Familiar Names, Controversial Issues Pack Crowded Escondido Ballot

There’s a Rady on the ballot and a Harmon and a Best, but Escondido’s biennial City Council election is not as cut and dried as the familiar names might imply.

The Rady on the ballot is not Mayor Jim Rady, a 12-year veteran of the civic wars who is bowing out of office. It is June Rady, a planning commissioner appointed to the post last year by her ex-husband and now bidding for a spot on the council.

And Councilman Doug Best, also a familiar face, cannot relax on his laurels expecting an easy reelection. In the last go-around, Best was almost bested by a young upstart, Kris Murphy. Murphy, 26, is in the race again and running hard against the 62-year-old incumbent and the rest of the field for the at-large seats.

There are 16 candidates on the June 7 ballot for three Escondido City Council seats, although one, retired Assistant Police Chief Robert D. Wolford, has dropped out, saying that other commitments cut into the time he would have for what he considers a full-time civic post.

Growth Is Big Issue

Behind almost every one of the seven ballot measures and a plank in each candidate’s platform is the issue of growth and how to control it.

Escondido, one of the fastest-growing cities in the rapidly urbanizing North County, has topped 87,000 population through liberal annexation and development policies. Councilman Jerry Harmon has endorsed attorney Carla DeDominicis and Murphy, in an attempt to bring a slow-growth majority to the five-member council.

Harmon, 44, is campaigning with a banner reading: “Stop the Los Angelesization of Escondido.”

Other candidates and their causes are:

- Dale Atkinson, 38, a warehouseman who wants to solve the problems of traffic congestion and school crowding and says he is willing to become a full-time City Council member to get the job done. The job pays $1,300 a month.

- David Barber, 32, a county social services caseworker and former Escondido city planning commissioner who wrote and campaigned for the city’s growth-management controls and a $5-million city spending limit.

- Frank Castellano, 40, a counselor for alcoholics and drug abusers, who believes the city is ignoring its social issues and should put more resources into combatting crime and “epidemic” drug abuse.

- Don Daniels, 37, a home builder and a city planning commissioner since 1981, who wants to be the spokesman for business interests on the City Council now that Mayor Rady is stepping down.

- DeDominicis, 34, former Escondido newspaper reporter turned lawyer, who describes herself as “street wise” and experienced and who is promoting a citywide initiative to limit growth with a population cap of 165,000.

- Vivian Doering, 57, former Escondido elementary school district trustee for 16 years, who pledges to work to halt high-density development, sewer problems, traffic congestion and senior citizens’ problems, and to be responsive to the average citizen.

- Gene Ervin, 61, a veteran in city service and retiring project manager for Escondido’s new civic center, who is campaigning on his knowledge of city government operations and of the concerns of Escondido citizens.

- S. David Flores, 35, a sales and marketing representative, who says he is concerned about the intrusion of commercial development into residential neighborhoods and about the need for better freeway access for Escondido’s expanding population.

- Jack Grady, 67, a retired businessman and advocate for seniors, who would lobby for street improvements and for annual reviews of top city administrators. He also seeks the merger of the elementary and high school districts.

- Charlotte Hotchkiss, 56, a 16-year veteran of the Escondido high school board, who backs managed growth and believes her experience has qualified her to be effective in working for a new General Plan to guide the city.

- Rady, 47, executive assistant to the president of Palomar College and a member of the Escondido City Planning Commission, who also wants to complete the city’s General Plan revisions to guide the community on a slower growth path.

- Patricia (PK) Walker, 39, an accountant, who wants the city to show fiscal responsibility. She supports a mobile-homeowners’ rent-control initiative and growth controls through zoning, not development caps.

Also on the Escondido ballot are two competitors for the job of city treasurer. Ken Hugins, a certified public accountant, is seeking his second term as city treasurer, running on his record of increasing the earnings of the city’s portfolio of investments by 280% during his first term.

Vince Barranco is challenging Hugins, claiming that he can do even better than the existing investment officer. Barranco, now manager of a Vista savings bank, said he would raise the city’s yields from its current 7% to 7.5% on outstanding investments.

Among the hottest ballot issues in the inland city are opposing measures dealing with rent control in mobile home parks. Trailer park tenants, many of whom are senior citizens, are pitted against park owners in the struggle.

Proposition K, sponsored by park tenants, was placed on the ballot by initiative. It would roll back trailer park rents to Jan. 1, 1986, levels and would establish the Escondido City Council as the mobile home rent-review board, keeping the lid on rent increases and preventing park owners from evicting tenants without due cause and notification.

Proposition N, an initiative placed on the ballot by a split vote of the Escondido City Council, is called the “fair property rights” measure. It would prevent the City Council from enacting any law restricting the price of private property rentals, sales, leases or exchanges. It would, if it receives more votes than Proposition K, prevent the city from imposing rent control in mobile-home parks or other private properties.

Proposition N was sponsored by Councilman Best and backed by Councilman Ernie Cowan and Mayor Rady. Councilwoman Doris Thurston and Councilman Harmon voted against the measure.

Proponents of the rent-control measure for mobile home parks argue that people living in trailer parks face economic eviction because of escalating rents and are unable to move to less-expensive parks because of the prohibitive moving cost. Rent-control opponents call Proposition K backers’ claims of “economic eviction” a smoke screen. A rent-control system would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to put into effect, Proposition K opponents argue.

Another emotionally charged issue on the ballot is a proposal to preserve the former city firehouse, a 50-year-old adobe building, at the site of the old city hall, Grand Avenue and Valley Parkway.

Proposition J does not specify where the funds would come from to buy the building and site back from Palomar Memorial Medical Center, which acquired it from the city to expand its administrative space.

Opponents argue that the old fire station has little historic significance and that passage of the initiative would probably prompt lawsuits against the city by hospital officials.

Other Issues

Proposition O, a measure to annex the 741-acre Lehner Valley to Escondido, will be voted on only by the residents of the area. But tempers are flaring between those who want to keep the valley in its rural state and others who want to join the city and gain urban services, including better fire, police and road-maintenance service.

Escondidans also will vote on Proposition H, affirming the city’s 8% transient occupancy tax rate, which has been in effect, by council vote, for more than two years.

Proposition L proposes electing the city’s mayor and Proposition M would decide whether to set the elected mayor’s term at two or four years.

Council members Rady, Cowan and Doris Thurston oppose electing a mayor and argue that the current system, in which the mayor is selected by the council, works well and, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Councilman Best, who favors Proposition L, argues that, as the county’s third-largest city, Escondido should not depend on a system that allows the titular head of the city to be ousted at any moment by the votes of three council members.