Encinitas Councilmember Joy Lyndes, who serves as the city’s deputy mayor and represents the Cardiff region, will take a two-month family medical leave starting March 17 to care for her husband, who has cancer.
“My husband and family have been dealing with a significant struggle — my husband is fighting advanced cancer,” Lyndes said at the end of Wednesday’s City Council meeting as she began reading aloud from a prepared statement. She paused briefly, then with her voice breaking and her emotion evident, continued, “The medical treatment and his fight to survive are continuing to intensify, and difficult. ….
“So that I can prioritize ing him and my family through this hard time, I will be taking family medical leave from the city. This family medical leave will be no more than 60 days and will start on March 17.”
Lyndes said she will not be able to attend council meetings or regional board meetings during her two-month leave, but has already begun putting together a communications system, “so that I will stay fully informed on salient city issues throughout the leave.”
And, she stressed, her leave will be temporary.
“I’m honored to have been elected to serve the good people of Encinitas. You have my commitment that I will return as soon as possible,” she said.
After she concluded, Mayor Bruce Ehlers told her, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family,” and Councilmember Jim O’Hara, who sits next to her, patted her on the shoulder.
Reached after Wednesday’s meeting, Lyndes said that she wished to keep the medical details regarding her husband’s type of cancer and prognosis private, and thus would not be releasing any more information beyond what she said in her prepared statement.
Her leave will cover part of the city’s annual budget-setting process. In the coming weeks, the city will be hosting budget workshops, followed by public hearings, with the goal of adopting the spending plan in June. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
A landscape architect who helped create the city’s annual car-free Cyclovia bicycling event, Lyndes was initially appointed to the council in early 2021 and then elected to the spot in November 2022. She represents the city’s District 3, which primarily covers the Cardiff region.
In her statement, Lyndes said that her family had been dealing with her husband’s initial cancer diagnosis for several months now. That’s also been a period of great change on the council. Lyndes, whose current four-year term ends in 2026, is the only council member who still occupies the same spot she held last fall.
After the November election, she found herself in the minority — the city’s then-mayor and one of the council who had regularly voted with her on issues both lost their election bids. A third council member who also often voted with her didn’t seek re-election. All three of them had been backed by the San Diego County Democratic Party. The council now comprises three people who were endorsed by Reform California — a group that declares on its website that it’s “dedicated to taking back our state from far-left politicians and special interests” — plus one newly appointed council member, whose selection Lyndes opposed.
Lyndes is the second person in the District 3 council spot to deal with a cancer issue. Her predecessor, Jody Hubbard, stepped down in early 2021 after she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died later that summer.
