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Digital Marketing Survival Kit

NETWORK/NORTH COUNTY TIMES DIGITAL MARKETING LUNCHEON: SEO, rankings, Twitter, Facebook, daily deals, blogs, email blasts — As part of the New Encinitas Network’s ongoing media-education effort; ANATOMY OF A MARKETPLACE: NEW ENCINITAS, the Network is proud to announce that The North County Times Online Director, BRETT SONDRUP will Host our next Network Luncheon at Bentley’s Steak and Chop House at Noon, Thursday, June 7th: Topics will include search engine marketing, social media, QR codes, video, print-products, local spending habits and real-reach by generation; this one-info-hour is designed for small local businesses trying to take advantage of today’s media landscape and break through the digital clutter.

This Info-Hour explains the fundamentals of ‘How’ to brand and build company profiles in the digital age. “There is real take-away substance to be received and evaluated at this seminar,” said Brett Sondrup, digital director of the NCT.

“As far as ‘pure’ marketing ‘real-reach’ in Encinitas; no one can beat the combined outreach of the Network’s direct-email e-blast address list when combined with the ‘multi-media online and in-home platform’ of the North County Times.” says Mike Andreen, Executive Director of the NEW ENCINITAS Business Network.

“Business-owners understand that they need to get in and steal some (market) share, and sketch out some coherent strategy to come out of this thing pretty strong,” Sondrup says.

“And with our Network representing 22 commercial shopping centers that comprise over 900 retail and service providers, the combined opportunity of the macro-knowledge of the North County Times, with the micro-knowledge of ‘Who’ does ‘What’ along the “Golden Corridor” of El Camino Real; this Seminar Luncheon focusing on our marketing ‘universe’ is only $25 per person and after an hour of some tasty food and tasty ‘know-how’ on the latest technology and application programs are available; we know that business-owners will leave this event ‘satisfied’ when they hear and recognize the data made available, documenting spending response and behavior by generation and sales area,” says Andreen.

“The Seminar can also be described as a ‘digital-marketing survival-guide’ for North County, or ‘Breaking Through the Digital Clutter” smiled Sondrup.
Sondrup noted that because the newspapers provide fresh local news and content — including videos, blogs, comments and photos — search engines of Google and Yahoo “have given us a trusted position.” That means a business listed on a directory with the North County Times will get a higher ranking than those on other directories,” he said

Registration is required; space is limited. For information and to sign up, please contact Mike Andreen at 760 683-4290 or newencinitasnetwork@gmail.com

10 facts the NEW ENCINITAS Network believes everyone in Encinitas should know about the General Plan Update ‘Reboot’ before attending either the May 7th and/or May 14th Citywide ‘Housing Exercises’ at the Encinitas Community Center.

Fact 1: ENCINITAS ONLY. Encinitas is one of the few cities in California balking at the ‘Sustainability’ mandates being force-fed counties and municipalities by urban leaders.

Fact 2: CLIMATE CHANGE; We are not arguing that the government and individuals shouldn’t address climate-change; but we ARE saying that the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff’s ‘Ugly Baby Draft’, constructed in large part to fulfill State laws AB32 and SB375 that require future growth to be built in ‘clusters’ and that those ‘clusters’ be built next to transportation hubs, would have dire financial and cultural affects on our beach town. (NOTE: Instead of locating these clusters along the Encinitas transportation corridors, Planning Staff located them along El Camino Real and Encinitas because to locate them appropriately along the Encinitas transportation corridor would antagonize coastal activists.)

Fact 3: WHY THE ‘REBOOT’? The Encinitas Council has voted to ‘Reboot’ the mandatory ‘Update’ of the City of Encinitas’ General Plan because they recognized the inherent unfairness of the ‘process’ that allowed next to no participation by New Encinitas; yet located all of the future growth to New Encinitas, threatening the sales-tax generating commercial corridors. (A recent letter-to-the-editor from a Leucadia Town Council officer/GPAC ‘Alternate’ defended the ‘Ugly Baby’ Draft.)

Fact 4: THE ‘SUSTAINABILITY’ LOBBY
The ‘Sustainability’ Lobby in Encinitas is trying their hardest to return the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Ugly Baby’ Draft before City Council for approval; but so far, the council has stood fast in demanding that residents get their fair say in ‘where’ they would like to see any future growth be located throughout the City.

Fact 5: THE ICLEI UNDERGROUND NETWORK’S PARTNERSHIP WITH ENCINITAS. There is an important reason for you and your family and your neighbors to attend and participate in the May 7 and 14th Citywide ‘Housing Exercises’; and the reason is this: if you don’t participate THEN the City Council is most-likely going to listen to the Planning Staff, which located ALL of it on our already traffic laden commercial corridors in their undisguised attempt to fulfill the agenda of a world-wide organization called ICLEI; the International Committee for Local Environmental Initiatives; that almost ALL southern California incorporated cities and counties belong to and who echo the Agenda 21 precepts of the United Nations. (The city approved joining ICLEI on the same day as allocating a million-plus to MIG consultants.)

Fact 6: DON’T BLAME MIG; MIG ONLY DID WHAT THE PLANNING STAFF DIRECTED THEM TO. On Wednesday, August 19, 2009, reporting to the Encinitas City Council, Planning Staff stated that Berkeley-based consultant MIG, was chosen by a ‘Search Committee’ led by Councilwoman Teresa Barth, specifically because of MIG’s heralded experience in ‘Sustainability’. Mrs. Barth made a motion to approve the allocation to pay of over a million dollars to MIG for ‘Sustainability’; which passed.

Fact 7: MOVING ON FROM AUTOMOBILES; On March 21, 2011, Planning Staff publicly described the General Plan Update
as, “A plan to move Encinitas on beyond cars.”

Fact 8: THE TRADE-OFF, EL CAMINO REAL TRANSFORMED, IN EXCHANGE FOR COLLECTIVE GARDEN PLOTS FOR ALL
On May 11, 2011; Planning Staff reported to the Encinitas City Council that the (residents) Members of the GPAC were, ”Very excited about the trade-off!” What trade-off? According to MIG owner, Daniel Iacofano, the citizens would be “trading-off” or exchanging collective garden plots for losing the nine-million dollars a year in sales-tax revenue generated by El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard businesses. In essence transforming a prime arterial into a ‘walk-able’ community’; with the added caveat of achieving this significant transformation by the “conscious and deliberate creation of gridlock during peak AM and PM hours” for the express purpose of getting people “out of their cars”. (Please see the video of the May 11, 2011 meeting; Mayor Jerome Stocks was NOT in attendance, as he was on vacation.)

