At tomorrow night's city council meeting (Wednesday, 6th) presumably Jim Bond will be "elected" as mayor as he is Vice-Mayor now.
Maggie Houlihan was elected with the largest majority of any councilperson in the history of Encinitas, over 13,000 votes.
Are the voters of Encinitas getting the representation they wanted?
The following Wednesday Mayor James Bond will propose all committee appointments to local Boards (SanDag/NCTD/WaterBoards, even the local Cultural Tourism Committee). When Dalager was mayor he took Maggie off everything except Cultural Tourism and then Christy Guerin took her off that.
Will Maggie Houlihan find herself shunned from any local appointments again?
Are these appointments anything more than government gravy?
Also, tomorrow night at the city hall meeting, your new councilperson Teresa Barth will be sworn in.
*correction--I earlier posted that Maggie had never been mayor, but she has. Sorry about that. I guess I don't really care either way, ha-ha.
Thank you for the information J.P. What would we do without you and this blog. I get more great info on this blogsite than I do from the NCTimes-funnier too!
ReplyDeleteYour piece on Poiny is too priceless. The poster that said I was the "ONE" so I could sell my books-thanks! I wish I would have thought of it myself. If anyone does lose a beloved pet, by it eating Poiny or anything else for that matter, you can check out my website:www.petbereavement.com. I actually do have a self-help book for people who have lost a pet. Not for those who have lost their Poinys though-sorry!
Maggie has been Mayor.
ReplyDeleteMaggie was Mayor. You just don't remember because there wasn't much to remember.
ReplyDeleteIf you want Maggie to be Mayor then you need to elect a council majority that will elect Maggie or will come up with written conventions that give everyone a turn, otherwise the complaints sound like whining.
ReplyDeleteHow unjust that those conniving council members work to keep Maggie from being mayor, It's an organized effort led be evil demons (the other four council members) to keep Maggie from ever being Mayor.
ReplyDeleteWill it ever happen, will they ever let poor picked on Maggie be Mayor?
Pleeeeaseeeee! cut out the histerical poor poor Maggie stuff.
Opps, She already has had a year being Mayor.
You are right, Maggie was already mayor once. I corrected the post.
ReplyDeleteWas Maggie a good mayor?
What does being the mayor of Encinitas mean besides changing parade names?
Another question, are these appointments anything more than meaningless government gravy?
ReplyDeleteIt means money in their pocket. If you are appointed to the right boards, like the water board, you are renumerated with cash payments for each meeting. If you are stripped of all appointments you get zilch. James Bond will reappoint himself to all the lucrative boards like Guerin did.
ReplyDeleteWe get what we vote for.
How much per meeting do these thing pay?
ReplyDeleteDoes anything productive ever happen at these meetings?
Are the results of these meetings usually just our fees getting raised?
No problem J.P.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Mayor thing is largly ceremonial although lately the phrase "Mayors Perogative" is getting used and abused a great deal.
It's amazing to see them fight over who is going to be Mayor.
There used to be some sort of order to the process such as time on council and highest vote getter but the last ten years or so those gentelman rules have been thrown in the gutter by both sides/everyone.
Now it's turned into a circus each year with council members lobbying each other and making deals.
I am amazed that we have never gone to the elected Mayor system and I think the reason is that both sides are afraid the other would win.
So we put up with this game every year.
Encinitas has more Mayorial coup attemts than Fiji!
THEY GET PAID AROUND 100 PER MEETING PLUS EXPENSES. THE MORE MEETOINGS THEY CAN ATTEND THE MONEY THEY MAKE. MILEAGE AND SUCH IS ALSO PAID.
ReplyDeleteBONDS HAS PARLAYED HIS ATTENDANCE AT THESE MEETING TO ABOUT 55,000 A YEAR IN SALARY.
Mayor Hoolihan would be the least of our worries. Did you know, "The Olivenhain Town Council will sponsor its traditional Christmas party and nativity pageant from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Olivenhain Meeting Hall, at Rancho Santa Fe Road and Eighth Street."
ReplyDeleteCan you belive anyone in this city would dare to have a holiday celebration that didn't include me and my religion? These people should be keel hauled. Maybe we will banish then to Leucadia and make them stay 1,000 days and nights next to the training crossing at Leucadia Blvd. That should teach them a lesson.
100 bucks a meeting eh? How long to these meetings take? 1 hour? 6 hours?
ReplyDeletePeople seem upset that Maggie isn't going to be mayor, but does Maggie care?
Is the OTC funded by tax dollars?
Christy Guerin did use her "sway" as mayor to pay off favors by selecting who she wanted for what assignments on boards, etc, outside of Council, as previous posters have suggested.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the mayor GETS TO SET THE AGENDA. This is important, and controls what is voted upon, what the agenda items are, what we get to discuss.
Maggie was mayor, but the rest of Council seemed to pooh-pooh her. The fact that she got so many votes actually says more about the power of the citizens' grassroots efforts, than her success in leading. Maggie was mayor right before she got re-elected, which also shows the power of the incumbency, particularly when the incumbent is a mayor.
