It would have warmed your heart. The December 14 Escondido City Council meeting was packed with citizens concerned about district elections and water rates. If you rejoice in representative democracy, it was a great night.

At the December 7 meeting, Demetrio Gomez had announced that a group was planning to bring suit against the City of Escondido to force district elections. A week later, the Council’s first public comment period was dominated by citizens who supported the change.

Five of the dozen who spoke in favor were EDC members: Andrea Seavey, Chris Nava, Roy Garrett, Carmen Miranda, and Michael Ann Mareck.

Continue reading…

An Escondido group has threatened to sue the city for violating state and federal voting rights laws. The group, represented by members of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, has demanded that the Escondido City Council vote, by Dec. 14, to switch from at-large elections to smaller geographic districts.

Read more in North County Times.
Read an editorial in North County Times.  

Mayor Abed responds to a question.

It was a classic example of small-town politics. Escondido Mayor Sam Abed’s second ‘Town Hall’ meeting, held November 15 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, showed just how local politics can be. Questions included street maintenance, heating in the city’s swimming pool and a homeless mother who needed housing in a program that would accept her four children.

However, there were some larger issues addressed and Abed’s comments provide hints as to future actions.

Read coverage of the event in North County Times.
Read coverage in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
See video of the meeting.  (select “Town Hall Meeting” under Additional Video)

Continue reading…

Reluctantly, the Escondido City Council has dropped the requirement that contractors working for the city use the federal E-Verify program to ensure that all employees are legal residents. They had to do it under a new state law, but they didn’t have to like it. “My intent is to circumvent (Gov. Jerry) Brown’s attempt to undermine our use of the E-Verify system,” Mayor Abed was quoted as saying to the North County Times. The City will strongly recommend, but not require, that contractors use the program.

Read more in North County Times.
Read coverage in The San Diego Union-Tribune.  

The City of Escondido has more than $83 million in net assets in a variety of funds, according to a forensic accountant hired by the police union. According to Peter Donohue of PBI Associates in San Francisco, the amounts far exceed the generally accepted norms in municipal finance. “You’ve been told (by city officials) that you’re in a crisis, but (the city) is telling the bond markets something different,” he said.

Donohue was engaged by the Escondido Police Officers Association (EPOA) to examine the city’s finances as reported in publicly available financial documents. EPOA is opposing cuts to police pensions and benefits that city officials claim are needed because of a financial crisis. Donohue presented his findings to a Town Hall Forum called by EPOA Tuesday morning, November 1 in the conference area of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Read the reaction of city officials in the North County Times. 

Continue reading…

Despite action by both Escondido school districts to change to district elections, Mayor Sam Abed tells the North County Times that Escondido will not be switching, at least not voluntarily. The school districts made the changes to avoid legal challenges under the California Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters rights. Abed says the city is “not vulnerable” and will fight any lawsuit that seeks to force it to abandon city-wide elections.

Read more in North County Times. 
See a list of California cities that have district elections.  

A long-simmering dispute over pension funding pits the City of Escondido and its Council majority against the Escondido Police Officers Association. That dispute is escalating with two announced Town Hall Forums the EPOA has scheduled Nov. 1. The events feature a forensic accountant who has studied the city’s books and concludes that it has much more money than it claims. EPOA believes this extra money makes it unnecessary for the city to demand cuts in police pensions. EPOA also states that pension cuts will make it difficult to hire and retain quality officers and will, eventually, degrade public safety.

The forums are scheduled Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 10 a.m., repeating at 5:30 p.m. in the conference center at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Read coverage in North County Times.
See the flyer promoting the event.
Read a “raspberry” editorial comment from North County Times.

North County Times reports October 25 that the downtown Escondido hotel project is back. Developer Craig Clark is proposing a “less luxurious” hotel with an above-ground parking garage. Council member Gallo likes the idea, Council member Diaz is concerned about downgrading the quality of the hotel. Mayor Abed claims it will be “a very upscale Courtyard” hotel. Since the Council has spent most of the money held to subsidize the project, there will need to be some creative approaches to funding.

Read the story in North County Times.