Former Mayor Cameron has a legacy of enormous civic involvement. Unlike many former Council Members she remains active in the community, and not just in her pet projects. I think that says a lot about her original motivations behind running for office. She even has the Leucadia sidewalk stamp in her front yard. That sure says a lot about how she feels about Leucadia.
Thank you, J.P.
ReplyDeleteSheila
Sheila would be the other Encinitas resident with the "mark of honor" in her yard. She cares more than people know about our city. I agree with her 60% of the time but love her always.
ReplyDeleteThe year was 1993. (The late) Howard Greenwood and I wanted the business community in Leucadia to have a voice at City Hall. We formed the Leucadia Merchants Association. Howard was the first president and spoke one night at City Hall announcing our inception and relating our concerns as per a survey we took. A woman in the audience caught up to us as we were leaving that night and excitedly said "Where have you guys been?!" That was Sheila Cameron. The next thing we knew, our voice got louder, and we became more focused, and made sure Sheila was on our board. She's been a great friend to me and our city ever since.
ReplyDeleteSheila was one of the main people going door to door who pushed for incorporation prior to 1986, and being part of LMA, helped Leucadia (as well as our other communities) keep their individual identities. Graphic artist Mark Kingsley Brown (another LMA board member) came up with our slogan "Preserving the Past, Enjoying the Present, Planning for the Future" and made us a cool Logo. The other two members of our lean and mean board were Rick Smith and Angel Salazar. Together we pushed to have 5 million dollars put aside to fix our drainage problems on and around the hwy. But Sheila did most of the pushing, and got er done.
Sheila is one of those people I could go on and on about, so to save space and time I thought I'd just highlight a few things,
* I was on the Encinitas Library Committee with Sheila when she endorsed putting the New Library on Cornish Dr. (Only a few years earlier, The Encinitas Library Task Force headed by former mayor Lou Aspell didn't even have that location on the radar. But Sheila and DEMA president (the late) Lynn Love did. Unfortunately, they were forbidden to speak at the LTF meetings.)
* Sheila opened up government a lot. Because of her, city meetings are now televised.
* Sheila's name is on the classic ENCINITAS sign downtown (and they finally spelled it right!)
* Sheila supported restoring the 101 Shield to our highway and helped unify the name from Leucadia, through old Encnitas to the far end of Cardiff-by-the-Sea. I designed the first 12 shields that the city approved and installed in 1997. Like the first ones that slowly vanished, today, one sign remains and the others I guess were made souvenirs.
* Helped Chris Hicks get her Surfer Crossing signs up.
* She helped preserve Indian Head Canyon and other open space.
* Helped develop the Community and Senior Center.
* Helped with 7 Habitat for Humanity homes.
* Helped design the landscaping for Leucadia Blvd.
* Continues to be a champion for adhering to our General and Specific Plans.
* Brought Legoland to Carlsbad. Oh wait a minute, that was somebody else.
Thanks Sheila for loving your city and always doing what you believe is best for all. Can't think of anything I've ever disagreed with you about. Outside of who's paying for lunch.
What happened to Sheila? She used to be on the Council and now she is not.
ReplyDeletenice post. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did any one know that some chinese hacker had hacked twitter yesterday again.
ReplyDeletequite interesting article. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did anyone learn that some chinese hacker had hacked twitter yesterday again.
ReplyDeleteHow does Sheila feel about the ugly rusty guard rails that line the median on 101?? Oh that's right she's responsible for those guard rails that blight our median. I guess that says it all....
ReplyDeleteBoy, I would much rather have the rustic feel of the guard rails as they are than the galvanized generic styles that could have been planted.
ReplyDeleteThank you Shelia for this and all the caring efforts you have offered to our community.
You have made a positive contribution.
Don't stop.
Wow, I had no idea this articulate council voice was such a successful activist. We could use a whole crowd of Sheila Camerons to bring real resilience to our community. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteshelia alone is responsible for those rails? sounds like we need to change the way city hall operates? Has Dan done anything to change it?
ReplyDeleteThose guard rails saved my friend's life once. He bounced off them after getting run off the road by another vehicle. He would have hit a tree or gone into the southbound lane if not for the rails. Rusty or not he was glad they were there.
ReplyDeleteAnon12:53- I am glad your friend is alive. But there is no need for rusty guard rails. Nice non-rusty guard rails would have saved your friends life also.
ReplyDeleteMy opposition is to the rusty!!
I like the rusty. I like the rusty one in Olivinhan too. Much less industrial/urban.
ReplyDeletenice read. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did any one hear that some chinese hacker had busted twitter yesterday again.
ReplyDeleteinteresting read. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did you guys know that some chinese hacker had hacked twitter yesterday again.
