Grover H2O sues city over handling of water rates petition 

In another jab against the city, Grover H2O filed a lawsuit against Grover Beach, City Clerk Wendi Sims, and City Councilmember Daniel Rushing.

"Our view is that the city clerk and the city attorney are actually censoring free political speech, and it's a form of election tampering," Grover H2O spokesperson and former Grover Beach Mayor Debbie Peterson told New Times. "They're obstructing the people's ability to circulate a petition and put something on the ballot, which is a right that's guaranteed in California."

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• Photo By Samantha Herrera
• FIGHTING FOR REPEAL Grover H2O members like Brenda Auer have been protesting raising water rates for months. The group recently sued Grover Beach, the city clerk, and Councilmember Daniel Rushing for claims of election tampering over recall petitions filed with the city.

After the Grover Beach City Council voted 3-2 in December 2023 to increase water rates by almost 20 percent over the next four years to help fund Grover Beach's portion of the Central Coast Blue water reclamation project, Grover H2O served the council with a notice of the intent to repeal the new rates. Then, in January, Grover H2O served Mayor Karen Bright and Councilmembers Zach Zimmerman and Daniel Rushing with an intent to recall them.

According to Grover H2O, the group received more than the minimum number of signatures on all three recall notices and also gathered 1,083 signatures for the ballot initiative to repeal the rate increases. Peterson said Grover H2O filed the repeal with the city clerk on March 11.

"City Clerk Wendi Sims now has 30 days plus holidays and weekends to count the signatures after which she must present the count at the next regular City Council meeting," Peterson said. "At that time, the council may either adopt the repeal, place it on the Nov. 5 ballot or send it out to committees for up to 30 days."

In a March 25 email, Sims told New Times that the final review of the initiative petitions would be April 25. If they were determined to be adequate and certified, they would be agendized for the May 13 council meeting.

During the April 22 City Council meeting, council members decided to follow Arroyo Grande's lead and pull out of the Central Coast Blue agreement and opted to discuss what an updated water rate structure might look like during the May 13 meeting.

Peterson said since March 11, the city has delayed Grover H2O's recall effort and repeal initiative, which caused the group to take legal action.

"Now it's too late to recall the mayor and Councilmember Zimmerman, but it's not too late to put the recall of Councilmember Rushing on the 2024 ballot," she said. "So basically, we're asking the court to hear this quickly so that we can go gather those petitions."

According to the lawsuit, the petitions were submitted and rejected five times in the winter and spring of 2024, and the rejection notice was always sent on the last possible day within minutes of the close of business hours.

"Each notice of rejection impermissibly and illegally demanded the removal of language that was alleged to be false or misleading. Petitioners have experienced working with multiple city and county election officers," the lawsuit reads. "In petitioners' experience, it is highly unusual to continuously wait until the last minute to reject a petition. On the contrary, in petitioners' experience, other elections officials have generally been efficient and helpful. Petitioners believe the city clerk's actions were intended to obstruct and delay the electoral process."

Peterson said that though it's too late to put the recall of Mayor Bright and Councilmember Zimmerman on the November ballot, they're looking at other election dates.

"Rushing is the only one that remains [named in the lawsuit], and the option is to put him on the November 2024 ballot or in a special election," she said. "We're really hoping that the city clerk and the city attorney would cooperate with this process."

Grover Beach City Attorney Robert Lomeli told New Times that the city maintains and asserts that the city clerk's actions regarding the petitions submitted by Grover H2O have been in accordance with the California Elections Code and applicable judicial precedent, and he disputes any assertion to the contrary. Δ