A Coast Highway 101 sign business owner who serves on the Olivenhain Water District board will become Encinitas’ newest City Council member.
The council on Wednesday voted 3-1, with Councilmember Joy Lyndes opposed, to pick Marco San Antonio out of eight applicants seeking to fill the new mayor’s former council seat. He can be formally sworn into his new job at the Feb. 12 council meeting after he resigns from the water board, City Clerk Kathy Hollywood said.
“What I feel I bring is stability and ownership,” San Antonio told the council as he described his qualifications during his 3-minute presentation at Wednesday’s meeting.
San Antonio mentioned that he’s lived in Encinitas since he was in first grade, attended Diegueno Middle School and what is now San Dieguito Academy High School, and opened his One Day Signs business in Encinitas in 1989. He added that he was blessed with two young children and hoped, “God willing” to eventually have grandchildren living in the city.
Both Councilmembers Luke Shaffer and Jim O’Hara said San Antonio was their top pick out of the eight applicants. The other seven were Julie Graboi, Brad Lefkowits, Farhad Mahmoudi, Denise M. Martin, Michael Quinn, Eli Stern and Paul Templin.
“I grew up looking up to you … I have never known a kinder human being,” Shaffer, an Encinitas native, told San Antonio, later adding, “I respect everything that you have to offer.”
O’Hara said that another factor in San Antonio’s favor was that he had won an election, unlike the other candidates. San Antonio was elected to the water district board in 2022, receiving 71 percent of the vote against Robert Max Kephart II. He represents its District 1 — a sprawling region that includes parts of Olivenhain east of Rancho Santa Fe Road, as well as Elfin Forest, Harmony Grove, Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch.
In his new role as an Encinitas council member, he’ll represent the city’s District 4, a region that includes Olivenhain, as well as parts of New Encinitas.
Prior to Wednesday’s meeting, the city’s former District 4 representative — Mayor Bruce Ehlers, who relinquished the spot when he was sworn into office as mayor Dec 10 — said he wanted his replacement to meet two key qualifications. One was residency in the New Encinitas area, instead of Olivenhain where Ehlers lives, and the other was a vow not to seek election in 2026, when the post’s current term ends. Neither of those were met by San Antonio, but Ehlers, who initially supported Martin for the job, later said, “I’m going to go with (San Antonio) in the spirit of compromise.”
Lyndes, who voted against San Antonio’s selection, said her top pick was Lefkowits, in part, she said, because of the amount of support he received from people who knew him from his role in the Parents of Encinitas Union School District group.
Citing comments made by an opponent of San Antonio, Lyndes said she couldn’t support him because she believes he wasn’t honest on his resume. San Antonio listed himself as a former Orange County Fire Authority firefighter/engineer on the resume he submitted with his council application. Lyndes said that phrase made it sound like he was one of the agency’s permanent, full-time employees, when he was actually a reserve firefighter, meaning he received a small stipend and worked as a volunteer.
Shaffer said San Antonio’s volunteer status should not be held against him, saying he should be celebrated for doing volunteer firefighting duty while not being eligible for medical and other benefits of full-time employment.
