La Jollans fight against decertification
The Rec Center was packed at last Thursday’s (April 5) La Jolla Community Planning Association meeting. “A special meeting” was called by Tim Golba, president, at 6 p.m., because Jim Waring, the mayor’s appointed deputy chief of Land Use and Economic Development, challenged the LJCPA’s new bylaws, which were adopted on March 1. (A group of 18 members spent over six months working on these new bylaws.) Waring stated that unless the LJCPA follows his directives he will move to have the LJCPA (the recognized planning group for La Jolla) “decertified” by the City Council on April 24. He is also demanding that the election of new trustees be voided. New bylaws must be approved by both the City Attorney and the City Council.
Golba’s proposed motion was “that the La Jolla Community Planning Association, a California Corporation, in order to maintain its certification as the City of San Diego recognized Community Planning Group for La Jolla, re-adopt the previous City-approved bylaws (approval date 1-1-92), with the following two changes already approved by the City of San Diego Planning Department and the City Attorney’s Office: a) Remove the provision for Proxy Voting; b) Alter the meeting requirement for membership from three meetings to one meeting. This bylaw vote shall be contingent upon the City of San Diego recognizing the election results conducted on March 1, 2007, where six new Trustees were elected to the LJCPA.”
At the “special meeting,” speaker after speaker gave Waring and his staff a tongue-lashing for his dictatorial interference; in fact, several trustees had e-mails from Waring where he stated that he “hadn’t even read the new bylaws”! Many were also angry at Scott Peters, council president and La Jolla’s councilmember from District 1, who twice has refused to docket the request to have the new bylaws approved by the City Council. The City Attorney on Feb. 2, 2007, submitted a formal request to Council President Peters that he docket approval of the newly adopted bylaws for the LJCPA as provided in Council Policy 600-24 “¦ Peters denied the City Attorney’s request. The City Attorney provided a legal analysis to the mayor and City Council as part of his second docketing request on Feb. 16, 2007. To date, no action has been taken on this request. All of this controversy could have been avoided if Scott Peters was on his own constituents’ side.
City Attorney Mike Aguirre held a press conference on Wednesday, April 4, at the Rec Center, where he presented a “Memorandum of Law” addressed to “Honorable Mayor and City Council”; Subject: Validity of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, Inc., Election Process, Election and Election Results for March 1, 2007, Election.” Of note, the City Attorney had determined and advised the LJCPA and CPCI (City Planning and Community Investment Department) “¦ that the LJCPA may operate under those newly adopted bylaw provisions that conform with Council Policy 600-24.”
I spoke, as a plaintiff in “La Jollans for Clean Government” (a community-based nonprofit corporation formed to investigate and expose corruption and conflicts of interest in local government-sponsored boards and committees). This lawsuit was served on the LJCPA on May 4, 2006. Subsequently, we agreed to dismiss the lawsuit with assurances by the City Council, CPCI and the City Attorney’s Office that the new bylaws would receive expedited review and that they would serve to remove many of the barriers to participation that were the subject of the complaint. This, obviously, has not been done.
The vote to disapprove Waring and Peters was 90 percent of the members, with the usual architects and developers voting to approve the motion. It seems, from many comments, that La Jolla is in the middle of a political fight between advocates of big money developers, who support Scott Peters, the mayor’s office (CPCI), and the citizens of La Jolla, who want it to remain a “Village.”
I urge you to contact Scott Peters and let him know that you want him to support the LJCPA and its bylaws by docketing them for approval immediately, before any decertification hearing. Telephone: (858) 484-3808; e-mail: [email protected]; fax: (619) 236-6999. For more information, check out “Blog of San Diego” by Pat Flannery or [email protected].
Sally Fuller, 32-year resident of La Jolla