A Memorable Year

2000: The Year of Election Fiascos, Growing Pains, and Change

The year 2000 came in like a lamb and left like a lion.

While many predicted mass destruction as the new millennium rang in, Diablo didn't blow up and computers didn't seize up on Jan. 1. Instead, as the year marched on, history was made with the nation's closest and most controversial presidential election ever–one that is sure to set the stage for changes in our electoral system.

Local elections were less dramatic but just as defining. Growth issues were debated, and the debates rage on as governments shift and land deals are made.

But while the presidential election is sure to be remembered as the most important story of 2000, it is not the only significant one. The environment, affordable housing, and how we deal with sex offenders were top local concerns this year.

As the year comes to a close, New Times looks back at some of our county's most important and defining issues, and updates you on the more interesting people and stories we covered. These are the stories we will remember for years to come, and the decisions we will live with as 2001 unfolds.

Growth–the Issue That Defines Us

Growth was the buzzword in San Luis Obispo County this year as high-profile fights over development, sprawl, and the nature of our communities raged from Nipomo to Paso Robles.

While there were major losses for some, most notably the SOAR contingent, there have also been some well-planned developments and some notable conservation efforts.

Here's just a sample.

This year San Luis Obispo County got its first Home Base, its second Trader Joe’s, and a selection of new big-box stores at the Promenade, formerly the Central Coast Mall, in SLO.

The county established an Environmental and Consumer Crimes Division in the District Attorney’s office. The city of SLO hired a biologist and became home to a branch of the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit public interest law firm that specializes in land use.

The city of San Luis Obispo annexed the 54-acre Froom Ranch, on which owner Alex Madonna plans to build a 150,000 square foot Costco. A measure intended to limit the size of big-box stores by preventing them from selling groceries failed before the SLO Planning Commission. An Arroyo Grande ordinance to limit the size of new stores passed its first reading.

SLO Media will shortly break ground on a 56,000-square-foot office building in San Luis Obispo specifically designed for high-tech companies with fiberoptic connections, back-up generators, and spacious conduits to accommodate complex wiring arrangements.

San Luis Obispo enthusiastically embraced the Copelands' latest project, an infill development deal that would bring higher density and some new housing into downtown. In November, a slow-growth majority was ensured on the SLO City Council with the election of Christine Mulholland.

In May, Nipomo's Save the Mesa teamed up with the Environmental Defense Center to sue the county for exceeding the 2.3 percent growth cap on the Nipomo Mesa, and won.

Paso Robles rancher Anne Nash and a group of concerned residents convinced the Local Area Formation Commission that a proposed auto mall at the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 46 was bad planning. Although approval of the project had been recommended by LAFCO staff on the grounds that it was "infill," the commission vetoed it after hearing from the public.

Significant scenic areas were preserved. The city of San Luis Obispo continues to increase the size of its greenbelt. The bluffs north of Cayucos are now part of a 350-acre state park. In November, 500 residents joined hands as the ribbon was cut on the 417-acre East-West Ranch in Cambria, which is now permanently protected open space. The 2,553-acre Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge, the first on the Central Coast, was dedicated Dec. 2.

PG&E gave up over 2,000 acres including 5.7 acres of coastline as settlement to end its dispute with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which accused the utility of altering the ocean environment by discharging heated water back into the ocean.

Avila Beach has been rebuilt, and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board is putting nearly $1 million into projects to improve the watershed above the town. Unocal completed the first stage of the cleanup of its oil spill under the Guadalupe Dunes.

And while SOAR might look finito, proponents are already resuscitating the proposal–by partnering with the enemy. Stay tuned.

–Anne Quinn

Mmm, Is That MTBE I Taste?

MTBE, a chemical gasoline additive that was intended to improve air quality by making gas burn more efficiently, continues to show up in groundwater all over the county.