ReplyDeleteMaggie didn't use the mandate she got by her numbers upon re-election. She was outnumbered in terms of the rest of Council ganging up against her most of the time, unless she went over to the dark side with them.
Teresa Barth being on Council will make a difference. I'm going to the meeting tomorrow, because I don't want James Bond to be mayor.
ReplyDeleteHey, I want to find out if Mayor Guerin cries her croc tears again. Toodle-loo, "disabled," workman's comp recipient, retired jail guard, feeder at the govt. trough.
ReplyDeleteIf you come to council meetings, sit in the audience, I'll be sure to stay away from your big bad gun you seem to have on you, always.
What are you afraid of? Or are you just trying to compensate for something?
Maggie's hair is almost the same color as Poiny's leaves.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that stray cat she saved, in our sister city formerly known as Hondo, tried to lick her hair, or just sniffed, like JP's cat does Poiny?
I loved to get out and about on the roundabout, yesterday. Think I'll go for a ride again, with Poiny, JP, and some fine tunes.
There used to be a big ol' bush of poinsettias next door, until the landlord cut them down to do some "redevelopment."
Where have all the flowers gone?
JP, thanks for the correction. It takes a big man to admit and fix a mistake. Wish our Council could learn to do this.
ReplyDeleteThe travesty was Sheila! Lets get Kevin in.
ReplyDeleteTHE OTC GETS NO TAX DOLLARS and most importantly it is a non-governmental org. If someone tried to stop them from celebrating christmas it would go straight to the supreme court and the public would go nutz. Dobson would pop a blood vessel.
ReplyDeleteIf that happened it would be against the constitition. On the other hand, cities that run religious events are treading on the constitution & common sense and ignoring the lessons of history. Only wacko blind freaks think it is a good idea to mix goverment and religion.
Anyone here have a problem with the OTC celebrating christmas? I didn't think so.
Who would want to be on the council with the small amount of compensation given them? The opportunity costs are huge. It takes a lot of time to do right by the taxpayers. During the time given to city issues councilmen can't be out working and making money to support their families.
ReplyDeleteThat is why we have a council composed of zealots, activists, "Dukesters", and those people that don't have a clue. Maybe the taxpayer could come out better in the end if we paid our council more?
The current council is not there for the money.
I hope Maggie is appointed to very few positions. She is under enough stress just thinking positive thoughts and remaining in remission.
ReplyDeleteSome appointments pay nothing, some $50 dollars, some more. Info is available at city hall, just ask. Some of the positions require that you ask the Agency how much a member is/was paid but you have to ask. It isn't much unless you are the head of one of the boards that requires a great deal of work, like the water board. Think you know a lot about water policy? I would venture that Mr Bond knows a great deal more. Do you know that Neveda is trying to step up their draw from The River by convincing everyone that the water they use returns to The River as ground water and so they should get that made up! True.
Waters more valuable then gasoline and is just going to get scarcer unless we get significant rain the next few years and the lakes all start to overflow.
ReplyDeleteThe peripheral canal is going to become an issue in the State again since the projected rise in sea level will make in difficult if not impossible to protect the northern Cal. sloughs so the thinking is send the Sacremento to the south. It's only a short term fix(20-30 years) but it might be the only help for us.
The solution to the water problem is to quite adding more fricken people. The coast is saturated! We dont need all the low income and everyone else in the world living on the CA coast.
ReplyDeleteIt makes no sense. Humans are stupid. How can we continue to say we have no water, but yet development remains unchecked in fact encouraged?
I'm glad Sheila was a Council Member and our mayor.
ReplyDeleteWho are you, anonymous, to judge her so harshly, behind your cowardice in not saying who you are? And you never say what she did that you don't like, either. You are the travesty, and you know who you are.
Sheila got elected, remember. Did you? And I don't think Kevin would appreciate your mean spirit, either. He is a nice guy, and has done heaps for us, but dropping his name doesn't throw us off, Bossy.
Don't cry for poor Maggie you whiners, it simply is not her rotation. Historically, the mayorship (a totally symbolic position) has rotated orderly among the sitting council members. There have been a few exceptions, like when Stocks actually engineered a 3 vote to bump Bond. Maggie has not been denied her rotation. Bond is simply up next in rotation. Jeez, you guys need to knock-off the conspiracy stuff...
ReplyDeleteActually it's $200 per meeting plus catered dinner (with booze as James Bond can confirm) that is given to each council member. If it is a joint meeting, which is frequent, there is extra money. Another $100 each according to a recent statement by Mayor Guerin. Add in all the other benefits, and it ain't so bad, especially considering it is a part time job. How much preparation do you think Dan Dalager actually does? Apparently almost none, as he always seems not to have read anything.
ReplyDeleteThere was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
She was very, very good.
But when she bad she was horrid.
Good riddance to Christy Guerin. She has mostly been horrid. Be prepared for a teary goodbye on Wednesday night.