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Thank you for your email which I just opened and read with great interest. I appreciate your well-organized and eloquent presentation of the issues surrounding the rash of silver thefts in Coronado. I also recognize, value and respect your community leadership on city matters that are important to residents.
I’m very pleased that yesterday’s front lawn meeting with Police Chief Lou Scanlon was productive. I watched the news video you attached with interest.
I agree with you that enforcement of our municipal code provisions regarding business licenses as you suggest below is strongly indicated by the rash of silver thefts in Country Club and elsewhere in Coronado Village.
I find the thefts very disturbing and think there may be some relationship among them. I am very sorry that residents are fearful, although such fear is natural. I understand that Chief Scanlon gave good advice about securing personal property at home.
If they haven’t already done so, I suggest that victims of tabletop silver theft check online sales sites like eBay to see if their silver is listed for sale intact. They may recognize their personal property in online photos.
I trust that Coronado Police will get to the bottom of it. I strongly and fully support our Coronado Police Department.
As you know, code enforcement is one of my top priorities. In my twenty-seven short months on city council, I have had two successes and one failure in changing the culture of city hall from resident complaint-driven code enforcement to pro-active code enforcement by city staff.
Twice I successfully led a majority of council members with the right result of enforcement of our municipal code. One example is the 2011 order of protection for an historic resource in order to enforce our historic preservation code provisions. Another example are the 2011 orders to enforce our code provisions against illegal rentals, which are residential rentals under 26 days. In both examples, the results are an improved quality of life and property values for our residents.
Once I was unsuccessful in leading a majority of council members for code enforcement. An example are the two 2010 fence encroachment permit requests. In the case of the stucco wall, the encroachment permit was denied by a unanimous vote of 5-0. But in the case of the fence near rose bushes, the encroachment permit was granted by the majority vote of 4-1, with myself dissenting. These unfair and inconsistent results were the source of a San Diego Union-Tribune article entitled “A Tale of Two Encroachment Permits” by Wendy Fry on 22 September 2010 at www.signonsandiego.com.
While “two out of three” code enforcement successes “ain’t bad,” as they say, it’s still not good enough for me. Rest assured I will work as hard as I always do to continue to change the culture at Coronado city hall to one of pro-active code enforcement. I refuse to accept the excuse that “there’s nothing we can do” to change the status quo where it is unfavorable toward residents and taxpayers.
If you will indulge me, for your review at your leisure below is a link to my re-election campaign video filmed by Steve Johnson of eCoronado.com last year and uploaded onto YouTube on 27 September 2010, just over one year ago.
At 5:17 to 6:02 in my video, I discuss one of the top three priorities in Coronado — code enforcement. In a nutshell, I explained that the current resident complaint-driven code enforcement is divisive because it pits neighbor against neighbor. The preferable code enforcement policy is pro-active code enforcement by city staff. The goal of code enforcement is to enhance our quality of life and property values. I would like to see council roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of setting this priority, and then backing up city staff when they enforce our code, because our people want and deserve pro-active code enforcement across the board.
