LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VOTERS SHOULD BE INFORMED ABOUT PROP. B

Editor, Times-Advocate:

On August 23, 2016, San Diego Coun­ty Democratic Party Central Committee formally opposed Proposition B – Lilac Hills Ranch Specific Plan (Ballot mea­sure). This strong opposition gets deliv­ered to over 500,000 Democrats in San Diego county. The message should sim­plify decisions confronting confused vot­ers on the 2016 Ballot, which containing an overwhelming number of Ballot mea­sures and new tax proposals.

San Diego voters deserve to be edu­cated, since ‘informed voters’ are asked to vote on Proposition B on Lilac Hills Ranch, which is actually expected to have immediate, and extremely long term negative impacts on the community, the region, and San Diego taxpayers.

The Democratic Party Central Com­mittee’s opposition on Proposition B was based on rigorous independent analysis on Lilac Hills Ranch impacts recently prepared by County staff for Board of Su­pervisors. That analysis was essentially a flat-out rejection of Accretive’s unsup­ported claims that Lilac Hills Ranch is a vital necessity to provide needed ‘af­fordable housing in San Diego County’, or that this project forms a solution to the chronic housing shortage of afford­able homes feared in San Diego and fac­ing young homebuyers. So far in 2016, realtors, lenders and building industry successfully contrived the worrisome il­lusion that approval of Proposition B for Lilac Hills Ranch is the only thing sepa­rating young homebuyers, or young fami­lies from being forced to move far from San Diego county, or the entire state to secure sufficient buying power to afford an attractive single family home, in a safe neighborhood. Marketers promoting Li­lac Hills Ranch count on, and capitalize on the imagined threat of long distances, and hours of driving time misery to visit children and grandchildren. Then the al­most inevitable impossibility of making frequent or spontaneous visits, or devel­oping or sustaining strong family bonds with children, grandchildren.

Probably the only certainty that San Diego voters will have is that Lilac Hills Ranch will cause significant negative proj­ect impacts (local and regional) that are not fully mitigated by improvements required from the developer. So, there is relative certainty that Lilac Hills Ranch project will cause unmitigated impacts that require fu­ture public taxpayer support to meet read­ily foreseeable needs for additional public infrastructure upgrades. Foreseeable fu­ture tax increases to offset impacts from Lilac Hills Ranch won’t be just an initial one-time or temporary fee, but a perpetual ongoing tax increase applied to all San Di­ego taxpayers for an extremely long time, or possibly forever. Will this be the legacy you really want to leave your grandchil­dren and future generations?

PATRICIA BORSCHMANN, Escondido
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EXPLAINING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ENDORSEMENT PROCESS

Editor, Times-Advocate:

I have been a member of the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Com­mittee for more than 10 years. Let me see if I can answer the questions from your August 25 editorial.

The purpose of politics is to have gov­ernment work according to one’s values and priorities. One way is to petition city council on topics of one’s concerns. An­other way is to help candidates that share your values and priorities get elected.

The Democratic Party being an organi­zation of people that share a lot of com­mon values and priorities, works to help candidates that share their values and pri­orities to get elected. One way of doing this is to investigate candidates’ values and tell their members which ones share their values. Rather that sharing the de­tails learned from the investigation, the Party just gives an up or down vote with their endorsement.

The rules for the endorsement process are controlled by the party bylaws and an­other document called Policies and Pro­cedures. Both documents are available on the County Party web site. The most relevant one to this discussion is that we can only endorse registered Democrats. A summary of the endorsement process can be found on the County Party web site: http:// www.sddemocrats.org/chairscorner/how-democrats-endorse- president-school-boardhttp://www.sd­democrats.org/chairscorner/how-demo­crats endorse-president-school-board.

A related article which introduces the county central committee is here: http:// www.sddemocrats.org/chairscorner/ introduction-your-county-central-com­mitteehttp:// www.sddemocrats.org/ chairscorner/introduction-your-county-central-committee.

The way that the County Party deter­mines a candidate’s values is by having them answer a list of questions. This is typical of most organizations that do endorsements. The candidate can then appear before the central committee to introduce themselves, make a pitch for their endorsement and answer any ques­tions concerning their answers to the list of questions.

No money is solicited or required nor any fee charged to get an endorsement. Though more weight may be given to a candidate endorsement if they have pre­viously worked with the County Party and on the behalf of previous candidates. And also if one candidate is more likely to get elected because of name recogni­tion, ability to raise funds, or a better match to electorate for that race.

Does politics have its dark side? You bet it does. The dark side is when an or­ganization does things that help their or­ganization instead of their members and society at large. But being a Democrat, I see this as more of problem for the Re­publican Party than the Democratic Party. LOL.

RICK BOVA, Escondido
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PLEASE DON’T!

Editor, Times-Advocate:

Concerning “EDCO won’t deliver on Labor Day”. I certainly hope that EDCO will not deliver on ANY day.

DAVID DRAKE, Escondido
TA and ‘Children of the TA” reader since 1979
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