ENCINITAS, CA — Encinitas City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to remove Planning Commission Chairman and City Council nominee Bruce Ehlers from office, citing an alleged conflict of interest. Forced resignation takes effect immediately. The move was controversial, with supporters thronging Council meetings and writing hundreds of emails in support of Ehlers.
Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear privately asked for Ehlers’ resignation at the end of March after she felt she should resign from the debate over the location of the Olivenhain housing, because she was the treasurer of a group that demanded the city prevent housing, according to the city’s agenda report. Ehlers refused to resign.
“Through his public statements, Mr. Ehlers has demonstrated a consistent bias that prevents him from performing the core functions required of him, and he is unable to serve on an impartial jury of the proposed project,” Blakespear wrote in a statement posted. to his Twitter page Wednesday evening after the vote.
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“It is unacceptable to have the Planning Commissioner propose an unlawful solution, reject a housing project without adequate grounds, have a financial and leadership role in a community group suing the city, create conflicts of his own which necessitate his refusal to consider the only project located in the city. his district of Olivenhain, and used the legitimacy of his title as Planning Commissioner to undermine and subvert the city’s objectives.”
The move drew widespread and harsh criticism, including from current and former city leaders. In public remarks, former Planning Commissioner Ruben Flores called the decision “one of the most outrageous political crimes at Encinitas.” Pam Slater-Price, former mayor of Encinitas and county overseer, told The Coast News that she found the move “outrageous” and a “political witch-hunt.”
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Ehlers told The Coast News that the move was “purely political positioning” and “political ax work.” At Wednesday’s meeting, he called the board’s decision “a sad day for Encinitas,” reports The Encinitas Advocate.
Several dozen Ehlers supporters thronged Wednesday’s meeting, accusing the Council of trying to “silence” deserving Council candidates with opposing viewpoints. In public comments and in the many emails sent to the city, several residents praised Ehlers as a person with unique knowledge of the city’s problems.
“As you no doubt know, there are reports that the Mayor/Council plans to fire Bruce Ehlers as Chair of the Planning Commission on Wednesday,” Neil Hokanson wrote. “The fact that a planning commissioner has different thoughts from our current City Council thinking should not be a reason for disqualification. I will further point out that Mr Ehlers has been working diligently on behalf of our City longer than you have lived here. “Many municipalities are resisting the State’s coercive housing mandates which may or may not last full term. The projects I see are out of character for their respective communities, have significant negative environmental attributes and do little to help with affordable housing.”
Peter Stern, who originally wrote to the city arguing that Ehlers was guilty of a conflict of interest, changed his mind after reading a Coast News report that Ehlers had withdrawn from voting on the Goodson development project.
“If the reporting above is true and Bruce Ehlers is no longer participating with the organization suing the City and he actually withdrew from participating in the matter regarding the Olivenhain project, then there is no clear conflict of interest violation here. In fact, it appears that Bruce took action. decisively to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest in order to maintain the integrity of the process,” Stern wrote. “What is now becoming clear is a political and curious attempt to fire Bruce Ehlers. If there is no real conflict of interest, then the ill will to get rid of a shrewd independent thinker who has served so much in our community is more of an insult to our local government and committee system. then the alleged infringement is genuine.”
During the meeting, Blakespear held a 10-minute break after the audience clapped several times, which violated the rules he set about clapping during the meeting.
