Decorum? Deplore Him?

Trust that the general voting public knows how they'd like to be treated at city council.

Last council meeting's public meeting on Encinitas Ranch Golf Authority (ERGA). 

Some clips.

Stop Clapping - Tinker Bell Long Since Died

Update at end
Confidence fairy regulated financial indebtedness to create a stable economy has failed over and over around the world.  It seems child-like to ignore. What worked prior to the last decade can no longer be considered the way of the future.

This week's reading brought some insight about the difficulty so many have in grasping this reality, while they keep clapping, like boosters for more and more debt to magically solve indebtedness as Jerome Stocks proclaims financial acumen, can be attributed to one's world view.

The agenda for this week makes this timely. Wednesday's City Council Meeting will be jammed full of confidence fairy predictions based on realities that can in no sound way be counted on to apply. Add to the fairy analogy the demand for us to trust that magical agreements, trust and assurance happen just out of our sight at City Hall where bankers and developers are special guests. We can only speculate about revenue or investment planning. Here are the two big agenda items:

• Public Hearing authorizing the issuance of up to $8,000,000 of lease revenue bonds ("the 2012 Bonds") related to the proposed capital improvements to the Encinitas Community Park site and the Moonlight Beach site. 

• Public Hearing authorizing the issuance of up to $1,000,000 of Encinitas Ranch Golf Authority Revenue Bonds related to proposed capital improvements to the Encinitas Ranch Golf Course.

 Of course world view affects more than economics. It shapes one's sense of justice, quality, success and the future. The quote below could fit for a huge swath of Encinitas citizens. It's taken from a piece by Jeremiah Goulka.

"We believed in competition and the free market, in bootstraps and personal responsibility, in equality of opportunity, not outcomes.  We were financial conservatives who wanted less government. We believed in noblesse oblige, for we saw ourselves as part of a natural aristocracy, even if we hadn’t been born into it.   [ . . .] We were tough on crime, tough on national enemies. We believed in business, full stop."

According to the narrative shared by Goulka, his worldview was particularly challenged in the last decade when his work took him as a lawyer deep into Dept. of Justice work, FEMA work, war zones and more that challenged the assumptions he had always held.

Our Mayor Stocks is in no way on the same trajectory of self-examination and re-evaluation of this author. Just revving his engine for full campaign mode, he is the antithesis as a major myth maker in creating the shiny patina of false security in refusing to broach difficult topics or acknowledge any weakness in any way - ever.

No, the author's narrative is the one hinted by Encinitas people at informal gatherings, on the streets, at meetings and in door to door interactions.  And there are no doubt hundreds who are questioning all alone and telling no one.  It is painful to question all that you have believed.

At the end of his article is this revelation:

No one wants to feel like a dupe. It is embarrassing to come out in public and admit that I was so miseducated when so much reality is out there in plain sight in neighborhoods I avoided, in journals I hadn’t heard of, in books by authors I had refused to read.  [ . . . ]

Others do because they grew up in families that simply got it. I married a woman who grew up in such a family, for whom all of my hard-earned, painful “discoveries” are old news. Each time I pull another layer of wool off my eyes and feel another surge of anger, she gives me a predictable series of looks. The first one more or less says, “Duh, obviously.” The second is sympathetic, a recognition of the pain that comes with dismantling my flawed worldview. The third is concerned: “Do people actually think that?”

Delusions are not a substitution for deliberations.

Update: Sunday night a reminder of a particularly relevant Our Mayor post submitted last April with this same theme. Also, search on financial label and many more posts will be listed. This is not our first debt rodeo.

Myths Encinitas

Although covered elsewhere, the myths of ERGA - Encinitas Ranch Golf Authority - need to be aired in an election year where so many other financial fantasies are being unveiled.

Over the last several years the story of why the ERGA agreement needs to be diddled with changes every time these developers and players approach the podium.

And, something missing from every council meeting, local press story or blog flinging scattered bits and pieces at us all is this, what about the management of this golf course. What about J.C. Golf and their failure of management?  Isn't this a first step in assessing performance in assigning accountability?

It was and is a myth that this is a well run facility that was without financial failings.  More importantly, this myth was known and kept afloat - as all records now indicate.

One only has to look at the condition of the property and holdings and compare it to what is being charged to golf or other services.

Here is a look back at some the archived clips at encinitasyouneedus.  Original meetings can be accesses for every speaker and arguments.

May 19, 2019 - Stocks pushes hard to "re-open" a 10 year old contract, lots of fact free assurances from the crony crowd that everything is looking great. Request from Council-woman Barth and Sheila Cameron for financial back-up. (Spoiler alert for the next clips following this, doesn't happen.)

 

In June an almost comical runaround from Jay Lembach in response to Councilwoman Barth's questions about obligations to ERGA's debts.

I told you so moment. Encinitas asked to take a preemptive hit for golf course.

Some history . . . Emphasis on how the developer, Carltas benefits above all. Phony baloney stuff criticized.  Risk taken in 1996, privatized gain is now looking for a socialized cost.  It is essentially a bail out.  Why didn't they just admit the truth? Request for audit . . .

2011 IN REVIEW: A "Fore" Raspberry

"A sour raspberry to the city of Encinitas for relying on homeowners fees to cover financial obligations of the Encinitas Ranch Golf Course. As the economy headed south, fewer people could afford to play golf --- and so income from the golf course is down."

"Some 900 homeowners live in Encinitas Community Facilities District 1, and pay an annual assessment that covers the cost of roads, sewer lines, etc., put in when their homes were built."

"The golf course is supposed to contribute to that fund, to help lower homeowners' obligations. That the golf course is now unable to cover its own obligations, leaving homeowners to pick up the difference, illustrates why it's better to have risk ventures like golf courses owned by private-sector outfits."

Source North County Times, July 11, 2011. Sounds like Stocks' sockpuppet "Coastal Watchdog" in the comments thread chiding the NCT.