Fact 9: NEW FOOD POLICE FOR ENCINITAS; The Barth/MIG/Planning Staff Draft proposed a ‘Public Health’ group of policies that include; mobile medical services for ‘guest workers’, vending machine ordinances that require organic and healthy food, the creation of a ‘Public health’ Commission that would require businesses to pass healthy food requirement before they could receive Major Use permits to locate here; and a citywide tool collective where citizen’s could check out tractors and farming machinery to use in their own front and back yards; which includes a recommendation to use raw animal waste in neighborhood areas regardless of what Home-Owner’s Associations contracts, covenants and restrictions.

Fact 10: PLANNING STAFF FEARS THE COAST MORE THAN NEW ENCINITAS.
Instead of locating the 1300 low-income multi-family housing units (mandated for our future by the State of California), somewhere along the I-5/Highway 101/Railroad corridor, the Encinitas Planning Staff ‘chose’ for the residents: they located nearly ALL of it in New Encinitas; and New Encinitas had no say-so.

BIRTH OF THE ‘REBOOT’.
Last September, 2011, the Encinitas City Council wrenched control of the General Plan Update away process from the controlling hands of Planning Staff, and put much of the decision-making into the hands of the concerned public.

It’s popular to blame the City Council majority for anything and everything these days, but: in fact, if one were to view the 8-19-09 video of the Encinitas City Council meeting concerning the Million Dollar allocation for ‘updating’ the General Plan, the Planning Staff explains clearly that the ‘Search Committee’ headed up by Councilwoman Teresa Barth, in fact, “chose MIG because they had the most experience in Sustainability”; (feel free to visit the City’s website and watch for yourself.)

Over two years later, Yes, at the persistent request of New Encinitas, the current council has voted repeatedly to allow the citizens to have their say and while the Planning Staff has been wisely mum since September 2011, luckily, there is an announced Candidate for Encinitas City Council who holds a position at UCSD entitled ‘Executive Director of the Sustainability Solutions Institute’ who might explain WHY we Californians alone have chosen to carry the burden of solving our families, cities, State etc…?

THE ‘SUSTAINABILITY’ CANDIDATE
Recently, because the Encinitas City Council chose to pause and evaluate the ‘‘Sustainability General Plan 2035 Update’ and decided to ‘Reboot’; meaning, honestly opening the ‘process’ up to the public on May 7th and 14th and not relying on Encinitas Planning Staff’s old stand-by the ‘DELPHI-METHOD’.

The Encinitas City Council has been admonished by the ‘Sustainability Candidate’, who responded to Council’s inclusion of citizens for public participation with these critical remarks on her campaign website; taking the Encinitas City Council to task for, ”throwing the ‘Housing Issue’ to the public”, preferring a ‘leadership’ model that will, “bring the community together with a ‘Vision’ of ‘How’ we can build a ‘Sustainable’ future for all of us.” (Note: The five communities have resisted homogenization from Day One of the City’s incorporation; AND the word ‘Vision’ is one of the Orwellian terms used to fool people like ‘Smart’ growth and ‘Sustainability’ when most folks would prefer to ‘prosper’) ‘Vision’ to the ‘Sustainability’ Lobby is a term tied to the ‘Delphi’ Method that gives the appearance of receiving ‘input’ from the public, but is really a ‘feel-good’ exercise that is designed to infer collaboration or compromise, but true ‘input’ is abandoned because the Staff already has a predetermined outcome in mind; so ‘Vision’ is a trigger-word disguising what old-timers used to call a ‘Dog and Pony’ Show, or ‘smoke and mirrors’.

The ‘Sustainability’ Candidate further claims on her campaign site that, “by allowing the public into the ‘Housing Exercise’, that the current City Council, “lacks leadership and pits one neighborhood against another.” (NOTE: Again, the ‘Sustainability’ model, the Ugly Baby Draft located ALL of the future growth in one community; and by recognizing this as unfair, the City Council is being accused of ‘divisiveness’.)

This conclusion by the ‘Sustainability’ candidate that public inclusion in decision-making is ‘divisive’ seems a curious admission by someone who wishes to be an elected official; but strongly suggests that no informed, mature, voting body would knowingly choose a ‘Sustainable’ future with few cars but many gardening collectives; declaring war on single-family household neighborhoods.

Now, whether this is just good old-fashioned ‘elitism’ or frustration that the ICLEI-approved method for degrading private-property rights and outlawing personal automobiles; that are the intellectual infrastructure of the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Ugly Baby’ Draft of the General Plan 2035, that the Encinitas City Council judged insufficient and wrong-headed on March 7th, 2012 public hearing and hence round-filed it, only the ‘Sustainability’ candidate and lobbyists know, but we have six months to discuss it during this impending election cycle.

But learning that a candidate either prefers the Strong Man (Woman) leadership/management model, over one of ‘representative democracy’ is bonus information for local voters six months out from the November 2012 election.

THE NEAR FUTURE
The materials generated by the May 7th and May 14th Citywide Housing Exercises will be added to Housing Exercises completed by the GPAC, Planning Commission, Youth Commission and ERAC and then presented by the Planning Staff; which, of course, is problematic, because the Planning Staff has already and repeatedly ‘edited’ and omitted quite a bit of data that residents rightfully believed was being transmitted to council.

How does one feel assured that the new data won’t suffer the same fate? But, one step at a time; first let’s attend on May 7 and 14, so we know for a fact that our opinions have been registered.

NOTE: Two years ago, during the first round of Community-specific meetings on the ‘Update’, several dozen members of the three town councils (And ‘Sustainability’ Lobby), Leucadia, Olivenhain and Cardiff banded loosely together and attended all five of the community-specific data-gleaning meetings with an eye towards skewing the data in favor of ‘Sustainability’; which it did. This time, the City Manager had designed the data-gathering method reportedly in a manner that doesn’t allow any single person or group to ‘game’ the process and vote more than once.

The ‘Sustainability’ Lobby in Encinitas is now attempting to blame the very people targeted by the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Ugly baby’ Draft authors; for the first dangerous and destructive ‘Update’ plan to “move beyond cars”. Luckily, we have the video evidence of the 8-19-09 Council meeting to document the facts.

The State of California’s plan for reducing Green House gases might be admirable to many, but the remedy being mandated is nonsensical and without question destructive to our children’s future.

As a local car dealer said, ”Mike, if the State vouchered all of changing over to electric cars there wouldn’t be any need for AB32 and SB375.”