In the year 2000 alone, discovery of MTBE at 63 SLO county sites was reported. MTBE leaks from gas stations have polluted ground water in Cambria, Los Osos, and Morro Bay. Contaminated wells have been shut down and steps have been taken to stop polluted groundwater from leaching into drinking water supplies. These moves pinch further the already-scant water resources of these coastal communities.

The latest battle over MTBE is being fought in Morro Bay, where the city is in a fight with Shell Oil Company and Equilon, a subsidiary that runs the company’s gas stations. Routine tests discovered a leak in the city sewer system that was allowing contaminated groundwater to enter the system. Following the MTBE plume back to its source, the city discovered that monitoring wells near the Shell gas station at the juncture of Highway 41 and Main Street had the highest concentrations.

On December 6, the tanks at the Shell Station were re-inspected by the county Environmental Health Department, and found to be within specifications. Shell Oil executives claim that the source of MTBE contamination is surface spills, from customers slopping gas at the pumps, and that since the company has stopped selling gas with MTBE at the pumps, the problem is resolved.

Environmental Health’s hazardous materials supervisor Jeff Poel disagrees. "To get what you’ve got out there, there had to be an underground leak," he said.

The city can’t order Shell to close down without due legal process, which is why it scheduled a nuisance abatement hearing for Jan. 3.

In the Salinas river, MTBE is coming from a different source. Jet skis, which burn fuel very inefficiently, dumped enough of the fuel additive into the river that it showed up in routine checks of the Atascadero Mutual Water Company’s monitoring wells.

The city is using an ordinance to prevent people from trespassing across water company property to get to a quarry that’s become a favorite jet ski spot, but enthusiasts have been seen cutting down fences and tearing through shrubbery to access their favorite pond.

–A.Q.

Master Plan Highlights Housing Crunch

While Cal Poly's latest master plan, which was released in its almost-final form in October, includes guidance on everything from physical additions to enrollment, its student housing projections have created the most stir.

To say that the rental housing market in San Luis Obispo is tight is like saying the presidential election was slightly unusual this year. Stories of students living on couches months into the school year, or sardined three and four to a room, abound. This year the university was even forced to house students in laundry rooms and common areas.

The master plan originally added just enough new housing to keep up with growing enrollment, adding about 3,000 beds in the next 20 years to the 3,600 already in place. Those extra beds would bump up on-campus living to almost 30 percent of the student population.

But outcries from community members and the city council forced school officials to re-evaluate their commitment to increase student housing. Carlyn Christianson, of ACTION for Healthy Communities, a local consortium of organizations and agencies concerned with quality-of-life issues, said she was pleased to see the university tackle future growth. "But what about the housing crunch right now?" she asked.

SLO Mayor Allen Settle, a Poly professor, thinks university leadership is being somewhat naive about enrollment growth–and about future faculty retention, an issue he says will hinge more and more on affordable housing. "There are going to be 100,000 new students in the next twenty years entering the CSU and UC systems," he said. "Someone is going to have to take more than 3,000 of those. We have to plan for it now."

According to Linda Dalton, vice provost for institutional planning, the university has stepped up to the housing plate. Not only have officials increased the number of beds the master plan originally called for by about 500, but they have fast-tracked another 1,150 to 1,300 beds. Dalton said the university hopes those beds will be ready sometime during the 2004—5 school year. That would put on-campus housing ahead of the enrollment curve, Dalton said.

The university is also in talks with Cuesta College about possibly helping the community college build housing for its students. Poly officials were quick to point out that the crunch comes in large part from Cuesta's growing enrollment, which includes increasing numbers of out-of-county students.

–Tracy Idell Hamilton

Copelands' Project: Parked by the New Council?

An unforeseen bump in what has otherwise been a remarkably smooth ride for the Copeland brothers and their vision for downtown comes from the newly-formed majority on the SLO city council.

Joined by like-minded Christine Mullholland, who was elected in November, councilmembers Jan Howell Marx and John Ewan asked that the expansion of the Marsh Street parking garage be reconsidered.

