In 2024 direct democracy won battles in San Luis Obispo County. Atascadero residents voted to continue to elect their city treasurer. Morro Bay citizens said no to battery energy storage in their industrial area.
But nowhere in the county were citizens more active than in Grover Beach. In 2024, Grover Beach voters fought for direct democracy and took action in the thousands.
They repealed water rate hikes through the (G-24) nonpartisan citizen ballot initiative. They stopped a flawed water project, Central Coast Blue. They won a lawsuit when city officials illegally blocked their recall efforts and went on to recall one council member (only 17 percent of local recalls succeed).
After the city blocked their recall efforts for three months, they went to court where the SLO Superior Court judge determined that the city violated election law, and commanded the city clerk to release the petitions. The city attorney now admits that the council has to date authorized more than $94,000 to pay for defending their illegal actions. Come January, the court will likely demand that the city pay the citizens’ legal bills, an amount that could total up to $200,000 to cover the city and citizens’ legal expenses.
In 2026 voters will get to decide if they would prefer to elect their city clerk, who is the elections official, rather having the clerk appointed by the city manager. This happened because more than 1,000 Grover voters worked to put this citizens’ initiative on the ballot.
They are not done yet. The citizens’ group Grover H2O created a petition for a ballot initiative that would ask the community if they would prefer to elect their city attorney rather than have the attorney appointed by the council. They have until June 2025 to gather those 1,000 signatures.
It all began back in September 2023, when Grover Beach water consumers received letters from the city saying water bills would quadruple by 2028 to finance the Central Coast Blue water reclamation project. Just a year earlier, they had been reassured by the city manager, Matthew Bronson, that 2021 increases would fully fund the project.
The letter was the first notice in the Proposition 218 process whereby the rates would go up unless 50 percent plus one of the water customers got a letter to City Hall saying they opposed it, referred to as a “protest vote.” In a city that is 50 percent rentals and has a large number of industrial and commercial water customers, that was an impossible task. Several citizens banded together to send a template for a protest letter to all 5,000 water customers, including those with out-of-town addresses.
The city then realized they hadn’t mailed to their out-of-town addressees, and the City Council voted to start the process over. Water customers were told that protest votes sent before the city do-over would not count. Then the City Council directed that they would count. Nevertheless, the city manager, Bronson, sent the second mailing saying the protest votes would not count.
Despite the odds, 2,000 households sent a protest letter in time for the Proposition 218 hearing on Dec. 11, 2023. Three (male) hydrologists and a civil engineer spoke at the meeting, advising the council that the project was flawed and should be dropped. At least one male speaker told the council they would be recalled if they voted in favor of the increase. The council did not heed their warnings and approved the water rate increase.
The citizens, who had by then banded together as a nonpartisan political action committee, called themselves Grover H2O. They were responsible for investigating and advocating against the Central Coast Blue project, which is not and was not a viable solution to increase Grover’s water supply. (It is questionable whether Grover really has a water problem—the local coastal program states that Grover has sufficient water for their buildout population around 15,000, but the city does want to increase and broaden its options for additional water.)
Except for this group and their supporters and their tireless commitment to the truth, the Grover Beach and the Arroyo Grande city councils would have not pulled out of the project. Grover Beach taxpayers would be stuck with large water bills, torn up streets, ugly pumping stations, neighborhoods disrupted by large drilling cranes, and a project that would provide very little water at exorbitant prices.
Yet rather than reporting on these unprecedented grassroots success stories of the “little city that could,” the local press disparages the group and calls them names. Although many of the protests have been raised by men, only the women in the movement are being singled out by the press. They have been ridiculed, denigrated, and dismissed by misogynistic writers in the local papers.
In a bizarre twist, while Grover H2O has stuck to the issues and embraced a yearlong nonpartisan campaign to save their community thousands of dollars, the press and fans of the City Council call Grover H2O leaders liars and hateful. If you are going to attach labels to the women in the movement who have researched, walked, authored, and petitioned, I say they are heroes, champions, leaders, or advocates. People usually say, “You can’t beat City Hall!” Maybe it’s time to give credit where credit is due.
My New Year’s wish and hope for 2025 is that democracy will thrive, and City Hall will listen and say, “You can’t beat the People!” Δ
Cheryl Storton writes from Arroyo Grande. She’s the past president of the South County Democratic Club. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Volunteers 2025.
I’d like to remind readers that in 2021, Mrs. Storton falsely accused a male youth minister of “maybe” being a sex offender.
This is not and should not be a gender game.
Criticism we’ve seen, in the local media, is solely based on the words and actions of certain individuals who’ve garnered controversy. Criticizing someone, who happens to be a woman, is not inherently misogynistic. Making that claim about men appeals to misandry, which is contempt or prejudice against men. It can go both ways.