But then the thousands of Planning Staffs working collectively out of sight of the public as part of this mysterious ICLEI association plan wouldn’t have a catalyst that allows Planning Departments to quietly move towards outlawing personal automobiles and diluting personal property rights; which is what these State laws are truly about.

Watch for the ‘Sustainability’ Lobby to continue to try and disqualify the ‘Reboot’; they absolutely do not want the average resident to see and understand what is meant by ‘Sustainability’, nor do they want private property owners to have any individual rights over their own hard-earned properties.

As Woody Allen said, “90% of being successful is just showing up.”

Please show up on May 7th and/or 14th to register your opinion.

Miracles Take Hard Work; Reece Jensen, PRN and Dominique Gambale.
Special to the Wave Blog
By Mike Andreen

ENCINITAS:
Recently, I sat down with Reece Jensen DPT; the Director of PRN Physical and Hand Therapy at 317 N. El Camino Real to discuss a success-story that has been bubbling up here in North County wherever friends and associates get together to share a meal or a cup of coffee, compare notes and hear some much needed ‘Good News’; the seeming ‘miracle’ of restoring the lower leg and function of Dominique Gambale.

Pinned By A Runaway Cab
You remember, Dominique Gambale; last year Dominique was the innocent bystander accompanied by her husband, whom was waiting in line beside her on a sidewalk for entrance outside the Stingaree night club; when suddenly, and savagely, a taxi-cab jumped the curb and slammed into both of them. Mr. Gambale, flew up and over the cab’s hood, while the cab continued, pinning and crushing, nearly severing, Dominique’s right lower leg.

Most people remember the beginning of this ‘freak accident’ story, but now, a little over a year later, an even more incredible story is beginning to surface; a ‘success’ story, featuring an amazing medical team, who drawing on experience gained on the battlefield of Iraq, made split second decisions that resulted in saving her lower leg. During her hospital stay, a former patient of Reece Jensen’s remembered being in the same situation after a freak mountain climbing accident almost claimed his leg as well. He graciously went to see Dominique to give her encouragement and told her that when it was time, she needed to go see Reece at PRN, as it was the experience that he had in physical therapy that got him back to leading a normal active life. She followed his advice and through an intense regiment of hands-on myofascial stretching, joint mobilization, manual exercise and progressive resistance training, as well as a little tough love, Dominique took her first steps on that leg after some 5 months of hard work. Over the past year she has been able to return to being a functioning mother of three and to a great degree a life of normalcy. Reece says that she has high hopes of even (someday) returning to the tennis courts of North County.

Discipline and Determination
It’s a success story replete with real life heroes, killer avalanches, combat surgeons returned from a Baghdad triage surgery and an ad hoc group of healers who cooperatively developed new medical, surgical and therapeutic protocols considered ‘cutting edge’.

Jensen, a locally respected husband, father, healer, business man and weekend professional musician was also a high school and college Quarterback who, due to a young athletic lifetime of sports related injuries was intrigued by the training approaches and remedies he was exposed to and strategies for returning an individual to optimum use of their abilities.

“Dominique came to us at PRN in Encinitas in rough shape physically and emotionally, and it has taken hard work, patience and dedication for a year to get her life back,” stated Jensen.

Q: But with all of San Diego County to choose from ‘Why’ did Dominique Gambale choose to repair herself at PRN Physical and Hand Therapy?

When A Landslide Brings You Down
PRN became Dominique’s healing ‘home away from home’ because of a series of innovative strategies developed earlier by Jensen for a world class mountain climber, Brian Benedict, whose own leg had been crushed terribly by boulders rolling down upon an icy plane encampment, the bowling ball sized stones given deadly momentum by a sudden avalanche.

Subsequent to the Stingaree debacle, Brian Benedict had heard that Dominque was seeking some way to save her leg; even though the initial prognosis for retaining the limb was not promising.

Benedict, whose leg was saved by an equally brilliant surgical team and returned to function, much in part and thanks to Jensen’s therapeutic approach, mentioned PRN to Dominique when he introduced himself to in an impromptu attempt to give her hope for retaining future use of her leg rather than give in to despair.

“Dominique’s multiple challenges, of course, were not a simple strain or sprain,” says Jensen. “This was the destruction of multiple systems that interlock to allow range of motion, support and force production. You’ve got to have bone, muscle, tendons, ligaments, nerves; all tied together with a working circulation system nourishing all of those separate systems and it not only takes strength for an individual but it takes faith, partnership, and team work to succeed.”

“Dominique had over a dozen surgeries. She had muscle tissue removed from her upper back that was used to reconnect parts of her leg. She had bone grafts because the leg needs to be weight bearing. More surgeries for range of motion and of course, plastic surgery; and every step of the way over an entire year you, as a healer and team leader are seeking to create the optimal healing environment which through a team approach let’s everybody contribute to the ultimate goal, wholeness or as close as you can come to it through intelligent and well thought out creative strategies that along with a mountain climber and a military trauma unit surgeon freshly battle sharpened by a recent tour of service in Iraq; all came together to assist Dominique to pursue walking without a crutch again and hopefully, unassisted, walk along the beachfront and near shore with her children, walking toward a future, perhaps, someday, on some bright green tennis courts.

Reece Jensen has directed PRN Physical and Hand Therapy for over 20 years and in his private life performs with his son, Erik in a musical duo entitled CONtrast; that you can enjoy by attending next month’s Sundowner with the NEW ENCINITAS Commerce Network. Or, enjoy Erik Jensen’s World premiere of his new CD recording entitled: SEAS on June 1 at the release party.

To speak with Reece,

Reece C. Jensen, PT, DPT, MS, OCS
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Orthopedic Certified Specialist
Tai Chi for Arthritis Instructor
Okugi Ashi Aikido Shodan
Owner/Director of PRN Physical Therapy

Phenix Salon Suites Now Serves Coastal and North County
Encinitas, CA — April 7th, 2012

Phenix Salon Suites, a national company providing upscale suites for salon professionals, has expanded to the greater North Coastal and North County areas.

Located and recently opened in the Encinitas Marketplace in New Encinitas, next to the Kohl’s department store, the D-Clutter Store and Wireless Works; the new site features over 20 of the area’s most talented salon professionals. The private luxury suites function as fully equipped mini-salons, offering local stylists, aestheticians, skin care experts, massage therapists, nail technicians and others the opportunity for independent salon ownership.

A Grand Opening is scheduled for April 21st, 2012 from 10AM – 3PM. Hosted by the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the New Encinitas Network. Come out and meet the Family behind Phenix Salon Suites and enjoy refreshments, music and more! 8 Year Old “Phenix” will be on hand as well – Jason & Gina Rivera, the founders of the company, named the company after their first born son “Phenix”.

