Grover Beach is turning over a new leaf, according to recently elected Mayor Kassi Dee, who promises to help rebuild trust between the community and its City Council.
And if the groans accompanying one particularly vocal Grover H2O member’s turn at the microphone—it was Brenda Auer—during public comment on Dec. 9 are any indication about where the community stands on the year of division, residents are ready to rid themselves of the drama.
But I’m not!
Hey, Shredder’s gotta shred, amirite?
In an unusually quiet public comment, Debbie Peterson was suddenly worried about trees. After a full year of tirades about water rates, Central Coast Blue, and how terrible and corrupt the City Council is, the leader of the group formerly known as Grover H2O is concerned that Grover Beach is treeless! I say “formerly known as” because the Grover H2O website no longer exists!
Interesting.
Peterson lost her bid to become mayor again (thank the gods!) and is possibly planting the seeds to grow her next rabble-rousing chorus of malcontents. Perhaps she could call it Grover Trees? They could accuse the council of being anti-environment and colluding with Public Works to pave the roads! As if that needed to happen!
Oh wait, it did.
I’m not sure how many hysterical voices she could pull together, but drama queens and kings like to drama—so I’m sure the Auers of the world are just tingling with anticipation for their next call to action! However, the group of folks who were gathered at the Dec. 9 Grover Beach City Council meeting were appalled at what’s transpired in the past year.
“I’ve never seen so much hate. … I’m so tired of it, and I’m really ashamed of the public for what they’ve done here to Dan,” 35-year city resident Katherine Sells said during public comment. “I’m really happy that [Kassi] is going to be our new mayor. I think she’ll do a great job, and I hope she can help us get some of the hate out of our community. I’m just really sad about this whole thing.”
Poor Dan Rushing! He was swept up in the madness thanks to Grover H2O’s smear campaign against him alongside the push to recall him. Well, it worked. He took his leave on Dec. 9 as did the relieved former Mayor Karen Bright and former Councilmember Zach Zimmerman—who no longer have to deal with the unhinged toxicity they’ve been subjected to for months and months.
At least there’s a glimmer of hope for a reprieve in Grover. I can’t say the same for Paso Robles, which is knee deep and getting deeper in tit-for-tat ridiculousness.
Linda George is a thorn in the side of local government and doesn’t plan to quit that job anytime soon. The failed Paso City Council candidate, who placed third in the contest for the 1st District council seat, filed a claim against the city demanding that it fire City Manager Ty Lewis, her self-proclaimed nemesis.
In a rambling complaint that obviously wasn’t vetted by an attorney, George accused Lewis of conspiring to impact the campaigns of herself and fellow failed candidate Michael Rivera, among other things.
“[Lewis] is required to perform his jobs to the best of his ability and moral turpitude,” the claim reads. “He has not and remains incompetent of the job.”
Methinks turpitude is not what George thinks it is. It is defined as “depravity, wickedness.” She may think Lewis is wicked, but the sentence isn’t about what she thinks he is; it’s about what she thinks he should be.
A proofreader would have been good, Linda. Or even just a reread, probably.
She called her little piece of 18-page work a “checkmate” against Lewis. She’s upset about a lot of things. She accuses everyone on the City Council—except her bestie, Chris Bausch—of being in on the conspiracy alongside local media outlets and voting in unison with whatever Lewis wanted. Oh, and she wants $500,000 in compensation for the injury that all of this caused to her.
I also want $500,000 from the city for having to hear about all of this!
“I’m not saying, ‘Oh my God, I lost because of them,'” she said.
Really? It sure sounds like you are. It must be nice to just blame all of your problems on other people!
Lewis, who filed his own claim against the city and Bausch in August, said he doesn’t think her claim has any merit.
“There’s a lot to digest and unpack in there,” he said. “It’s carrying her grievances with the media, with local community members.”
Oh, it’s the media’s fault, too? Man. All the media did was try to understand what the hell is going on in Paso, which devolved into the same toxicity that Grover Beach did thanks to a select few residents who might be just a little too loud and a little too entitled.
I guess the saving grace in all of this is that none of those toxic people made it onto the dais. Sharon Roden, who ran against George and also lost to Kris Beal for the 1st District seat, said she sometimes thinks that George just “talks to get a reaction.”
She’s not wrong. Some people just love the drama. Δ
The Shredder is a drama queen and short king. Send comments to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 12-22, 2024.
I watched the Grover meeting and painfully watched (with a glass of cheap wine in hand) Brenda Auer cast her crap-filled mix of threats (“remember we recalled three of you”) and faith (“I pray for you”). She acts like she’s the 6th councilmember (remember Murray the K – the 5th Beatle?), but she ain’t. She’s a clueless loudmouth empowered by the now “Tree Queen” and apparent fraudster Peterson. Between these two and Pam Storton, their attempt to manipulate the appointment of Rushing’s replacement was so apparent and thankfully ignored by the council. This whole painful spectacle (BTW, Auer left the meeting and then called in remotely just to spew more nonsense), reminds me to suggest to the council to “keep handing them rope.”
“Where’s my Roy Cohn?”