On their very first night as a majority, led by a memo request from Marx, the council agreed to revisit its own decision to accept any bid for the expansion that came in below $7.1 million. (Original estimates were so far out into the stratosphere that the plan had to be scaled back; a pedestrian walkway across Marsh Street, restrooms, and a stairwell were deleted.)

Marx and Ewan have never voted for the expansion for fear it would bring more cars and congestion into the downtown core.

But Tom Copeland made it clear in a letter to the city council that squelching the expansion could grind his plans to a halt. "If the Marsh Street garage expansion does not begin next spring as planned, our construction schedule cannot be met, we stand to lose our committed tenants and the risks and uncertainties surrounding the project may become too great to proceed," he wrote in a letter to the council.

Architect Mark Rawson, who is designing much of the project for the Copelands, said plans for redeveloping sections of downtown continue to go through the process. Rawson said he's preparing construction drawings, and that project planners have just had both Architecture Review Commission and Cultural Heritage Committee reviews.

"I really don't know how this is going to affect us," Rawson said, "because I don't think anyone knows what the council is going to do now. There's just been so much back and forth."

While neither Marx nor Ewan could be reached before deadline, Ewan has said in the past that he understands the community backing of the Copeland project, and doesn't want to do anything to derail it.

The issue is tentatively set to come back before the council on Jan. 23.

–T.I.H.

Binding Arbitration: Unused but Serving its Purpose?

Unspoken when negotiations between police or firefighter unions and the city are bargaining in good faith, the threat of binding arbitration now hangs in the air, a specter ready to be invoked whenever the union feels an impasse has been reached.

That hasn't yet happened during the latest round of negotiations with the police officer's union, but spokesman Jason Berg said just knowing it's there has changed the city's attitude. "All we wanted was a fair process, and I think that's what we have now."

He could not offer details of the negotiations. Ann Slate, the city's human resources director, was equally bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Berg, president of the police officers association, said the one meeting the city and the union has had so far was different in tone from pre—Measure S meetings. "It really seems like the attitude has changed; [the city] seems to be more cooperative," he said.

Slate was less sanguine about the new law–and the way she feels it was passed. "For me, at least, it's been a real disillusionment with the political process, because it's all about money." The issue was terribly complex, she said, but was made into a matter of simply being for firefighters and police or against them. Who would want to be against police and firefighters? she asked. Slate said she was saddened to see some local politicians attach themselves to the issue because it was easy to side with the firefighters and the police, not because they believed in binding arbitration. "The ethics were just so situational," she said.

San Luis Obispo's binding arbitration law goes farther than the recently passed state version in allowing working conditions to be part of the arbitration package. Statewide, police and firefighter unions may only have salary issues arbitrated.

–T.I.H.

Los Osos Sewer Project On Track–Again

The Los Osos Community Services District board, with one re-elected member and one new one, is once again on track to bring its state-mandated wastewater treatment plant online by the year 2004.

Of course plans have been on track for a sewer system to replace Los Osos' ailing septic system before. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has been dealing with Los Osos sewage concerns for almost twenty years. This time, the control board set a timeline with hefty fines attached–up to $10,000 per day if deadlines are not met.

So far, so good. The CSD is currently circulating the draft Environmental Impact Report for public comment. As of this writing, those comments are few and far between. Although earlier community meetings over issues such as where to site the sewer plant have been well-attended and often heated, at the Dec. 7 meeting to take comments on the EIR, CSD General Manager Bruce Buel said, "We only got four minor comments. We were expecting dozens."

Once the comments have been addressed and the EIR certified, Los Osos property owners will finally vote on a new tax that will pay for the plant.

Plant estimates right now are running at about $72.4 million. That translates into about $67 per month for property owners, Buel said–a number he hopes will go down with Congress' authorization of the project. That authorization allows the CSD to compete for federal dollars to defray costs to property owners. "Our biggest concern has always been cost," he said.

Buel said the CSD would be going after about $50 million, which would reduce the homeowners’ share by two-thirds.