“In this difficult economy, we help salon professionals maximize their financial success,” said Jason Rivera, Founder of Phenix Salon Suites along with his wife Gina, a professional Hair Stylists for over 25 Years. “They have the chance to own and operate their business without the worry and start up expense of managing a facility.”

Area residents also benefit from the wide assortment of salon and spa services that Phenix Salon Suites brings together in one well-appointed setting. “This is a central location that the community will truly benefit from,” said Rivera. “Coastal and North County is a great market area.”

In addition to developing more locations in the San Diego area, Phenix Salon Suites is rapidly expanding across the country. The company just went National last year and will open 35 New Locations in 2012 and already have over 100 locations in development .

Founded by a “Salon Family” with 75 years of salon industry experience, and over 24 Hair Stylists in the family, Phenix Salon Suites has been featured on the FOX Business Channel and other National Networks.

“This is an exciting new concept for beauty and service in Encinitas and the North County and we are proud to count Phenix Salon Suites as one of new members in the Network and their reputation for style and success proceeds them!” said Mike Andreen, Executive Director of the New Encinitas Network.

To learn more about renting a ‘Suite’, please contact Ali Digius, 858 610-5996, or go online adigius@phenixsalonsuites.com

Beware the ‘Delphi’ Method!

Showing UP! Will 7 New City of Encinitas ‘Housing Exercises’ really determine the ‘location’ of State-mandated ‘hyper-density transit clusters’ in the new ‘Updated’ Encinitas General Plan? Attend and find out for yourself.

Dateline: 32 Months and Counting
As we Encinitans continue our attempt to revise or ‘reboot’ the million dollar ‘Update’ for the General Plan 2035; a word of warning comes to us from a couple of Cities north of the Bay Area that are fighting for their own identities and well-being as the State of California urban planners declare war on the suburbs and ‘bedroom’ communities.

Our neighbors to the north have published a warning against something they have encountered called the ‘Delphi Method’, an ‘approach’ to ‘official’ gatherings that give the appearance, or a ‘sense’ of public participation; but in reality they are designed to capture only support for predetermined outcomes; Hyper-density transit villages in a world without personal transportation, where residents will bike daily to collective gardens to sow and harvest their ‘sustainable’ lifestyles; much like our own Comprehensive General Plan Update 2035.

A recent book published* by one of the Bay Area attorney’s attempt to slow down a ‘process’ entitled “The Delphi Method’ that many Encinitas residents who took part in the public workshops held over the last two years since and including the original ‘Visioning Festival’, held by MIG and Planning Staff on Saturday, May 1, 2010 will uneasily recognize.

In fact, MIG is identified as having a role in the ‘Delphi’ Method Meetings up north; you can see a video of one; here: http://resist21.com/agenda-21/delphi-technique/

THE REBOOT
There are suddenly 7 new ‘meetings and workshops’ being held by the City Planning Department; the first scheduled in New Encinitas next Monday, April 16th at 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Park Dale Lane Elementary School. It is imperative we all attend.

The Following are more than a dozen easy ‘signs’,  actions or strategies used as part of the ‘Delphi Method’ that have been utilized up north in an attempt quash public opinion in Northern California against hyper-density transit villages (as originally suggested by Planning Staff at the beginning, on 8-19-2009) and we hope that everyone attending these new ‘Housing Exercises’ will have read and shared the following description of ‘Delphi’ practices; so they can recognize them if they ever encounter them in their public life.

Forewarned is forearmed:

HOW TO KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN TO A ‘DELPHI’ MEETING; What To Watch For.

By Rose Koire

1) The meetings are advertised as an opportunity for you to give your input to an exciting new plan for the redesign of your city’s future center.

2) Delphi is often used in school board meetings and other places where the organizers want to give the appearance that they have listened to the community opinion and incorporated it into their plan.

3) Trained facilitators present a range of choices to a group but have tailored them to direct the outcome.

4) This is most often done in public meetings, called ‘Visioning’ Meetings; put on by your city to get your opinion on Your Town 2035.

5) You’ll usually see it as a Specific Plan or a regional transportation plan that involves housing or land use restrictions.

6) The illusion of public buy-in is all that is needed. The organizers can later point to the fact that they held a public meeting sought public input and the that the community approved the plan.

7) This consultant has been hired by your city to fulfill the requirement that the project has been seen and supported by its citizens-its YOUR plan. (Familiar? Celebration of the ‘process’ party?)

Only comments and observations that support the pre-approved plan will be supported.

9) All others will be written down on big pads of paper and discarded later.

10) The facilitator is often an out of town professional/private consultant who has been trained in running a public meeting with the Delphi Method. (MIG, Raimi and Associates?)

1i) A brief overview of the project will be given with no questions allowed.

12) Speakers will include representatives from non-profits, engineers, architects and planners.

13) If the project is controversial in your City, the City may have to put out a call for local non-profits, city boards and commissions and city employees to seed the audience and out number the potential opponents. (This occurred during the Spring 2010 Community Specific Meetings; Department Heads and Planners led break-out groups; town council members participated in multiple communities)

14) On those few occasions when the majority of attendees object to the planned outcome, the facilitator will close the meeting and reschedule it for another time and place; so true consensus can be found later. (This happened 11-3-2008)

What goes on in a Delphi Meeting?

15) The meeting is on a tight schedule and there are few opportunities for questions.

16) What questions are permitted are usually briefly answered or deferred to later.

17) In larger meetings they may identify themselves as the ‘organizing’ team and they will run their group openly. (As in the 2010 Community Meetings for CGPU 2035)

18) When the meeting is running smoothly you won’t notice that you aren’t really being given any choices about the matter at hand. If you don’t like something, your comment will be written down and thrown out later.

19) You may be shown a set of maps of your town and asked to color in the areas where you’d like to see a pastel utopia instead of what is there now.

20) Lots of bikes. Open Space parks but no private yards. Shallow porches that face the street.

21) The facilitator will have produced an attractive power point slide show and attractive handouts with lots of photos of middle class people recreating among sun lit multi story buildings with wide sidewalks lined with bistro tables.

22) By the way, often the property owners in the specific project area have deliberately not been notified and they will absolutely not have been sought out to attend. (As New Encinitas was deliberately excluded from the GPAC)

23) In this pleasant utopia, there are few cars, lots of bullet trains, bicycles and walking people. You’ll notice there is no manufacturing.

