Hopefuls vying for seats on the Arroyo Grande City Council recently weighed in on the issues during a candidate forum held at the South County Regional Center.
Mayoral candidates include incumbent Jim Hill, who took office in 2014 after winning a write-in campaign against Tony Ferrara.
“It has been a privilege to serve as your mayor for two years,” Hill said. “I believe I have earned the reputation of being respectful of all, being a listener, and being responsive to constituents.
Also on the ballot is Richard Waller, a retired elementary school teacher.
“I am running to restore civility to the discourse at the top levels of our city government,” said Waller. “I believe in consensus, true transparency and collegiality between council, city staff and residents.”
Candidates fielded questions from the audience covering everything from priorities to stability in city management to increasing the local water supply.
Hill said his top concern was preserving the water that the city currently has access to. Lopez Lake is currently at about a two-year supply after several years of drought.
“Our residents have done a fabulous job of saving water—36 percent against the state mandate of 28%. We are in a position of where we have to continue the 28% mandate because we cannot demonstrate that we have a three-year supply available to the city.”
Hill said that residents need to be assured that water is being saved for their own use and not future development in the city.
Waller said the chief issue was civil discourse.
“We cannot have acrimony between council, city staff, and residents. We have to work together; we are a team,” said Waller adding that water was a serious issue as well. “However, we can solve that problem immediately.”
The council has opted to remove two city managers (Diane Thompson and Steve Adams) in the last two years, candidates said xxx
“The hiring and the firing of Diane Thompson was a serious screw-up either in the hiring or the firing,” Waller said. “The buck stops at the mayor’s desk. I am willing to take the time, the due diligence to review, to look at the best quality candidate that we can get to apply for the position here.”
Hill, who was in office during the tenure of one city manager that was replace said that is an issue of respect shown towards all.
“It is quite important that we attract the most qualified person to be city manager,” said Hill. “The decision to hire and to terminate the employment of the prior city manager [Diane Thompson] was a unanimous council decision. I take full responsibility for that.”
Hill and Waller had somewhat similar ideas to increase the local water supply.
“There are few options,” said Hill. “The first, and probably the most potentially productive one is recycling water through our wastewater treatment plant.”
Hill said talks were underway for construction of a reprocessing facility. Waller favors desalination as well as recycling.
“If it doesn’t rain, all the state water that we are allotted or all the conservation that we are allotted, won’t do anything,” he said.
A hot topic issue related to water is the possibility of a building moratorium. Hill supports such an ordinance noting that 10% of the water saved by residents would be “taken up” by development.
Waller said that a moratorium would “remotely touch our needs. The water saved in a moratorium, if we do not have any more build out, will be the equal to each citizen in Arroyo Grande flushing their toilet twice more per day. There are negatives to a moratorium. Who’s going to talk to the tradesmen that now have to leave the area to work? The negatives are proven on moratoriums, they can crash an economy.”
The office of mayor is a two-year term.
Five candidates are hoping to garner enough votes for the open council seats including incumbent Kristen Barneich as well as business owner Ken Sage, former District 4 Supervisor Caren Ray, academic advisor LeAnn Akins and Planning Commissioner John F. Mack.
Candidates were asked what they saw as the role of a councilmember. All agreed that listening to community members and creating solutions for expressed concerns topped their responsibilities.
“First and foremost, it is being an advocate for the citizens,” said Barneich. “That’s what we are here to do. We need to be able to go out in the community and take all the feedback, whether it is good or bad or indifferent.”
Sage added that the council should consider a variety of angles to work towards collaboration and consensus on issues in the community.
“I think it is very important for councilmembers to consider options, not hone in on one or two targets in order to reach an end of a meeting,” said Sage.
Atkins said an important part of serving on the council is asking “tough questions when they need to be asked” and research items on the agenda beyond the scope of a staff report.
The growing homeless population in South County had the candidates offering a variety of solutions.
“We need to provide locations for them to sleep,” said Mack. “We don’t have that. We need to include them in rehabilitation and social service programs and make sure that they know there is help available.”
Ray said she would like to see the Safe Parking program comeback and be expanded allowing people living in their cars to park overnight in designated areas. She also supports more warming centers in the area and a permanent facility.
“We need a homeless services center here in the South County,” Ray said. “We have been trying to do this for years.”
Sage said that there should be a regional program that includes job rehabilitation for homeless individuals.
“It’s okay to provide services where they can eat or sleep, but that is never going to solve the problem,” said Sage.
“People end up homeless for a variety of reasons,” said Atkins. “That might be the end result, but the way they get there is very, very different. Besides having a more regional scope, I think we need to drill down and look at the different groups of people that do find themselves in that situation. If we ignore how they got there, we won’t be able to effectively find a way to help them get out of that.”
Barneich said there is not a “one size fits all” solution but there are many non-profits offering to help the homeless in the county including the Housing First program where people are placed in housing first and then provide the services that they need.
“When someone is living under a bridge, it is hard to want to go out and get a job,” Barneich said.
The five candidates were divided on whether or not building moratorium should be in place until water levels increase.
Sage said that it depends on the scope and definition of the moratorium. “I’d say at this point we need to look at the argument as to why we really think we need a moratorium, and then we need to define it,” he said.
Atkins said the moratorium wouldn’t be a panacea but should be considered.
“It isn’t that I am anti development or anti growth,” she said. “I guess I am looking at this from a purely economic viewpoint and that is that everything involves a community costs. For whatever decision you make, you give up something else.”
Barneich said that a building suspension can have “serious, unintended economic consequences for a city” and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“I didn’t vote for the moratorium when is came before us a couple of weeks ago,” she said. “I didn’t vote for it simply because there was no process that was going to get us into the moratorium and no process that was going to get us out.”
Mack said that the dwindling water supply couldn’t be ignored and that “doing nothing was the wrong thing.”
“I am for a moratorium,” he said. “I am for creating policy for getting in and out of that moratorium.”
Ray said that she also favors a process for a moratorium.
“Process protects every single one of us fairly and equally,” she said. “I want a process that we can get in; I want a process that we can get out. I want a process that is there on the books going for perpetuity.”
The office of city council is a four-year term.
The Arroyo Grande & Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsored the forum.
