Leucadia still has a drainage problem and the city says it will cost $90 million to fix it (remember that number was developed in the rampage toward redevelopment). It means Leucadia still has an official flooding problem and that the city doesn't have the money to fix it.Lovers of Leucadia and streetscape activisits, take a close look at the first project on the underfunded streets projects. How much funding over the next 6 years is being added for the second phase? How much money is needed? Take a look (click to enlarge). The last column is total cost, and the second to last is how much more money is needed.
No money in the next 6 years for the roundabout at Hygeia either.
Downtown Encinitas' streetscape phase 2 is still not funded and probably won't be in the next decade. The council will hold streetscape over the heads of Leucadia for the next generation.
ReplyDeleteA little detached from reality... $90 million dollars? with $90 million you could buy all the houses within 1/4 mile of the puddles at a huge premium to market value and still have money leftover to make pretty parks with self-sustaining ponds (put that flood water to use!).
ReplyDeleteYet the penion costs are being paid and increase every year.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Jerome. Pensions Increase Oh Yeah! Projects Hell No! Union owned RINO Jackass.
Fricken Politicians need to be jailed for stealing our children's future education and quality of life. There is no way around it, Politicians must hate kids.
Pension costs have increased and are blasting off into outer space. We won't be able to fund squat.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone went back through the last ten years of CIP budgets and looked for funding for 'Lot B' or the upgrading of the rail crossing at Leucadia Boulevard, they would not find financing listed in the CIP for those projects.
ReplyDeleteThat's because those two were paid for by grants/federal money that the City got from requesting it through the regional bodies of NCTD and Sandag and in particular, a half mil from the Feds that Congressman Bilbray was able to wrestle into the local economy.
The upcoming construction of the Underpass that will connect Santa Fe Drive and Vulcan Avenue to Hwy 101 (under the railway) is again, another example of money being found from outside the general fund to finance roadway and transportation projects within the borders of Encinitas.
Also interesting in the context of this posting is the quote from the new Encinitas City Manager Gustavo in the daily newspaper today; he says that the main thing he was attracted to in Encinitas was its financial health.
Interesting, no?
Not sure what your point is. Are you saying that because the city can't pay for its projects that its cool because the feds want to build a roundabout at Hygia? Are we going to get federal money to build the Hall park too? I'm happy that Gus, who has done such a great job burying Sacramento in debt, thinks that we don't have to do anything about pensions here in Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is interesting that we are going to hire another short-sighted financial cheerleader for the city's debt builders.
Given state and federal fiscal conditions, I wouldn't count on a whole lot of freebies from them any time soon.
ReplyDeleteGreat Point. Gus was the finance director and Assistant City Manager for Sacramento. Sacramento budget is buried in DEBT. Is that our future...just like Kerry Miller's MO was a redevelopment district. Looks like Encinitas is in for some serious red ink. I hope the ETA rides herd on this borrow and spend supporter. We are in trouble with the total fools leading our City into the dirt. Zero money for projects. All them money goes to increase pay and pensions for employees. Just the way Jerome Stocks was told to vote by his keeper the unions.
ReplyDeleteNo money in the next 6 years for the roundabout at Hygia either.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reasoning behind adding another roundabout at Hygeia?
Rob
ReplyDeleteThats an easy one. To get rid of the all way stop and to finish with the sidewalks and landscaping along Leucadia Blvd. which would greatly help out the people living east of Hermes Avenue that want to walk to the beach. Its about 5 years late now.
$90 million was never Rick Engineering's estimate for the most expensive fix for Leucadia's drainage! Their paperwork says $50 million to put 2 miles of a pipe through Leucadia (removing all the median trees in the process). WHO did they get to nearly double that estimate? Boy do people forget important stuff in this city.