24) This ‘Delphi’ meeting is for the ‘public’; meaning anyone can attend from anywhere and give their opinion or vision about the privately owned properties. (This occurred at the Public Health Meeting)

***ARTICLE; CALIFORNIA DECLARES WAR ON THE SUBURBS (ENCINITAS) by Wendell Cox, Wall Street Journal;

“California Declares War on Suburbia” by Wendell Cox
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303302504577323353434618474.html

To learn when and where the 7 new meetings are; please go here; http://encinitas2035.info/

Fact 1: The General Plan Update ‘Draft’ currently posted on the Encinitas 2035 website is a ‘green-print’, that by design “transforms” the two busiest commercial corridors in New Encinitas from 8 lane prime-arterials into ‘walk-able’ communities with an emphasis in raising pedestrian and bicycle travel use above the currently vehicle-centric mode of operation;

Q:‘How does Planning Staff propose to ‘transform’ the ‘Golden Corridor’ of El Camino Real into a ‘Village Town Center’?

A: By locating roughly 1250 multi-family housing units into New Encinitas; which will generate an additional 12,500 car trips per day; and if this deliberately created gridlock isn’t troublesome enough; MIG, the Berkeley consultant hired to instill ‘sustainability’ into Encinitas’ future has publicly stated before the Encinitas City Council (5-11-11) that the residents are “excited about the trade-off”.

Q: What ‘trade-off’?

A: The Planning Staff’s ‘trade-off ‘ is the deliberate plan to allow intersections along both busy corridors (Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real) to degrade to a traffic level of service (LOS) from Level ‘D’ to Level ‘E’; causing intersections to ‘fail’, hoping to exasperate drivers into abandoning their personal autos forever, ‘trading’ the personal freedom of owning and operating our personal vehicles, for a future lifestyle of walking or biking to collective farms and gardens to grow our own food, digging it out of our personal plots and placing our fresh fruit or vegetables into our backpacks or bicycle baskets and transporting our food home to be cooked and consumed. Imagine trying to feed a family of five?

Q: Wait a minute; are you saying that this ‘Update’ calls for ‘trading’ the roughly $10 million dollars per year in sales tax generation (that pays for our City’s fire department, Sheriff’s Deputies, Life Guards etc…) annually generated by the shopping centers along El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard; for a collective farming future?

A: Yes, this is the ‘Update’ created by the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff troika for just under $1.5 million dollars in taxpayer funds; and adding insult to injury; the City’s own Planning Staff has repeatedly disregarded City Council direction since 9-14-11 to push their own ‘trade-off’ plan agenda. NOTE: The ‘Update’ also calls for a Citywide Tool Collective so residents can check-out a tractor to scrape their front and back yards for ‘growing’ our own food at home. The ‘Update’ suggests that local CC&R’s, ordinances might be moderated to allow the use of ‘organic’ waste in the neighborhoods to facilitate crop growth.

Q: How can this ‘trade-off’ plan be stopped?

A: The Encinitas City Council has directed the formation of a second ad hoc committee entitled the Element Review Advisory Committee, (the ERAC) which, after the Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 City Council public hearing the Council abandoned the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff created and promoted ‘Ugly Baby’ Draft.

The ERAC has now been tasked with evaluating the Staff ‘Draft’ that was created with the controversial ‘Delphi Method/Technique’ which allows a City to hold a ‘faux’ public hearing giving residents a ‘sense’ of participation, but in reality is ‘for show’ only and which results every time in arriving at the very same predetermined outcome that was detailed on 8-19-09, the same evening Council meeting where the City announced that Encinitas was now part of the International Committee for Local Environmental Initiatives; which sounds benign, but in reality is a cross-cultural endeavor to outlaw automobiles and force housing density upon an unsuspecting populace that wants to do the right thing about climate change but doesn’t realize the implications of this “plan that moves Encinitas on from the era of cars.”

But this Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Draft’ is not it. This ‘Draft’ deliberately targets the two commercial corridors in a plan to return Encinitas to it Agrarian roots. Horse and buggy anyone?

Q: What ‘Tools’ Can the ERAC use to overturn the entirety of this ‘Draft’?

A: The ERAC has tentatively established a set of ‘tools’ that will be used to create alternatives to the New Encinitas Only ‘Draft’ General Plan ‘Update’; these ‘tools’ include; floor-area-ratio, lot coverage, density, height, mixed-use, parking and affordable housing overlay/transition areas.

Using these tools, each of the five communities will be asked to meet for a ‘workshop’ and choose for themselves ‘how’ and ‘where’ any future growth for their community should be projected onto the future ‘housing element’ mandated by the State of California’s Assembly Bill 32 and State Bill 375.

Hopefully, each of the five communities will be asked to share the burden fairly and equally; but attending these workshops and simply saying ‘No’ will not be accepted by the State’s Housing and Community Development Commission.

The ERAC is currently deliberating on the ‘Housing Element’ first; and in subsequent weeks will be ‘test-driving’ the other 985 pages of the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Elements’ designed to literally reduce private property rights and forcing local citizens to participate in ‘collectivism’ or ‘communitarianism’; other cities have had these types of onerous ‘re-designing’ done to them in a manner that went virtually unnoticed by a working class populace scrambling to keep their heads above water.

We hope more and more residents will become aware of this international plan for forcing our children to live in urban density clusters next to transportation centers.

There simply has to be a better way to achieve a green house gases solution.

The next ERAC meeting will be held on Thursday, April 5th, 6:00 pm in the Poinsettia Room; Encinitas City Hall.

Foreign Objects

(New Encinitas) Encinitas homeowners and business-owners brought together to successfully lobby the Encinitas City Council to ‘Reboot’ the ‘process’ to ‘Update’ the City’s General Plan have discovered to their dismay that an ‘NGO’ a ‘non-governmental organization’ has had more to do with the recently City Council discredited ‘Land Use Element’ than anyone else in Encinitas.

The outsider/private NGO Group, somehow in-charge of our future, was the International Committee of Local Environmental Initiatives; that coincidentally the City of Encinitas joined forces with on the same exact day that the Planning Staff was given the go-ahead to negotiate a million-dollar plus contract to redesign the future of Encinitas making us ‘Sustainable’, ‘transforming’ El Camino Real into a ‘walk-able ‘’sustainable’ community’ locating 96% of all future growth into New Encinitas while simultaneously creating gridlock to ‘cause’ drivers to either abandon their personal automobiles and independence for Birkenstocks; or to force commuters to drive around Encinitas rather than through, significantly impacting/reducing the income stream of sales tax revenue of up to $10 million dollars per annum, that underwrites much of our public safety.

The BIG QUESTION
Who asked the Planning Staff to spend over a million dollars to ‘redesign’ the future of Encinitas?

