Number of the Day = 300

The richest 300 people on earth have the same wealth as the poorest 3 billion. This is no accident - those in power write the rules. Together, we have the power to change those rules.

The extreme truth about how wealth is divided globally. Inspired by the amazing "Wealth Inequality in America" video.

Common Knowledge FAIL

Wealth Inequity beyond our sense of reality

h/t Doug Porter

Small Spaces etc. - High End Sustainability

Another example of using really high end products, materials, finishes and design talent is shown in this home.

This is also the first reference we have made to the obstacles within the tiny house movement faced in municipal planning. This subject of the tiny home in zoning laws and building codes will be explored further in this series.

And another video showing more features of this mini-home . . .

According to Mary: Anderson's Stationer's - Shop Local

Speaking of good people . . .

Artist Mary Fleener had this to say on her Facebook page,

"This week's cartoon for The Coast News: Every copy, every self published book of mine, and all the ink I've ever drawn with has come from this little shop since 1984."

So God made a banker

To be read in the voice of Paul Harvey. (source: Market Watch)

And on the eighth day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need someone who can flip this for a quick buck.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone who doesn’t grow anything or make anything but who will borrow money from the public at 0% interest and then lend it back to the public at 2% or 5% or 10% and pay himself a bonus for doing so.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone who will take money from the people who work and save, and use that money to create a dotcom bubble and a housing bubble and a stock bubble and an oil bubble and a commodities bubble and a bond bubble and another stock bubble, and then sell it to people in Poughkeepsie and Spokane and Bakersfield, and pay himself another bonus.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone to build homes in the swamps and deserts using shoddy materials and other people’s money, and then use these homes as collateral for a Ponzi scheme he can sell to pensioners in California and Michigan and Sweden. I need someone who will then foreclose on those homes, kick out the occupants, and switch off the air conditioning and the plumbing, and watch the houses turn back into dirt. And then pay himself another bonus.”

God said, “I need someone to lend money to people with bad credit at 30% interest in order to get his stock price up, and then, just before the loans turn bad, cash out his stock and walk away. And who, when asked later, will, with a tearful eye, say the government made him do it.”

God said, “And I need somebody who will tell everyone else to stand on their own two feet, but who will then run to the government for a bailout as soon as he gets into trouble — and who will then use that bailout money to help elect a Congress that will look the other way. And then pay himself another bonus.”

So God made a banker.

Brett Arends is a MarketWatch columnist. Follow him on Twitter @BrettArends.

Out of Towners

Guests in Encinitas are key to our local economy as a tourist center in Southern California.  Making our community a desirable vacation spot has no doubt invited national business onto our main streets to appease the national appetite for familiar branding. This is not hard to understand. Brand-based decisions are the stuff of billions of dollars of advertising.

Hence we have a large portion of hotel, restaurant, big box retail profits leaving Encinitas to be deposited in multinational headquarter banks and enterprises each and every day.  This has been the norm for many years.  Obviously it would be far better for profits to stay here at home.  Here is another thing to consider.  One gigantic vulnerability for us is the potential closure of any or many national chain stores through decisions not based on our local business, relationships or support.

Labor for these businesses represent the largest segment of the Encinitas job pool and it is almost universally low paying.  Unions are virtually non-existent or toothless so these jobs don't come near a living wage or with vacation, sick leave or other basic benefits. Though figures are not available, it's obvious that a large portion, if not the majority, of the people working in these jobs live outside of Encinitas. It is simply too expensive for most to live here without a living wage.

Our City Government relies heavily on sales tax revenue and the above all fuels this revenue stream.  Again, this is not hard to understand. But, the true strength of this approach needs to be addressed against options that place more commerce and tax revenue in the control of local citizens.

Out of towners described above are just one kind of visitor in Encinitas.  We have another kind of visitor, the citizen visitor.  Due to jobs being located outside of Encinitas, most often in San Diego or UCSD or Los Angeles, three of the most common, we have people with Encinitas addresses spending the lions' share of their waking hours outside of Encinitas.

This bedroom community is filled with thousands of workers who drive to and from Encinitas each day, attend entertainments, study, shop, dine, party, and vacation outside of Encinitas.  It is a lifestyle in no way foreign or odd for people on the go. For another chunk of the population simply making a go of it can be frightening. This is standard for the vast majority in this country drowning in personal debt. They share in common with our vacationing tourists the absence of time, energy or interest in civic engagement.  Not only are schedules full, the sense of relevance is just not there.

