3). What is significant beyond the staggering arrogance of Paul Gaspar, Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar's husband, is the date of activation on Oct. 22 being two weeks after the date when the misleading campaign piece was widely distributed.
Is it stupidity, naiveté or as stated, staggering arrogance, to disregard laws so blatantly? It isn't like this family hasn't already been challenged and failed on this front. Before it was the deceptive slate mailers. Early in October Councilwoman Barth wrote a commentary reminding citizens to be ready for the October Surprise of hit pieces via the mail. This was cross posted at EYNY.
"Slate mailer companies are also used by various individuals to send out last minute "hit pieces" on candidates. By using a slate mailer the actual contributors can remain unknown until after the election when the contribution reports are filed with the FPPC. These companies also provide a means for contributors to, legally and illegally, circumvent local campaign contribution limits.
In the 2010 election, the Voter Education Group sent out a mailer endorsing candidates Kristin Gaspar and Dan Dalager and blasting me. The group was later fined more than $110,000 by the FPPC for various state-wide financial reporting violations.
It's not illegal to pay for a slate mailer endorsement but is it ethical?"
This is the pressing issue for Encinitas citizens and for the new City Council, what does Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar have to say about her husband's exploitive use of the taxpayer funded survey and corporation creation? We don't know all of the legal issues or ramifications, but we can uncover right now what the ethical issues are.
Remember these? This is the primitive version of etch-a-sketch. This particular graphic seemed apt for the outgoing Stocks and Bond.
Anyone who has been an observer, a student of the US political scene for the past 30 years is well aware of the phenomenon of induced amnesia. Our gigantic corporate media have perfected the erasure process with the Romney campaign. The biggest slate clearing in the last decade?
Bush? Bush who? (Locally, Dan? Dan who?)
Whatever is written or even video taped - rrrriiiiiiipppppppp - clear the page. Gone. Out of sight and out of mind.
Enough prologue, it is likely the level of awareness reached by voters this year will dissipate very quickly.
[Editor note: Missing portion in bold added late.] I believe it is important remind ourselves what we consider corrupt, unfair, damaging or uncivil. What should be exposed or punished? We need to come to an agreement of who is accountable and how this might be made clear to the community. The new council can be trusted to begin the new business at hand with this backdrop of the past available to inform decision making. My own belief is that maintaining and growing a public sector; e.g., an informed and engaged electorate, is far more important for activists' energy than anything that this new city council will be doing this year.
Collective issues like climate change, economic implosion, unemployment, food and water safety, failing infrastructure all need citizens who can come together in decision making. The market (speculation at the center) is the cause not the solution to so much that lies ahead. None of these issues will be well served by a crash course with frightened consumers who have been thrown in the civic engagement.
In reality it shouldn't be an either / or proposition, but with such tiny numbers of citizens with real knowledge of Encinitas political climate this is just a fact. That said, this blog will serve as a resource like the Encinitas Undercover blog, Encinitas You Need Us blog and the encinitasyouneedus YouTube channel for this past year. As pointed out since the early days of this blog, Leucadia blog served this purpose for their early writing chronicling local political characters with several posts this past year.
Because there are almost 300 Our Mayor posts that chronicle this end of a political majority's lock on Encinitas City Council, the blog will allow access and may be referenced at EYNU.
So, Our Mayor Stocks will still exist, but will be inactive. The blog will be dormant around winter solstice, Dec. 21 this year and that's appropriate as it started around the winter solstice last year. Winter Solstice brings the longest night of the year.
It is with pleasure we leave this behind. It feels petty when reporting petty - and the same goes for bullying, outbursts, lying, etc. Even when humor was injected and national stories interjected for some change, the negative approach to governing was an emotional energy suck. There is a toll it takes on the messenger. A long night indeed.
Last Wednesday, Nov. 14, was the first council meeting since the election when our Mayor Stocks was voted out of office by Encinitas voters.
Was there a statement from the dais from Our Mayor Stocks? No congratulations for the new candidates or their campaigns or concession words were offered. Nothing at the beginning of the meeting where he has often spoken off the cuff or at the end in a personal word while reporting on boards. No, not even a statement following the several oral communications speakers whose comments contained election tactics, electorate reactions, compliments to the candidates, praise for Barth and chastising Stocks. Of course it is ridiculous after 12 years to expect grace or the high moral ground from Jerome. Zero . . . beyond, Thank you for your comments.
Sadly, the criteria for success for Stocks has become whether or not he was rude, patronizing or dismissive. By that standard this next to the last meeting was a success.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to financial housekeeping issues of no great importance for debate and discussion. Someone from the public did pull item #5 from the consent calendar (meaning general administrative issue). This item was a request by Crown Castle to mount a telecomunications device on the utility pole on Blue Heron Ave. The agenda packet describes this, but it was presented as simply a contract issue of an additional device. This meant no discussion of technical or functioning was supposed to be allowed. Although this makes sense in an efficient approach to addressing regular housekeeping chores; this kind of narrow agenda definition has been favored by the council majority for years to keep volatile public protest off limits.
