Julie Tacker’s op-ed asks Los Osos voters to reject Measure B-26 to “support fire protection” (“Los Osos residents should fund fire protection, not parks,” April 16). The argument rests on a false choice and ignores the fact that 15,000 residents share a single 6-acre community park, a deficit more severe than in almost any community in California.
Fire services are already secured. On April 2, 2026, the Los Osos Community Services District board voted unanimously to extend the Cal Fire agreement through 2029 under the existing staffing model. A potential fire tax increase, referenced by Tacker, would not be on the ballot until 2028 at the earliest. Sunnyside costs about 50 cents a day per parcel, dropping to 30 cents after 15 years. Our community can afford both. Let the voters decide! Don’t let a manufactured either/or be the reason this much-needed community park opportunity is lost forever.
Measure B-26 is a genuine citizen movement. In 52 days, the Sunnyside Park Citizens Coalition gathered 1,507 signatures. This was not the work of “a handful of residents,” but a broad coalition of three dozen citizens, including five Los Osos Citizens of the Year. The measure was not “instigated” by the Los Osos Community Services District; it was conceived and placed on the ballot by citizens, through more than a year of organized work, with the district kept publicly informed along the way. Having qualified by petition, it now needs only a simple majority to pass.
Julie Tacker and Jeff Edwards are not disinterested parties. As a well-known couple, they have for years expressed an interest in developing Sunnyside into a commercial mixed-use property. That’s a profit-driven goal, not a community-driven one, as Ms. Tacker would have you believe.
This is a one-time opportunity. If Los Osos does not acquire Sunnyside, it will be sold to the highest private bidder.
Deborah Howe
Los Osos
This article appears in April 23-30, 2026.