The April 9 New Times article, “Los Osos CSD unanimously approves continued Cal Fire services,” speaks only to the action the board took at its monthly board meeting the week before. The reality is that the Los Osos Community Services District (LOCSD) head-faked the city of Morro Bay into spending a great deal of time on an apple-to-oranges proposal for emergency services, in what was a predetermined no-brainer to stay with Cal Fire.
The community of Los Osos is at a financial crossroads. On one hand it’s grappling with the high cost of emergency services and the very real potential for a significant increase in its special fire tax, while on the other hand, its board is distracted by the “shiny object” of trying to buy the former Sunnyside Elementary property for a park. Paradoxically, and understandably, the county and other CSDs are looking to off-load or reduce their parks and recreation burdens.
The tax elephant in the LOCSD boardroom was Measure B-26, which will appear on the June 2 ballot for Los Osos which, if passed, will force the LOCSD to pay around $6 million to purchase the 75-year-old Sunnyside Elementary school. The intent of the measure is to compel the LOCSD, which has no experience in these services, to operate and maintain dilapidated classrooms, multipurpose spaces, and care for and reclaim the squirrel-infested grounds.
LOCSD instigated the Measure B-26 effort by ponying up more than $100,000 in recreation funds (commonly referred to as “pool funds”) to pay for legal counsel to negotiate a purchase of Sunnyside on behalf of LOCSD, a telephone survey of Los Osos residents, and architectural renderings of what “could be” if we tax ourselves enough to purchase and maintain the site. Yet, the cost to realize what “could be” is not included in Measure B-26.
The LOCSD’s money is assisting a handful of residents in their wish to tax each parcel of land (large or small, developed or not) $185 a year for the next 15 years. The initial “pool fund” was set up in the 1990s after the county facilitated a successful advisory vote of the citizens of Los Osos, collecting $40 from each developed residential parcel intending to fund a community pool. A short time later, California’s Proposition 218 was passed, and when the recreation tax measure was brought to the voters, now needing a two-thirds majority necessary to pass, it failed. The money should have been returned to those who had paid; instead the “pool fund” of about $250,000 was transferred to the newly formed LOCSD.
The community of Los Osos is at a financial crossroads. On one hand it’s grappling with the high cost of emergency services … while on the other hand, its board is distracted by the ‘shiny object’ of trying to buy the former Sunnyside Elementary property for a park.
Over many years and many boards, it was agreed that the fund was a “sacred cow,” and pushed back on several LOCSD general managers who recommended drawing upon it for salaries and benefits of office staff. Until fiscal year 2015-16, the fund was off limits. After that, the board quietly began drawing on the fund for administration in 2015. In addition to drawing administrative funds from the “pool fund,” the district board at that time assigned legal counsel to explore dog and pocket parks, which drew the fund down further, with no tangible results.
From 2019 to 2024, the board allocated general property tax dollars (previously allocated to the water fund) to the parks fund, bringing the balance to more than $325,000. Since building a pool was a distant memory, the thinking was the fund would build a $300,000 dog park on land leased from the county, just north of the tennis courts at the Community Park.
Reallocating the general property tax to parks and recreation was hotly contested. Those of us paying attention argued that those funds, while only a few dollars in the scheme of things, should be allocated to the fire fund.
Over the last several years, the board has become acutely aware that the fire station is in dire need of modernization, renovation, expansion, or complete replacement. Coupled with the rising cost of emergency service staffing, it has not been a secret that the current special fire tax would soon become insufficient and would need to be increased.
Early last year, the school district notified the LOCSD that Sunnyside Elementary was for sale; the board members lost sight of funding the dog park and began to pursue the purchase of the school. Knowing full well the LOCSD couldn’t fund $6 million for the purchase or operations and maintenance, they knew they needed the taxpayers to fund the tax elephant.
Long story short, the recreation fund, as it stands today has less than $200,000 in it. The money that was to have been for a pool, then a dog park, is dwindling.
The park tax and fire tax appear to be competing. Come June, Los Osos voters will see the parks and recreation tax of $185 per year per parcel on the ballot; while the needed “significant increase” to our fire tax will probably be on a ballot in the near future, at this juncture.
Los Osos voters are not being given a choice between parks and fire taxes. It is quite possible there may not be the community bandwidth for additional taxes, causing one, the other, or both to fail. I recommend putting your money toward critical services.
Support our firefighters. Vote no on Measure B-26 for parks and support the special fire tax increase when it appears on a future ballot. ∆
Julie Tacker is a former Los Osos Community Services District board member and a 20-year countywide activist.
This article appears in April 16-23, 2026.
Trying to keep government’s hands off of other people’s money is like trying to get an addict to leave their drugs alone.
Ain’t that the truth. This 1.5 trillion dollar proposed defense budget not only robs us, but it will rob our grandchildren. This is insane. The dollar will completly collapse.