7 candidates apply to fill commission seat

ENCINITAS — Seven people — including a recent City Council candidate — have applied to fill the vacancy left on the city’s Traffic and Public Safety Commission after one of its member’s abrupt departure.Alan Lerchbacker, who finished second out of four candidates in November’s City Council race, is one of the people seeking to replace Al Rodbell, who quit his post on the council-appointed board in October.

Rodbell, a longtime community voice who publishes several blogs on city affairs, told readers that he resigned from the commission in protest of the city’s continued pursuit of the $10 million Pacific View purchase, which he said takes money out of the city’s budget it could use toward needed traffic management upgrades.

“I could no longer be a part of a city government that placed ‘saving a plot of land’ above saving the lives of children — who want nothing more than to frolic on the beach,” Rodbell wrote.

In addition to Lerchbacker, the other applicants include Jeffrey Skiljan, Scott Carter, Brian Grover, David Norgard, Joseph Bunn and Glen Johnson.

Skiljan, a local attorney, is the husband of Encinitas Union School District board member Carol Skiljan. Bunn was a former deputy fire chief. Grover sits on the city’s environmental commission.

The council will fill Rodbell’s vacancy at its Dec. 10 meeting.

The commission will have to fill a second vacancy shortly thereafter. Catherine Blakespear is set to be sworn in on the City Council Dec. 9.

Blakespear represents Cardiff on the board. Her seat, which is set to expire in March, will be filled through the city’s annual commission recruitment process, which will begin mid-December, City Clerk Kathy Hollywood said.

Rodbell’s position was one of two “at large” posts on the commission, Hollywood said.