ENCINITAS — Councilwoman Teresa Barth was stripped of her regional committee assignments by a council majority during a special meeting Dec. 20, after being passed over for mayor last week.
Deputy Mayor Jerome Stocks motioned to have first-time Councilwoman Kristin Gaspar replace Barth as alternate representative on the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, and North County Transit District, or NCTD.
Barth was demoted to SANDAG second alternate while Stocks remained as the city’s representative.
Barth said she did not support Stocks’ nomination to the NCTD and SANDAG boards because he did not represent the city in a manner that was transparent. Gaspar said the 19-0 vote to recently appoint Stocks the chairman of SANDAG showed he represented the city well on regional boards. He was the only name on the SANDAG ballot.
Mayor James Bond said he did not speak to anyone on the council prior to the meeting except Gaspar regarding his recommendations to the various regional boards. “I would have liked to talk to everyone but it’s not appropriate under the state’s Brown Act,” he said.
On Dec. 14, Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan accused Stocks, Bond and Gaspar of colluding to deny Barth a chance at mayor or deputy mayor post for the second year in a row. All three denied accusations that they violated California’s open government meeting law when they voted to appoint Bond mayor and Stocks deputy mayor.
Tony Kranz, who lost his bid for council in the last election, asked the council to remember their places on the regional boards. “Council members area appointed to represent the city,” Kranz said.
Last year, then-Mayor Dan Dalager reappointed each council member to their existing committees. However, this year’s appointments were greatly changed.
Gaspar expressed a desire to be on the NCTD board according to Bond. He said he gave Barth similar committee assignments four years ago in order to gain experience. “I’m not doing anything different than I did with Teresa,” Bond said. Barth was bumped to second alternate on the NCTD board.
He explained that his rationale was also a matter of political preferences. “For the most part, when we looked at it, we’ll call them philosophies and interfaces, it’s better to have a like-thinker as your second in command. He said Gaspar would be a better “match” for Stocks.
“In all fairness, I’ve never seen a problem between alternates and representatives,” Houlihan said. Barth said that she and Stocks are required to represent the city’s interests in service on regional boards rather than their own personal benefit.
Brewing conflict between Barth and Stocks became public several months ago when Stocks announced at a council meeting that Barth had filed a harassment complaint against him. A city-hired attorney advised that Barth’s claim did not have merit because she was not considered an employee.
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3 comments
Encinitas citizens keep voting in Stocks and Bond every election for some reason, and if they don’t like the results then change your voting pattern. At least we got rid of Dalager whose only selling point was that he grew up here, nevermind that he seemed dumb as a rock and didn’t go to college. Put him on the city council for eight years though!
This town isn’t as great as everyone would like to believe, starting with the city council and filtering to the ineffective sheriff substation who let crimes and grafitti go largely unchecked. They are literally advertisting for the Oceanside and Carlsbad gangs to move to Encinitas where nothing is punished!
Ecke ranch has been plowing over their decorative poinsettia fields on Saxony Road since 2005, when they lost their Prop A development vote by a 70% margin. Paul Ecke III is sure are showing us. Typical pettiness in this town and continued by the city council.
I can say that there are many people who feel very uncomfortable around Jerome Stocks when he is in meetings and he insults people. I personally don’t appreciate it, and I think that it is contrary to the democratic process to tell people who one represents that they are not important.
Although I am not a Jerome Stocks fan, I wish that he would see how damaging it is to his career for him and his friends to keep bringing up the same old story from last year.
Personally, I wonder if he keeps bringing it up because he is allowing it to affect his family life as well as his career. I certainly hope not. The only people keeping this issue alive are Stocks, and his friends who keep rehashing it as an example of injustice.
Juliette, since you seem to be a friend, I think that you might ask him to either release this or to get some help for his sake as much as ours because I do see that he and those close to him seems to be suffering.
In the best of all worlds, he could use this as a learning experience to make him more compassionate and forgiving of others. I wish him, his supporters and his family well, and I hope that all of you can heal and go on.
Live by the Harrassment Complaint, die by the harassment complaint.
Not sure exactly ‘why’ Barth believed she would get away scott-free with attempting to defame her fellow council people, but apparently she and her few supporters did believe that there aren’t any reactions to Teresa’s actions.
Public tantrums usually don’t end well, but, maybe they can hold another team meeting outside city hall; those worked so well.
If memory serves, the sentence/quote in the Union Trib from Stocks about Barth had to do with her mistreatment of staff.
Exactly ‘who’ the bullies are is beginning to become difficult to discern.
Hmmm, wonder if Barth would have faired better if her husband hadn’t gotten in Gaspar’s face in the library parking lot.
Surely this calls for Ms. Collier to continue on as Barth’s apologist; look for a letter from her in tomorrow’s or next week’s Coast News.
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