Don’t we love local politics, especially in small town Encinitas where the gloves ALWAYS come off!
This missive came into the magic inbox. The writer is a candidate for City Council, Julie Graboi, who indicates that she supports the current expensive and laborious permitting process be unaltered as it is a way to identify registered sexual offenders … Interesting logic … But she also makes a valid point in that her primary campaign challenger, fellow female Democrat Catherine Blakespear, a practicing attorney, represented the permit seeker and testified before the City Council re the claimed lack of impacts of having the business there, but without ever disclosing that the registered sexual offender was there or in any way affiliated with said enterprise. Is that cool in re transparency and full disclosure? Is that looking out for the community? Read it for yourselves and decide:
From the Smiling Spotlight Inbox:
The following are the comments I made to the Urban Agriculture Sub-Committee today, September, 29th, 2004. This is a very important community issue and I would appreciate my comments being published. They are as follows:
I’d like to make a few comments. The question before us today is, “Should the permit process be changed?”
My answer is, “NO!” Why would I say this? In the particular case of Coral Tree Farms, if there hadn’t been a permit process in place, it never would have been revealed that a registered sex offender, Kenneth Alton Hornback, lives adjacent to the property and is married to the sister of the farm owner, Laurel Mehl. My research indicates that the parcel Mr. Hornback is residing on is 595 Park Lane. and the address for Coral Tree Farms, is 598 Park Lane. This concerns me very much.
If the permit would have been allowed to take place, children could have been exposed to danger. It is my opinion that this information should have been disclosed at Wednesday’s hearing to the entire City Council.
Although Ms. Blakespear has been representing the farm for at least 5 months, either she knew this information and didn’t share it, or she didn’t know it. I am shocked that an experienced attorney would not have provided this information. There are 9 registered sex offenders in Encinitas, and this could happen again.
In closing, I agree with Planning Director Jeff Murphy that the permit process should remain in place. If you vote to change this, I will take this information to the Council and speak to it during Oral Communications since we must have a process that protects our children in the spirit of Megan’s Law.
Julie Graboi