The Coast News, Aug. 17, 2012

AUG. 17, 2012
Mayoral race begins
with Wood, Kern
Promise Yee
OCEANSIDE —
Incumbent Mayor Jim Wood
and mayoral candidate
Councilman Jerry Kern have
started their race for mayor.
Wood held a campaign
kickoff and ice cream social
at Heritage Park earlier this
month. Kern opened his campaign
office following the
Freedom Days Parade in July.
Wood is running for his
third term as mayor. He was
first elected as mayor in 2004.
Prior to that was elected to
City Council in 2002.
Wood served on the
Oceanside Police force for 31
years as a detective.
“I saw the good and bad
during those years,” Wood
said.
Wood first became politically
involved when he served
as the chair of the Oceanside
Police Officer’s Association.
After his retirement from
the Police Department he ran
for City Council to give back
to the community. He said his
goal was to restore the image
of Oceanside. As mayor he
was successful in lowering the
city’s crime rate. He said he
enjoys serving the city.
“I put people first,”Wood
said. “I put citizens first over
outside contractors and developers
who don’t live in our
city and don’t care about out
city.”
Wood helped campaign
against recent Proposition E
that threatened mobile home
space rent control and
Proposition F, which called
for candidates to win by a
costly two-election majority
vote. Both propositions were
defeated in June.
“The seniors and veterans
have asked me to stay on
and remain as mayor,” Wood
said. “They are unhappy with
the voting majority as council.
I will run one more time to
try to help them.”
Wood said he sees the
economy as the number one
issue for Oceanside and the
U.S. He credits Oceanside for
“maintaining” through state
budget cuts and unfunded
mandates.
He said he feels it is the
job of the city to provide services
that include city parks,
swimming pools, senior centers
and libraries.
“The council majority
thinks cutting services and
outsourcing might help the
city, I disagree,” Wood said.
He said he is strongly
opposed to outsourcing public
safety positions.
“I don’t want to cut quality
out,”Wood said.“The city’s
number one top priority is
public safety. Endangering
public safety is a problem.”
Wood said some sound
ideas to help balance the
budget have been turned
down by the present council
majority of Councilmen Kern,
Gary Felien and Jack Feller.
This includes a no vote on
charging for Fire Department
repeat inspections and collision
responses for out of town
insured drivers.
Wood said he sees promising
solutions through
regional efforts.
He said is currently
working with North County
mayors and on the SANDAG
board of directors to find
ways to drop
boundaries
and work
together to
improve the
economy of
North County
a n d
Oceanside. JIM WOOD
He said is
also contacting
businesses to
persuade them
to open in
Oceanside.
Already
approved are
40 major proj- JERRY KERN
ects that have
city support and are awaiting
funding.
“We need to get through
this and maintain the city,”
Wood said.
Kern is running for
mayor after serving as councilman
since 2006.
He said he first ran for
council because he felt the
city was going down the
wrong path with “give away”
contracts to Fire Department
and Police Department
employees.
Prior to serving as councilman
Kern had a varied
career working as a property
manager, loan officer and
teacher.
He and his wife were
among the five founders of
Pacific View Charter School
in Oceanside.
Kern is still a credentialed
teacher and is occasionally
called on to be a guest
speaker in civic classes.
Kern also served as
Oceanside Chamber of
Commerce president and
increased chamber membership
to its highest number of
members.
He said his motivation to
run for mayor is to continue to
help the community and help
create high paying jobs.
Kern said he would work
to bring high technology, high
value jobs to Oceanside. He
said this would create workers
with disposable incomes
to support Oceanside museums
and arts.
“My vision for Oceanside
is to be a place to live, work
and recreate,” Kern said. “To
do it all here.”
He said he is also a
strong supporter of low volume,
high value manufacturing.
He added that Oceanside
currently has the building
spaces for manufacturing
businesses to move in.
Kern said solutions could
be found by thinking regionally.
He stressed that area
services should not be duplicated.
“We need to look at public
private partnerships,”
Kern said. “How to provide
services at the lowest possible
cost and maintain the level of
services.”
