Calendar of Events

La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Committee Meeting
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 4:00 PM
La Jolla Recreation Center
Room 1
615 Prospect Street, La Jolla, CA 92037
 

Among other items the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Committee's meeting agenda includes a discussion of universal time limits in the La Jolla Village area.

This is the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of Promote La Jolla (PLJ), the La Jolla Business Improvement District (BID) contractor. The meeting returns to the La Valencia Hotel. The meeting agenda can be found HERE.

There is an item on the agenda relating to the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board, to be presented by R. Ghasemi, L. Peto, and M. Mosier, namely "Discussion and vote on items that relate to the Community Parking District Advisory Board. Vote about universal time limits in the Village".

It will be interesting to see if Promote La Jolla finally withdraws its representatives from the Parking District Advisory Board—like all the other La Jolla community planning groups have done. It is past time for PLJ to do what our NoPaidParking.Org group has demanded—from its inception:

The Parking Advisory Board needs to be disbanded because it continues to ignore its charter! It promotes paid on-street parking as a panacea while refusing to actually study the "parking problem."

This 14-member group advises the Mayor and City Council on policy issues relating to parking.

At the May 14, 2008 Promote La Jolla meeting, information was given on an adenda item for this Mayors Parking Board meeting today. Evidently, this group will be discussing the ordinance that exists which makes the use of the Auto view vehicle impossible for enforcement. In order to use the vehicle for enforcement, the City will need to change the ordinance to require vehicles to move 150 feet from one parking place to another to avoid a ticket. (The GPS system does not distinguish movement in closer ranges.)

If there is anyone who is able to attend this meeting, it will be informative to learn how the situation in La Jolla is being represented at this City Board. Please let us know if you attend this meeting. La Jolla and Council District 1 are represented by Peter Wagener and Martin Mosier, proponents of paid on-street parking in La Jolla.

Please note the following item on the Promote La Jolla agenda for this meeting:

• COMMUNITY PARKING DISTRICT ADVISORY BOARD- R. Ghasemi, L. Peto, M. Mosier

  ACTION ITEM: Discussion and vote on items that relate to the Community Parking District Advisory Board. The LJCPDAB did not meet in April, 2008 at the request of Council President Scott Peters. The Board of PLJ will vote on the operations and work product of the LJCPD to date. Public Comment will be limited to 30 minutes on this item. If the number of speakers exceeds ten, the number of speakers will be divided by the amount of time allocated for this item.

A vote was taken at the April PLJ meeting on this issue, but was not noticed on that agenda. Here's what was approved:

"To support the findings and recommendations of the Parking Advisory Board based on the specifics of the Pilot Program passed in September 2007."

This creates a problem with the Brown Act. (This group is having a presentation on the Brown Act at the meeting too.) Therefore it is likely that PLJ has placed this item on the agenda to have a properly noticed vote on the issue to again approve the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board's recommendation for paid on-street parking in La Jolla and to sent that plan on to the City Council for approval.

This 14-member group advises the Mayor and City Council on policy issues relating to parking. By statue the Board conveys community concerns, advises the City regarding parking control implementations decisions, provides support and input to Community Parking District advisory boards when requested, and addresses other parking related policy matters.

This is the next regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board (see meeting agenda).

The City Council has an item on the consent agenda on Conflict of Interest issues for the Parking Boards. We are looking into what this is, that is being approved, and how this affects the La Jolla Community Parking Advisory Board and Promote La Jolla. This is NOT an item about approving a paid parking plan for La Jolla. The Docket can be found here. If you are interested, but unable to attend, you can view the proceedings on cable Channel 24 (The City Channel).

This 14-member group advises the Mayor and City Council on policy issues relating to parking. By statue the Board conveys community concerns, advises the City regarding parking control implementations decisions, provides support and input to Community Parking District advisory boards when requested, and addresses other parking related policy matters.

This is the next regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the La Jolla Parking Advisory Board (see meeting agenda).

The City's recent actions regarding the proposed requirement for conflict of interest filings for City Parking District Advisory Boards will be reported and discussed. Unfortunately, it looks like the City Council has convinced the City Attorney's Office to not require any disclosure of paid-parking financial interests by members of this group. The legal "argument" (promoted by a group lead by Scott Peters) is that since this group is only "advisory", then its members have no legal requirement to disclose personal financial interest regarding any "advice" the group may then forward on to the City Council for approval.