The plant will be located within an 11-acre site known as Tri-W. The area surrounding the plant will be mostly park, according to the plan, and most of the treatment plant will be below ground. The entire area is to be scrubbed clean of odors.

The CSD, which formed in 1998 with overwhelming support from residents, re-elected Rose Bowker, past board president, and elected first-timer Frank Freiler, who served as a liaison between the county Board of Supervisors and the Solutions Group, a community-based precursor to the CSD.

–T.I.H.

Gov. Finally Grants Parole to Some; Santa Maria Man Continues to Wait

Last spring, New Times reported on the case of Santa Maria's Christopher Capistran, one of dozens of California prisoners who were granted parole only to have it yanked away at the last minute by Gov. Gray Davis.

Capistran was convicted of second degree murder when he was 17 for throwing the first punch in a gang-related melee that resulted in the death of a young man. Since then he has served almost 16 years, learned three trades, enrolled in every self-help program the prison offers, won commendations from staff, and received glowing reports from evaluators. It was for these reasons the Board of Prison Terms recommended he be paroled.

But it was not to be. Just days before his release, Davis squashed Capistran’s dreams of a new life with a review that, according to followers of the case, was based on erroneous information.

It turns out that Capistran was not the only inmate to earn his freedom only to have the decision to free him overturned by the governor. Critics began accusing Gov. Davis of having an unofficial no-parole policy for prisoners convicted of the most serious crimes. While his office categorically denied that the governor has such a policy, inmates from around the state began to sue.

One high-profile case involved Robert Rosenkrantz, a man convicted of killing another man after that man told Rosenkrantz's father that Rosenkrantz was gay. Like Capistran, Rosenkrantz has been a model prisoner, and even the notoriously hard-nosed board believed he had been rehabilitated. Rosenkrantz convinced the court that his parole had been wrongfully overturned by the governor, and demanded that he be given another parole hearing. That occurred in October, with the board once again finding Rosenkrantz suitable for parole.

Once again, however, Davis overturned the decision. Rosenkrantz's lawyer, Rowan Klein, has been away for the holidays, and did not comment’ but those following the issue believe it will end up back in the courts.

Meanwhile, Davis pre-empted his critics when he upheld a decision to release Rose Ann Parker, a woman convicted of second degree murder for killing her abusive boyfriend. Davis said the fact that statutes allowing for self-defense in domestic abuse cases were not on the books when Parker was tried played a part in his decision.

Since then, while several others have been released on parole, Capistran continues to languish in prison. Another parole date had been set for November, but it was postponed without explanation. The most Board of Prison Terms officials will say is that Capistran has a hearing scheduled for "sometime next year."

Don Landers, Capistran’s sixth grade teacher and main booster, said the support he and Capistran have received since the story was published has been enormous. He said a letter-writing campaign to the governor continues, and Rosenkrantz's lawyer Klein has taken up his case. That Davis' appointees to the board continue in the same tough-on-crime vein scares Landers a little, he said, but his energy and devotion is unflagging. "We're going to get this guy out, you just wait and see," he said.

–T.I.H.

Weyrich Deal May Have Spurred Council Changes

David Weyrich, the millionaire businessman whose latent Hearst tendencies pushed him to start publishing the Gazettes, that rapidly dwindling chain of community newspapers, continues to make friends and influence people (and development) in the North County.

Weyrich, who owns Martin & Weyrich Winery and Weyrich Development Corporation, has been a busy man. He continues to buy huge tracts of land for future development, was finally cited for parking his mobile billboard all over Paso, is suing a former billboard partner for breach of contact, and has angered half of Paso Robles over "the airport deal."

In October, the city of Paso Robles agreed to give another of Weyrich’s companies, North American Jet Charter, a lease for fixed based operator services at the airport, including charter jets, pilot services, and fuel sales. The company charters jets for $1,500 to 3,000 an hour. The lease includes seven years’ free rent (worth approximately $343,000), a reimbursement from the city to Weyrich for improvements to its airport properties (worth another $475,000) and a waiver of the city’s 5-cent-per-gallon fuel fees for seven years (worth an additional estimated $77,000).

