In a world full of national political dysfunction, it’s so good to know that local governments work for the people!
Or do they? In northern San Luis Obispo County, we’ve got two shining examples of special districts gone wild. Oceano Community Services District, this is your cue to breathe a deep sigh of relief!
We’ve got a different district vying for the Most Contentious Discord title this year. It’s San Miguel, which has been inching ever closer to the top spot for about a year now.
The San Miguel Community Services District board has been openly bickering for months, and that bickering has devolved into shouting and allegations of misconduct, a censure threat, and a lawsuit threat. Sounds comfortable.
In May, board members Ashley Sangster and John Green filed formal complaints against fellow board member Rod Smiley, accusing him of making personal attacks, “hateful remarks,” and serving to “further divide the board.” Oh, also, they said his conduct was “unbecoming of a representative.” I can think of a few national politicians who deserve that title, but does Smiley?
It’s hard to say. If you watch the board meetings, he doesn’t seem to. His really “bad” behavior, Sangster said, happened when the cameras weren’t recording!
“Just to clarify to the public, the incident took place in closed session,” Sangster said. “There is no video.”
My, my, that’s convenient!
One resident insinuated that it’s not actually Smiley who’s the aggressor.
“I couldn’t see anything you guys were talking about,” former board member Raynette Gregory told the board. “What I did see is Director Green being very aggressive to Director Smiley.”
Gregory isn’t the only one who thinks that: “John Green is on video shouting and getting in Rod’s face,” another resident told the board.
Sure seems like the pot calling the kettle black. The complaints were formalized into a potential censure of Smiley, which was slated for the CSD’s September meeting.
Smiley lawyered up, which is a bit dramatic, don’t you think? A censure is simply a formal reprimand from your board colleagues, which might suck, but it doesn’t really do much more than that.
District staff said it would cost taxpayers $100K to defend itself against a lawsuit like that, so Green and Sangster folded like a deck of shakily stacked playing cards. They pulled their censure request.
We are all in the wrong business, amirite? Should we all become lawyers? The Tribune’s legal fees for its lawsuit against the city of Paso Robles totaled up to $250,000, and the newspaper didn’t even get the smoking gun it was looking for to shoot Councilmember Chris Bausch out of his council seat. But back to San Miguel.
“I don’t feel that a $100,000-plus lawsuit is in the interest of the public,” Sangster said. “I think that’s asinine, and I think it’s rude and contemptuous for him to even insinuate that he would take $100,000 of your public money. So, with that said, I repeal my complaint against Mr. Smiley.”
Wow. How big of you!
Meanwhile, the board has also bandied about potential dissolution—why is that so hip right now? San Simeon is going through it, and it doesn’t sound fun!
Things in San Simeon are so bad that the Community Services District board asked the county to step in and help on an emergency basis. The district doesn’t have a general manager. It only has two of five board members. And residents still need water and wastewater services.
Some of this came about because the board didn’t want to raise rates on district customers to pay for needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades—and guess what? The county is likely going to raise water and wastewater rates to pay for all the things that are starting to fall apart in the district, things the district’s board and short-time interim manager didn’t have the political will to move forward.
Instead, they went with the easy option of dissolving! Not the easy option. The CSD has been working on dissolution for a year now and has at least another year to go. In the meantime, it seems like the district has allowed itself to dissolve and decay from the inside out.
Lame. Talk about dysfunction—or is it apathy?
So the county has to step in, but 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson and county Public Works Division Manager Suzie Watkins made sure everyone who watched the Oct. 9 district board meeting knew it was temporary.
Now the county has to do the district’s job, which is crazy—including conduct the dissolution study, replace aging water meters, maintain utility infrastructure, and complete a rate increase study. Did San Simeon think it would be cheaper for the county to do the district’s job? Because it ain’t, people.
The county can’t even figure out how to put a temporary bridge in for rural Arroyo Grande residents without the costs tripling. Originally slated to cost as much as The Tribune’s legal fees, the county’s cost to put a temporary bridge in over Arroyo Grande Creek on Cecchetti Road increased to $650,000 in just three months.
Wow. Talk about a shortsighted estimate!
Putting in a permanent bridge will cost $8 million to $9 million. Is it worth more than half a million to have a rent-a-bridge for six months? ∆
Call non-licensed attorney-at-law The Shredder for your next legal battle. Send cases to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 16-26, 2025.
“One atom bomb van ruin your whole day” was a bumper sticker I used to occasionally see as I grew up here in California. Let’s keep our eye on the prize. While The Shredder spills gallons of ink writing about lilliputians dealing with lilliputian problems, our military industrial complex, acting through our Commander-in-Chief and whom I voted for because he said he’d “end the war in 24 hours, is about to send Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine so it’s coked up dictator can launch them deep into Russia. This can only happen with US staff providing the targeting data and technical assistance. Worse, the missiles come with both “conventional” high explosive warheads or nuclear warheads. For it’s nation’s safety, Russia will have to assume they are the nuclear version. Does this mean a nuclear counterstrike? Are we about to die?
In light of this, do any of us really care about the politics of a backwater town like Shandon? Nay.
You believe anything Trump says? That’s on you. Good luck.
Barney:
It’s a matter of logic, why would I vote for a party (yours) that a few months prior to the republican candidate being sworn in, was supplying and operating the MLRS systems and firing rockets into the Russian heartland? Your Commander-in-Chief have permission for those systems to be given to the corrupt Zylenski regime and gave the green light for them to be fired into Russia. You must be a millennial, because your parents didn’t live through the Cuban missile crisis and express their genuine fear of dying in a nuclear exchange, as an Xer, my parents sure did. It’s that, or you seriously under estimate Russia or don’t have a family whom you’d like to see live. I for one and millions more, would vote for a ham sandwich if it said they’d “end the war within 24 hours” if elected. Further, your candidate was so enfeebled, as the record shows, that he was forced to quit the race and was replaced by a wine mom. So who exactly is the fool??