The City Council? No.

The business community? Definitely no.

The residents? Again, No.

Believe it or not, the United Nations asked them to do it. For our Planning Department is part of an all consuming endeavor by environmentalists to force local municipalities into a cookie-cutter ‘solution’ to climate change; and done so in a manner that the average resident is never aware that their ‘American Dream’ is being marginalized by mid-level bureaucrats working in tandem with their brother and sister Planning Departments in other cities and counties.

No joke. No kidding around. A U.N. Agenda Item 21 and a quasi-non-profit group of international proportions; the ICLEI are driving our local agenda with the ‘true believers’ within the City Staff.

What the Planning Staff doesn’t want you to know about the General Plan Update?

Planning Staff’s all over California having banded together (with thousands of officials not elected by taxpayers) are quietly using the Green House Gases Solution Act to weaken private property rights and redesign our lives in Encinitas in a forced manner of collectivism that comes up ‘just short’ of outlawing personal automobiles that in the final analsis makes a mockery of the American Dream, free will and our very independence.

ICLEI: A ‘GREEN’ TROJAN HORSE?  

ICLEI’s claims its basic premise is that locally designed initiatives can provide an effective and cost-efficient way to achieve local, national, and global sustainability objectives.

ICLEI Primer: Your Town’s Freedom Threatened?
ICLEI is described by many Californians as one of the premiere  mechanisms to undo the political recognition of unalienable rights in the U.S. ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability promotes Local Action 21 and other United Nations programmes implemented through local town councils, planners, mayors and local governments through the Delphi Method in a manner that gives residents a sense that they have had input into their new General Plan Update when in realty there has always been a predetermined outcome.

‘Sustainability’; it is NOT what you think.

ICLEI financially seduces counties and cities by offering to pay for consultants, studies, programs etc…with online messages like the sample below from ICLEI’s website:

‘Support for Consultants and Other Organizations

“ICLEI offers support to consultants, nonprofits, universities, government agencies and other organizations. Local governments are often limited in their capacity, which is why they rely on you and your organization to fill in the gaps and provide valuable expertise.”

“Through ICLEI trainings and engagement with ICLEI networks and events, your company, organization or agency can boost its on-staff skills and its reputation for helping local governments achieve their sustainability, climate protection, and clean energy goals faster.”

“We invite you to learn more about our tools, trainings, networks and other resources, or sign up for our ICLEI Connection e-newsletter to have all of the latest local climate and sustainability resources, best practices and breaking news delivered to your inbox.”

http://www.icleiusa.org/about-iclei/support-for-consultants-and-other-organizations

The organization is now officially called ‘ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability’. In 2003, ICLEI’s Members voted to revise the organization’s mission.

NOTE: OTHER CITIES ARE WITHDRAWING FROM ICLEI http://www.freedomadvocates.org/articles/illegitimate_government/iclei_primer%3A_your_town_and_freedom_threatened_20090804364/
ICLEI works with these and hundreds of other local governments through international performance-based, results-oriented campaigns and programs. It provides technical consulting, training, and information services to build capacity, share knowledge, and support local government in the implementation of sustainable development at the local level. ICLEI’s basic premise is that locally designed initiatives can provide an effective and cost-efficient way to achieve local, national, and global sustainability objectives.

More on the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff General Plan Update and the ties to ICLEI after the next meeting of the Element Review Advisory Committee’s next meeting.

The combined forces of the New Encinitas residents and the property owners/business owners from the two commercial corridors (the NEW ENCINITAS Network) that comprise the lion’s-share of sales tax generation for the City, 5-to-1 over all the other local districts put together; were able to prevail upon the Encinitas City Council majority to convince them that the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Draft’ Land Use Plan was not only unfairly and unequally created in a manner that allowed New Encinitas next to no representation on the General Plan Advisory Committee; which located 96% of future growth in New Encinitas and none in the other four communities; with a financially dangerous ‘Update Plan’ to force feed 2200 multi-family housing units required by the State of California’s AB32 Greenhouse Gases Solution Act from 2007; instead of allowing the public to perform a ‘Housing Exercise’ that distributes the potential ‘future growth’ across all five communities in a fair and equal manner. (The Planning Staff began with a ‘predetermined outcome’ in August of 2009 to target New Encinitas.)

Now that the Encinitas City Council has pried the General Plan ‘process’ out of the hands of the ideologues on the City’s Planning Staff, the new City Manager, GUS VINA and the City’s 101 Czar PEDER NORBY have been tasked by the City Council to pursue ‘The Plan Forward’ that includes new ‘Housing Exercises’ among the new Element Review Advisory Committee, the General Plan Advisory Committee, the legally-appointed City Commissions and five community-centric ‘Open Houses’ where residents can learn about the State Mandated AB32 and SB375 that force city’s to provide a ‘Plan’ to the State’s Housing and Community Development Commission that ‘maps’ out ‘where’ there is ‘opportunity’ to create new ‘multi-family’ housing units.

On August 19th, 2009, the City’s Planning Staff presented a ‘Plan’ for an ‘Update’ to the General Plan that targeted the shopping malls along El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard for a ‘Mixed-Use’ overlay that would have resulted in roughly 2000 new apartments/condos with the requisite 20,000 daily car trips that 2000 new units would create. That would project out to 61,000 cars a day; AND the kicker was that Planning Staff had decided that the smartest way to ‘grow’ into our future AND reduce ‘green house gases was to allow the daily traffic ‘Level of Service’ from ‘D’ to ‘E’.

This ‘Plan’ was set in August 2009; so what was much of the million-dollar allocation used for? To hire a self-described ‘Social Marketing’ firm from Berkeley, California that told the City Council that “the citizens are excited about’ the ‘trade-off of “consciously and deliberately” creating ‘Gridlock’ during “peak AM and PM hours”; WHY create the increased ‘Gridlock’?

Because the Planning Staff’s goal for New Encinitas according to their Circulation Element was, “the transformation of (an 8 lane) arterial to a pedestrian-oriented walk-able community with a faux creek”.

Luckily the hard work of the residents and the doggedness in pursuit of fairness and economic sanity by the targeted and surprised New Encinitas business-community has paid off. It didn’t hurt that the Planning Staff continued to all but ignore the City Council’s clear directions to the Manager’s office for a different approach. The Planning Staff’s outrageous report stating that it was too late to add ‘any’ additional public input, requests for an additional $30,000 to pay MIG that already was paid over a million dollars to convince the public that the Planning Staff’s ‘Plan for New Encinitas’ had come from the community and not from the Planning Staff and it seemed to be a success-bound scheme until the actual ‘Draft’ was posted online and the ‘product’ was almost universally unpopular, except for those who believe that we should immediately dispense with personal automobiles and live in collectives; no joke!