The actions of the prominent members of Grover H20, who happen to be women, have been deplorably undemocratic. Narcissism affects both sexes, as does uncivil and disrespectful behavior. Apparently Storten has not been present when this behavior has been displayed by female members of Grover H20. There are certainly men in H20 who are responsible for uncivil behavior, and I have been a recipient of their insults and disrespect, but they mostly lurk on social media or conspire among their brethren. But if they show up in public, believe me, it will be noted.
Agreed, gender should never be a basis for any kind of gaslighting, trolling, or targeting!
Stegman and Ochs are “paid” trolls to promulgating misinformation, misleading information, for reasons that are not clear. They simply do not like opposition to city actions in any form, be it male or female, despite experts in their fields, and despite citizens having an obligation and duty to be involved in local government … they want to silence and disparage anyone not going along to get along like so many already do … so, please know they have ulterior motives to any and all of their comments … follow the money, power and influence behind any of their comments ⚖️
This article is amazing! Thank you to the Author. I have said for a long time that Politics as usual is over. It will have to change at the local levels and trickle up because it has been going wrong for far too long. This is a great start and I am impressed with what can happen when people really do listen and work together to make things better.
In a letter claiming Grover H2O volunteers are not drama queens, Grover H2O shows up acting like drama queens.
Debbie Peterson wrote a book that profited off a corrupt county supervisor’s suicide. And I apparently made a cameo appearance in there where she falsely accused me of engaging in lewd conduct, being paid by the county supervisor to demean critics, and she claimed I spread rumors about a local blogger murdering her daughter. That checks the boxes for gaslighting, trolling and targeting. She also meets the criteria in her own book title for sleaze, lies and suicide. Peterson used her book and unsubstantiated claims of corruption of the Grover Beach City Council to launch a failed campaign for mayor. I can hardly imagine why she lost.
Or maybe she lost because she exploited PG&E’s low-income water discount program: https://www.yahoo.com/news/debbie-peterson…
Elizabeth Doukas was involved in a prolonged period of harassment of her neighbors, which resulted in calls to law enforcement. Even the District Attorney’s office was involved: https://www.newtimesslo.com/news/grover-be…
In a conversation she had with me in 2016, Doukas referred to former Grover Beach mayor John Shoals as a “bad black.” Doukas has falsely claimed for years I’m a “paid troll,” at one point claiming I was a “paid hacker” for the Democratic Illuminati, or something like that. Hard to remember with all the imaginary, shadowy cabal checks I’ve cashed.
It’s quite possible that it’s not about what you are. Rather, it’s about what you say and do.
This letter is much appreciated! A quick search of Aaron Ochs will tell you all you need to know about him. He’s a blogger who is still salty about being in Peterson’s book. He’s made wild accusations about Peterson including saying his “life was threatened” because of his opposition to her. Now he scours the internet looking for opportunities to troll any story or post about her and her efforts to help Grover Beach.
Funny how women keep standing up to trolls like Ochs only for this miscreant to keep lying over and over again to protect corruption alive across the board. Aaron Ochs misleads and gaslights with the best trying to quash any truth in reporting. Ochs’ comments about me saying ANYTHING about “bad black” is made up troll stuff that he likes to use to disparage people like myself seeking lawful justice in the cities we live in.
Because New Times gives these trolls permission without investigation to say such atrocities only shows how important real journalism is !!
Residents have every right — and even a responsibility — to hold their leaders accountable and seek justice when they believe wrongdoing has occurred. There is no question that corruption can exist in government, and public scrutiny is a crucial tool for transparency. However, it’s vital that these efforts to expose corruption remain grounded in facts and evidence. Seek truth with integrity.
When people resort to spreading conspiracy theories or unfounded claims, it doesn’t strengthen their cause — it weakens it. Such tactics make it harder for genuine concerns to be heard, and they can erode trust in legitimate efforts to bring about reform. Worse, misinformation can allow truly corrupt leaders to stay in power by distracting from real issues.
Seeking justice should be about truth and accountability, not rumors or speculation. Communities are strongest when they work together, armed with facts, to demand better from their institutions.
But, it has to be accomplished ethically and morally by governmental representatives that are truly interested in real truth as opposed to “pro-build” rhetoric dismissing the voices of the people. The Chambers of Commerce and builders have a great interest in building at all costs without regard to actual resources and resort to their own misinformation about the truth so they can accomplish their “business plan,” as opposed to actually listening to their constituents and to NOT gaslight people just because we disagree. IF our best interests are at the core of their decision-making, as has been falsely represented, then we the citizens would know that, but In fact the opposite is true // taxation without representation ⚖️
Goodluck new mayor of Grover. Now you have to deal with these idiots.