When newspapers write opinion pieces it becomes immediately apparent who really runs their businesses. For instance, today, the San Diego Union-Tribune released their picks for Carlsbad’s mayoral and city council races. For mayor they break it down by Prop G:
If there’s an issue that defines the two [Hall and Blackburn], it is Proposition G, a measure to lock recent pension reforms into the city charter and to prevent any increases in employee retirement benefits without a vote of the people. Hall has co-signed the argument for Prop. G. Blackburn, a former police sergeant, opposes it. That speaks volumes as to which each candidate would put first, the people or the city’s labor unions.
And for City Council they pick Mark Packard (because he’s already on the council) and Farrah Douglas (because she made a respectable showing in her first try for office two years ago). At least we agree with one of their picks.
Two protests took place in North County last week, with wildly different views on what constitutes a proper use of taxpayer dollars.
On one end of the spectrum were Cal State San Marcos students, who demonstrated on behalf of a bill that would give illegal immigrant students a chance to legalize their status.
Talk about a study in contrasts. In San Marcos, you had a mob of students whose educations are mostly subsidized by taxpayers demanding legal status for illegal immigrants who were brought into this country as children, provided they either attend college (on the public’s dime) or join the military (which, again, is funded by taxpayers). The protest died when word spread that the U.S. Senate would not move forward on the bill that would do precisely that, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (or “DREAM”) Act. [click to continue…]
On the Nov. 2 ballot, we urge voters in Carlsbad to elect Matt Hall to replace outgoing Mayor Bud Lewis. . . And in the City Council race, we recommend returning incumbent Mark Packard and adding current planning Commissioner Farrah Douglas.
Their reason for electing Hall is because he is “more likely to continue the general prudent leadership” of Bud Lewis. Their picks leave us wonder who bought the most advertising in their paper this election cycle. If we read the print version, we’d probably be able to answer that question ourselves.
Carlsbadistan’sJoint First Responders Training Facility located on Orion Way across the street from the Carlsbad Skatepark in the Carlsbad Safety Center is beginning to take shape. Over 50 cement truckloads unloaded on the scrapped lot and now we’re able to get a much better idea of how large the place will be when it is completed in early 2012.
The complex construction project will include installation of specialized features in the buildings, which will artificially create smoke and fire for training exercises. The shooting range will include high-tech computer-operated targets for police training. . . . “The City of Carlsbad has an excellent public safety record with low crime rates and one of the top-rated fire departments in the state, and this safety training center will help keep our city personnel well-trained to meet the community’s needs,” Hammann noted.
The Rotary Club of Carlsbad will apparently be hosting City Council candidates forum on Thursday night September 23, 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Carlsbadistan. We’ve heard rumor that those who do not wish to dine with the Rotarians can simply attend the forum portion of the evening which reportedly begins at 7:20 PM.
As you might have noticed, the level of communication between Carlsbadistan.com and the Rotary Club of Carlsbad could easily be raised. And yes, we’re working on it.
Ignoring for a moment that a mid-morning Friday meeting can only be attended by the retired and/or unemployed, it will be a great chance for those who attend to get a better read and the people who’d like to run our lovely city.
Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.
Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad’s 2010 state of the city video (embedded above) gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.
Mayor Bud Lewis explained there’d be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn’t want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.
The Carlsbad Republican Women Federated have invited all of the City Council Candidates (Jon Wantz, Farrah Douglas, Dr. Mark Packard, and William Jubb) to a candidates forum on Tuesday afternoon, September 28, 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn. A morning session will feature candidates for City Treasurer. Being a Republican is not required, but an RSVP is for the $25 “plated lunch”.
To reserve a spot at the lunch table please respond by noon September 23, 21010 to Beverly by calling 760/434-6478 or sending an email to bevy17@att.net.
There’s an old saying that to get elected to public office in Carlsbad, you have to be a Republican.
So it isn’t surprising that the two leading candidates seeking to replace Mayor Bud Lewis, who is retiring after a 24-year reign, are both Republicans who actively sought the endorsement of both the local party and its Lincoln Club offshoot, a group of mostly business leaders whose mission, according to its website, is to “advance free market principles and ideas by recruiting, endorsing, and financing business-friendly candidates and ballot measures.”
In the end, veteran councilman Matt Hall got the endorsement of both groups—which rarely happens in a race that pits a Republican against a fellow Republican. But in this case, freshman councilman Keith Blackburn is being actively supported by two public-employee unions, the “associations” representing Carlsbad firefighters and police officers, and as we all know unions are anathema to any red-blooded GOP partisan. [click to continue…]
Believe it or not, we’re not big fans of change. And as much as we have been critical of some of the decisions made in the past few years by Mayor Claud “Bud” Lewis, it is going to be sad to see him go at the end of this term.
As Mayor Lewis prepares for his final State of the City address this Friday, August 27, 2010 at the Park Hyatt Aviara HotelNorth County Times writer Barbara Henry checked in to look back on his 40 year career in Carlsbad politics and it’s well worth a read. . .
He was first elected mayor five years before the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce began hosting its annual State of the City events, and he served as a councilman for 16 years prior to that. . . “His whole life has been city of Carlsbad,” said Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, who’s served on the council herself so long that she sometimes says that she and Lewis are like a long-married couple. . . Known for his plain-spoken manner and his distinctive bald head, Lewis is fond of telling people that if they don’t like the job he’s doing, they’re free to vote him out of office. Friends and supporters say he has kept his post because people like what Lewis offers.
No matter what else people have said about him one thing is for certain– he has served Carlsbad like few other have or ever will.
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Two protests took place in North County last week, with wildly different views on what constitutes a proper use of taxpayer dollars.
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Union-Tribune Picks Hall, Packard, and Douglas
by The Editors on September 30, 2010
When newspapers write opinion pieces it becomes immediately apparent who really runs their businesses. For instance, today, the San Diego Union-Tribune released their picks for Carlsbad’s mayoral and city council races. For mayor they break it down by Prop G:
And for City Council they pick Mark Packard (because he’s already on the council) and Farrah Douglas (because she made a respectable showing in her first try for office two years ago). At least we agree with one of their picks.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
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