The three clips that follow speak to the petitioning neighbors rejection of this staff recommendation for an added device. Their concerns are clearly laid out and at the most basic level ask they their concerns be taken seriously. As the Jennifer Brimley the last public speaker below so aptly states, "This is your community too and you represent us, not Crown Castle."
Jim Madaffer representing Crown Castle presents what is essentially an argument that says, this is inevitable so get used to it. Plus this rather specious claim that radiation is not the issue, the health and safety issue is having enough of these - for emergencies.
Finally in this lineup is the Jennifer Brimley clip that challenges the Crown Castle's dismissal of transmission concerns among other points. She cites "Full Signal" the documentary that exposes the underlying financial criteria for the proliferation of these devices under the guise of legitimate need. The documentary movie website states:
"Full Signal examines the contradiction between health and finance, one of the many ironies of the fight to regulate antenna placement."
Councilwoman Barth voted against this with the straightforward fact, "The need hasn't been demonstrated to me." She discussed the previous council discussions in Sept. concerning Castle Group and the reasoning for coverage. Her request for clarification from the expert brought the Catch 22 answer that you'll have to listen to yourself to decipher.
Update 11/18/12: The following clip was accidentally left off and has been embedded again.
The pettiness that the title of this post asserts is this. If the council majority would simply reject the recommendation, no dire consequences would follow beyond annoyance for the vendor and maybe the staff. There would be time for the new council to look at the petitioners' request regarding DAS in terms of views, property values and health concerns. A chance for staff and the Environmental Commission to review research and the documentary film Brimley cites.
Stocks and Bond had no compelling reason to disregard the public's request. They are finished. It was petty. And it typifies the 20 year history of voting against public will and public concerns on behalf of for-profit private sector interests.
Blog Note: The final days for Our Mayor Stocks and this blog using Jerome Stocks name and title will probably reflect his silent skulking. But, one never knows if the big shouty part of his demeanor will show itself in the next several weeks. There is no reason to believe Jerome will leave politics, so it's impossible to predict what's next.
Now that the election is over and Jerome Stocks has no political standing locally or regionally, he is able to reveal his beliefs and his worldview more openly. It seems he is a part of the Shouty People in Wingnuttia with his far right reading recommendation from World Net Daily on his FB. The website has a uniquely narrow definition on the word free, but an extensive use of the word in the most inappropriate contexts.
This is the guy whose supporters called Shaffer and Kranz too extreme for Encinitas with fake images and scary big font headlines.
It has been widely reported that President Obama has offered up benefit cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in previous deficit negotiations. And while President Obama has said he'd veto any extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he has caved on important issues in the past.
So we need to keep pushing and tell President Obama to draw a line in the sand. To do this: sign the petition.
Some may have to Google, but I wager most know this word and exactly this emotional response to Jerome Stocks losing his place on the Encinitas City Council, SANDAG and NCTD. (Only 2 more meetings to chair.)
The voters of Encinitas spoke loud and clear.
Jerome Stocks a day later. NCT (UT?) "[ . . .] he saw the voting results as indication that voters felt his 12 years in office were long enough, commenting that “it’s out with the old and in with the new.”
You may tell yourself this. We have a different version with video clips.
But it gets better. The voters selected Dave Roberts over Jerome's candidate Steve Danon for San Diego County Supervisor. And, heart be still, US Representative Brian Bilbray is now out. It is all one crony club as Jerome is on Danon's campaign staff, Dannon is chief of staff for Bilbray and Christy Guerin, former Mayor of Encinitas and BFF to Jerome works for Bilbray. This means she too is out of a job. Oh and she is married to someone (Google for details, I'm still on vacation) in San Diego law enforcement. You know, these are the public union people who endorsed Stocks, Muir and Forrester. Who . . . what?
It's a club and we the majority of voters in Encinitas are not in it.
Today this makes me really proud.
It's not over by any means as Gaspar the former trainee (still meeting with the whiskered grifter for talking points) and the Muir duo with pilfered populist talking points are still with us. It is simply a new version. There will be civility and lots of polite smiles.
We simply have to sharpen our perception, our vigilance. But, boy howdy, does it feel good to know that a giant breath of fresh air just blew in from our electoral politics in spite of the massive waste of wealth. Schadenfreude.
P.S. Counting of provisional ballots (mail-in ballots turned into polling places on election day) is still going on and it looks like Tony's numbers are growing and Stocks percentage is falling. Delightful.
As Democracy Now! has previously reported, one of every four dollars spent on the campaign ads, direct mail and robocalls that target voters now comes from so-called "dark money" organizations. The IRS lets these groups keep their donors secret because they are considered "social welfare non-profits." But that changed this past Friday when a Montana judge ordered the release of one such group’s bank records. An investigation had found that Western Tradition Partnership may have misled the IRS about the extent of its political activities, and that citizens have a right to know where its campaign cash was coming from. The group is known for bringing a lawsuit to the Supreme Court that successfully challenged Montana’s ban on corporate spending in elections, and the resulting ruling extended the court’s Citizens United decision to include all 50 states. Friday’s ruling marks the first time a court has ordered a dark money group’s donors to be made public, and some say the judge’s move could serve as a warning to similar organizations.