ReplyDeleteAnon1:25- do you like weeds and dirt also?? I'm sure you feel right at home. Head to the north end of town for the real Leucadia experience, weeds, dirt and an unsafe walkway.
ReplyDeleteSheila had the chance to correct that while in office, she choose to give us ugly, rusty guardrails.
Unfortunately, Sheila, due to her her queen like behavior,put progresive, for the poeple politics in this town, back at least ten years. I'll take the likes of T. Barth any day.
ReplyDeleteavo st mafia
I like the rustic look of the core ten steel much better than Gavanized guardrails.
ReplyDeleteOK. I can't leave this blog for a minute can I?
ReplyDeleteFor eveyone's information. Sheila had nothing to do with the selection of the rusty guard rails that reaplaced the other rusty guardrails we used to have. That was Bob Nelson in Public Works at the city who made that choice, and the majority of the council who decided to go through with it, and that didn't include Sheila. The Leucadia Town Council, Leucadia Merchants Association, Sheila and I pushed to have concrete berms placed around each median INSTEAD of guard rails. With 24 thousand dollars, The Leucadia Town Council began the first model median at Leucadia Blvd. They gave us the blueprints for it, then the council decided to put rusty guardrails in everywhere else.
The state had given Encinitas a large sum of money to improve the hwy, and we got rusty guardrails with it. When it came to the city meeting where they finalized what they were going to do, Sheila wanted concrete berms framing the medians but James Bond and the majority at the time wanted the rails. While asking for the money to be used for berms, we compared the difference to the nicely maintained medians on El Camino Real which (like everywhere else with tidy medians) had concrete berms. Jim's argument was "I think on El Camino Real they have concrete because the trees they plant there are the kind that bend over when you hit them with a car". Well, the trees on El Camino Real are certainly not as big as our Eukes, but they definately don't bend over when they're hit! And guess what? They haven't been thanks to the concrete berms and their slower speed limit.
So 8:25, WHO told you that Sheila was responsible for them, or is this some hit piece you concocted? I'd really like to know.
I have met Sheila and she seemed very nice to me. What did she do on the Council that was so terrible? Did she run for reelection and not win, or did she not run at all? Thanks for any info.
ReplyDeleteShe got a bit heavy handed and one of her allies became a traitor. There was a time when we had 3 votes and the developers had 2, but like I said her ally became a traitor and it was 2 against 2 with the former ally having the deciding vote.
ReplyDelete6:22 Quite so.
ReplyDeleteIncurring wrath from a local newpaper reporter didn't help either. They have bells that are real hard to unring.
What did she do to incur the wrath of a reporter?
ReplyDeleteWhen you're a public figure not quoted properly in the paper, it's an irksome thing. And when you ask that it be corrected, it can rub the reporter the wrong way and never get corrected. When misquotes begin happening repeatedly, reporters can become politically polarized with their stories.
ReplyDeleteI was with Sheila one time at a council meeting. She was in a lot of physical discomfort that night and at recess I followed her to her office to get her pills. I forget the subject that night, but the air was tense in the Council chambers on some important item. On our way to her office though, one woman walked up to her demanding an answer to a question. Sheila merely raised the palm of her hand to her and said "Not now." as she breezed by.
A few days later in the paper the woman claimed Sheila had "flipped her off" that night when she asked her a question! I was there and that didn't happen. But you can imagine how such a comment could wrongly taint public opinion of her.
"What did she do on the Council that was so terrible?"
#1. Same old thing. She stuck to her guns - the Encinitas General Plan. If you're new here, that's about the only thing that raises particular people's ire in this town.
#2. I think part of the problem was a power trip. Christy Guerin is a Christian and disliked Sheila's frank language and her sway with the public.
#3. At a "special meeting" of the city council, someone on the council conspired to dethrone Sheila a month early from her term. (No one would fess up to who it was). 50 speakers stood up and asked them not to do that. It was a scene. Christy left the room twice crying. Some said it was a political move so that James Bond would have the title as mayor on the ballot when he ran for Assembly that year. I believe it was Christy, Chuck DuVivier and James Bond who voted Sheila off Mayorship that night, and only Dennis Holz who was on her side.
It's never been possible for a political figure to please all the people all the time. Ask Abe.
On the other side of the coin, when any of Sheila's former nemesis' were in their right minds on big local issues, I've seen her work closely with people she had worked tooth and nail against on other projects, including (off the top of my shiny head):
* Bob Bonde
* the late Jack Orr
* former mayor Gail Hano.
Nope, JP got it right. Sheila is a core Leucadian for sure, and has shaped many of the better things we enjoy today in Encinitas.
Christy Guerin was in it for herself and her political future. She was arrogant and insulting to citizens at council meetings. She could be even more uninformed than Dalager. Good riddance.
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