Carlsbadistan

With the retirement of a mayor who has been in office for a quarter of a century and two City Council seats up for grabs, Carlsbad voters will have their first opportunity in decades to make a substantial change in city leadership.

The incumbents have a lot going for them. The city’s in better financial shape than its neighbors, and public opinion surveys show three out of four Carlsbadians have faith in their city government.

Here’s a peek at the candidacies of two council members who say they want to be Carlsbad’s next mayor, Matt Hall and Keith Blackburn.

Continue reading ‘The Riehl World: A Peek At The Races’

According to a note posted on Julie Nygaard’s facebook page the three-term former Carlsbad City Councilwoman is no longer in the race for a seat on the Carlsbad City Council.

In a status update posted at 12:27 PM July 12, 2010 she wrote the following:

After much thought, deliberation and soul-searching, I have decided to not seek election to the Carlsbad City Council.

As many of you may know, I have a new grandchild in my life, and I want to spend more time with her. While I believe I have assembled a winning team, the commitment of campaigning, and then serving on the council, is not one I want to make at this point in my life.

Carlsbad is a special place because of the people who live, work and play here. I love this community, and I only want the best for it. I know Carlsbad will continue to be the best place to live in Southern California.

I want to thank all the people who have helped during this time, particularly my campaign management team of James Comstock, Julie Baker and Ellen Roundtree. They have been very generous in their commitment to me. They are owed a special thank you.

I also want to thank all the people who have encouraged me, believed in me and helped me throughout the years. Your help has been greatly appreciated.

I am proud of the projects that I have worked on throughout the years. Working together, we have created an amazing community.

I will continue to be involved in Carlsbad as a member of the Planning Commission. I will still make my presence known in Carlsbad, and I’m sure I will see many of you around.

Thanks, again, for your support.

Sincerely,

Julie Nygaard

There is sure to be more on this story in the coming days.

[Link: Facebook]

Today at the Carlsbadistan Post Office we were once again reminded of how great it is to live in a free country. A country that allows people from the political fringe to heckle the citizenry as they attempt to peacefully deposit mail in a mail box.

Carlsbadistan City Council candidate Jon Wantz will be kicking off his campaign June 16, 2010 from 7-9 PM at the Ocean House at 300 Carlsbad Village Drive.

“Over the past few months, I have been working diligently to spread the word about my campaign and let the residents of Carlsbad know what I intend to do for them and what I stands for,” Wantz said. “Many of you have already shown tremendous support and for that we are very thankful. With your help, we can help Carlsbad turn the corner to a bright and healthy future.”

[LInk: Give It A Chance] Continue reading ‘Jon Wantz For City Council Kick Off June 16′

I found it ironic that the day after the Carlsbad City Council imposed a realistic new contract on the city’s Firefighters Association, newspaper headlines up and down the state announced that the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System was asking the state for an additional $600 million handout to help pay for public employee retirement benefits next year.

The request (which was subsequently “delayed,” according to news reports, due to concerns about the state’s own financial viability) underscores the need for dramatic pension reform. Simply put, the overly generous benefits cities gave their employees in the early 2000s are unsustainable. We can’t afford to let our public safety employees retire at 50 and receive pensions as high as 90 percent of their peak-year salaries. But the unions that represent these workers have steadfastly refused to accept reality and renegotiate their contracts —- leading to two possible outcomes.
Continue reading ‘TK Arnold: Retirement vs. Reality’

The Surfrider Foundation has definitely not thrown in the town on their opposition to the Poseidon Resources Desalination Plant scheduled to be built in the shores of Carlsbadistan’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The environmental group filed a lawsuit on Earth Day (April 22, 2010) challenging a permit approved by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. Surfrider says that the “facility would kill countless marine organisms, with an illegal plan to replace these fish and other marine life through a restoration project somewhere else.”