This meeting will see, for the first time, public discussion of two alternate "parking plan" proposals submitted by Parking District Advisory Board "outsiders", namely a plan authored by Sherri Lightner (November 2007 meeting) and a plan authored by Ed Ward (March 2008). However, according to the published agenda, each plan will be limited to 10 minutes, with 10 minutes of public discussion. This sudden, cursory "interest" in alternative plans likely is just "window dressing" designed to give "cover" to the Board's real plan, which is to send the Parking Advisory Board's "pre-approved" plan for paid parking in La Jolla on the to City Council.

After the above "presentation and discussion" of alternative plans, the Board plans to "consider what has been presented, and make recommendations as to a parking plan for La Jolla." It is very likely that the Board's ("secret") existing plan for paid on-street parking in La Jolla, vehemently opposed by the public, will be approved, unmodified, during of this meeting and submitted to the San Diego City Council for approval! So, the group is "back on track" pushing paid on-street parking on La Jolla, with a the City Council primed to approve "The Plan".

Promote La Jolla's attorneys were back in court March 5, 2008 unsuccessfully (again) attempting to prevent paid parking opponents Bob Collins and Nancy Warwick from being seated on the PLJ Board of Directors and therefore denying them access to records of the organization. Please see the article in the La Jolla Village News for more information on this story.

There was no quorum at this meeting, so no actions were taken.

This meeting elected new Trustees, including a number of new faces opposed to paid on-street parking in La Jolla. Elected for three year terms were Joe LaCava, Jim Fitzgerald, Glen Rasmussen, Orrin Gabsch, Dave Little, and Tony Crisafi. Elected for two year terms were Tim Lucas, John Berol, and Tim Golba.

This was a well attended informal gathering of La Jollans opposed to paid on-street parking. Two fo the District 1 City Council candidates were present and answered questions.

The a new conflict of interest code for all City Parking District Advisory Boards was heard at the City Council meeting. The matter was continued. It looks like the City Council, lead by Scott Peters, is going to try to bypass the City Attorney's recommendation and not require La Jolla Parking District Advisory Board members to disclose any financial interests in paid on-street parking!

This 14-member group advises the Mayor and City Council on policy issues relating to parking. By statue the Board conveys community concerns, advises the City regarding parking control implementations decisions, provides support and input to Community Parking District advisory boards when requested, and addresses other parking related policy matters.

This meeting will allow the public to comment on the City Attorney Office's latest document, Request for Council Action for Community Parking District Advisory Board Conflict of Interest Code. This document next will be sent to the San Diego City Council and Mayor for approval. As a result, all Parking Advisory Board members will need to fill out and sign Form 700, Statement of Economic Interests per the instructions in the Reference Pamphlet from the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

This was the first meeting that Nancy Warwick and Bob Collins, opponents of metered parking in La Jolla, could attend since the court ruled in their favor on the issue of being duly elected to the PLJ Board for the 2008/2009 term.

Over 30 members of the community attended the the meeting to support Bob and Nancy. Unfortunately, the attendees ended up being witnesses to a sad day for PLJ and La Jolla. This could have been a day in which the community could start to move forward. Amazingly, Bob and Nancy were not seated at the meeting despite the court order.

When asked by a PLJ member about seating Bob and Nancy at the beginning of the meeting PLJ President Deborah Marengo refused to discuss the matter "due to ongoing litigation". Marengo also refused to disclose the cost of any legal fees PLJ has incurred (using public monies) attempting to deprive Bob and Nacy of their seat on the Board of Directors. Marengo did admit that PLJ did not have a budget for these costs.

The meeting continued in public for about 30 minutes, with regular agenda items. One item of interest is that the PLJ Board ratified the Parking Boards minutes. When asked why they would do this, President Marengo answered "They are an advisory board to PLJ." After the regular meeting, the Board left the room for another location to conduct a "closed meeting" to discuss legal matters with their attornies. After about one hour the Board returned from their closed session to say that it had taken "no action."

This was a special monthly meeting of the Pacific Beach Parking Advisory Board, held one week in advance because of Valentine's Day.

According to the Beach and Bay Press: "Beachgoers could be paying as much as $3 per hour to park near the beach and some residents could also be paying up to $10 per month to park in front of their homes if the Pacific Beach Community Parking District (PBCPD) votes to adopt the suggestions of Walker Parking Consultants."