As we look ahead to this next century and the forces we must contend with in our future, more resilience demands we capture what we are losing.  How can we keep profits within our community?  How should we invest to assure that this talent pool can find job satisfaction and security close to home? What sort of housing, transportation and health services are available to employed people? Are the working poor and the homeless kept out of sight and silent or dealt with as our neighbors? How can the fast paced lifestyle people transition into a richer, slower version of what they enjoy now? How long should change take?

Diversity and humanitarian solutions are not emotional issues alone, they represent an adaptive problem solving that only strengthens an already thriving community. Placating appetites of the well-off while encouraging fair use of valued resources is a challenge that all western culture faces.  It starts here with observations and questions.

50 Year Coastal Proposition

Guest Post by Dennis Lees, February 3, 2012

I wanted to make sure you are aware of a 50-year coastal protection program the Army Corps of Engineers is proposing for Encinitas and Solana Beach. It has been described minimally in The Coast News here and here. I believe this is an issue that we as Encinitans should be involved in. The ACOE will hold a public briefing on this project in our council chambers this Wednesday, 2/6, at 1800 (6 PM). The public will be able to ask questions and speak to their concerns.

The ACOE has been studying these issues for about 10 years. It started out evaluating ten alternatives, including:
No Action; Managed Retreat; Beach Nourishment at Various Increments; Notch fills; Hybrid-Beach nourishment and notch fill; Visible Breakwaters; Submerged Breakwater/Artificial Reef; Groins; Seawalls; Revetment

Preliminary screening eliminated the following alternatives:

Managed Retreat; Emergent Breakwaters; Submerged Breakwater/Artificial Reef; Groins; Revetments

This leaves:

No Action, representing unmanaged retreat; Beach Nourishment at various times in the future (this is a short-term fix; we've just completed the 3rd beach nourishment program since about 2000); Notch fills; a hybrid approach involving beach nourishment and notch fill; and Seawalls.

It is not surprising that the ACOE has already eliminated Managed Retreat, which recent comprehensive cost-benefit studies in Monterey Bay have show is the best environmental and economic alternative in the long term. For more information on this, see pdf reports from USC.edu, Monterey Bay.NOAA.gov and Costal.ca.gov.

These investigators, led by Dr. David Revell, have been evaluating the costs and short- and long-term benefits of a variety of approaches to shoreline preservation and restoration (beach nourishment, revetments, sea walls, armor rock, artificial reefs, etc.) and has come to some very interesting conclusions. I believe they have concluded that all but Managed Retreat are basically pouring money down a rat hole. Mother Nature will win in the end, whatever we do, and we are just delaying the final outcome at great expense to the taxpayers.

Managed Retreat, however, definitely does not satisfy the influential property and business owners, who are pushing to have their property protected at taxpayer expense.

The footprint for the proposed Encinitas/Solana Beach project is 3-4 times larger than the recently completed beach nourishment program and about two-thirds of it would occur here in Encinitas. The remainder is off San Elijo Lagoon and Solana Beach.

I recently took a very brief look at the appendix covering impacts to nearshore resources in the ACOE EIS/EIR for its proposed Encinitas/Solana Beach beach protection program and found it woefully wanting. In addition to eliminating a discussion on managed retreat, the ACOE document doesn't address environmental or fisheries impacts in the borrow sites at all. In fact, the only mention of "borrow sites" was to mention that a cultural resources survey will be conducted prior to dredging. It is likely, based on research conducted in nearshore waters, that biological resources in these areas vary substantially. However, studies assessing potential impacts to these habitats have failed to address this variation or adequately evaluate the ecological value of any of the proposed borrow sites and use the differences in ecological value as a criterion for site selection. These evaluations should be used to ensure that any dredging that occurs avoids the areas of highest ecological value, as demonstrated by intensive surveys by qualified benthic ecologists with experience in this habitat. Basically, previous studies have evaluated the "weeds" in the system, i.e., the ephemeral organisms living in the upper few inches of the sand, rather than the "trees", i.e., the long-lived organisms that live down to 2 or more feet deep in the sand (and equal to dredging depth) and contribute the most to fisheries. A consequence of this flawed approach is that the potential effects of dredging and the projections for recovery times are grossly underestimated.

