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Candidates for the mayor of Encinitas include Councilmember Bruce Ehlers and incumbent Mayor Tony Kranz. The Coast News graphic
Candidates for the mayor of Encinitas include Councilmember Bruce Ehlers and incumbent Mayor Tony Kranz. The Coast News graphic
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Election Q&A with Encinitas mayoral candidates

The Coast News has asked candidates for the Encinitas mayoral seat to complete a questionnaire about their stances on local issues ahead of the November election.

Incumbent Mayor Tony Kranz is running against Councilmember Bruce Ehlers for the city’s highest elected office. The race has revolved around issues such as infrastructure, housing, and public safety.

Both candidates agreed to participate in the questionnaire and submitted responses via email.

Can the state-mandated housing requirements be balanced while maintaining local control? Does the RHNA process need to be reformed, and if so, what would that look like?

Kranz: There is currently a significant imbalance between state housing laws and the ability to exercise discretion locally. That’s something the City of Encinitas has learned through lawsuits by developers and threats of litigation from the Attorney General. (A court order required the city to adopt a housing element that met state law for apartment projects.) Tilting the balance back to local control will likely require a constitutional amendment, which was attempted once but did not gather the necessary signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Regarding RHNA, it’s critically important that the process is reformed, with the goal of ensuring coastal cities are not required to build five times as many apartment units to meet the “deed-restricted” affordable housing requirements dictated by the city’s RHNA obligations.

Ehlers: The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) affordable housing program is an unfunded mandate. However, the California Constitution requires state reimbursement to local governments for the costs of mandated programs and services. The state circumvents this through legal hand-waving by the commission on state mandates. Up until about 15 years ago, the state provided funding for affordable housing through Community Block Grants. This funding ended, but the mandate continued. Reform should restore state funding, as the RHNA process is also flawed.

A March 2022 report by the state Auditor’s Office stated, “Overall, our audit determined that HCD (Housing and Community Development) does not ensure that its needs assessments are accurate and adequately supported.” The state allocated increased housing units based on this flawed data, resulting in projected growth that did not occur. Increased allocations forced local authorities to unnecessarily increase zoning. Reform is needed so that cities regain control of local land use.

Some residents worry that providing more services for homeless individuals will impact their quality of life. How can you provide homeless services while also maintaining the quality of life for residents?

Kranz: Not providing services will impact the quality of life in our city much more than if services are provided. People experiencing homelessness exist in every city, and the best way to solve the problem is to get them into permanent housing.

This requires working with the county and other cities to identify the causes of each person’s lack of shelter and to resolve the issues they face — whether treatment for chemical dependency or mental health issues, job placement, or other social services provided through the county. However, any criminal behavior must be prosecuted, making it clear that being homeless is not an excuse for lawlessness.

Ehlers: Not all homeless individuals impact residents’ quality of life. Those such as displaced families, battered women, or sober veterans are often willing to receive services. They are, therefore, more likely to transition to permanent housing and rarely cause problems. Offering services to this portion of the homeless population improves Encinitas’ quality of life.

Residents are most often negatively impacted by the brazen behavior of chronically homeless individuals. It is these individuals, who often have drug or mental health issues, that violate local laws while pursuing their addicted lifestyle. Typical violations include public drunkenness, petty theft, camping on public land, urinating in public, disturbing the peace, or illegal drug use. Many are “service resistant” and prefer to remain on the street and maintain their habits. We need to carefully balance enforcement of our laws with humanitarian services to help these “service resistant” chronic homeless individuals recover and not impact Encinitas’ quality of life.

How do you ensure fiscal responsibility? What are some ways that cities can raise revenues?

Kranz: Fiscal responsibility starts with the city preparing a balanced budget each year, accompanied by several public meetings discussing budget priorities leading up to the final budget adoption prior to the July 1 fiscal year start. Public safety comes first, followed by public works and other staff functions that residents of Encinitas expect, including keeping our parks and beaches clean and offering a variety of cultural activities to the community.

There are also important capital improvement projects planned and built with revenue from government grants and general funds from property and sales taxes. Increasing revenue through additional taxation must be approved by voters, and several alternatives can be considered. A question on the ballot under Measure K proposes adding 1 cent to the sales tax to provide additional revenue for improving the city’s infrastructure.

Ehlers: As a former CFO for a nonprofit, I have always carefully monitored budgets and expenditures. Fiscal responsibility is a combination of spending restraint, prudent budgeting, and monitoring actual expenses. Maintaining operating reserve funds (“rainy day” funds), as Encinitas does, provides a cushion in the event of revenue or expense changes. Fiscal restraint dictates funding the essentials first.

For Encinitas, this means prioritizing basic infrastructure such as pavement, sewer, water, storm drains, and public safety before funding beautification or vanity projects. Unfortunately, prior councils have deferred basic maintenance of pavement and storm drains while funding nonessential projects. I will not tolerate this. Last year, Encinitas spent $3.7 million on storm drain failures but only $250,000 per year maintaining storm drains.

Cities may raise revenues through tax increases, fee increases, and the pursuit of external grants. Raising revenues through taxes should be the last resort once all other efficiency improvements have been implemented.

What’s a decision the council made in the past term that you supported? What about one you disagreed with?

Kranz: I strongly supported our efforts, under my leadership, to adjust our budget to reallocate money for the installation of stormwater pipes along the entire stretch of the Streetscape segment currently under construction.

Flooding in Leucadia has been an issue the city has debated and attempted to address for decades, and I am proud that we are now making the first significant improvements necessary to solve the problem. It took years of my advocacy to advance the study, design, and engineering of the first phase of the solution. The plans for Streetscape included “additive alternatives” that provided options to extend the pipe if we were able to make it work within our budget. I disagreed with declaring the city’s property on Quail Gardens Drive as surplus under the Surplus Lands Act.

Ehlers: I agreed with the 2023 council vote to restore local control of our land use ordinances in our Legislative Lobbying Policy. The Lobbying Policy is the guideline used by the presiding mayor to decide which legislation to support or oppose. I instigated restoring this wording because it had been deleted in 2019 by a previous council vote.

Unfortunately, during the interim, several egregious housing laws were passed, and no one from Encinitas opposed them. I disagreed with the council majority on recent votes to convert parkland at “L-7” to housing. I am the only council member who consistently voted to keep it a park. It was purchased using park funds for “park use” and is designated in the General Plan as the “Quail Garden Park Site.” Adding more housing to the QGD corridor is unfair since we have already added 1,100 more units in the corridor, and those families will need a park.

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