Arroyo Grande citizens have two choices for who will lead the city through 2026.
One is the city’s incumbent mayor, Caren Ray Russom, who has made difficult decisions like pulling the city out of the costly Central Coast Blue project and reducing the amount of public comment time for items not on the agenda. Her challenger is Gaea Powell, who’s been vocal about her dismay with the current council, most notably when the city decided to fly the Pride flag for the month of June. Powell has also said she’s committed to abolishing “local woke extremist agendas” and preserving the city’s heritage.
Both candidates sat down with New Times and discussed their goals, including long-term water solutions, city development, and community input at public meetings.
Caren Ray Russom
A lifelong Arroyo Grande resident who has received endorsements from members of both political parties, Russom said the community didn’t elect her to make decisions on national issues such as abortion and gun control. Rather, she’s been elected as mayor for the relationships she has and her ability to leverage them to get things done.
“That’s what the voters need, you know. That’s an example of how a strong relationship across party lines benefits everybody,” she said. “There are those who like the party lines, they like the extremism—that’s not me.”
One of the most important developments facing the city right now is the creation of the new general plan, which hasn’t been updated since 2001. The city has spent around $1.2 million with the help of grants to begin updating the plan with a focus on community input.
It’s been 23 years since the last update, and Russom said the city has undoubtedly changed, so it’s important to get it right because the plan will be around longer than any of the current council members.
“It serves essentially as a guiding document that informs staff and elected officials as to what the community wants, and we set up our codes to reflect what the general plan says,” she said. “There’s going to be a time when I’m not here anymore and that will guide future councils, that will guide future elected officials, that will guide future staff as things turn over.”
After the council voted to opt out of the controversial Central Coast Blue recycled water project during its April 9 meeting over concerns that the project was becoming too expensive, Russom said the city’s been thinking about long-term water solutions. Arroyo Grande currently has about “two and a half” options, she said.
“We’ve got groundwater, we’ve got Lopez water, and we can purchase state water when we are in times of declared emergency, so that’s why I say two and a half,” she said. “I would very much like to get on the ballot a measure to be able to purchase state water in any year that we choose. I wanted it on the 2024 ballot, but because we didn’t want anything to compete with [Measure] E-24, we decided not to as a council. So it’s my hope that it’s on the ballot in 2026 and that will help us be able to have options for when we’re in more different water years.”
In August, Russom joined her council colleagues in reducing the time that speakers could talk about items not on the agenda at council meetings from three minutes per person to one minute. It’s a decision her opponent, Powell, has criticized at almost every meeting since.
With so many other ways to reach the council—through email, social media, and the city’s webpage—Russom said the slot for items not on the agenda just isn’t as effective as it once was.
“Especially in the last five years, it’s just not achieving what it’s meant to achieve. Lots of organizations have struggled with this,” she said. “South County across the board has struggled with it.”
Powell claims that limiting that time violates her First Amendment right, but Russom said the First Amendment does not address how long public comment periods need to be at council meetings.
“In the end the question is, are we hearing from the public? Yes,” she said. “The public comes to talk to us about items that we need to hear about, that are not on our agenda.”
Gaea Powell
Powell said she views Arroyo Grande as “paradise” and wants to keep it that way.
The candidate, who’s endorsed by the SLO County Republican Party, said one of the first things she will do if she becomes mayor is return public comment to three minutes for items not on the agenda because it’s “unacceptable” for the council to deprive citizens of their right to speak freely.
“Our current mayor and council have made a mockery of citizens’ constitutionally protected rights and replaced them with arbitrary dictates,” she said via email. “We must stand against any effect of government censorship. Our protected First Amendment is first for a reason, it is the most important right, as free speech protects us from government tyranny.”
Claiming that the current council has lost its moral compass, Powell argues that the city promotes the government’s propaganda by enforcing their mandates and signing “away our rights to be free individuals, educated, speak our minds, ask questions, assemble, make choices that are in our own best interest, and forced many to live under the dictates of our government and city’s emergency powers.”