In the past, agencies have not understood these issues and have accepted this approach. However, we are seeing changes in agency philosophies regarding the approaches for evaluating borrow sites and beach restoration programs. The California Coastal Commission is now starting to request studies addressing the issues involving the "weeds" and the "trees", which is the approach taken in discussions of nearly every other ecosystem subjected to development activities. (For example, when we assess the effects of clear-cutting in a redwood forest, an activity analogous to the proposed dredging program, we make the decisions based on the long-lived redwoods and other trees in the forest, not on the ephemeral grasses and short-lived shrubs growing on the forest floor.) In addition, the National Marine Fisheries Service appears to be leaning this direction.

However, the bottom line here is that the ACOE has completely omitted any discussion of Managed Retreat and borrow-site impacts from a proposed 50-year project that would require dredging many times more sand for the beaches in Encinitas and Solana Beach than all the dredging done for beach "nourishment" to date. These omissions are unacceptable. These environmental issues need to be addressed to protect the environment and our fisheries. Moreover, we need to protect the taxpayers. Particularly in light of sea-level rise, this is a battle that we cannot and will not win. We should make a wise decision to cut our losses and put the money into efforts that make sense for ALL taxpayers, not just wealthy landowners and businesses.

Financial Vision - Where are we going? What Matters?

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll

Mayor Barth cited this quote concluding the Jan. 9, 2013 council meeting presentation by City Manager Vina. He laid out a plan to open up the entire Budgeting methodology to the council, community and advisors / consultants for a fully transparent process. He also emphasised Strategic Planning as a tool that has been missing in the annual Encinitas financial planning and assessment. The council asked questions, deliberated, heard public speakers and came to the unanimous vote 5:0 to follow the CM's recommendation.

The following information was submitted in the agenda packet prior to the meeting. The complete slide series and introductory memo are included here for documented reference. The subject is too complex and this is merely a glimpse of what is to come.  This process will take half the year. Let this be communique number one. It sounds great, but we've matured I suspect after projecting our own dreams on hopey, changey phrases versus our actual experiences in past ideological strategies.  That said, it looks solid.

SUBJECT: Introduction of the development approach for the FY13/14 and FY14/15 Operating Budgets and FY13/14 to FY18/19 Capital Improvement Program; and Strategic Planning for Council discussion and possible direction.

BACKGROUND:
The City Council adopts a two year operating budget and six year financial plan and capital improvement program. The typical budget cycle begins with the preparation of the operating budget which includes projections and assumptions for both income and expenses anticipated for the two year period. Additionally, capital improvement projects are evaluated and funding sources identified in order to develop the multi-year capital improvement program. It has also been typical that goal setting sessions occur at City Council meetings in order to gain input from the public. These sessions usually occur in the January or February time frame. Following the goal setting process the Finance Department, in conjunction with all city departments, prepares the operating and capital budgets for City Council discussion and approval. The adoption of the two year operating budget and six-year capital budget typically occurs in May.

The management of the city's budget throughout the year is a very deliberate process, with the Finance Department holding quarterly budget meetings in order to monitor the budget plan and check in with departments on progress. This process has been very valuable and results in all departments managing within the resources allocated for the year. Additionally, staff prepares a mid-year report for City Council's information and direction that is presented in January or February each year. This midyear report also assists with overall management of the budget and provides for any adjustments that might be needed six months into the fiscal year and budgetary plan.

The City of Encinitas has practiced good fiscal management through the leadership of the City Councils fiscal policies. Prudent fiscal policies include having a balanced budget each fiscal year, monitoring of spending and income, management of debt, and establishment of reserves. The City continues to meet its reserve requirements and is financially stable.

Editor: Fair to say that many in the community distrust this assessment. There is the perception that voters have been lied to and there needs to be some acknowledgement. One could start with the extremely difficult process to get answers and a clear accounting. Clearly this is what this process is designed to do. 

