DEL MAR — On Dec. 2, the Del Mar City Council elected its new mayor and deputy mayor for the upcoming year.
Dave Druker concluded his year as mayor, meanwhile, the council appointed Deputy Mayor Ellie Haviland and Terry Gaasterland to serve the community of Del Mar for the upcoming year.
According to the Del Mar City Council Regular Meeting Agenda, “Staff recommends that the City Council appoint Ellie Haviland to serve as Mayor and Terry Gaasterland to serve as Deputy Mayor for a one-year period beginning on December 2, 2019, through December 2020 in accordance with tradition and Council Policy 100.”
Druker, who served on the City Council from 1996 to 2008 then again from 2016 to the present, coordinated his last council meeting as mayor last week.
Druker reflected on the accomplishments and successes of the past year listing things such as celebrating Del Mar’s 60 birthday.
“We brought a lot of the former council members in front of the City Council,” Druker said. “It was really great to see everyone together in one place to celebrate.”
Also, Druker said that this past year has brought about the start of Community Choice aggregation. “We are going to be able to provide more green power and more power to our electricity to our residents,” Druker said.
Druker said his hope for the future of Del Mar is that it continues to maintain its community character and small-town atmosphere.
Haviland said that in the past when approaching controversial topics in the community, council meetings were not always a welcoming or safe place for Del Mar residents to come and express their opinions.
“We have a lot of really big issues like every city that we are going to be working through in the next year,” she said. “So, if we want to be successful at getting an outcome that is best for our city then we all need to be on our A-game. We need to be working together and making decisions based on facts, not emotion. Making sure our residents, who are a key part of the process in Del Mar feel they have a good environment… they are going to be treated with respect, they are going to be heard, and they are going to have opportunity to present their views and ideas in a civil environment.”
Additionally, Haviland said she wants to build cohesiveness among the council and grow better together as a team in order to create a more focused environment on their code of civility.
Haviland said she wants to take this new direction and strength into the new year. She said it will allow everyone to work together on the big decisions and issues to make the best decisions for the Del Mar community and the surrounding region as a whole.
“One of the things that is becoming more and more important for Del Mar is our role regionally and really representing our city with a unified force,” she said. “For example, the latest bluff failure where the tracks are currently being held up by soldier piles… It’s an issue that those bluffs are eroding so quickly. That rail line needs to be addressed. It is really important that we are at the table when those critical decisions are made.”