Powell also alleges that she’s found “overwhelming volumes of LGBTQIA-plus child pornography and lewd books” in the Arroyo Grande High School library, and the city is doing nothing to stop it.
The council has reminded Powell that issues with the high school library fall under the Lucia Mar Unified School District’s purview and the City Council doesn’t have control over what happens in the schools.
Lucia Mar Marketing and Communications Director Amy Jacobs told New Times that the school does not carry pornography in the library.
Powell said she also supports local businesses and wants to ensure that they can maintain their free-market freedoms. She added that she would advocate for providing incentives and opportunities for new businesses, redevelopment, cautious development, and the creation of tourist attractions.
“All my actions will always be done with sustainability and to ensure a thriving future for generations to come. I envision a future where our city retains and improves its historic charm and character while allowing for multi-use development and development to help support housing accessibility,” she said. “I would also like to see more entertainment and recreational resources come to Arroyo Grande, like a bowling alley, gaming arcade, and more nightlife venues, as well as retaining and investing in our wonderful parks and recreational areas.”
She said she was never in favor of Central Coast Blue and was excited to see the city pull out of the project. If elected mayor, Powell said she would work with experts and community members to figure out what water resources the city has and how they can develop a strategy for self-reliance.
“Fortunately, Arroyo Grande is rich with water resources, yet of course we realistically know there will be times of drought,” she said. “I believe that always focusing on what is best for Arroyo Grande is key. Other cities may need our assistance, and we can determine the best way to share our water assets with them, if not when needed, but we cannot enter into agreements that may be detrimental to our resources.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Samantha Herrera at sherrera@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 17-27, 2024.
So, let get me this straight, Powell is all for banning books and censoring our students’ ability to read about different cultural, religious or gender points of view, but is against government somehow taking “away our rights to be free individuals, [to be] educated, [to] speak our minds, [to] ask questions, [to] assemble, [and to] make choices that are in our own best interest?”
Doesn’t make any sense to me.
No books are banned in the USA. Oh, the drama and propaganda to distract from facts. Some books are not age appropriate – though Gavin Newsom has made it a law that pornographic (including child porn) along with sexually explicit lewd, vulgar …content be in our public schools (we pay the bill). The Government has no right to force these books into our school libraries – if Districts refuse he sues them and withholds funding. Chino and Huntington Beach are good examples. Our system was designed to allow each community to decide what books are best for the children in their community, not the State or Federal government.
TakeBackTheClassroom.com lets you look inside the books in question. Let’s stop the mudslinging and demand the truth as children are the victims while adults behave like kids calling each other names without doing their own research.
Here is the AGHS Library book link: https://lmag.goalexandria.com/search
This is not about LGBTQIA+, this is a distraction/shining object to divide people while there is an aggressive effort to normalize sexualizing children, as there are many books with inappropriate sexual content found in our public schools. Subjects, some with graphics – oral sex, incest, masterbation, intercourse with differing sexual positions, and so on.
There are also boys being allowed in girls’ sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms. I interviewed one of the girls who has graduated since. She claims she was victimized as her rights and protests were ignored. In fact, she claimed the boy harassed her for complaining. Less mudslinging (bigot, racists, homophobe – meaningless and mindless – while the abuse continues) and more investigation in an effort to prove me wrong or right would be the correct path. Afterall, children are the victims, while adults do nothing.
To me, it is absolutely mind boggling that our local News outlets and/or reporters don’t research the link and attachments I have provided, share what they find and consider going to the High Schools in our area to investigate. At the very least to PROVE ME WRONG! I would love to be wrong as this is an horrific nightmare. The poor kids who have been victimized are already demanding to know – WHERE WERE THE ADULTS THAT SHOULD PROTECT THEM!?
TakeBackTheClassroom.com – Look inside these books so you can ‘see’ for yourself. If you don’t feel as if this is pornograrphy and is age appropriate for minors, please let me know. I would love to hear your perspective.