What a Council meeting! Here is this week’s Council Meeting recap in case you missed it.
💰 FY25-26 City Budget Introduction: How is budget planning going?
First, the City Manager Jennifer Campbell praised Staff for presenting a balanced budget. City is in a stronger financial position than expected because $5 million additional revenue will result from property taxes generated by the City’s Housing Element Sites.
- 🥣 Food For Thought (FFT) – The new councilmembers opposed Housing Element development but are now happy to spend the $5m that the new developments have generated. Anyone see the irony?
Then, the Council settled on these additions to the budget:
- 🚓 Law Enforcement: $916K for 2 traffic deputies
- 🔥 Fire & Marine Safety: $179K for Deputy Fire Marshal (cutting Homeless Solutions Coordinator) and 🚒 $143K for Fire Chief SUV
- Homelessness: $224 Case Management and Outreach contract and $186k for extension of Buena Creek Navigation Center
- 🥣 Food for Thought (FFT): The Homeless Action Plans in cities in California that have achieved Functional Zero Homeless status include the following essential staff: 1 Homeless Services Manager, 1 Frontline Community Outreach social worker and 1 Housing Navigator. Why does Encinitas continue to churn/turn staff and lag behind?
- 🅿️ $80K for permit parking software
- 🚶♀️ $100K to study Beach Street trail
- 💧 $500K for stormwater pipelining and $500k for S. Vulcan storm drain design
- 🌳 $750K for L-7 Park (Quail Gardens Drive)
- 🛣️ $600K for more pavement rehab
- 🚶 $175K for Vulcan Path design
🚧 Santa Fe Drive Safety Project Slammed: The improvements to the western phase of Santa Fe Drive (from I-5 to Windsor/Bonita are meant to make things safer, but they have turned messy. Residents have expressed concerns especially about narrow vehicle lanes and reverse-angled parking and feel that biking/walking continues to be unsafe.
Deputy Mayor Lyndes opposed major changes and advocated for “Improve, Don’t Remove” especially since the eastern phase of this project, which extends to El Camino Real, hasn’t even started. The Mayor and other councilmembers lean towards going back to the drawing board and starting anew. Councilmember O’Hara showed his own design that he called “simple, intuitive” and low cost. Councilmember Shaffer called the project a “disaster” and wants simplified, consistent bike lanes. Mayor Ehlers cited public dissatisfaction, mostly from the (unscientific) City survey and anecdotal feedback during campaigning. The Mayor said the reverse angle parking “has to go.”
The Council aims to find a balance between preserving safety improvements and responding to community concerns, and it directed Staff to return in early August with several design options:
- Change to parallel parking with protected bike lanes, 11 to 11.5-foot lane widths
- Change to head-in diagonal parking, protected bike lanes, 11-11.5 lane widths
- Implement O’Hara’s design (return to original condition and then add paint)
- Remove bollards west of Nardo/Mackinnon and east of Bonita/Windsor
- 🥣 FFT: Safety first. Let’s hope the new design options achieve that while not breaking the budget. Doesn’t “Improve, Don’t Remove” make more sense than investing in an expensive re-do?
🚒 Fire Station 6 Gets the Nod: Councilmember San Antonio pushed for 3 firefighters at Station 6, upgraded equipment, and expedited building of a new station in Olivenhain. Sensible? Yes, in light of fire risk and awareness. But not in the budget. Council and Fire Chief Gordon flagged the lack of facilities to house more firefighters, the lack of the right equipment for new firefighters, and the lack of available funding. Chief Gordon pointed out that FEMA has SAFER grants, which provide some funding for new firefighting staff, but acknowledged that FEMA funds for Encinitas may be hard to get. The Council greenlit planning by August and applying for the SAFER grant in July.
- 🥣 FFT: Fire safety is critical and glad to see this focus. Yet have to ask again – is there a citywide prioritization process or do big, expensive projects get escalated attention whenever councilmembers raise them?
🌍🤷 O’Hara’s Climate Confusion: In a misguided attempt at fiscal scrutiny, Councilmember O’Hara turned a routine Climate Action Plan (CAP) consultant funding request into a 1-hour drama. Why the increase? Because the Council added an item to the work plan – a cost-benefit analysis methodology to optimize climate actions. Mayor Ehlers and City Staff repeatedly corrected O’Hara’s misunderstanding of past and current work, but to no avail. In addition to being off base, O’Hara again showed a lack of respect to City Staff and his colleagues.
- 🥣 FFT: We’ve heard many comments that O’Hara’s political posturing has become very tiresome. Maybe if he rooted challenges in facts, not just fog, we would have less wasted time and more value?
📅 Mark Your Calendars: Budget decision day is June 18. Let’s hope Council keeps the focus on facts, safety, and smart spending—not showmanship.