Our view: Oceanside's troika a failure, vote for Chavez and Kern

After the 16-month experiment of having the Oceanside City Council dominated by the troika of Mayor Jim Wood and Councilwomen Esther Sanchez and Shari Mackin, it's time to swing the council back -- back to leaders who have the whole city's interests at heart, not just their political supporters.

Voters can do just that by re-electing Councilman Rocky Chavez and giving Mackin's seat to Jerry Kern on Nov. 7.

The Wood-Sanchez-Mackin majority has bungled their leadership opportunity in Oceanside -- driving city department heads out of town in droves, prematurely pulling the plug on the Rancho del Oro interchange with Highway 78, rejecting federal money to upgrade the municipal airport, killing chances to get regional transportation funds and rewarding the public employee unions that got them elected with huge pay raises that will cost the city millions for years to come.

All along, Chavez has been on the right side of nearly every important issue. When the troika prompted a study to close the airport, he was right to say the city should upgrade the airport and create an important asset instead of scrapping it to make room for another big-box store.

Chavez was right to object when the troika voted to stop plans to build the Rancho del Oro interchange -- which has been part of city plans for 25 years -- before a city study was completed. The interchange would relieve traffic on El Camino Real and College Boulevard, in addition to providing important access for the Ocean Ranch Corporate Centre industrial park.

Chavez was right to vote against huge pay increases for the city's police and firefighters. The city will be on the hook for these hikes -- ranging in the double digits -- long after this City Council is gone. The troika approved the raises without taking so much as a glance at the impacts they will have on the city's pension obligations.

Chavez may not be the most polished North County politician, but he's usually right and tries to build bridges. The scant few times Mackin has voted against Wood and Sanchez, she's sided with Chavez.

Overall, Mackin has been a disappointment. After claiming in her 2005 campaign that she would be independent and hold the line on public employee pensions, she voted with Wood and Sanchez to give raises to police and firefighters -- whose unions donated to and campaigned for Mackin. When Oceanside is forced to account for the present-day value of its benefits obligations -- that political-credit bill is coming due in July -- city voters will know the true cost of this troika's giveaways to cops, firefighters and city staff.

At a candidate's forum Tuesday night, Mackin told the crowd that "this council member isn't cozy with lobbyists." Just like the bogus law she backed that required lobbyists to register with the city, Mackin apparently exempts her preferred lobbyists from the list -- including the ones she takes to dinner on the city's dime.

Kern is an excellent replacement. His No. 1 issue is infrastructure, specifically, traffic. He supports building the Rancho del Oro interchange and working with regional planners to get traffic moving. Kern realizes the importance of the airport and sees the foolishness in the troika's attempts to close it down.

He's a former head of the Chamber of Commerce and holds a degree in business from San Diego State. Such a perspective is badly needed on the council as the troika tries to sell off city land to pay for employee benefits.

What's more, Kern is calm and collected -- an antidote to the venom spewed weekly at council meetings.

The Wood-Sanchez-Mackin majority arrived in office aboard a political train whose cars were cobbled together by former Councilwoman Melba Bishop. The mobile-home park residents, public-employee unions and others whose votes Bishop's political machine delivers on Election Day are now lining up behind George McNeil, chairman of the city's Manufactured Home Fair Practices Commission. McNeil, a smart and appealing candidate, is exactly the wrong choice. His election would further cement the union and rent-controlled crowds' stranglehold on Oceanside's future.

The troika has had a chance to show what it's made of, and we're anything but impressed. Vote for Chavez and Kern.