Residents of Vista and San Marcos voted to become cities 60 years ago today, on Jan. 15, 1963.
From the Evening Tribune, Friday, Jan. 18, 1963:
Tale of Two cities Told With Ballots
By Scott Boyles
Two side-by-side rural communities settled down today to the serious business of adjusting to their newly-voted status as the county’s 12th and 13th incorporated cities.
Vista and San Marcos, neighbors in a North County area of mushrooming growth, took the big step in simultaneous elections Tuesday.
Almost immediately councilmen-elect and gratified leaders of the incorporation campaigns were plunged into some the initial technicalities of the transition which, they predicted, would put both cities “in business” by Jan. 31.
Certifications Awaited
Such metropolitan subjects as budgets, finances, payrolls and mayoralty choices were items early claiming attention of each town’s five councilmen-elect even as they waited ballot certifications by the Registrar of Voters and Board of Supervisors. Incorporation carried in both communities by substantial margins—3,666 to 985 in Vista and 432 to 143 in San Marcos.
The sequence of legal mechanic for the changeover was outlined by Mac C. Taylor, manage of the Vista Chamber of Commerce and secretary of the Vista Incorporation Group, the citizen organization that spearheaded the campaign.
Lot To Be Done
“First there will have to be certification by the county and then the filing of that with the Secretary of State and the formality of Legislature’s ratification, all of which we understand can be accomplished before the end of the month,” Taylor said. “Meantime, we assume the council will have held its first meeting to organize itself and to adopt existing county ordinances to proved the new city with an interim government until the council can drat its own basic operating ordinances. If this works out as anticipated, Vista will be in business by Jan. 31.”
Justin Goostree, Vista banker, and William A. Buelow, San Marcos barber, received the most votes to head the slates of candidates in the two towns and as a result may be named Vista’s and San Marcos’ first majors. J.H. Fotheringham, second high candidate int he Vista race said, “I think protocol in such cases usually is to offer the mayor’s office to the high man. We haven’t gone into that yet but we expect to have an informal discussion in the next day or two.”
Goostree Not Eager
Goostree, however, said, “I don’t know yet if I would accept even if the honor is extended to me by the other councilmen. There are two or three others who have more time for the duties than I do and the decision is yet to be made. I just haven’t made up my mind.”
Vista will go into municipal operations with a prospective cityhood dowry of about $286,500 for its first six months from various state tax sources, and anticipates about $386,000 income next year. These funds, the “subventions” that revert to Incorporated towns from sales, gasoline, vehicle and other state levies, will city operations “as far ahead as anyone can see,” said Goostree.
“The Incorporation feasibility study used in our planning indicated that we can operate without a city property tax, at least until the citizens themselves want and require services and projects beyond our starting resources.”
Contracts With County
The councilmen-elect were in general agreement that the first Vista city personnel required would be a full-time clerk, an attorney, and eventually a city manager, and at an early date a zoning commission. Other essential services such as law enforcement and street maintenance are intended to be contracted to the county to continue as in the past.
Max Taylor said “study by our incorporation group of the contract-service type of government satisfied us that was best, at least in the formative years, and cheaper than anything we could do ourselves. Throughout the election campaign we have stressed that the city can operate for at least a few years without a tax of any kind.”
37 Cents a $100
In San Marcos, however, Buelow said council candidates almost unanimously agreed a tax rate of 37 cents per $100 property valuation would be required. He estimated the tax rebates from state sources will give San Marcos a starting income of $36,000 this year. Much smaller than Vista and with more modest needs for municipal overhead, San Marcos will require the nominal property tax to cover basic operations, he said. San Marcos also intends to contract to the county its street work, law enforcement and similar function.
Buelow said the schedule for getting organized anticipated vote certification by County Supervisors on Jan. 21, filing with the state Jan. 21, and a first council meeting Jan. 28, “wen we probably will elect a mayor, mayor pro-tem, and discuss employing a clerk, treasurer and engineer, with only the clerk job to be full time. At present, we don’t expect to hire a city manager.”
As to the mayoralty post , Buelow said he would accept it if the other councilmen elected him, but “it is no issue and if they prefer someone else I will be happy to the one selected.”
Both are Protective
In both towns, the new councilmen and incorporation proponents have maintained that the incorporation set was essential as a “protective” measure, but for different reasons. A.E. Miller, out-going president of the Vista chamber of Commerce, said:
“We think basically it is the only methodical approach to growth, a way to lay out our town and operate it for the future, and to promote business development.”
For San Marcos said Buelow:
“Incorporating was to protect our boundaries from encroachment and to zone for a good land-use program for everyone. We already have lost a valuable area to annexation by Escondido, which annexed more than $2 million worth of territory in our own fire district. Most of us think San Marcos should protect and perpetuate its rural characteristics, which have been one attraction bringing newcomers here, but also should make space available for business and industry.”
Buffer Strips Between
Vista will go in as a city of about 12 square miles and a population estimated at 20,137. Its boundaries approximately follow those of the Vista Sanitation District and will not abut completely with neighboring Oceanside on the west, but leave a narrow corridor between the two. San Marcos population is about 3,000, the county’s smallest city.
Neither will Vista and San Marcos “touch” on the south. A small pocket of buffer ground is left in the vicinity of the roadside village of Buena county territory.
Leaders in both town confidently predict cordial relations will exist between the new cities after the transition is completed, Miller said “Vista and San Marcos have similar problems and similar hopes for the future and our working arrangements with one another have always been friendly.” Buelow said: “There are no hard feeling between San Marcos and Vista and we expect good relations as incorporated cities with mutual ambitions to remain good communities to live in. I lived in Vista for two years.”
Escondido, Carlsbad
San Marcos other nearest neighbor will be Escondido, with an average of about one mile of unincorporated space between their boundaries, and its next neighbor south the City of Carlsbad, about five miles from the San Marcos limits on that side.
For San Marcos, it was the first try at incorporation. For Vista, two abortive attempts in recent years delayed the decision when election petitions were thrown out on legal technicalities and Tuesday was the first time the issue actually came to a vote.
Making up the council in Vista, and votes received, are Goostree 2866; Fotheringham 1,857, Harold S. Wakefield 1,723; Col. Frank E. Gillette 1,709 and Terry Hildebrand 1,366.
In San Marcos, the elected concilmen and vote: Buelow 321, Norman Bucher 241, Oliver Shinn 236, Henry Vander Stelt 204 and Ed Grangetto 203. The status of the latter has be questioned, as to technical qualification on the date of his voter registration, and San Marcos sources indicated the issue might have to be determined by county counsel. Grangetto is recuperating from an illness that hospitalized him earlier this week and was not available for comment.
