ENCINITAS — The Encinitas City Council meeting that was, ostensibly, about an Urban Forest Advisory Committee member's Facebook post ended with two attendees being escorted from the chambers by sheriff's deputies, several others walking out angrily after being scolded by council members, and a four-member majority voting to keep Steven Houbeck in the seat he was appointed to ten weeks earlier.
The vote was not, on its face, about trees.
The Post
Houbeck was appointed to the Urban Forest Advisory Committee on February 11. Two days later, on February 13, he posted on Facebook. When an Encinitas resident asked what he meant, he replied that the school district's superintendent was "exhibiting soft racism" and added: "It's racist for the Left to denigrate accomplished blacks because they're Conservative." He later deleted the post.
The community response was immediate. Among those who spoke publicly against Houbeck was Fyall, an Encinitas resident who teaches West African dance at UC San Diego. Fyall took particular issue with the post's use of the word "blacks" and what he characterized as a disparagement of the art form he teaches. He was not the only resident who spoke. He was, by virtue of his profession, the one most immediately quotable.
The Vote
Councilmember Lyndes proposed the removal. She is the sole council member identified with the political left after the November 2024 election shifted the body rightward. Mayor Ehlers, Deputy Mayor O'Hara, and Councilmember Luke Shaffer all defeated candidates backed by the San Diego County Democratic Party that fall, and the council appointed Marco San Antonio in January 2025.
The four other members declined to remove Houbeck. Lyndes, after the vote, said it was "tone deaf" of her colleagues to blame the constituents who had come to speak. Mayor Ehlers said it was not appropriate to take action while a Title VI civil rights complaint — filed against the city after the original post — was still being investigated. City staff had met with the complainants. Findings were expected by April 29.
Houbeck did not attend in person. He sent a video message, which was played in the chambers. In it, he said: "My intent was never to degrade members of the community or artistic dancers." His original Facebook post had referred to the school district's superintendent as exhibiting "soft racism."
The Room
According to local reporting from iNewsSource and Times of San Diego, the deputies were called at the mayor's request, and the two attendees they escorted out were not identified by name in the meeting record. Other attendees, those outlets reported, walked out after exchanges with council members that they characterized as condescending.
An Urban Forest Advisory Committee meeting normally does not require law enforcement. This one did. The vote held. The complaint is pending. The chambers, on Wednesday night, did not feel like a place where any of the parties involved walked away with what they had come for.
The Title VI findings, when released, will be the next document worth reading.
Sources: iNewsSource, Times of San Diego, The Coast News Group.