By Margaret Liles

In my message for our annual plan, I noted that our club’s main goal was political action that leads to the election of Democrats and better government, and that the engine for that action is you, our members.

EDC President Margaret Liles

You’ve already made a terrific change in local government with the election of Olga Diaz to the Escondido City Council. We’ve begun work on giving her some help on that Council with the election of Richard Barron.

Unfortunately Olga can’t change the direction of Escondido’s governance by herself. Her loan opposition to the funding of the downtown Hotel did not stop the giveaway to C.W. Clark–$19 million in direct assistance, and 10 years of no-rent, and no TOT taxes. This at a time when basic city services, fire and police protection, library service, and youth activities have be cut. I hope that as many of you as possible will attend the City Council meeting in which the hotel agreement will be voted upon. We will give you as much notice as possible.

I attended the April 29, 2009, General Plan Update Community Workshop. It was pretty well attended. Residents gave their views about the best way for the city to move forward. I reiterated a point I have made over and over again—you do not have to have population growth to have economic growth. I also noted that just because the State of California dictates that a city must accept growth, does not mean a city must do so—San Luis Obispo is a city that has opted out. Lisa Prazeau emphasized the importance of maintaining quality of life standards that are stipulated in the current General Plan. She argued that the fact that the city does not, at present, meet all of those standards was not a good reason to abandon them, or water them down. You can submit your suggestions at www.escondido.org/gp-update.

I also attended the hearing on the Gregory Canyon Landfill held by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Well, it wasn’t the actual Water Quality Control Board, just their staff members. The hearing began with a difficult to understand presentation by three representatives of the landfill developers. There were no visual aids, just a very dry description of all the “fail safe” leak prevention measures that the developer was taking. This was followed by twenty plus speakers against the development, beginning with Supervisor Pam Slater Price. They argued that no landfill liner was fool proof, especially in an earthquake zone, and that could lead to toxic pollution to a major watershed of the San Luis Rey River—the source of 20% of Oceanside’s water. They also argued that the landfill would destroy precious wildlife habitat, and sacred lands of the Pala Indians.

There were three or four speakers from the “public” who were for the landfill, and the audience was filled with teens sporting yellow “I’m for the Gregory Canyon Landfill” buttons. During a break in the meeting, I spoke to one of the young women. I noted that the liner was guaranteed for 100 years, and wondered what would happen after that 100 years. She shrugged her shoulders. I asked her if she didn’t care what would happen in 100 years, since she wouldn’t be around. She responded that she was being paid to be at the meeting, so she really hadn’t done any research on the project. So, here’s another example of developers sparing no expense to influence decisions. (Editor’s note: Logan Jenkins of The San Diego Union-Tribune also found out about the supporters-for-pay and wrote about it in his column of May 7, 2009. Read his column here.)

In their summing up, the staff of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, seemed to be assuring the members of the audience that their concerns had really been properly addressed by the landfill developers—and they really had nothing to worry about. You can register your complaints and questions at the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board at www.swrcb.ca.gov.