• Give the public rights of access to government information and transparent decision-making.

• Create internal checks and balances in the operation of government bodies, outside the court system.

• Create a system of accountability for city officials regarding government transparency issues.

Rights Regarding Meetings

Open Meetings. Meetings related to policy development shall be open to the public. If such meetings include elected officials or their appointees, they will be publicly noticed.

Adequate Notification. Agendas and related documents must be made available to the public 7 days prior to the meeting (including special meetings). Large and more informative signs will be required for large developments.

Citizens’ Issues to Be Discussed. Citizens may add an item to a future agenda with a petition of  signatures containing 1% of registered voters. The issue or a timeline leading toward discussion will be heard within 60 days.

Minimal Secret Meetings. The use of secret meetings must be justified in each instance and independently reviewed by the sunshine commission.

Secret Meetings to Be Recorded. Recordings will be released when the justification for secrecy expires.

Important Decisions Will Be Heard First. Items requiring a vote will be heard before presentations and informational items. Non-routine items cannot be placed on the consent calendar unless previously discussed. Presentations can be placed on separate pre-regular meeting agendas.

No Secret Communication. If the City Council recesses in the middle of an agenda item, members of the body and staff in attendance must remain in areas accessible to the public and may not converse or congregate anywhere other than in the meeting chamber. Council members may not operate electronic communication devices when agenda items are being discussed.

Meetings Minutes Can Include Summaries of the Meeting. The public or council members can submit short summaries to be included in the draft minutes when meetings would otherwise not include summaries.

No Backroom Vetoes. Once an item has been placed on the agenda it must be heard. This does not restrict continuances.

City Manager Evaluation Will Be Public. The Council addresses city administration through the city manager. Council’s paid appointees’ performance reviews and performance goals will be written and made public annually.

Rights to Access Information

Minimum Withholding of Public Records. The City can no longer claim it is better for its citizens to be ignorant than to have access to public records. The City cannot make legal claims that secrecy in the “deliberative process” benefits the public.

Access Cannot Be Artificially Delayed. Records must be produced promptly and citizens must be notified of the justification for any potential delays to access. Release of documents will be incremental rather than held up by the most delayed item.

Electronic Documents Will Be Released. Public records created in an electronic format shall be made available as an electronic file unless prohibited by law. The City will migrate toward requiring electronic documentation in normal business practices. Document digitization will be provided by request if no extra cost is incurred.

The City Will Publish an Index of Public Records. The index will outline what records are held by the City and which records are fully or partially exempt from disclosure. Records requests processed by the city clerk will be published online.

Public Documents Will Be Available and Easily Accessed on the Internet. Each department and policy body shall make reasonable efforts to post documents and information on its website in a standard format, will be encouraged to use a text searchable format, which can be read by web search engines.

The Law Will Not Be Secret. The City Attorney will be obliged to describe the law when relevant legal questions are asked during public meetings.

Specific Public Information that Must Be Disclosed: circulated drafts and memoranda, factual information regarding litigation, legal briefs describing the law, personnel information which is not private, contractor bids, proposals, and contracts, and all records regarding employee misconduct.

Staff Will Be Free of Supervisor Interference Any public employee who is admonished or disciplined for disclosing public information shall have a cause of action against the City.

Outsourcing Cannot Be Used to Hide Public Records. Contractors conducting business historically done by government employees will adhere to open records laws.

Correspondence Will Be Saved. Records and correspondence shall be maintained, and shall survive tenure and transition of officials. All electronic mail shall be maintained 7+ years.

Lobbyists Will Be Tracked. Lobbyists hired by the City will be required to report their actions taken on behalf of the citizens of Encinitas.

Staff Will Be Free of Supervisor Interference Any public employee who is admonished or disciplined for disclosing public information shall have a cause of action against the City.

Transparency in Government Communications

End Freedom of Speech Restrictions. City commissioners and other officials cannot be restricted from speaking to the press.