ReplyDeleteThey also forgot the reasons they got rid of Rick E. The boondoggle was; San Diego pays only $1 million dollars for each linear mile of their storm drain restorations, but that we would be paying $25 million for each mile here. THAT is why Rick E. got the boot. Now, without explanation, someone else adds $40 million out of the blue to the estimate we got from the greediest engineer ever hired by Encinitas? Now I know what the term "sheeple" means.
I guess "they" just need to show a constant "need" for some reason. Before, the "need" was an excuse to adopt redevelopment to pay the ridiculous amount for drain pipes. Now perhaps it's to stall the streetscape funds? I don't know. But I do know something's very wrong when a city wants to pay 25 times what something is worth; nearly doubles that amount when no one's looking, and pretends they have forgotten what the actual cost of an installed linear mile of large drain pipe is. My guess would be that this timely "fact sheet" was created to mislead our new city manager into believing "what can and cannot be done in Leucadia". It kind of smacks of someone being in on the take.
How'd I do, Sammi?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteESCONDIDO: Pension reform would save city $12.7M over 10 years
ReplyDeleteHow much would Encinitas save over 20 years? 20 million?
Old union owned Jerome Stocks and Maggie were the ones that spiked pensions and pay for our City Employee 35% in 2005 and he benefits from the pension increase himself. That seems illegal.
Jerome Stocks sold out our City's future now all the money goes to Employees high salaries and pensions. Now the massively compensated employees sit on their hands and don't have any projects to work on because the City, State, and USA is in massive Debt.
Encinitas should be laying off 30% of its employees and reducing pensions 50% if it were well run. That's a huge "IF".
Mr. Stocks should be run out of town for treason.
During those pension increase discussions, the reason put forth was that in order to attract and keep "High-quality, highly-skilled" employees, it was necessary to provide these incentives.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, why does the city find it necessary to hire outside consultants to do their work? One obvious current example is the General Plan Amendment Guru. If our staff is so highly skilled, why can't they handle this "cat herding"?
My guess is that they can convince the politicians that an "expert" is necessary because it is so specialized. BS. I've been to those meetings. If our present staff isn't capable, find someone who is.
It doesn't make sense to pay twice for a task that could be done in-house. The Cardiff Specific Plan is another example, there are many more.
The staff loves consultants, they take the heat off, and no one has to perform. I believe it's time to eliminate costly consultants unless it's absolutely necessary.
What is more important, fixing the flooding in Leucadia or building the sports complex park for Carlsbad?
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing rests on rosy forecasts from what I can tell. Certainly in terms of the pension liability which is huge.
Sure, it could happen that we will get some unexpected funding for projects but counting on something that has no foundation today is not conservatively budgeting. One the other hand, have you looked at the fed and state financial situation?
Their borrow, spend, and promise future payouts budgeting is catching up to them. What has Encinitas done differently?
To get rid of the all way stop and to finish with the sidewalks and landscaping along Leucadia Blvd. which would greatly help out the people living east of Hermes Avenue that want to walk to the beach.
ReplyDeleteI live on Hygeia. That all way stop is not problematic. There already is a sidewalk from Vulcan all the way to Home Depot, and landscaping is not a priority. This project should be cancelled so real needs can be addressed (potholes, flooding, RR x-ings, etc., etc.)
I got it Rob.... you like Leucadia shitty and unsafe.... well there are others who don't. Thank god for that and I hope your really old.
ReplyDeleteI got it Rob.... you like Leucadia shitty and unsafe....
ReplyDelete4-way stops are safer than roundabouts. I'm all for beautification after problems are corrected.
I think your wrong Rob. Google away and you'll learn alot about the benefits of Roundabouts. Statistics don't lie. People do.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you at least support beautification of Leucadia. Thanks.
I do like stop signs better than signals. I wish they would remove the signal at Vulcan and Hwy101 and Leucadia and replace them with stop signs.
roundabouts work better than both.
I think your wrong Rob.
ReplyDeleteHalf the population doesn't even know how to drive through a roundabout. Everyone understands 4-way stops.