DISCUSSION:
Staff is currently in the process of organizing for the development of the FY13/14 and FY14/15 Operating Budgets as well as the six-year Capital Improvement Program for FY13/14 through FY18/19. Before the budget hearings begin this year, staff will present a number of informational budget sessions to the City Council in order to provide updates and background on the operating and capital budgets. The informational sessions will include topics such as:

• The city's revenues and expenses, including assumptions and projections
• Two year budgeting process
• Six year fiscal planning
• Reserves and Debt Ratio
• Pension Reform, Unfunded Liabilities, and PERS costs and actuarial information
• Contracts for Services
• Capital Funding sources and programming processes

During the Moonlight Beach Improvements and Encinitas Community Park project workshop on July 11, 2012, the City Council identified $600,000 of available funding that can be allocated to future projects. Staff will present this opportunity during a capital improvement workshop as part of this year's budget process. Following the informational budget sessions, staff will be presenting the proposed budgets for City Council's consideration and adoption.

STRATEGIC PLANNING:
While the City's budget management and fiscal policies have served it well since incorporation, there is an opportunity to enhance this process with the use of strategic planning. Developing and pursuing long-term vision for Encinitas through strategic planning will provide a decision making model that will better connect resources with specific goals. A Strategic Plan would be the result of such an effort and can be used to better communicate with the community on the specific initiatives that are planned to continue providing great quality of life in Encinitas. The specific approach for developing a strategic plan has not yet been prepared. With City Council's direction to proceed with strategic planning, staff will come back with the implementation approach for City Council's discussion and further direction.

Generally, the strategic plan would include two years of specific initiatives approved by the City Council and would be consistent with the two year budget cycle currently in practice. Every year the City Council would have an opportunity to review and update the strategic plan as necessary. Strategic planning usually begins with a "visioning" exercise of the elected body that identifies quality of life elements. The visioning approach leads the organization and community towards specific goals that can be tied to the budget process to assure that resources are aligned with this vision. This same exercise and approach will assist with the updating of the City's General Plan as it would provide a policy framework from which to work towards an update of the existing general plan.

Strategic planning includes many components; however, essential to any strategic plan are: 1) the support and direction from the elected body with exercises that determine the vision for the future and addresses broad themes of common interest, 2) community outreach that is inclusive of all local community leaders, 3) decision making tools that assists with the evaluation of current programs and activities and help set priorities for the future, and 4) accountability through established measurable outcomes to ensure accomplishment of the goals.

(PowerPoint Presentation)

City of Encinitas
City Council Meeting
January 9, 2013
.
Budget Development
Strategic Planning

"Budget Basics"

The Budget Cycle
Budget Preparation and Management

• Revenues
• Expenses
• Two Year Budgeting
• Six Year Fiscal Planning

Reserves
Debt Ratio

Budget Development Approach

Informational Budget Sessions - February/March
Budget Hearings – March/April
Continuous Improvements - April
Strategic Planning Concept - April
Budget Adoption – May/June

Operating Budget

Personnel Costs

• Overview of costs
• Pension Reform
• Unfunded Liabilty
• PERS costs and actuarial

Contracts for Services

• Law Enforcement
• Park Maintenance
• Building Inspections

"On The Horizon" - challenges/opportunities

Capital Budget

Overview of Funding Sources
Programming of Funds processes
"In-progress" projects
"In the Pipeline" projects
Future projects

Capital Improvement Workshop

Council confirmation of current projects
Funding strategies for $600,000
Future Projects

Council Reports Back

Budget Preparation

• North County Economic Development council (? ed)
• Citizens Academy

Strategic Planning

• Environmental Risk Assessment study
• Special Case streets criteria
• Incremental development policies

Operating Budget FY13/14 and FY14/15

Base Budget
Projections and Assumptions
New Programs/Activities/Costs

Continuous Improvements

Department Efficiencies
Public Works/Engineering merger
Wastewater consolidation
Fire Management Services

Strategic Planning

What is Strategic Planning?
Why have a Strategic Plan?
Possible next steps for implementation.

Strategic Planning for Local Government

A decísion-making model

• A systematic way to present the relationship between available resources you have to operate your programs and activities AND the changes or results you hope to achieve.

A Community Communication Action Plan

• A tool that allows the local government agency, organizations, community leaders, and the public to participate in setting goals and identifying priorities.

Why Strategic Planning?

Introduces logic and decision matrix to budget process
Connects quality of life goals to funding decisions
Provides policy framework that supports the General Plan, annual budget, department work plans, etc.
Assists in setting priorities and understanding community needs

Why Strategic Planning?