Project Progress Reports to Be Public. Budget and construction timelines and progress reports for multimillion dollar projects will be published on the City’s website.

Financial Audit Open to the Public. The City’s auditors will be obliged to answer the public’s questions at a public meeting. Audits will be released promptly and without unnecessary delay.

Ballot or Fee Protest Notices Will Include Opposition Statements. This will allow for inclusion of opposition statements in the City’s literature supporting or proposing tax and fee changes.

*Fairness Doctrine. The City will allow for limited citizen responses to specific city communications about specific public policy and city administration. The council can veto the responses.

Oversight and Accountability

A Sunshine Commission Will Provide Oversight. An independent board will review the City’s compliance with the ordinance and provide a means, outside of the court system, for violations to be identified, and corrected. The Commission will also be mandated to acknowledge excellence in the execution of open government practices at city hall. Appointments will be made using a jury selection system. 100 voters will be randomly selected to receive an offer to be a Sunshine Commission candidate. From this pool, seven candidates will be randomly selected to serve 2 year terms.

The Sunshine Commission Will Have Power. The Sunshine Commission will have limited power to subpoena, issue fines and file for relief in Superior Court, but only after reaching a high threshold. As an alternative to legal action, a super majority of the Sunshine Commission can authorize an advisory vote on the City Manager’s dismissal at the next scheduled election.

Councilman Stocks wrote in the subcommittee report that an 11% raise was warranted, while Barth said no increase should be given. The matter was brought to the full council for consideration on February 17, 2010. (To read the Agenda Report by the subcommittee, click here.)

Here is video of my comments to the council on February 17th:

The results of the first meeting were that the council directed staff to do some research about how much city managers throughout the county were being paid, to see how the compensation of the Encinitas City Manager stacked up with other cities in the county. The results of the survey can be seen by clicking here.

Here is video of my comments to the council on March 10th:

The decision by the full council was to take no action, which meant that the city manager continued to receive his approximately $220,000 salary. Three months later he decided to retire and now is being paid $15,000 per month as the interim city manager.

When I’m elected to serve you on the city council, I will continue to look out for the best interests of the taxpayers.

As I got further into the subject, I learned much more about the 2004, voter-approved initiative to amend the California Constitution that stated: “The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business…”. Officially listed as Proposition 59, the votes for it were 9,334,852, and the votes against were 1,870,146. That’s a pretty lopsided win for Open Government.

And now that the report has been released, it appears that the only reason it was being kept from the public was that the budget implications are significant. The report was completed by the consultants in March and has been on the desk of the Director of Engineering Services, Peter Cota-Robles since then. It likely would have been on his desk until after November, if not for the efforts of Kevin Cummins, the ETA Vice President. It’s unfortunate that so much had to go into getting the report released.

When elected to the city council, I will do everything I can to provide leadership with more focus on the principals of Open Government.

Here is a link to the ETA website for more details about what went into getting the report released: [click here]

Aug. 23, 2010

Congratulations on seeking public office.

As part of the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune, I request that you complete this brief questionnaire and return it by Sept. 10 so that we can better evaluate your candidacy in arriving at our editorial endorsements. Please hit the reply button on your computer, answer the questions and return to don.sevrens@uniontrib.com

This election season the opinion side of the new U-T intends to augment the questionnaires with research and brief interviews as necessary, often by phone, in arriving at its candidate recommendations. Unfortunately, because of the sheer number of candidates in the county, it is not possible to conduct in-person interviews with all office seekers.

Name Tony Kranz

Office being sought Encinitas City Council member

Occupational status and education completed Printing Account Executive for Cenveo; Associate in Arts Degree from Palomar Community College in 1999

Previous elected offices held or campaigns? Never held office, though I was a candidate for the state senate while living in Minnesota in 1996

Volunteer service and  involvement in community Various volunteer activities with the San Dieguito Academy Foundation

If an incumbent, your major recent accomplishments? N/A

If challenging an incumbent seeking re-election, why do you believe your election would better serve the community? Four of the five current council members have served multiple terms and the community will be better served by electing a new member with a fresh perspective and recent experience trying to address concerns in our community from the floor of the council chambers. I am committed to ensuring that the public has better access to city-held records and information–which the California Constitution guarantees–and to make it possible for members of the public to add items to the city council agenda.

