Despite a recent survey showing a majority of businesses inside La Jolla’s village oppose paid parking, Promote La Jolla (PLJ) “” the nonprofit group representing those merchants “” voted to endorse the La Jolla parking board’s paid parking plan during last Wednesday’s meeting, and forward it to the San Diego City Council.

Darcy Ashley, of nopaidparking.org and an alternate on the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board, announced survey results during the April 9 PLJ meeting. She said 679 merchants in the village were against paid parking, and less than one quarter of the businesses were in favor of paid parking.

In 2005, the city council created six parking boards, including La Jolla’s, to seek programs for paid parking such as installing meters, but with backlash from citizens and merchants who cried foul “” in the form of conflicts of interest “” La Jolla’s parking board was the first forced to suspend operations.

Parking board chair Martin Mosier announced the board was forced to stop the deliberation process after City Council President and District 1 Councilman Scott Peters told the Village News he wanted to flush the parking process; the board’s conclusion came after questions regarding conflicts of interest among parking board members.

City Attorney Michael Aguirre stepped in weeks ago, starting a process that would require members of the six parking boards to file financial disclosure statements.

“I’m here today to tell you that as a practical matter it has become impossible to meet,” Mosier said.

He further explained that the parking board is solely advisory and he believes the city attorney misled him and threatened him with misdemeanor charges.

“Aguirre is threatening me and my board members with misdemeanor prosecution and we have no way to disagree with Aguirre; we’re at a stalemate situation,” Mosier said.

PLJ President Deborah Marengo thanked Mosier for his dedication. Neither made any reference to Peters’ statement regarding the board just days earlier. But in a later interview, Marengo said Peters was stepping back from parking because the community couldn’t agree ” things were getting out of hand, she said.

Because the parking board is advisory to PLJ, Marengo and other PLJ board members discussed progress the board made regarding the parking plan. Then, Marengo suggested PLJ send the pilot-parking plan to the city.

“Since Martin Mosier, the chair of the advisory board was standing before us and he said that Aguirre forced them to stop functioning, so based on that, it would be in the best interest to have the advisory board stop meeting,” Marengo said.

Marengo advised the group to promote Mosier’s parking plan.

“It’s probably best to take all that information and sent that down to the city,” Marengo said.

The group made a motion to send the parking plan “” the Pilot Program framework that was voted on in spring of 2007 “” to the city.

Ashley reiterated the survey results, asking if PLJ board members realized they were voting against the wishes of the majority of the merchants they represent; PLJ is La Jolla’s business improvement district, and all merchants in the village are assessed fees.

But Ashley’s announcement had no effect on the PLJ board. She asked the board members if they were aware the merchants did not want the pilot plan, and said 679 merchants said they were opposed to paid parking.

The board members then rescinded the vote and decided they’d take their motion up a notch “” they added an extra endorsement to the pilot-parking plan.

George Hauer, Peter Wagener and Marengo all agreed, on the record, that they were aware of the parking survey, which Ashley cited earlier, and that they were going ahead with the motion anyway.

But Marengo said PLJ wasn’t disrespecting the merchants they represent. She said that she understood the results of the survey, as did the rest of the board, but that the parking plan they endorsed contains many elements, and the survey only asked if merchants were opposed to meters.

“It says that they are opposed to parking meters, and it is not just about parking meters,” Marengo said. “The framework has a lot of elements, and some are good and some are OK. The parking board tried to have a dialogue with the community but that stopped.”

“That was a violation of the Brown Act because it wasn’t on the agenda,” said Steve Haskins, attorney for La Jollans for Clean Government. Haskins said his group intends to pursue the matter.

After hearing of the endorsement, both Sherri Lightner, candidate for City Council District 1 and the La Jolla Shores Association, came out against PLJ and its vote.

“We want to point out that this plan was never approved or even voted on by LJCPAB,” wrote La Jolla Shores associate chair Jim Heaton. “We want to clearly state that the citizens of La Jolla Shores do not support this plan nor do we support on street parking.”

Lightner wrote a letter to Peters and the council, urging them to dissolve the parking board. She said that PLJ is “running amok,” and that the group needs to break its tie with the parking board. Lightner also said PLJ’s actions were against the Brown Act.