The Coast News INLAND EDITION
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VISTA, SAN MARCOS, ESCONDIDO
VOL. 4, N0. 21
OCT. 19, 2018
San Marcos Unified tabs new leader
College lawsuit enters mayoral race next door Escondido challenger sits on Palomar board
Schools pick comes from San Diego High
By Steve Horn
SAN MARCOS — On Sept. 25, the Palomar Faculty Federation Local 6161 filed a lawsuit against the Palomar College Governing Board in the Superior Court for the County of San Diego. Though Palomar College sits in San Marcos, the lawsuit’s tentacles reach directly into the mayoral race in neighboring Escondido. The lawsuit, Palomar Faculty Federation Local 6161, Et Al v. Palomar Community College District, Et Al, alleges an illegal lack of transparency under California’s Brown Act on the part of the Palomar College Governing Board in giving a 27 percent pay raise to President Joi Lin Blake. The Brown Act, in essence, is the state’s open meetings law and calls for governmental body transparency in announcing and conducting public meetings. The lawsuit further stipulates that the Brown Act was violated because it was never announced that there would be closed session discussions of Blake’s proposed salary boost before it received a Governing Board vote on July 10. One of those voting that day was Paul McNamara, the Governing Board’s president who also happens to be the challenger seeking to defeat Escondido Mayor Sam Abed and assume the job as the city’s mayor. McNamara’s campaign managTURN TO LAWSUIT ON 14
By Aaron Burgin
cess for medical cannabis patients,” Vistans for Safe Community Access says on its website. “Medical cannabis has been legal in California for over 20 years, yet, in the past few years, the City of Vista has spent millions of dollars on criminal prosecutions to eliminate all access to medical cannabis in the City.” In Vista, more than 56 percent of the electorate voted “yes” on Proposition 64. Campbell says that he believes that, were the City Council to reflect the will of the voters, the city would already be moving toward a
SAN MARCOS — San Marcos Unified went down south to find its new superintendent. The district recently announced that Carmen Garcia, the lead principal at San Diego High School, was the lone finalist in the district’s search for a permanent replacement for Melissa Hunt, who retired Aug. 30. Garcia presides over one of the largest schools in the county, which is Garcia broken into three schools: the San Diego School of International Studies, School of Business and Leadership and School of Science and Technology. “Dr. García, a bilingual and bi-cultural educator, with great energy and a passion for student success, will be an outstanding leader for our district,” school board President Stacy Carlson said in a statement. Garcia, in her farewell letter to her current school, said that the new position will allow her to engage with the North County community. “This opportunity with San Marcos USD will afford me the ability to connect deeply with the north county community where I
TURN TO POT MEAURES ON 8
TURN TO UNIFIED ON 7
SKY ROCKETS IN FLIGHT
Space X successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket and satellite into orbit on Oct. 7 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Hawthorne and also safely landed the ship’s rocket booster back to Earth, the first time the futuristic firm has done so on the West Coast. This photo was captured as the rocket flew over San Marcos. Photo by John R. Melson
Trio of pot measures on ballot in Vista By Steve Horn
VISTA — Three different marijuana-related ballot measures will receive a vote on Election Day in Vista. Whether they will go up in smoke and fail, or pass and join most of the rest of the state in cannabis legalization, will be up to voters. During the 2016 election, the state’s electorate voted in favor of Proposition 64 to legalize marijuana as a regulated business under California law. Though in theory dispensing the drug is now legal throughout the state, in practice every city still has its own say over legalization. Vista, for one, has enacted a de facto
cannabis ban. Vistans for Safe Community Access, a group run by former Vista City Councilman Cody Campbell, is leading an effort to chip away at the ban through its support of Measure Z. That ballot measure, officially dubbed the Retail Medical Marijuana Sales and Tax Initiative, would enable the “retail sales of medical marijuana for up to 11 retailers and enacting a tax of 7 percent of gross receipts” if approved by a majority of voters. “Over 8,000 Vista voters signed a petition to place Measure Z on the ballot to allow safe, regulated ac-
Come Move Your Feet Before You Eat!® Thanksgiving morning along the beach in Oceanside Benefits Local Schools and Non-Profits
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