🏙️ Bruce Ehlers’ 2026 State of the City: Our Encinitas Fact Check
Here’s our take on the mayor’s speech — some props, some call-outs.
Mayor Ehlers’ Theme: GSD — Get Stuff Done
The mayor summarized the progress in our city, with more than a few pats on this council’s back. But even he had to admit that “most of these projects take multiple generations of…councils to get there.” The theme is more appropriately “Get Stuff Done…That the Prior Council(s) Started.”
🛣️ Roads Getting Fixed: Pavement Condition Index is up to 75 / 100. Leucadia Boulevard is smoother.
Some good road improvements, but the mayor used an incorrect visual and overstated the impact on pavement condition. The mayor claims victory based on software estimates in between the real field surveys the city does every 5 years. In 2020, the survey score was 74, and in 2025, it was 75. A single point of progress over previous councils’ work is not a win.
🌊 Flooding: Finally Getting Serious? Two new pumps on Vulcan, plus the city’s first-ever storm drain master plan.
· Good short-term moves. Pump #1 was installed well before Bruce was elected – maybe he forgot? Long-term fixes will require a funding plan, which is nowhere to be found.
🏠 Homelessness: Enforcement + Services: A new 4th goal in the Homeless Action Plan: public safety enforcement — leaning on Prop 36 and the Supreme Court reversal that now allows Encinitas to enforce its encampment ban. The city also partnered with San Diego Rescue Mission. Early results: 66 people engaged, 15 placed in permanent or temporary housing.
· Nice to see the mayor acknowledge that the US Supreme Court made enforcement possible only recently. He also acknowledged that we no longer have a Safe Parking Program and no plan yet for the same or something equivalent.
🚗 Traffic Safety & Enforcement: Monthly max-enforcement days, two new traffic deputies, the sheriff captain writing tickets himself.
· 👏Hard to argue with results.
🚶♀️Safe Streets: La Costa pedestrian path is moving forward with SANDAG grant funding. Destruction and reconstruction of Santa Fe Drive West for design improvements.
· The mayor said ‘safe streets’ roughly a dozen times. So why is the city spending millions ripping out recently-installed improvements on Santa Fe Drive West — for a redesign that may not meaningfully increase safety?
🔥 Fire & Emergency Response: Plugging the Gaps: A temporary Fire Station 1 at Pacific View Arts Center is now operational downtown. Fire Station 6 in Olivenhain is also getting an upgrade —a 3-person crew with a full engine for better wildfire coverage. Three multi-agency wildfire drills completed, a fourth coming soon.
· 👏Again, hard to argue with these results.
🏘️ Local Control – Housing: The Council endorsed Our Neighborhood Voices initiative focused on state housing laws. The mayor is working with SANDAG and the League of California Cities to advance a more balanced approach to housing requirements.
· The mayor was elected on promises of stopping overdevelopment. The lobbying efforts may help some, but they feel like a hope and a prayer – not tangible action. Meanwhile, local workers are being priced out, and the mayor has no concrete answer for them.
👥Better City Staff: New city management and new department leadership are making a difference. A tighter work plan with goals ensures a “clear shared roadmap”.
· Eight new department directors means a significant loss of institutional knowledge. Turnover this deep doesn’t happen by accident — was this a deliberate housecleaning, and what did it cost us?
🏖️ Beaches: Award-Winning and Fight for Sand: Encinitas won the “Best Restored Beach of 2025” — a nationwide award — for the completion of a 5-year regional sand replenishment project. The long-range plan is a 50-year Army Corps of Engineers project targeting replenishment every 5 years (next round: 2029 if federal funding holds). Beacons Beach got a 10,000 cubic yard sand patch as a stopgap. All 4 beach stairways repaired by year’s end.
· This is great work…all of which has been planned and underway for much longer than the mayor’s tenure.
🚂 Rail Corridor: Crawling Toward the Finish Line: After 20+ years, Leucadia’s At Grade Crossings received tentative CPUC approval. The mayor stated that the city’s current stewards are pushing it as fast as bureaucracy allows.
· With approval in hand, why isn’t the Council properly funding the project in the upcoming budget?
🏗️ Parks: Quail Gardens Is Happening: The site known as “L7” is in design, funded by park mitigation funds. Shout out to Glen Johnson, who donated $100K, and 12-year-old Oliver Pratt, who fundraised $15K.
· 👏Yay for parks! Yet the silence on affordable housing is deafening.
💼 Broken Permitting Process: The Mayor’s Own Experience: The mayor admitted that his own permit got stuck for over a week and only moved when he pulled rank. His verdict: “Our permitting process is broken.” A new Business Commission has been stood up to fix it.
· If the mayor can’t navigate his own city’s permitting process, what does that say about every small business owner who doesn’t have a direct line to the planner? Kudos to him for calling out the problem.
💰 City Finances: Continued Strength: AAA bond rating. Steady sales tax. Rising property values. Staff vacancy rate at 4%. The city is prioritizing “need-to-haves before want-to-haves.”
· Here’s the irony: the city’s rising revenues are largely thanks to new development — the very thing this mayor campaigns against. The fiscal health he’s bragging about is built partly on growth he keeps calling a threat.
· And is ripping up Santa Fe Drive improvements a “need”? Is the L-7 park a “need”? Is the city-initiated lawsuit on Clark Avenue development a “need”? Guess it comes down to who defines “need”.
🛂 Immigration: Transparency Over Enforcement: City and sheriff are prohibited from participating in immigration enforcement — and Ehlers says they’ll hold the line. “Know Your Rights” campaign is live on the city website. The city is pushing for transparency and due process coordination with federal immigration agencies, though cooperation has been inconsistent and “frustrating.”
· The ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign is a good start. But with federal enforcement inconsistent and ‘frustrating,’ good intentions and a webpage may not be enough.
(See our timeline, ICE in Encinitas)
🎂 Save the Date: Encinitas Turns 40: Celebration the first weekend of October.
🎤Closing: The mayor closed with a reference to “getting stuff done together.”
· In some instances, this is true. However, in other instances, we hear from many residents and community groups that they feel the mayor and council are selective about their definition of “together.” Let’s hope the Encinitas 40th Party really does bring us together.
Thanks for reading – and caring,
—Encinitas Action
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