Comments on: Survey notes Encinitas residents largely satisfied with city

By: So Sad

So Sad — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 02:55:47 +0000

It is hard to lump all City staff into 1 group since the majority interact with customers very briefly.

The last poster had a good point. It seems like it is the applied staff in Planning, Engineering, Public Works, and other areas where we see the biggest problems. Many of these people are making big decisions for this City, yet they lack the educational background to do a good job. I was also very surprised to learn how many in these departments make over $100,000–much more than they would get paid in the private sector–if they could even find companies that would not fire them for the performance we see every day.

The biggest problems of all are with the City Attorney and the City Manager since it is their role to oversee these smaller issues, and they seem to do nothing. They would not get paid what they do for the level of failure that we see in this city.

For example, the people who reported the health hazard on Wednesday said that those who investigated the issue were trying hard, but that Glenn Sabine dropped the ball.

Everyone had such high hopes for Gus Vina, and now citizens and Council have all lost faith in him. The Park issue and how he raided funds is a disgrace.

By: The Big Picture

The Big Picture — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:52:40 +0000

It’s great that most people are happy with their quality of life. But it only takes a few big issues to undermine all of that. At last night’s Council meeting, neighbors showed pictures of a horrible rat-infested garbage house and said they’ve been asking the city for FOUR YEARS to do something and nothing has been done. A few weeks earlier, it took petitions and 30 public speakers to get the Council to overrule direction from staff that a builder on Crest had to cut down beautiful big trees. These problems may not happen every day, but I think the city needs to give its staff the authority and tools to make common sense decisions and take action to prevent situations like these. People should not have to go all the way to the city council for attention.

By: Bootthebullyout

Bootthebullyout — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:57:23 +0000

The most critical questions for this election survey should have been “Have you ever been to a city council meeting and
what was your experience if you presented a point of view that differed from Mr. Stocks?” Stocks has created a culture of fear at city hall where employees, groups depending on city funding or approval, like the Arts Alive program, the Streetscape program and residents fear reprisal if they oppose him. He and his cronies, Gaspar, Bond and Muir are selling Encinitas out to the highest bidder. It was the council majority of Stocks, Gaspar, Bond, and Muir that hand picked the reperesentatives of the
ERAC committee that was comprised by 70% of realtors, developers and land use people to determine the growth of our city. What did these representatives with the most to
gain come up with? Proposals of 4 stories for Encinitas and up to 45 units per square acre. The city will claim it was a citizen appointed committee that made those recommendations! Jerome Stocks,Gaspar, Bond and Muir are selling off every square inch of Encinitas to the highest bidder. These guys are EVERY DEVELOPERS DREAM AND EVERY REGULAR CITIZENS NIGHTMARE! Boot the BULLY and his Cronies OUT! Time for a clean sweep at city hall. Check out Encinitasyouneedus.com and share the info with your friends. You will get excellent coverage of the issues in this paper. Share your information with all you know in our town. The future of Encinitas depends on ALL of US getting up to speed on the critical issues on our horizon. Don’t let them ruin it!

By: Predictable

Predictable — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:36:17 +0000

Jerome Stocks fixes it so that he is either Mayor or Deputy Mayor every time he runs for office.

He also makes up reasons for why we need to do a ‘customer service survey’ a few months before the election so that he can conclude that Encinitas is great because of him. Don’t fall for it!

Dump Stocks!

By: Chubbiesmom

Chubbiesmom — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:00:45 +0000

Audet predicted this in his column “just who will benefit from satisfaction survey’ way back in April-check it out. This is election year campaigning by the palace guards on the backs of taxpayers.

By: any

any — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 16:06:02 +0000

Great submit, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite experts of this sector don’t understand this. You should continue your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!|What’s Happening i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & assist other customers like its aided me. Good job.

By: More Money Down the Drain

More Money Down the Drain — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:05:50 +0000

When will they ever spend money on something that taxpayers actually want or need instead of layers of invalid research? Besides being taxpayer funded polling information and an endorsement for Jerome Stocks’ latest run for office, this survey makes it look like City staff are not as bad as those of us who have to work with them know!

This survey is invalid!

By: Olivier

Olivier — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 16:55:48 +0000

In the case of Encinitas, the less you know the better you feel. Blissful ignorance of city issues appear to make people happy. If only they could have a glimpse in the future when 5 story apartment buildings start being build, when traffic will slow to a crawl and when the city will be struggling to meet its pension obligation.

By: Real Encinitas

Real Encinitas — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:53:38 +0000

I am worried about the participant sample. They interviewed the youngest male over 18 as their target sample. This group was filtered and may have been selected since as a group, young males would tend to be less opposed to development and new building as compared to older residents who do not favor change. As a group, many are less politically aware of changes to our community as compared to mothers, who might have more concerns about safety and stability of neighborhoods since more young women in this town care for their childeren and families than work in the workplace.

It looks to me like it is an invalid survey sample and that since over 1/2 of the subjects had not had any interaction with City employees over the past year that those answers need to be removed! If they only spoke to those with real experience of what it is like to seek help in some deparments, they would get VERY different answers.

By: Statistician

Statistician — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:24:35 +0000

Encinitas is great. Why did we need to spend $20k just before the election for a survey? To help the incumbent candidates get re-elected?

If you look more closely, you see that the consultant too verbatim answers to the question of what you would fix and grouped the answers as the consultant chose. With enough distinct categories, no issue looks very significant. But if the categories were defined differently, you would get different results. For example, if you grouped streets & roads, traffic, public transit, bike lanes, and parking, all topics related to circulation, you’d find 25% of respondents saying they’d like to make changes.