How do you plan to get your message out?
* Wide name identification? 15%
* Extensive volunteer organization? 15%
* Significant campaign donations? 10%
* Walking precincts? 30%
* Yard signs 20%
* Other 10% (coffee parties)

Please list what you see as the three most important issues in the community. 1) The General Plan update; 2) Responsible Hall Property park development; 3) Ensuring the size of the Encinitas bureaucracy is appropriate and that pensions for the civil servants (and politicians) aren’t overly generous.

What would you do in addressing these issues? 1) The part of the current General Plan that needs the most work, in my opinion, is the “Circulation” element. It needs to be reevaluated for ways to make the transportation system in Encinitas more safe, convenient and efficient and better incorporate biking, walking and public transportation. And perhaps the name of the “Noise” element should be changed to “Health” and expanded to detail our commitment to planning which encourages healthy living. 2) Building the park at the Hall Property should be done in a way that doesn’t create too big a budget burden and traffic mitigation should be addressed concurrent with development, if not sooner. 3) I would advocate that we establish an ad hoc committee for the purpose of evaluating the organizational structure of the city bureaucracy to ensure that we do not have too many, nor too few, employees. (Your paper’s recent city manager expose included a chart which showed that San Marcos has 238 employees and Encinitas has 237. That surprised me because San Marcos has a budget with 2.3 times as much money, and a population with 1.3 times as many people. This seems to me to say we should conduct a thorough review of the Encinitas org chart.)

What distinguishes you from other candidates and office-holders? I have spent the previous 13 years here in Encinitas working with my neighbors to improve our quality of life by advocating for city policies that encourage people to get out of their cars and enjoy our community assets. Additionally, I have 10 years of service in the National Guard, where I learned many lessons about leadership and how our government works.

Realistically, can you win over other office-holders to your point of view? How? I grew up in a home on Ocean View Avenue where spirited debate was a part of everyday life. We were encouraged to express our opinions and listen to others with an open mind, which meant that sometimes my initial position on a subject changed. I will approach my service on the city council the same way, considering the opinions of constituents and the information presented by staff, and then, after deliberating with the other members of the council, will vote the way that I think best serves the interests of the community of Encinitas. If the other four members of the council approach the city’s business the same way, I think we’ll be in agreement much more often than not.

Four years from now, what would you like to be able to say you have accomplished? That I kept the beaches clean and accessible; the parks green and full of activity; that I made it more convenient to use ball fields all over town to play games on; that I kept our open space open; that I provided appropriate support for businesses; I ensured that there are public places for artists to perform and display their art; that I maintained and improved our roads for more efficient car and bike travel; that I worked with Caltrans so that improvements to I-5 didn’t destroy our quality of life and that public transportation became a bigger part of the solution to traffic gridlock.

Below is a picture from what I’m guessing is around 1968. I’m the kid standing in the aluminum can recycling trailer next to Mr. Rollie Ayers, the YMCA director at the time. The trailer was parked in front of the old Mayfair market, which is now the Encinitas Civic Center, and was put there to promote a recycling program from Alcoa they called “Yes We Can”. My sisters Katie (looking at the camera) and Trudy (dark hair holding the bag) are also in the picture.

Mr. Ayers, like my dad, was interested in teaching us kids about the value of recycling. I spent a lot of time in the Ayers’ house during the 60′s, since Bob Ayers and I are the same age. We would spend days in his back yard on Cornish Drive, which was just down the street from my house at 110 Requeza, and climb trees until the cows came home, so to speak. Now Bob is a local attorney teaching classes about Estate planning and administration and helps people train to climb Mt. Whitney. He is also very active in fund raising for the YMCA. He’s obviously a chip off the ol’ block.

