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Within a week and despite outdated, non-relevant information, no staff analysis and even after almost 20 public speakers who waited up to 5 hours, some with expert testimony delivered around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 

Myths Encinitas

Mayor Stocks was interviewed for the campaign by Coast News and more than half of the responses related to his claims of transportation leadership.

The myth making here centers on two key features.  The first is  his giant wish making has nothing to do with being on the Encinitas City Council except as a means to his ends via his self-assigned regional board seats.  And these seats allow a small voice compared to federal and state officials in control of all of the aspirations and accomplishments he claims.

The second major myth is that his many years on the SANDAG and NCTD have been devoted to the Encinitas People's Business, capitalized to emphasize his actual responsibility.  A city council clip from the beginning of this year follows the article excerpt.  It's characteristic of his NCTD role being flaunted as part of a personal fiefdom rather than a public duty. Also, the pay to play aspect of these various plans don't really satisfy true public transit needs for all the people, just those able to foot the higher costs.

The article excerpt follows with OM editor comments bracketed:

As the SANDAG chairperson for a two-year term and the North County Transit District chairperson for two years, Stocks has become immersed in mass transit issues.  

He wants to be a part of the evolution of transit in Encinitas and throughout the county. “In terms of rail transit in the city, just like all along the coastal corridor, it will be double tracked, with more trains and a better commuter service,” he said. [federal & regional & state subsidy & planning dependent] 

“Federal regulations will change so that we could see light rail rather than heavy rail,” Stocks predicted. “Light rail use less energy, lower pollution and reduces sound impacts along the corridor,” Stocks said. “That directly impacts the quality of life.” [federal & regional & state subsidy & planning dependent] 

In addition, Stocks looks forward to the future growth in commuter rail and inner city transportation. “Encinitas’ relatively low density suburban geography doesn’t lend itself to successful mass transit,” he said. However, such services as the newly reintroduced Flex Bus that allows passengers to call ahead for door-to-door shuttle service within Encinitas and Solana Beach is a viable option. [federal & regional & state subsidy & planning dependent & ok if you have the fare price] 

As more and more cars take to the highways, Stocks said the future of Interstate 5 expansion includes HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes, two in each direction that will allow single passenger cars to pay for enhanced mass transit services. [federal & regional & state subsidy & planning dependent & ok if you have the fee price]

Here is that second major myth, Stocks doing the people's business in his role as NCTD chair. It looks more like another opportunity for self-congratulation and condescension towards Councilwoman Barth, numbering in the hundreds by Stocks and company over the past 5 years of meetings.  This matters because Barth's voice represents the community voice, the people's voice as much or more than any other council member. It was also the beginning of the more rehearsed version of dance team synchronization between Gaspar and Stocks.

View on YouTube if clip isn't displaying properly.

We have listened to years of meetings with council members reporting at the end of the meeting.  Jerome Stocks does not share much if anything with his constituents about what interests them most on the issues of the rail corridor or the regional planning.  For Stocks, information is power and he is obviously loathe to share.  Leadership is mythical when nobody is allowed to follow or even know where things are headed.

This is the tip of the myth mountain related to transportation concerns in Encinitas, so more will follow. 

Confronting Leadership . . . Overpayment

"Jerome has been a leader in overpaying in real estate, especially when his friends are involved. It is not surprising that he has not fixed the problems that allow for million dollar mistakes to be repeated. We've called for a real estate transaction policy to be implemented, repeatedly."

Choice excerpt from today's Leucadia Blog article citing Jerome Stocks' leadership of SANDAG's recent purchase of the privately owned South Bay Road for $345 million. Read the whole piece and watch the embedded video clip at Leucadia Blog.