At nearly the same time, the Paso Robles City Council considered a report from an Oregon consulting firm pointing out that 25 more firefighters needed to be added to the Paso Robles force to bring its response time down to a life-saving four minutes. The city said it couldn’t afford to hire the additional firefighters.

As public criticism of Weyrich's sweetheart deal in conjunction with the city’s inability to pay for essential services was growing, the news broke that the city had agreed to pay $1.15 million to buy out Aero Services, the airport's fuel distributor, for Weyrich, bringing the price tag for the city’s half of the deal to a cool $3.2 million.

Two city council members who negotiated the deal, Walt Macklin and Lee Swanson, were defeated when they ran for reelection less than a month later. At the first meeting of the newly elected council under Paso Robles’ new mayor, Frank Meecham, the council voted to hire 25 new firefighters after all.

Weyrich Development is also renovating a crumbling Atascadero landmark, the Carlton Hotel, and is planting vineyards in the Edna Valley.

–A.Q.

After Protracted Battle, Krebs Trial Moves to Monterey

The man accused of raping, torturing and killing Aundria Crawford and Rachel Newhouse, the man who called himself a monster and the day after his arrest said he deserved the death penalty, the man who later pleaded not guilty to those crimes, will finally have his day in court.

Monterey's court, that is. After a year of legal wrangling, the double-murder trial of Rex Allan Krebs will begin on February 13 in Monterey County Superior Court.

Back in January, Judge Barry LaBarbera had postponed the trial until June of this year, pushing back the original April date.

In April, a survey of 320 SLO County residents found more than 80 percent believed Krebs guilty of the murders, fueling the defense's push for a change of venue–something that’s rarely granted. When LaBarbera refused, defense attorneys appealed to a higher court, which granted the change.

Once the change had been approved, the same attorneys asked to be taken off the case, saying the travel time would be a hardship on the rest of their caseloads. LaBarbera refused their request.

In the latest twist, both the defense and the District Attorney's office have subpoenaed the notes of former Fresno Bee reporter Michael Krikorian, who interviewed Krebs in jail the night of his arrest. A defendant's right to a fair trial outweighs a journalist's right to protect his or her notes, Krebs’ attorneys argued.

But the attorney representing Krikorian, who now works for the Los Angeles Times, said the defense so far has failed to show how the reporter's notes will assist Krebs in his trial.

The D.A. wants Krikorian to testify about quotes that appeared in the newspaper, which the law allows for, said Krebs’ lawyer.

At stake is the state's shield law, which offers reporters protection from having to testify in court about their confidential sources and protects unpublished notes from subpoena. LaBarbera is expected to decide on Jan. 8 whether Krikorian must testify.

–T.I.H.

Tiny Pest Threatens Vineyards; Pesticides to Control It Threaten Residents

While the state pours millions into efforts to eradicate the glassy-winged sharpshooter from its vineyards and orange groves, counties that await the pest must decide how to fight it.

In San Luis Obispo County, the decision to use pesticides if the bug takes up residence here has struck fear into some chemically sensitive residents.

The stakes are high: Wine is now a $33 billion industry in California, and the fast-moving sharpshooter carries bacteria that cause a plant disease that, in wine grapes, is both incurable and fatal. In SLO County, wine grapes are the number one ag commodity, with an annual value of more than $80 million. The wine industry as a whole brings more than $170 million to the county.

While Riverside County experiments with wasps that kill sharpshooter eggs, and Sacramento County has begun spraying pesticides–two approaches in a statewide $30 million eradication effort–officials in San Luis County have the luxury to ponder their options.

In their discussions of possible pesticide use, both the state and the county's ag commissioners have emphasized that the chemicals in question are safe for backyard use.

But Pam Marshall Heatherington, the new executive director of the Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo County, has said she would like to see a risk/benefit analysis that includes all alternatives.

For now, local growers are focusing on monitoring efforts and creating a registry for chemically sensitive people.

–T.I.H.