Dear Mr. Vaughn,
I read in The Coast News that you have filed your paperwork to run for the District 4 seat on the Encinitas City Council, representing Olivenhain and Village Park.
I am formally requesting that you reconsider and retract your filing.
Bruce Ehlers, ex-chairman of the city’s Planning Commission, made it clear long before your filing that he intended to run for that seat.
Ehlers has extensive experience with city matters, both in previous elections for other candidates and in his work as head of the Planning Commission.
The longtime Encinitas resident is the co-author of Proposition A, a voter-approved initiative that has done more for the preservation of Encinitas than any other single piece of city legislation.
The law requiring voter approval for development plans that fall outside of the city’s general plan has been supported by the citizens of Encinitas several times and is clearly much appreciated.
Ehlers has lived in both Village Park and Olivenhain and is respected in each community.
Ehlers would be a strong and respected representative for the many people who, like me, live in Encinitas because of the positive quality of life found here, not because of the changes that our current leadership has thrust upon us.
Mr. Vaughn, if you persist in running for office, the votes you draw will mostly be from people who otherwise would have supported Bruce.
By splitting the vote you will substantially increase the odds that one of the other candidates, relatively unknown persons to both communities, will be elected, subjecting us to once again being represented by someone who barely understands the people who live and work in District 4, like Bruce does.
I would hope that is not your actual motive in running, but I can’t rule that out since you have little reason to expect to win.
Dr. Ron Medak
Olivenhain
