During the 1980s, some everyday citizens were concerned that Carlsbad was going to become developed too densely and too rapidly. So they wrote a ballot proposition, collected signatures, and got it on the ballot. They called it "The Slow Growth Plan," causing anger and irritation among the city council and some highly paid bureaucrats.
At no cost to anybody, every irritated council member could have simply encouraged a NO vote...and the Antis would have succeeded...via their power and influence, of course.
But instead, our "Leaders" copied the people that angered them by writing a competing ballot proposition, calling it "The Growth Management Plan," allowing more development to occur more rapidly than the People's Plan.
Shortly thereafter, city employees were required to prepare a slick mailer which contained a side-by-side comparison of the two competing ballot propositions. Was it biased? How could it not be?
The City's mailers, there were at least two mailings, went via USPS to every address in the city at Taxpayer Expense. The city council was happy with their inevitable "glorious election victory."
THE SECOND INCIDENT occurred during the 2005-2006 time frame, immediately following the public revelation that a series of secret meetings had occurred between city bosses and the Lennar Corp to develop the freeway-close Flower/Strawberry Fields into housing. Lennar was duped into these meetings, having no idea that city personnel conducted the meetings in a manner that was non-compliant with State Laws on Governance.
As before, a group of everyday citizens were very concerned, so they wrote a ballot proposition called "Save The Flower Fields," which became Prop E. Not content with the zero-cost option of just encouraging No votes, the Powerful then wrote, "Preserve the Flower Fields.". When the mayor announced that the city would again prepare, print, and mail some slick mailers to all residences, WIITH TAX DOLLARS of course, he labeled it as "Voter Education." The Power-back ballot proposition again, "somehow," prevailed over the everyday people.
Another heavy-handed election oddity occurred during 2016, but the People prevailed; and as before, another reputable American company, like Lennar, had been duped and left Carlsbad under a negative cloud that they did not deserve. Will be addressed within Part three, later.
We are dedicated to the belief that the experiment that started here in 1952, "let's incorporate into a city," has been a failure....and that Carlsbad DISincorporation is needed, as the monster is now too huge to contend with.
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