One example he gave
was to outsource street sweeping
services, but the idea was
turned down by council.
“Who really cares who
sweeps the street,” Kern said.
“Our core responsibility is to
provide services.”
Kern said he is not
against outsourcing jobs that
do not entail high security or
highly specialized skills.
Kern added that it is
time to think of a different
THE COAST NEWS
Two Encinitas candidates enter City Council race
By Jared Whitlock
ENCINITAS — After
completing a three-block
walk from the old schoolhouse
on the Pacific View
site to City Hall, Tony Kranz
and Lisa Shaffer submitted
their paperwork Aug. 9 to
run for city council this
November.
Outside of City Hall,
the Council candidates
spoke briefly to about twodozen
supporters holding
flowers, a gesture meant to
honor the late Maggie
Houlihan and pay tribute to
the city’s history as “The
Flower Capital of the
World.”
Before she died of cancer
last year, Houlihan, who
served on Council for three
terms, endorsed both Kranz
and Shaffer as Council candidates.
“Looking forward, we
have an opportunity to
make certain that as our city
grows, we’re getting community
input and making sure
we listen to that input,”
Kranz said.
Kranz has made transparent
government central
to his platform. As one
example of what he sees as
an opaque government,
Kranz’s website cites a case
of a citizen having to sue the
city to obtain a draft document.
“Thousands of dollars
were spent by the city on
their own legal defense, and
having lost in court, the city
had to pay for the other
guy’s attorney,” according to
Kranz’s website.
After turning in his
campaign paperwork, Kranz
said he’s also concerned
about local traffic and the
city’s General Plan Update,
which will guide development
in Encinitas through
2035.
Related to the General
Plan Update, Kranz said he
supports the Encinitas
Right to Vote Initiative, a
petition that would make
some “up-zoning” projects
— increasing building
heights and density — subject
to voter approval.
Currently, certain up-zoning
increases require support
from four of five council
members.
A San Dieguito High
School graduate and currently
an account representative
for an international
printing company, Kranz ran
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Looking to alter the dynamic of the current City Council, Tony Kranz (left) and Lisa Shaffer both turned in
their paperwork for city council at the same time. Photo by Jared Whitlock
for Council in 2010.
Kranz said he’d work
with the city’s traffic commission
for “creative solutions”
to reduce car gridlock.
He also said he supports
more public transportation.
“I would like to see it
become much more feasible
to bike or walk,” Kranz said.
Like Kranz, Shaffer said
she’s an open government
advocate, especially as it
relates to financial matters.
She argued the public hasn’t
been given enough information
about issues like pensions,
borrowing money to
fund a 44-acre park and road
maintenance costs.
“There’s a whole slew of
issues, and we don’t really
know how sound our city’s
finances are,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer’s resume
includes teaching business
ethics at UC San Diego’s
Rady School of
Management and owning a
consulting business.
Because Council meetings
can be static, Shaffer
said, the city should hold
more public workshops for
“back and forth conversation.”
Another important
topic, Shaffer believes, is
having an open dialogue on
environmental issues, particularly
contaminated soil
at the Encinitas Community
Park.
Construction is scheduled
to begin on the park
later this month.
“I would like to have,
for instance, a panel of
experts come in on the contaminated
soil,” she said.
“So we can ask questions.
Maybe what the city is doing
is fine, maybe it’s not.”
Encinitas voters will
pick three new council members
in November. Of the
three incumbents,
Councilman James Bond
will be retiring; Mayor
Jerome Stocks has not
announced if he is running;
and Councilman Mark Muir
has picked up his campaign
papers.
Even though they filed
together, Shaffer said that
she and Kranz are not running
as a slate.
B5
“Tony’s views and mine
are compatible,” Shaffer
said. “We don’t see everything
the same way. But we
really need to get two new
people on the Council.”
If both elected, the
dynamic of the five-person
Council would change,
Shaffer said.
Kranz and Shaffer are
ideologically similar to
Councilwoman Teresa Barth,
who has supported both candidates.
Seven candidates have
filed their paperwork to run
for Council, according to
City Clerk Kathy
Hollywood.
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