This meeting continued the discussion of the Conflict of Interest Code and Disclosure Statements from the City of San Diego. During this one and one-half hour meeting the Parking Board released a draft, made substantial corrections and then approved the financial disclosure statement. Any further public comment on the issue has been directed to the hearing at City Council where it will be voted upon. (Date to be announced.)

Martin Mosier and Mark Evans created the draft. The first opportunity that for the public to view their changes was via copies available at the start of the meeting. Parking Board members and alternates saw the proposed changes two days ahead of time, but not the public! The Board then proceeded to make alterations to the draft during the meeting.

Rather than come back to the next meeting (February 20th) with a copy with the changes incorporated and an opportunity for public review here in La Jolla, the Board simply approved their changes and sent it on its way. (The vote was 5-2, with Evans, McGee, Ghasemi, Mosier, Peto in favor and Brady, King opposed.)

All of this occurred over the objections of Board members Ken King and Tom Brady, plus many objections raised by members of the public. Some of the objections included:

• The subject matter is complex and needs more time for people to review, since it was not provided in advance. (It is a legal document.)
• It is prudent to see an updated draft that incorporates changes, before sending it to the City Council a for a vote.
• The board is using its power to require that the public go downtown to register comments on the next draft rather than comment at a local meeting.
• The Board has the opportunity to build trust in the community and it could do so if it brought the draft back on February 20th.

The Chairman, Martin Mosier, would not state whether the Parking board will be meeting on February 20th, and if so, what the time or location might be. The Board is not able to take any action until the Financial Disclosure issue has been resolved.

This meeting discussed a draft Conflict of Interest Code and Disclosure Statements from the City of San Diego.

The applications for the "at large" business and "at large" resident positions on the Board are still being accepted. Until it is clear exactly what the financial disclosure requirements will be for applicants, they cannot make an informed decision about whether they are interested or not.

There was a long discussion of the financial disclosure requirements. A new draft will be necessary because the current draft strictly addresses financial interests in the district. What is lacking from the current draft is any reference to disclosure of interest in any parking industry businesses (ie. valet, consulting, technology, garages, lots etc.) outside the district.

There also was a discussion about the level of detail that the current draft would require. According to the San Diego City Attorney's Office, the current draft would require salaries be disclosed if earned in the district and the value assigned to business assets. It also would require the disclosure of the value of stock owned if the company did business in the district.

Discussion ensued from both the Board and the public on this being more information than is needed and that this level of disclosure would get into privacy issues. Board members Martin Mosier and Mark Evans are going to work on a draft to send to Mr. Calabrese at the San Diego City Attorney's Office.

Over 100 people showed up for this meeting to oppose paid on-street parking in La Jolla. At the meeting, Michael Calabrese, Chief Deputy City Attorney, delivered the message from the City Attorney's Office that the Parking Advisory Board can not take action until some form of "statement of financial interest" is filed by all Board members.

This issue of conflict of interest will likely go to the City Council so that an official policy can be formulated and approved. The next Parking Advisory Board meeting on January 16, 2008 will no doubt take up this issue.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to attend this meeting. We need to keep public pressure on the group. We are seeing real results from that continued public pressure.

Item #11 on the LJCPA meeting agenda is a presentation of the "La Jolla Parking Program" by the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board.

At the last LJCPA meeting the usual cast of characters who support the Pilot Parking Plan were in attendance. They all filed in a few minutes prior to the time designated. This appeared to carry influence with some members of the LJCPA. Let's make sure the LJCPA knows what the public thinks about "The Plan".

The vote of this group is important because it is the city designated planning group for La Jolla. If the Parking Advisory Board can get an affirmative vote at the LJCPA meeting, it will carry influence at City Council.

The revised meeting agenda shows several agenda changes as a direct result of the strong public presence at the previous meeting.

This meeting was attended by over 150 people. Thank you for your support!

Over 150 people showed up for this meeting to oppose paid on-street parking. The chairman of the Parking Advisory Board limited public access to the meeting room (maximum capacity 88) using security guards...and continued on with the meeting agenda. The San Diego Fire Department was called and then shut down the meeting.

This was a well-attended, grass-roots "no paid parking" rally where a lot of good ideas were shared. If you missed this, you missed something very special!