Brings efficiencies to government
Improves customer service to the community
Provides a vision and focus through an "action plan"... .accountability
Clarity in policy intent and direction

Possible Next Steps

"Visioning" session(s) with Mayor and City Council
Collection of data
GAP analysis.... .does current effort support vision?
Design community outreach efforts
Identify and prioritize initiatives
Allocate resources
Assign Key Indicators
Develop Action Plan

Council Direction

1. Proceed with Strategic Planning?
2. Reorganize General Plan effort?

~ end of slide show ~

The Council Members discussed the General Plan Update reports scheduled for the three February meetings (Planning, GPAC & ERAC each scheduled for a separate week) and agreed that these should be kept as agendized presentations despite this evenings' vote to halt the General Plan update effort until the visioning, strategic planning is complete.

About the Sand . . .

Hard to believe that this is indeed sand.

This week Logan Jenkins wrote a startlingly informative post on sand. Specifically he writes about Scripps scientists stake out Cardiff beach to measure sands of time. His source is Bob Guza, Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor and the tour includes Cardiff State Beach where a doctoral student (unamed by Jenkins) works in "an industrial sized container" in front of a "bank of computer terminals." Here is the best chunk of Jenkins' latest:

The goal of the research project — led by Guza and one of his former star pupils, Reinhard Flick, Scripps researcher and staff oceanographer for the California Department of Boating and Waterways — is simple: Watch the sand. Carefully.

The technology they’re using is a step up from Radio Shack: a laser scanner that collects data points multiple times a second; acoustic Doppler velocimeter; bathymetric mapping; and a bunch of other sci-fi stuff.

Guza, his love of sand gushing, says it’s insane that we spend millions on periodic beach “nourishment” while less than .01 percent of that money goes to measuring what happens to the sand once it’s dropped off.

[ . . . ] “Our beaches are changing,” Guza says. “We can either monitor them and have a good idea what they’re doing and what happens when we try to fix something, or we can not watch them and do stuff randomly and not know what works.”

This sounds so rational I can hardly believe it's real. And, it looks to me like the beach sand replenishment is yet another Stocks & Bond legacy that is being questioned.

Shop Local Saturday (Or Any Day)

Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen near Oceanside (h/t Teresa Barth)

The title is from the corporate (AmEx) sponsored Shop Small Saturday campaign.

Heed the local message or the big business version, if you choose to shop - go local. We want these small local businesses to stick around a long time.  

You Are Not A Loan.

 Rolling Jubilee Website:

A bailout of the people by the people

Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

Learn more or contribute.

77.5% Of US Households Are In Debt

62% Of All Bankruptcies Are Caused By A Medical Illness

Student Tuition Debt Is Over $1,000,000,000,000

1 In Every 7 US Citizens Are Pursued By Debt Collectors

The Ratio of Household Debt to Income Is 154%

40% of Indebted Households Used Credit Cards To Pay For Basic Living Expenses

A couple of the many videos available on the Rolling Jubilee website.

US of A Map Morphed by Money

The reality that this country, the culture and the entire planet has fundamentally been changed is impossible for millions to grasp.

This campaign season we probably have far more wrong information voters than we have low information voters.  Not only that, there is great fear and distrust.

But, for a growing number of voters it is a time to take on citizenship with the intent to grow.  For you there are so many resources. Check these out.


Imagine our Encinitas Map if each of the 5 communities were animated like the above US map was to show money and interest?  To show density? To show citizen participation or voting? To show wealth . . . integral to the private owners and contributions to the public good?

Anyone have mad cartography skills?  Yet again an exercise in perception to challenge our often rigid view of things.

And to further tease us of erroneous conceptions, a great chart. Friends and family who hate charts, I apologize and assure you that more posts will be up soon.

This partially explains why so many middle class people support the 1% when the programs and policies promoted by the 1% are guaranteed to hurt the middle class as well as the working poor. Seeing oneself higher in a higher percentile in the above chart might guarantee no response to verifiable facts.  Turns out for 10's of millions of us - we just aren't that special even if we are white, wealthy and working.

via Common Dreams

Shaffer & Kranz Buy Local - Stocks & Muir Don't

Dennis Lees, whose campaign finance research findings a week ago caused a stir, chose to confront Jerome Stocks.

