I have been a resident of La Jolla since 1950 and have previously served as Trustee and Vice President of the La Jolla Community Planning Association. I led the effort to revise the LJCPA bylaws in 2007-2008 as well as the effort that led to the LJCPA retaining its designation as La Jolla’s officially recognized planning group. Additionally, I am a past President of the La Jolla Town Council.
The LJCPA must maintain transparency in its affairs. At the last membership meeting City Council President and the LJCPA officers stunned the membership with Ms. Lightner’s pronouncement that she would vote to decertify the LJCPA and that legal representation and indemnification of the 
Trustees would be denied if the membership and Trustees did not adopt the proposed 19th Trustee resolution that night. Ms. Lightner and the officers had been secretive about Ms. Lightner’s attending the meeting to insist upon the 19th Trustee resolution; so the membership was essentially ambushed. This action deprived the LJCPA of thoughtful informed debate and its right to a hearing before the full City Council. The result was an egregious failure — today there is a lawsuit pending against the LJCPA regarding the election challenge that Ms. Lightner’s solution was designed to solve. Thus Ms. Lightner’s solution was not a solution at all. The officers and City staff apparently failed to consult with those challenging the election results. Most deplorably the membership was denied its right to make an informed decision because of the unannounced ambush. LJCPA affairs should be fully transparent to suppport not just the letter of the Brown Act, but also the intent and purpose of that law.
Now that planning groups are de facto arms of the City Planning Department, the Trustees need to vigilantly insure the independence of the LJCPA from the City executive branch. That independence is the key to the creation of San Diego communities that are both distinctive and special. It also reinforces the San Diego City Charter’s dictum that San Diego be recognized as a “City of Villages.”