What do we do with Dan Dow—the county’s elected official with the biggest mouth?
After low-key threatening to sue the county if it didn’t fund his late-to-the-game budget request for the District Attorney’s Office, he did walk it back ever so slightly. Dow and outgoing 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson sparred over the comment in May.
While Dow didn’t threaten the board in quite the same way when he begged for more funding on June 8, he once again accused it of flouting its legal obligation if the county didn’t acquiesce to his after-hours request.
“Often in budgetary discussions, I hear that there are other things that compete for your primary responsibility,” he said. “The protection of public safety is the first responsibility of local government, and local government officials have an obligation to give priority to the provision of adequate public safety services.”
So, which public safety department is giving up dollars so the DA can have two more deputy district attorneys, a paralegal, and an admin assistant? Any volunteers?
If his office doesn’t get these five positions, then it means his office can’t adequately do its job. It’s “constrained,” he said. Besides, he whined, the office has had to make cuts for the last five or six years: “We can’t sustain that.”
Welp, sorry to be the bearer of this bad news in case you missed the memo, but this whole budget thing is applicable to the entire county. All 26 departments, as everyone on the dais noted. Every one of them has had to make undesirable cuts and go without needed positions.
That’s the name of the budget game when things get tight—when revenue plateaus or decreases but costs continue to increase, the belt gets cinched tighter. Hello, aren’t you a conservative?
Dow also accused the Executive Office of working with the DA’s Office in bad faith.
The careful word choices that County Executive Officer Matt Pontes responded with were a master class in trying really hard not to sound offended and not to cause offense.
“The DA made a passionate good plea,” Pontes said, later adding that the Executive Office talked to Dow about being more strategic about his department’s needs and potentially doing a management audit similar to other departments. Incidentally, Pontes added that he wants to do the same with the Sheriff’s Office.
I don’t think Dow or Sheriff Ian Parkison are going to let that happen! Plus, 1st District Supervisor John Peschong said, don’t worry, the DA’s Office won’t get the management audit treatment. Really? Where are all the conservatives out there who were so concerned about government efficiency that they supported Trump slicing and dicing through federal agencies?
Oh wait, supporting criminal prosecution is politically expedient.
Gibson took umbrage—so much umbrage that I grabbed some popcorn.
“The DA has the discretion, in fact the responsibility, to deploy, deploy his resources to take care of the needs of the county,” Gibson said. “And I think there’s evidence that they’re not being deployed as well as they should.”
He brought up a recruiting video, which said the opposite of what Dow expressed to the board that day: “The workload for a deputy district attorney is extremely taxing,” Dow said earlier. “They need the additional support.”
Over the past three years, their case count has increased by 11 percent, Dow said, with nearly 12,000 cases referred to the office last year.
By contrast, Gibson said, the video highlighted the relative lightness of each attorney’s load. It’s so petty to bring up a recruiting video, but I’m here for it.
He didn’t stop there. Gibson accused the DA of having low conviction rates. The DA’s Office isn’t applying resources as efficiently as it can, so the board shouldn’t grant any of Dow’s requests, Gibson added.
Harumph! Harumph! Harumph!
The DA clapped back a day later with an announcement!
The office’s felony conviction rate is above 80 percent. And it’s higher than the state’s average. So there!
What’s conspicuously missing is the actual number of cases that hit the court system. So—the department had almost 12,000 cases referred to it last year. How many of those got convictions? I’ve heard rumors that the office doesn’t prosecute that many of the cases it receives.
But I can neither confirm nor deny that. Maybe we’ll get another urgent announcement? I can only hope that I’m as important as Gibson in this game of political slights. Harumph!
Speaking of politics, the primary races in SLO County are exciting! Initially, Michael Erin Woody was beating Gibson’s chosen successor, Jim Dantona. But that’s no longer the case. Dantona is now in the lead, with a little less than 1,000 votes separating the two. Jimmy Paulding is probably breathing a sign of relief because his lead over 4th District challenger Adam Verdin strengthened from about 360 votes to more than 1,200.
But there are still more than 30,000 votes to count as of June 10! Geez. Hurry up and wait.
I really don’t think that Dantona will be able to dish out the level of snark and disdain that Gibson has a penchant for. Gibson’s ability to talk down to someone from the dais is unmatched, and as an avid consumer of Board of Supervisors meetings, I’m going to miss his condescending ways. ∆
The Shredder is snarky too. Send slights to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in June 11-18, 2026.