I’m very proud to have been endorsed by the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters for a seat on the Encinitas City Council in 2010. I promise to you and them that I will bring to my work on the council a firm belief in the benefits and need to conserve our natural resources.

I was living in Anchorage at the time and after working through the details and signing the contract, I departed for two months of Basic Combat Training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. From there I took the bus to Fort Rucker, Alabama, where I studied the world of Army air traffic control.

Technically, my duties as an air traffic controller would be “tactical”, meaning I would be sent to the field to establish an airfield or helicopter landing zone. I might have a hand-held radio, or maybe fairly sophisticated radar equipment. But some of the Army ATC jobs were at fixed facilities, with significant air traffic, including civilian. In case I received one of those assignments, part of the training was similar to what the FAA controllers went through.

The National Guard responsibility to deploy in case of an emergency was one of the main reasons why I enlisted. I wanted to be part of a team that was prepared to help. During my service in Alaska, one such experience was when wildfires were burning in an area near Fairbanks. A seldom used airfield was suddenly very busy with aircraft landing and taking off in an effort to fight the fire, so we were sent in to set up a portable ATC “tower” (which was actually on the back of a 2-1/2 ton truck) and a navigational aid known as a “non-directional beacon”.

Here are some pictures I took from that deployment:

In 1990, I moved out of Alaska for good. My mother was sick with cancer and I wanted to be closer to her, so my wife Cynthia and our three young kids moved back to Encinitas. Within a year, we relocated to Minnesota, and I was fortunate that they had an ATC unit in their Army National Guard that I could join. However, because of the challenges we faced with three young kids and both Cynthia and I working, when my contract was completed, I left the service after 10 years.

While writing this post, I received a Breaking News Alert announcing the death of former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska in a plane crash that happened yesterday. He spent much of his life working for the people of Alaska, to make living in such a large state a little better. I salute his service and pray that his family and friends can find solace in all that he contributed to make this country great.

In 1977, the year we graduated from San Dieguito together, her musical talent was recognized by having her song Leucadia recorded and included on the KGB radio Homegrown 4 album. It was a big event at San Dieguito and she was asked to perform the song at a school-wide assembly. Because I was taking photographs throughout our Senior year to be presented at a last-week-of-school assembly, I have several shots from that day. I’ve put together a video using those photos and the recording:

Since Diana died from cervical cancer in 1992, I feel both sad and fortunate to be able to see the pictures and hear the song from back in the day. The lyrics are still a perfect description of the community of Leucadia today too. Timeless, indeed.

I proved that to myself recently, when my daughter Stephanie encouraged me to repair my old bike and take two wheels out on the road a bit. Now when I have meetings downtown and the schedule allows it, I pedal there.

Since I live in Leucadia, I usually head south on either the 101 or Vulcan. The ride on the 101 is a little more treacherous due to the traffic and the cars parked on the side (so far I haven’t been “doored”, thanks to alert drivers that waited for me to pass).

And while Vulcan is more relaxed trafficwise, a more irritating issue has come up: daggerlike thorns on the road are ending up in my tires.

The first time it happened I was on my way to a Cardiff 101 Sundowner event at the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center. While riding around someone that was walking on the asphalt path on Vulcan just east of the railroad tracks, I rode in the dirt for just a moment.

Bad move. By the time I got to the transit center in downtown, my back tire was flat. Fortunately, it was just before 6 and the Encinitas Bicycle Retailer was still open. The great people there were kind enough to do emergency repairs. And while they were at it, they noticed several thorns in the front tire too, so they fixed that as well.

Unfortunately, on my last ride, I picked up another thorn and have a flat to repair. This time I rode on the east side of Vulcan, staying away from the asphalt path. But it obviously is just as treacherous on that side too.

It sure would be nice to have some vegetation along the tracks that could help keep the thorns off the pavement.