Mayor Bruce Ehlers and Deputy Mayor Jim O’Hara have made disturbing edits to the City’s Legislative Program that do not reflect who we are as a community. This should concern every Encinitas resident, regardless of political stripe.
The Ehlers/O’Hara subcommittee updated our legislative program, which will be up for review and a vote at this Wednesday’s City Council meeting. These changes don’t come from staff recommendations – it’s solely the work of Ehlers and O’Hara, and there’s a good chance they’ll be made permanent on Wednesday.
Most of the redlines are harmless reorganization, but several changes are significant. Here are three major redactions that should stop us in our tracks:
- They removed the City’s only two items related to gun safety/gun violence prevention.
- They removed “promote a just, equitable, and inclusive community” from the City’s “primary priority areas.” They left the language buried in the detailed section, but this shift demotes it from a top-level priority.
- They deleted the only references to community safety priorities tied to Homeland Security/threats to local safety, with no replacement language that addresses recent ICE-related realities. This omission is especially concerning given the emergency resolution the council passed last fall under pressure from a massive turnout of Encinitas residents.
There are other troubling edits too (including gutting tenant protections beyond mobile homes, narrowing Community Choice Aggregation to solar only, and rolling back priorities that support active/multi-modal transportation). But the three shocking changes above tell you exactly where Ehlers and O’Hara want to steer our city.
You can read the complete Agenda Report, including all the proposed alterations here.
Please show up and speak against these regressive changes on Item 10B at City Hall this Wednesday, January 28. A few voices can be dismissed. A room full of residents can’t.
If you can’t attend on Wednesday, you can click here to send an email to the City Clerk, which will be posted on the city’s website. Feel free to change the content of your email and add your own opinions. There are quite a few proposed changes to comment on! And don’t forget to add your name.
As always, thank you for participating in how our community is governed! Let’s make it clear: Encinitas won’t move backward into the dark.