A brick – the $30,000 Foregone Conclusion award – to the San Marcos City Council for commissioning an outside consultant's report to embroider the council's well-telegraphed position: A growth-checking initiative, if approved by voters in November, would be a royal pain in the gluteus maximus.
Modeled on Escondido's Proposition S, which triggers a citywide vote if a density bump is proposed, the San Marcos Growth Management and Neighborhood Protection Act will be a much tougher sell than Proposition S was in 1998.
First off, Escondido had a strong tradition of slow-growth activism throughout the 1980s and '90s. Jerry Harmon, a longtime councilman and mayor, carried the philosophical torch, as did council members Carla DeDominicis and Kris Murphy. A feisty group called the Chamber of Citizens formed to create and back the initiative.
Though Escondido business interests railed against Proposition S as an expensive job-killing measure, it won in a walk. The voters in the old capital of inland North County felt up to the challenge of passing judgment on projects that require a general-plan amendment.
San Marcos, however, is a much younger city whose ambitious leaders are hard at work on a $1 billion development of the downtown area around San Marcos Creek. Against the backdrop of a national recession, growth is not such a dirty word these days. And the current council, now that Lee Thibadeau and Corky Smith are gone, does not strike one as a hotbed for seat-of-the-pants pro-growthers.
Bottom line, the energetic, but relatively small, group of backers of the San Marcos initiative don't have as much political wind at their backs as Harmon & Co. did in Escondido a decade ago. The slow-growth network in San Marcos isn't nearly so potent.
Maybe that's why this council-approved study, costing up to $30,000 and delaying the legally necessary vote to put the initiative on the ballot, seems such a terrible waste of money.
Surely the city attorney could analyze the potential costs of litigation and the possible effects on potential developments. (I'm sure the city of Escondido or the Building Industry Association could provide boiler-plate information on the subject free of charge.)
In reality, this pricey report was not intended to educate the council so it could decide whether to adopt the initiative straightaway or put it on the November ballot. No, it was a pre-emptive shot in the fall political campaign.
“Propaganda,” one initiative supporter accurately called it.
Now I'll concede that propaganda can be both true and socially beneficial. But that's not my point.
By definition, propaganda is a one-sided expression of political power, in this case paid for by taxpayers, some of whom are bound to disagree.
That's why it stinks.
A bouquet – the Keep It Pure and Simple award – to San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss for ruling the psycho stuff out of bounds while allowing the fine print of the playbook in the civil trial pitting Steve Foley against the city of Coronado and Aaron Mansker, the officer who shot the Chargers linebacker outside his Poway home in 2006.
As you'd expect, Foley's attorneys wanted to share with jurors a profile of Mansker as a callow cowboy with a deep-seated hostility toward drunken drivers. (His father was killed by one when Mansker was 13.)
In addition, Foley's team asked the judge to permit Mansker's alleged failure to land jobs at 10 other agencies as evidence of the officer's manifest immaturity.
While excluding information about Mansker's mind, Strauss also denied Coronado's bizarre motion to exclude the city Police Department's policies and procedures manual.
It could be argued that no other evidence is more relevant to answer the fundamental question: Were Foley's career-ending wounds warranted by his own actions or were they the direct result of reckless police action?
Postscript: If Mansker's mental profile is irrelevant, it's only fair if Strauss keeps the jury from hearing details about Foley's own checkered background. This intriguing civil trial should go by the book, not the baggage.
A brick – the Prepositions Matter award – to this writer for misstating the scope of Solana Beach's prohibition against plastic bags.
In Thursday's column, I wrote: “Last December, Solana Beach caught the cresting wave and outlawed plastic bags with advertising on them.”
“Sorry,” writes Jim McCall, “but Solana Beach banned plastic bags with advertising in them, not on them. This is aimed at the small bags with cards, etc., that gardeners, handymen, etc., were tossing on our driveways and were being flushed into storm drains.”
As penance, I promise to wear a plastic bag over my head as I walk the dog tonight.
Logan Jenkins: (760) 737-7555; logan.jenkins@uniontrib.com.
