Information about mystery mailers comes to light

I’m grateful for Marco’s efforts, and also those of the Coast News in helping to investigate and identify the non-profit group. I would like to know whether the Fair Political Practices Commission would consider the second mailer to be political? To me, both the first and second mailers are political in that they are using the poll to support the incumbents. However, the second mailer, in excluding Councilmember Teresa Barth, becomes more overtly partisan.

When this agenda item, a survey to be taken by True North every other year for three years, came before Council, at the request of City Manager Gus Vina, ALL of the public speakers objected. We all knew the survey results would be glowing because people here love our weather and our beaches, and most are not involved with City Hall, directly. The questions were to be designed by the City, but the survey is known to be a Public Relations tool to support the incumbents. When the new Council is seated, a priority should be to cancel future surveys of this nature, particularly taken during even numbered years, with the data released just before the General Election.

Whether these mailers are considered to be illegal, or not, they demonstrate how our city does need to address its overly “cozy” relationship with some non-profits, and with so-called “independent contractors,” who are often acting as lobbyists for development interests and associated business interests.

The recent agenda item addressing a telecommunications device being installed on a city lightpole is a case in point. The city’s contract had been fulfilled, so there was no actual legal justification to force another one on the neighborhood when many neighbors came to the Council Meeting to protest. But special counsel, who was a so-called “telecommunications expert,” seemed actually to be aligned with telecommunications interests, and did NOT appear to be neutral. Even City Attorney Glenn Sabine said that Council had the right of discretion to refuse an amendment to the contract. Yet he did so while bringing up, unwisely, the banner ban debacle. Perhaps that was part of the reason why current Council again reacted in fear of threatened litigation, advanced through the “objective contractor expert,” and, with the exception of Teresa Barth, voted to amend the contract and install another telecommunications transmitter and receiver when no need for doing so was demonstrated by any facts presented, just the possibility of litigation, and unsubstantiated opinions and desires of Crown Castle to expand!

Peder Norby’s contract should also be re-examined. Do we need a 101 Czar that is essentially lobbying for development interests, in the eyes of so many involved in the General Plan update? While most of us agree that a thriving business community is vital to a well-functioning city, it is inappropriate for some of these non-profits to be giving one another awards and promoting their agendas at the expense of the citizens who may disagree, particularly when the non-profits, such as the Leucadida 101 Merchants Association and DEMA are so heavily subsidized by the City.

Leucadia 101 Merchants gets only 7% of its operating expenses from membership dues. The rest comes through City subsides, including rents from the Paul Ecke Central School Sunday Farmers’ Market, a deal facilitated by Peder Norby. Norby can often be seen at the storetfront office of the Leucadia 101 Merchants, on El Portal and Hwy 101, across from Leucadia Glass, which office is also subsidized by taxpayers, along with paid employees. One such paid employee, Paula Kirpalini comes to City Council Meetings and advocates on behalf of installing five traffic circles, and establishing a lane diet, which 81% of adjacent residents and most local businesses don’t want due to concerns about cut through traffic, slower emergency response times, more gridlock, huge delays, loss of land by some, and loss of business during construction.

The non-profit, Encinitas Historical Society, a wonderful organization, just gave an Ida Lou Coley award to John DeWald as “director of the year” of DEMA. This again shows the dangers of non-profits becoming too dependent upon city subsidies, and using that position in ways that can promote development interests over residents and private citizens. DeWald recently dropped out of Escrow that had been set up through EUSD Superintendent, Timothy Baird, with Art Pulse to develop the Pacific View surplus school site. DEMA had before cooperated with the Artists’ Colony to present a much preferable plan, Envision the View. But DEMA seemed to bow out, although the Art Pulse/DeWald plan was to privatize the donated land, taking it out of the public domain, which was NOT what the requests for proposals through EUSD had called for. We’re glad that flawed plan for an irreplaceable asset to be over-developed, asking for the creation of an entirely new zoning classification, which would NOT protect the public, and would not address the applicability of the Naylor Act, fell through, despite Baird’s repeated threats of litigation.

I feel that the new Council should carefully consider what actually constitutes lobbying by City paid contractors or non-profits subsidized through the City. Non profit business groups, in order to get funding, should have to apply for yearly grants, just as other non-profits do. Encinitas should have learned a lesson with the former Chamber of Commerce, which we heavily subsidized, paying $94,000 for it to move from a better location, more easily accessible from the freeway, by the old Smart & Final location, which the volunteers preferred. Encinitas First was published through the former Chamber of Commerce, which blatantly supported through “puff piece articles” both conflicted and convicted ex mayor Dan Dalager and outgoing mayor, Jerome Stocks.

Our city needs more separation of powers and more checks and balances in a system where Council sits as judge, jury and executioner, the judicial, legislative and executive branches, all rolled into one. Independent non-profits are fine, and desirable, although they should not serve as tools for the incumbents who look for loopholes to skirt around the rules. And non-profits should not have deals set up whereby they are subsidized by taxpayers and consumers to promote overdevelopment in the name of smart growth or sustainable growth, patting themselves on the back, heaping awards on one another.

Marco Gonzalez, thank you for helping uncover this disingenuous political “We Love Encinitas” ruse clearly intended to affect recent election results, coming as it did directly beforehand.

Unfortunately we need this kind of vigilance to help keep certain people honest. Imagine: the Gaspars said nothing about being the senders of this when they certainly knew quite well that the media and the people of Encinitas were all baffled by the source of it. But you were quiet and had to be uncovered. :<(

If this is not illegal (by the letter of the law), it is certainly sleazy politics. Mr. and Ms. Gaspar, can we get a little "ownership" over here? 'cause you're looking pretty bad right about now. You could have stepped up. You coulda been a contenda. Hell, you still have time …