Stocks wrote a post at SD Rostra  that rewrote the UT endorsement and then commented on that post (can you say self-obsessed?) defending, complaining he was a victim, accusing and of course snarling true facts™ (not true facts).

Lees brings out a whole other dimension of Stocks dubious campaign finance behavior besides the previously documented outside donations:

"Talk about disconnected from the community. First off, historically, over 2/3rds of Stocks campaign donations came from outside of Encinitas. About 4/5ths came from from developers. Only about 1/5th of his donations came from Encinitas.

Second, let’s look at campaign expenditures. Stocks has spent only about 1/10th of his campaign expenditures’ expenditures in Encinitas (about $1,700). In contrast, over 4/5ths of Lisa Shaffer’s campaign expenditures have been in Encinitas (more than $29,000) and nearly 60% of Tony Kranz’s were spent in the city (more than $12,000). And the majority of their contributions are from Encinitas.

What does this say about who is in touch with the voters and businesses in Encinitas. Who supports Shaffer and Kranz? Who do they support? And who is in touch with the business and “voters” from outside the city?"

The Buy Local logo is from the city website.  You would think that incumbent council members would have attempted to do the right thing.  You would be wrong in this case.

When asked, Lisa Shaffer said that she would have liked to spend all of the donations in Encinitas, saying she only spent outside when nobody in town could provide the services.We have said this repeatedly all year long.  Our chosen candidates walk the talk.  

Stocks, Muir and Forrester don't even talk to the community (Mo Muir aside). Their campaigns are best characterized with the icon here.  

By the way, the big box stores are located here, but they are not local businesses. Shaffer discovered a local print shop that actually sent out all of the work, thereby negating the reasons for support spelled out below. It isn't about punishing businesses - as one of Stocks' troll patrol claims.  This is about strengthening businesses that live and invest in Encinitas.  This conversation needs to continue.  The current super majority have closed out these kinds of conversations and the public is hungry for them.

Top 10 Reasons to Support Locally Owned Businesses

1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.

2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.

3. Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.

5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

© Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

YES on PROP 39

This requires businesses to determine their tax liability for sales in California by a calculation, rather than the current practice of choosing (the cheaper of) two methods. This Proposition permanently closes that corporate tax loophole.

An outrageous tax loophole allows out-of-state corporations to pay lower taxes in California, costing our state a billion dollars a year. This loophole actually rewards companies for creating jobs outside of California. Proposition 39 closes this loophole by forcing out-of-state corporations to pay their fair share, bringing in much-needed state revenue that will be invested in clean energy and energy efficiency projects, create good-paying jobs, and help fund our schools. Join us. Let’s close this corporate tax loophole and create new clean energy jobs in California!

California Clean Energy Jobs Act

also . . .

League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Website

For complete listing of all California Propositions and review.

NO on PROP 38

This is the alternative to Prop 30. It is being pushed by Molly Munger.

The biggest criticism of this proposition is that the consequences may be completely unappreciated this many years out.  To lock in funds without knowing the potential nature and degree of change in our future institutions is dangerous guesswork.

It sounds good, but from our reading - Proposition 30 is better balanced.

also . . .
 League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Website

YES on PROP 34 - Local Voices

This would replace the Death Penalty with life imprisonment, but with no possibility of parole.

encinitasyouneedus YouTube channel video clip

SAFE California - Yes on 34 for more information

From Amnesty International - A Pledge

I want to eliminate the risk of executing an innocent person in the state of California forever.
I will vote YES on Prop 34!

I want to save California taxpayers $130 million each year by getting the death penalty off the books. It is a fact – life in prison is far less expensive than the broken death penalty.
I will vote YES on Prop 34!

I want some of these saved funds to be redirected toward helping law enforcement solve more murders and rapes. About half of these crimes go unsolved, in part for lack of adequate resourcing.
I will vote YES on Prop 34!

I believe the death penalty is a distraction and not a solution to violent crimes and we can do better!
I will vote YES on Prop 34!

I believe in making California SAFE. Yes California, we will be better off when we replace the death penalty with justice that works!

The image of Troy Davis is compelling if you followed the years of attempts to save his life in the Georgia justice system.

