Ignoble antics in North County councils

San Diego Union Tribune – United States
… Unlike Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Poway, San Marcos and
Vista, which elect mayors directly, cities like Del Mar and
Encinitas rotate the largely …

I’m as petty as the next person, but really, some of the snide stuff that goes on in North County’s council chambers makes me blush.

Consider a couple of sharp digs last week as council members were sworn in and mayors appointed.

Unlike Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Poway, San Marcos and Vista, which elect mayors directly, cities like Del Mar and Encinitas rotate the largely ceremonial position among council members.

For the most part, the annual exchange of the mayoral gavel works reasonably well.

Sometimes, however, the long needles come out.

In Del Mar, tradition prevailed Tuesday as maverick Councilman Carl Hilliard was sworn in as the city’s new mayor. In this strange episode, the motion to second was more newsworthy than the decisive vote.

In political terms, the means outweighed the end.

During an especially vitriolic November election, Hilliard strongly backed Laura DeMarco, a capable candidate who criticized the fiscal management of the cash-strapped city.

Anyone with even a passing interest in Del Mar politics knew that Hilliard was fighting hard for an ally to help him impose an austere fiscal program.

Despite the city’s Polyannaish election ethics code, things got pretty smash-mouth on both sides. Ultimately, guardians of the status quo – incumbent council members Crystal Crawford and Jerry Finnell – won the right to return to office.

Game over. Hilliard was left to twist alone in a bitter wind.

Hilliard’s campaign loss was offset by one heartwarming twist of fate: Thanks to the traditional rotation, Hilliard would be the city’s mayor for 2007.

Though the council majority undoubtedly wished to exact a pound of flesh and nominate anyone but Hilliard, Del Mar’s custom would be honored. Nevertheless, the unified foursome could not resist a symbolic pink belly.

After Finnell went through the motions and nominated Hilliard, no one would second the motion.

The air was thick with embarrassing tension.

Finally, Hilliard was forced to sheepishly second his own nomination.

This is like having to give yourself a citizenship award at a televised ceremony. Sort of takes the shine off the whole thing.

Despite his fence-mending – and crow-eating – with council colleagues since the election, Hilliard was sent a stinging message.

It doesn’t matter if he’s now Mayor Hilliard.

More important, he’s the council’s odd man out.

For deep-seated hostility, Del Mar’s Machiavellian machinations don’t hold a flickering candle to Encinitas’.

Politics – or, as newly installed Mayor Jim Bond said Wednesday, the computational skill to count to three – dictate the line of mayoral succession.

Most years, the council exchanges the gavel without a wave of nausea.

Not so this year.

In her first action as a newly elected councilwoman, Teresa Barth took a bull by the horns and nominated Bond as mayor and her staunch pro-environmental ally, Maggie Houlihan, as deputy mayor, thus putting Houlihan in line to follow Bond as mayor.

Houlihan and her supporters argued that she had been unfairly passed over in 2005 after drawing the most votes in the previous council election. They evidently believe that the selection of deputy mayors should reflect popularity at the polls.

A defensible theory perhaps. Escondido had a similar system before it went to popular mayoral elections.

But the political reality in Encinitas is as stark as a pair of brass knuckles: The only votes that matter are the three that command a council majority.

Though Houlihan has served as mayor in the past, the council majority declined to raise her hopes to become the mayor in 2008.

Councilman Jerome Stocks was the obvious choice to receive that bouquet of red poinsettias.

You never know where these kinds of maneuverings lead.

In 2008, ambitious coastal politicians could be looking at attractive options far beyond Encinitas, especially if Supervisor Pam Slater-Price decides she’s ready to retire. Given a choice, it’s much nicer to run in a large district as a mayor rather than a garden-variety council member.

In the Encinitas game of musical mayoral chairs, council members have a rough choice as to when they squat on the supreme seat.

That is, so long as they can count to three.