Of course, nobody that helped create the Barth/MIG/Planning Staff ‘Draft’ wanted to take responsibility for the ‘Ugly Baby’; ‘Success has a hundred fathers; failure, but one’.

Believe it, after almost 31 months on the playing field, for this ‘Update’ we are still only at ‘half-time’.

Reboot!

New ‘Element Review’ Advisory Committee
ERAC
To ‘Test Drive’ Planning Staff’s Draft ‘Land Use’ Chapter and Verse
Next month, on March 8th, 2012 the newly created
ERAC, will begin the ‘line-by-line’ reading of the ‘Draft’ Land-Use section of the General Plan ‘Update’.

This is the second ‘Ad Hoc’ or committee on ‘temporary assignment’, with direction coming from the Encinitas City Council on ‘action plan’; public hearing is Wednesday, March 7th, 2012.
The GPAC
‘General Plan Advisory Committee’
The first citizen’s committee, the GPAC, or General Plan Advisory Committee met from 1-10-2010 until 10-3-2011; the GPAC only had one representative from New Encinitas out of twenty-four residents, yet this group ‘signed-off’ on almost ALL of the ‘future growth’ /targeted/located in New Encinitas. (The single New Encinitas rep allowed was Virginia Felker, who fought 23-to-1 for New Encinitas).

The September ‘Time-Out’ by Gaspar and Stocks

When the Encinitas City Council got their first public viewing of The Teresa Barth/MIG Consultant ‘Draft’ General Plan ‘Update’ (9-16-11), they immediately took a ‘time-out’ and at the behest of then Councilwoman Kristen Gaspar (now Deputy Mayor) and current Mayor Jerome Stocks insistence, this widely perceived as ‘Staff-driven’ “Plan for moving Encinitas on from the automobile…” would already have been approved and shipped for confirmation to Sacramento.
WHO IS TARGETED BY
BARTH DRAFT UPDATE?
The actual private properties targeted by this ‘Draft’ are the ‘commercial corridor’ properties that have a direct tie to the City directly underwriting the income-stream for nearly a third of the City’s Annual Income. Recognizing the ‘unfairness’ of the Barth Draft ‘process’ over the first 24 months, the Encinitas City Council not only made sure that New Encinitas had better representation this time around, but some modicum of business representation that was missing in the GPAC and was part of the criticism of the Staff-driven ‘Draft’ and make-up of the original GPAC. Residents have demanded the ERAC be ‘all’ residential, but the GPAC was 100% residential (as is every other commission or commission or council in the City is); AND that resulted in the Barth ‘Draft’.

Some residents haven’t realized that many of the commercial property owners appointed to the ERAC live in Encinitas; several in New Encinitas; in fact. Because they own a business or property they should be disqualified?
Issues to discuss?

Also, the City is rescheduling the ‘community-centric’ ‘Update’ meetings throughout the five communities, after the input is made to the Encinitas City Council.
While it may be frustrating to wait; ‘Why’ take out a ‘Draft’ that is incomplete. We already have 27 months invested fighting the targeting of New Encinitas.
Residents and Business Owners
Are On the Same Side
Finally,
Some folks new to the fight are making the mistake of blaming the past 27-month process of ‘Updating’ the General Plan as a ‘plot’ by local business to turn El Camino Real into Atlantic City. Please have those folks read the State’s AB32 and SB375; Nothing could be further from the truth. If it were not for the business-people of New Encinitas taking action and asking hard questions, this ‘Process’ would still be under the control of Planning Staff/MIG and Councilwoman Teresa Barth. The Network is working overtime to keep the corridors safe and convenient for commuters that spend their dollars along Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real.

To read the Land-Use Elements the ERAC will be evaluating for cultural and economic soundness; please go here:

http://encinitas2035.info/Content/10040/DraftGeneralPlanElements.html

To READ the San Diego County’s Climate Action Plan that strongly affects this Draft; go here:

http://www.nctimes.com/blogsnew/news/transportation/region-county-s-climate-action-plan-ready-for-public-comment/article_bb7f37d7-9abf-50b8-acdc-0928db93a029.html

One of the most simple political truths is that people, most people, want simple answers to complex problems.

Who doesn’t?

A major power outage, a regional ‘black out’ in early September and we all immediately thought “terrorists”.

The truth was a little more complicated than that; involving a new employee for a power company pulling the wrong switch, out-of-state.

Question: Who is responsible for the current state of the new General Plan 2035 ‘Update’?

After 30 months of closely following the Comprehensive General Plan 2035 process for the City of Encinitas; ‘Who’ is ultimately responsible for this flawed ‘Draft’?

The answer, after repeated viewing of a City Council video of the beginning of this ‘process’ for ‘Updating’ the Comprehensive General Plan turns out to be Council woman Teresa Barth.

Having taken action originally, in September of 2009 and almost daily, ever since, to get appropriate and fair representation in this ‘Update’ process for New Encinitas, I’d like to go back to the beginning of this ‘process’, so newcomers to the issue can get some perspective.

The Beginning
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I went back and repeatedly viewed the video of the Encinitas City Council meeting of 8-19-09, where and when the Planning Staff and the Barth-Chaired Subcommittee made their recommendation for the City Manager to negotiate a million dollar plus contract with Daniel Iacofano of MIG; a firm that uses ‘social marketing’ to transform cities into ‘walk-able’ communities, using the tenets of something called ‘The New Urbanism/New Pedestrianism’ to ‘move communities beyond automobiles’.

New Urbanism, used on a beach town plan? Yep.

‘How’ Did Barth Get This Opportunity?

First part of this complex answer; the State of California.

Several years ago, the California Legislatures passed a couple of bills, which were signed by the Governor, and which took a well-meaning, but cookie-cutter approach to reducing ‘greenhouse gasses’ and for the most part, the bills call for any ‘new’ housing to be concentrated in one place near transportation hubs to further reduce emissions from automobiles and to directly address ‘global warming’.

That might make sense in Oakland or Lawndale; but Encinitas?

Nine counties and 101 cities were given a State mandate and a deadline to produce a ‘map’ or ‘Plan’ to follow the guidelines of SB 375 and AB 32 and to regulate land-use as a generator of greenhouse gases in order to return the local environments to 1990 levels.

Well-intentioned no doubt, but the State mandates are forcing hundreds of Cities to develop plans for a future that endangers their very identities and financial stability.