Amnesty International - SAFE 

also . . .

League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Website

For complete listing of all California Propositions and review.

YES on PROP 30

This is Governor Brown’s measure to eliminate the State deficit by increasing the income tax rate on the wealthy and also make a modest, temporary, increase to the sales tax rate for everyone.

Yes on 30

League of Women Voters of California Education Fund Website

For complete listing of all California Propositions and review.

Lisa Shaffer - Financial Health

Lisa Shaffer's Website is here.  Encinitas Undercover has mistakenly linked EYNU as the Shaffer website.  We are a political opinion blog that happens to support this candidate. Shaffer has no part of this blog.

Tuesday is Dues-day: Hoodlink Resource

Tuesday is Dues-day. The dues are schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported?

You’re a citizen, an advocate for democracy with this first step, paying attention.

Citizen Tip = Hoodlink, Guest Post

This is a group of activists with a Leucadia focus who have been documenting City Council shenanigins since June 2005. (See the page tab above for Hoodlink in the top tab row for a link to the full list of archive articles.)  These are thorough, thoughtful newsletters to help anyone with 7 years of history from the vantage point of those dissenting with the council majority. Today we are happy to reproduce the articles from the latest, Labor Day 2012 issue with the editors' permission.

THE PROVERBIAL NUTSHELL . . .

1) For over 10 years, scant progress has been made toward safe pedestrian rail crossings at reasonable spacing along the tracks. The railroad right-of-way through Encinitas is still a dusty wasteland. The man squarely in favor of these abject failures is the North County Transit District board member representative from Encinitas: our mayor, Jerome Stocks.

As the City’s self-appointed railroad right- of-way expert, Stocks has repeatedly rejected as impossible the reasonable and affordable solution that could serve everyone crossing the tracks. Instead, we get a single, mega-expensive, under crossing, useful to relatively few people.

In this issue, Herb Patterson reprises an article of his from 2008. In it he discusses how adept Stocks is at scheduling things so he can claim the big PR credit for some mega-project he helped to delay, but that can be conveniently addressed when he is up for re-election.

2) Where have all the flowers gone? Their disappearance is tied to a long term plan for generating money to pay for our existing future obligations. Which came first, chicken or egg?

Jerome Stocks and his supporters champion upzoning in every neighborhood while they pile on City debt like shopaholics. We need to stop them before we have “no choice” but to follow Stockton into troubles driven by the ag business calling for upzoning that promises new property tax revenue to cover the mounting debt. Next comes bankruptcy when there are far more empty homes than there are buyers.

Some members of the Encinitas Taxpayer Association have put together a three-part series on one of the financial troubles we-the-people of the city are in. Our representatives continue to claim good times have never looked better in Encinitas. The series starts [below].

~ the Editors

THE TICKING TIME BOMB . . .

On May 15, 2012, Encinitas Treasurer Jay Lembach presented the City’s pension status to the City Council. He stated that pensions are underfunded by $16.2 million. That statement is false.

It turns out Lembach’s $16.2 M figure represents only one of the City’s four pension plans: "miscellaneous employees" He excluded the plans for firefighters, lifeguards and San Dieguito Water District employees. Firefighters are among the City’s most highly paid and pensioned employees. To exclude their underfunded pensions from the City’s reported total is willful deception.

The “miscellaneous employees” plan had assets of $36.5 M and liabilities of $61.7 M when Lembach reported its status. To most people, 61.7 minus 36.5 equals 25.2, not 16.2. Lembach’s questionable math apparently assumes the $36.5 M in the account is really worth $45.5 M. At best this is a fantasy valuation that produces $9 M out of thin air. In his report, Lembach neither discloses nor explains why he used hypothetical rather than real assets.

An independent analysis by Charlie McDermott of the Encinitas Taxpayers Association shows the total unfunded pension liability is closer to $70 M — and growing. McDermott calculated the $70 M figure using the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS) future-return assumptions. He believes, and we agree, that the CalPERS assumptions are excessively optimistic. More realistic assumptions for return on investments would push the shortfall to well over $100 M.

For some perspective on that amount, $100 M is more than the combined bond debt the City has assumed to buy the Hall property, to build the park on the property, and to build the library and fire stations.

