billcummings wrote:Would the people that originally sued the City be interested to know that the City is no longer following the stipulations that the City settled on?
That's part of the problem. The "people" who originally sued are essentially a one-man (or one-woman in this case) law office that appears to do "hit and run" work regarding environmental issues. That lawyer got their $20,000 for winning the case, and they haven't cared to see any enforcement. The law suit was by the "Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network" (CLEAN), and I haven't gotten any positive response from my efforts to follow up.
billcummings wrote:Do they know that the agreement for oversight was improperly enacted in the first place? (43b instead of 43a) Or (That a “Sun Set.” clause was even slipped in?)
I did find the attorney who filed the suit posting on an environmental web site, and so I asked her about it. She initially sounded like she'd do something, but then didn't follow through. I kept persisting, but it became apparent that she didn't seem to care.
billcummings wrote:Are they satisfied that their efforts were underhandedly undermined from the start?
I think they got their money and don't care any more. It may also be that this particular lawyer is tied in to some of the RC pilots who currently control the Soaring Council. The Soaring Council is 3/7ths RC pilots, 2/7ths Sailplane pilots, and 2/7ths hang gliding and paragliding pilots (essentially 1/7 HG and 1/7 PG). But the Advisory Board was fair (1/4 for RC, 1/4 for sailplane, 1/4 for HG, and 1/4 for PG). So the RC's are happy to see the Advisory Board fade away and have the Soaring Council take its place. Now the law suit was filed during a period when the Soaring Council had gone defunct (2006?), and maybe if the RC's were behind the law suit, they might have been happy to have any advisory Board. But when the Council started meeting again (spring of 2007), they may have liked the balance on that body better than the Advisory Board, so they may have told CLEAN to not push the matter and let the Advisory Board die out.
billcummings wrote:I’m wondering if your time, working toward a 43a permanent advisory board which may eventually lead to the City Council simply not taking its advice, could be better spent attacking the problem from some different angle? Just what-- I haven’t thought up yet.
Bill, the fact that you know the difference between a 43a and a 43b tells me that you are really paying attention!! Please let me know if you're ever running for anything, because you've got my support based on that alone!!!
We have been working other avenues as well. Our club members had several meetings with Mayor Filner, and it appeared as if he was going to fix it (in fact his words to me after our first meeting were "I will fix it"). But if you've been following our local San Diego scandals, you'll know that he was forced out of office by threats of legal action against him for alleged misconduct.
We have an interim Mayor for a few months while the City holds another election.
Politics ... sheesh!!