Encinitas Responds To the State Mandates

How did our City of Encinitas respond? They asked Planning Staff to come up with a ‘Plan’ to comply with these ‘greenhouse gas’ laws before the deadline and to include an ‘Updated’ Housing Element.

Now, at the same time, Encinitas, unquestionably a City with an ‘upper-income’ majority; is a classic ‘bedroom community’ with no manufacturing and most of its annual $41 million dollar budget/income supplied by property-tax assessments. That accounts for approximately 75% of the City budget, but the last 25% balance is made up of sales-tax generated by El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard businesses and services.

25%!

Who Moved Up the General Plan Update?

Why ‘Updating’ the General Plan? The 1989 version seemed to work just fine as; Sheila Cameron herself stated at the August 19th, 2009 City Council public hearing discussion on hiring MIG to ‘Update’ it.

So, who lobbied to have the General Plan ‘update’ moved up several years to be aligned with ‘Housing’ mandate from the State? The Staff itself will tell you it was Councilwoman Teresa Barth.

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, in fact, because of the economy, the amount of work the Planning and Engineering Staff had to do daily had dropped to little more than a trickle; what better project to occupy a Planning Staff’s time than ‘updating’ a General Plan?

What Happened Next?
Where Did MIG Come From?

Next the Planning Staff prevailed upon the City Council to form a ‘Subcommittee’ and along with Staff, to organize and write an ‘RFP’, a ‘request for proposal’ from different consulting firms that would aspire to ‘Update’ the 1989 Encinitas’ General Plan.

The ‘RFP’ was sent out statewide and 10 firms responded.

Again, ‘Who’ Chaired the Subcommittee and was the only Council person to read through the proposals and to sit in on the all-important face-to-face interviews, who helped narrow it down to one favorite; Daniel Iacafano of MIG? Council woman, Teresa Barth.

See For Yourself
Watching the video of the 8-19-09 Council hearing on MIG’s proposed contract, there are several undeniable actions any objective observer cannot deny; Mrs. Barth and the Planning Staff are bubbly in their excitement about their choice of MIG, so much so, that it is Mrs. Barth whom quickly makes a motion to approve the million dollar request for MIG; which, with Mr. Bond not in attendance, passed unanimously.

NOTE: There was absolutely no ‘direction’ from the City Council to turn El Camino Real into a ‘walk-able’ community; though then, the late Mayor Maggie Houlihan did opine that she was, ”Worried about Encinitas being the most convenient place in the world for commuters.” Which seems to have a great influence on the ‘Update’s’ Elements for allowing traffic ‘level(s) of service’ to degrade as a message to commuters to drive around Encinitas, rather than through.

Actions Speak Louder Than Denials

Mrs. Barth attended all five of the ‘community-only’ initial ‘Visioning’ meetings for the ‘Update’ in each of the five ‘community specific’; beginning with Olivenhain, New Encinitas, Old Encinitas, Cardiff and Leucadia.

It would be one thing for council people to have attended, observed and listened, but she attended all five community-specific meetings with a select group of roughly a dozen supporters and friends from the coastal town councils who repeatedly participated in the break-out groups, which without question affected the overall ‘sample’ reported by MIG as a result of ‘comments’ made and recorded at these ‘community specific’ meetings. Several of her coterie that ‘over-participated’ in fact were active members of the GPAC.

The ‘Barth, Planning Staff /MIG Plan’ is Revealed

While Mrs. Barth agreed on September 14th, 2011 with the other Encinitas City Council People to take a ‘time-out’ on the ‘process’ of ‘Updating’ the Staff-driven ‘Draft’, she, along with Councilwoman Kristin Gaspar, were appointed to a Subcommittee to create a time line for changes to the ‘Draft’ process that the ‘Majority’ council people found wanting, if not, downright disturbing.

Many of us wondered ‘Why’ Council woman Barth seemed to be going along comfortably in inhibiting the execution of her own design at the 9-14-11 Council meeting?

All Will Be Revealed

Two months later her actions of 9-14-11 became more clear when she and Planning Staff attempted to overturn the Gaspar Motion of 9-14-11 behind closed doors and when the Barth ‘power grab’ was reported out, the Council woman denied it.

On Sept. 14, 2011, it wasn’t Mrs. Barth that made the motion to move the ‘process’ in another direction, it was Council woman, Kristin Gaspar, with help from Deputy Mayor Jerome Stocks and Mayor Jim Bond, who were aghast at the shape and form of the ‘Draft’; a ‘Draft’ clearly designed by the Chair of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee that oversaw ‘RFP’ and ‘Search Committee for a Consultant’ and who then organized the over-participation of her followers within the ‘Community Specific’ Meetings.

Perspective on the ‘Barth General Plan’

NOW, Mrs. Barth is telling New Encinitas that this ‘Draft’ was the brainchild of the very ‘Majority’ that have repeatedly taken actions to wrest this ‘Barth Plan’ from her control, along with that of the Planning Staff.

And, new admirers are repeating on local blogs the misconception that this ‘Update’ was generated by the ‘Majority’ council members, rather than she and the Planning Staff.

The data is the data.

In Trying To Save The State, Have They Doomed Some Cities?

The Facts are: this all begins with the State/Greenhouse Gases/Global Warming Solutions that have been mandated with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach; but once the City chose to respond, they appointed Council woman Barth and if there is any complaint heard more than others its that the Majority council members were too ‘hands-off’ in their allowing Barth and the Planning Staff to drive this ‘process’ off a financial cliff.

P.S.

Potential candidates to take over Encinitas City Council seats in the Fall of 2012 might be wise to view the video of 8-19-09, several times, before pointing fingers and misleading the public as to responsibility for the ‘Barth General Plan 2035’; there is a lot there on the video to absorb AND its ALL complex, but deserves repeated viewing; but blaming the ‘Majority’ and excusing the very ‘Minority’ on the Council who are truly responsible for partnering with the Planning Staff to create this private property rights destroying ‘new’ General Plan 2035 is simply jumping to a simple erroneous conclusion AND misplacing any blame that has surely been repeatedly earned.

I realize that attempting to trump an emotional argument with a fact-based rational response is bound to fail almost 100% of the time; that too is a simple political truth; but if more of the newly interested would like to go back to the beginning; my advice is to watch the 8-19-09 city council video several times; you will gain informed perspective.

But, for those who really want to know ‘How’ this ALL happened? Watch the video of the 8-19-09 City Council meeting and come to your own conclusions.

Happy viewing.

Next?

The Austin-Foust $110,000 traffic-modeling contract and the usual suspects.