LOCAL ELECTIONS ENCINITAS CITY COUNCIL : Shut Out by a Percentage Point : Rivals: The ‘pro-resident’ slate followed close on the heels of the winners: two pro-development candidates and the only incumbent.

The only incumbent running and two men pegged as pro-development by a coalition of community groups claimed three Encinitas City Council seats Tuesday, despite an anti-government, anti-growth atmosphere that dominated weeks of campaigning.

But the vote was close: A slate of candidates described by the same community groups as “pro-resident” followed on the winners’ heels within one percentage point in fourth, fifth and sixth place, leaving their backers feeling frustrated and powerless.

Discontent with City Hall, and particularly with some city staff decisions, has mounted notably in recent months. City office windows were pelted with rocks Tuesday night for the third time in two weeks, though it remains unclear whether election results prompted the vandalism. One rock found at the scene Wednesday had the word dork printed on it, a city worker said.

Whether or not such anti-city frustrations will continue to fester remains to be seen.

“Time will tell,” said Robert Macfarlane, who put together the coalition that endorsed the trailing slate, and emphasized that the rock throwing was absolutely not tied to their defeat.

“I think that the new council has to take note that these three individuals who were backed by the residents came very close to sweeping the election with almost no expenditure of money,” he said. “The number of votes that they got reflects that there’s a significant interest in retaining the character of Encinitas.”

Fourteen candidates--many of them political neophytes--battled for the three open slots, and the sheer number of contenders may have muddled the message voters had hoped to send. But the vitriol that dominated the campaign--an anti-City Hall fervor, frustration with government bureaucracy and warnings of impending Orange County-style development--were all but absent from the campaigns of the three victors.

The development issue in particular, the winners say, was hyped in an effort to divide voters and provide black-and-white choices to residents, many of whom moved to Encinitas for its laid-back beach town ambience.

In fact, the victors said, the issues are more varied--everything from more police protection to city encouragement of local business--and many of the candidates addressed them in similar ways.

“They just couldn’t find any issues,” reelected incumbent Gail Hano said Tuesday night of the attempt to polarize the vote along development lines.

“I’m very pleased,” she said of her commanding lead, a percentage point ahead of contractor Chuck DuVivier, who also has been painted--along with Hano and the third-place winner, James Bond--as a rabid developer by Macfarlane’s group.

Bond, in his campaign, spoke mostly of arriving at a common vision for the future of Encinitas--only 6 years old as a city--and encouraging some inevitable commercialization. But he rejected the developer characterization. Even Adam Birnbaum--one of the three designated “pro-resident” candidates along with Sheila Cameron and Christopher Kirkorowicz--was reluctant to own up to the polarized labels during his campaign.

DuVivier, who eased into second place late Tuesday, called the developer name tag especially unfair. Yes, he concedes, he is a contractor, but one who hopes to bring reconciliation to the disparate views that have recently torn Encinitas.

“I think that that was just an election issue, and it was brought up to have something that people could say yes or no to,” DuVivier said. “There were a lot of issues: fiscal responsibility, how you deal with city government, where our revenues are going to come from. Now it’s time to mend all the wounds and get the city really running the way it should.”

While Macfarlane said Tuesday’s results mark the beginning of “open season for development in Encinitas,” and environmentalists fear the city’s general plan will be gutted by the new council under pressure from building interests, DuVivier insists he will respect residents’ visions and concerns.

His key phrase: economic balance .

“I think that some people were trying to say that I have a big agenda. The fact is, I think the most important thing is for people to sit down and figure out what services they want, what parks they want, and put a price tag on it.

“I’m perfectly willing to go along with what the city wants to do.” he said. “All I want to do is provide them with leadership. But the first thing we have to talk about is money, because that will get you the services.”