“When the law says you must ‘minimize the intake and mortality’ of marine life, that doesn’t mean you can kill millions of marine organisms and then try to replace them somehow,” said Joe Geever, Surfrider Foundation’s California Policy Coordinator. “The Regional Water Quality Control Board misinterpreted the law, and it’s unfortunate the project has progressed this far without a final decision on the type of intake and facility design that meets California’s law to protect our precious marine environment.”

According to Michael Burge story in the San Diego Union-Tribune this is one of six lawsuits that have been filed regarding Poseidon’s plans for the lagoon. Three are still progress.

For the entire Surf Rider release, follow the jump or click here for Carlsbadistan’s coverage of the entire saga.
Continue reading ‘Surfrider Files Suit Against Desal Plant’

If you walk the seawall late at night along Carlsbad Boulevard, you may hear voices in the distance sounding the alarm: “To arms! To arms! The unions are coming! The unions are coming!”

The familiar warning cry began with a Feb. 20 headline in the North County Times: “City’s unions expected to play active role in mayoral election.”

From the day City Councilman Keith Blackburn declared his candidacy for mayor, tongues have been wagging about how police and firefighters unions have announced their intent to do whatever they can to put the former police officer in the seat that Bud Lewis occupied for a quarter of a century.

Unlike in Oceanside, labor unions have not played a major role in Carlsbad City Council politics. With more union involvement, will North County’s model municipality of political civility be in danger of being sucked into the all-consuming black hole of partisanship that plagues its northern neighbor?

Follow the jump for the rest of the story. . .
Continue reading ‘The Riehl World: The Union Distraction’

They just don’t give up.

The public safety unions, fighting to protect their overly generous pensions and health benefits, have just suffered a savage defeat in Oceanside with the failure of the recall campaign against Councilman Jerry Kern.

It was a classic union bait-and-switch to disguise the real issue: They riled up a group of senior citizens who felt Kern was rude and didn’t pay them the attention they deserved. They got them to launch a recall movement. And then they pumped huge amounts of money into the anti-Kern campaign in the hopes of getting a more sympathetic soul in council chambers —- a sympathetic soul who would turn a blind eye to the financial disaster these pensions and benefits pose to cities and states throughout our country.

Common sense, you see, invariably wins out. And the unions know their days of looting government treasuries are numbered, in light of the recession and gaping budget deficits.
Continue reading ‘Arnold: Unions Keep Up Pressure’

Keith Blackburn, the former Carlsbad Police officer and current Carlsbadistan City Councilman has announced that he will be running for Mayor according to a Barbara Henry story in the North County Times.

As he announced his mayoral bid Thursday, Blackburn said his candidacy would focus on economic development, open space land purchases and the long-discussed Alga Norte park project. . . He also said that he wants to purchase open space land for preservation now while local real estate prices are more affordable and he wants to get the swim complex planned for the future Alga Norte park open as soon as possible, even if it means dipping into the city’s substantial reserves to cover its daily operations expenses. . . “We can run that pool for 10 years … before we have to tap into our general fund,” he said.

If he promises to get the Alga Norte skateboard park and pool running ASAP, then he has our vote for certain.

[Link: North County Times]

From the urgency of its actions, you’d think the Friends of Aviara had just discovered a Super Walmart was about to open its doors on the shores of the Batiquitos Lagoon.

The La Costa neighborhood group is suing Carlsbad’s City Council for approving a planning document that would bring affordable senior housing to their backyard. The lawsuit is a pre-emptive strike on a proposal the City Council has never discussed, much less approved.

What the council did approve at its Dec. 22 meeting was a revision of the city’s general plan that references Pontebello, a proposed project that would add 76 low- and moderate-income units to its housing plan, helping the city meet the state’s affordable housing law.

Senior Planner Scott Donnell explained that if the city failed to obtain state certification for its housing plan it could lose millions in future state and county government grants. Carlsbad would also be exposed to lawsuits halting development until the state steps in to mandate the number and locations of affordable housing units.

Continue reading ‘The Riehl World: Friends Of Aviara Off Target’