Encinitas Mayor Blakespear Considers Resigning
When I got home the night we guillotined Bruce Ehlers, I had something of an epiphany.
Gosh, all those angry people! Clapping, booing, shouting, waving signs. If I had allowed the usual three minutes for people to speak, there could have been a revolt.
My thought at home was, golly, what if I’m wrong and Bruce and all those angry people are right? What if Bruce really is objective? Like a judge, I mean. As a planning commissioner, what if he really does put his personal feelings aside and makes decisions based on the facts and applicable laws and ordinances?
Could it be that my motives in decapitating him were political, with a dose of personal revenge tossed in the mix? Could it be that I’m just pushing my ultra-progressive agenda and trying to boost my state Senate candidacy? Could ambition be blinding me to my own motives?
Am I denying Bruce’s right of free speech? More broadly, free expression? Am I wrong in requiring planning commissioners to march in lockstep with me? For that matter, not only planning commissioners but all commission and staff members? Should I let them have their own minds?
I’m the elected mayor. Isn’t that the same as being the big boss, of having the right to require everyone below me on the totem pole to salute and click their heels whenever I speak?
Were Bruce’s decisions really putting the city in legal jeopardy and keeping families from being able to live here? Was he truly thumbing his nose at my 100% commitment to addressing the affordable housing crisis?
You know, when I look at the figures, how far has the city gotten in providing affordable housing opportunities? Not very, I’m afraid. When I compare the number of market-rate units built with the number of affordable units built since I’ve been on the City Council, I see the disparity is huge. If we keep the current ratio, I have to admit we’ll never reach our RHNA.
That added to my dilemma. And out came my epiphany. Gosh, what if my opponents are right and I’m wrong? Should I resign?