On several occasions, Encinitas citizens have publicly asked the City Council for honesty and transparency regarding the City’s unfunded pension liabilities. Mayor Jerome Stocks has repeatedly shrugged off these requests, with flippant remarks to the effect that CalPERS, not the City, is responsible for the calculations, and that the City just pays the CalPERS monthly bills.

Stocks’ public position on the pension trouble is the equivalent of our repeatedly making minimum monthly payments on our credit card, ignoring the large and growing balance, and continuing our shopping sprees.

The City’s combined employer and employee pension payments to CalPERS are more than $6 M annually. That’s about 11% of the budget. The longer we put off being honest about our liabilities, the greater the eventual cost will be.

~ Encinitas Taxpayers Association

FOUR YEARS LATER . . . 

and what has really changed? Here is a reprint from the November 2008 edition.

Jerome Stocks, currently Mayor of Encinitas, has served for over six years on the North County Transit Board [ NCTD] and had previously been an alternate for two years. You would think that over that period of time, Mayor Stocks would have been able to benefit Encinitas in some way, but to my eyes, the only improvement in all that time is an asphalt path at the Leucadia/Vulcan/101 crossing.

People die at this intersection and the surrounding NCTD right of way, yet nothing has been done. Then there were the orange sandbags at the same Leucadia crossing that garnered so many complaints. Did it take weeks or months or years to get them removed? Did Stocks even have any input?

Or, we could consider the tree cutting by the NCTD that occurred with roughly 24 hours notice and no possibility of local input. Did Mayor Stocks give us a heads up? No!

Sure, Mayor Stocks was right there to take credit for the completion of the Sprinter project and garner as much publicity as possible. He neglected to mention that the San Diego County Taxpayers Association awarded the Sprinter project it’s Grand Golden Fleece award for it’s long delays, budget over runs, and repeated ecological pollution resulting in large fines. The Taxpayers Association concluded that the Sprinter does not improve traffic on 78.

Most Encinitas residents believe that under grounding the train is the answer to the many problems associated with the proposed increase in train trips (and as the situation is now). Mayor Stocks, however, has referred to under grounding the train as “impossible” in a Encinitas Council meeting and supports the ridiculously expensive underpass solution which would make under grounding less feasible.

Just on a very simple level, look at the NCTD right of way -- do you see any improvement in the landscaping? Isn’t it the same dusty, desert of neglect it was 10 or 20 years ago? Where is ANY improvement?

At a recent NCTD meeting Mayor Stocks missed a closed session where the selection of the executive director was made. He was also late to the regular meeting and then left early. No wonder Mayor Stocks has at least one sitting NCTD Board Member who would prefer Mayor Stocks not be re-appointed to the NCTD.

UPDATE LATE AUGUST 2012 . . .

We are currently building an underground crossing at Santa Fe using someone else’s money - it is clear that any other underground crossing will be financially unfeasible for the City of Encinitas to build in the foreseeable future. So do we have an at grade crossing planned for Leucadia or other areas? Not to my knowledge.

We did have additional pedestrian improvements at Leucadia and 101, with plantings. If we can plant in this area, why the hell can’t we plant the rest of the NCTD corridor? What has stopped us all these years?

The City staff did a boundary check of the East side of 101 to ascertain where our land ends and the NCTD right of way begins. Anybody know what they found? Are you happy with the progress we have made in four years?

~ Herb Patterson

To receive Hoodlink via email, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to stoprezoning@yahoo.com

Transition Towns - Alternatives

Going on right now in real time in the real world are people making choices to reject the takeover in their local community of the big money control in banking, energy and food production.

The Transition culture in the UK and around the world now, started about six years ago in Totnes in Devon, UK.  The slow and steady rise of a maturing resilience is building, where neighbors and friends are coming up with alternatives from within their own communities and sharing these ideas for free to the rest of the world. Yea internets.

The Brixton (South London) video below is one of the best in years to capture in a few minutes the essentials of local resilience to the stressor of a failed economy, extractive energy structure and dependency on all the unknowns of agribusiness for food.  It has the added feature of showing a realigned emphasis on people and community over a financialized culture.

It's offered here on Encinitas You Need Us as one of the many alternatives we should be allowed to envision and share with others and with our local government officials.  If we think of twenty years into the future it is easier to come up with ways to empower ourselves, the people, to make change happen at our own pace.