Caroline Thompson resigns from Encinitas Planning Commission

North County Times – Escondido,CA,USA
ENCINITAS — After less than one month on the job, a planning
commissioner on Tuesday announced her resignation from the panel.
…

ENCINITAS — After less than one month on the job, a planning commissioner on Tuesday announced her resignation from the panel.

“I have had an unexpected family emergency, which will not allow me the time needed to serve our city,” Caroline Thompson wrote in an e-mail to City Council and Planning Commission members.

The North County Times obtained a copy of the memo, dated March 20.

“My family is my top priority,” Thompson continued, “but it is still with great sadness that I step down from the Planning Commission today.”

Attempts to contact Thompson for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.

Thompson, an independently employed public policy analyst and Encinitas Chamber of Commerce board member, was appointed to the commission Feb. 21 with a split City Council vote.

Councilmen Dan Dalager and Jerome Stocks joined Mayor James Bond in appointing Thompson; Councilwomen Maggie Houlihan and Teresa Barth voted to appoint Lisa Shaffer, a resident who holds a doctorate in public policy and teaches courses on sustainable development at UC San Diego.

“About all you can do is turn around and extend your best wishes and say a prayer for the family,” Dalager said Tuesday. “This is something she was very excited about doing, and basically I understand completely.”

Thompson and Shaffer were among six people who applied to represent the Old Encinitas community on the land-use panel, which includes one member from each of the city’s five communities.

Commissioners are not paid and serve two-year terms.

The vacancy means the city will readvertise the position, said Claudia Bingham, deputy city clerk. The council, on a date yet to be determined, will hear presentations from applicants and chose a commissioner during open session — just as it did one month ago.

Thompson was absent from both commission hearings she was scheduled to attend during her brief tenure. She was vacationing March 1, when the commission debated the findings of an environmental report for the planned Hall property park.

Attending to her family’s emergency was the reason for her absence March 15.