'Partisan hackery' 

Citizen initiatives and referendums play an invaluable role in our democracy in California. While community grassroots efforts certainly are not immune from critique, there should be an attempt made to understand.

As a Morro Bay resident, I proudly support ballot measure A-24: a citizen-led initiative that actually gives more local control by empowering residents to vote on significant amendments to land use designation. A-24 aims to preserve the general plan, which was approved by the city of Morro Bay and certified by the California Coastal Commission just two years ago.

Vistra Energy's controversial battery energy storage system simply does not meet criteria the city initiated, vetted, voted in support of, and certified within their seven-year process. The intent behind this initiative is plainly and calmly stated. Their case to the community is factually based.

In Grover Beach, residents are justifiably concerned about their City Council voting to double the water and sewer rates for a project that's now dead—all in the name of so-called "water resiliency." Grover H2O, the citizen-led grassroots effort leading the charge against these rate hikes, expressed deep concern about residents on fixed incomes subsidizing future growth outside of their community. Grover H2O certainly has the right to exercise legal remedies to repeal the hikes that are kept in place and to ensure the City Council properly resets the conversation on their water rate structure.

That said, residents should be mindful of how they present their case to the public and who presents it.

Former Grover Beach Mayor and Grover H2O founder Debbie Peterson has a long and storied history of making false, misleading, and outlandish allegations to justify her rapidly dwindling relevance as a performative and punitive "activist."

Right before flamboyantly quitting the Grover Beach City Council in 2019, Peterson alleged—without any evidence—her now-former colleagues and staff were "corrupt" and involved in a "pay-to-play" scheme for awarding commercial cannabis business licenses. But because she disagrees with the current City Council majority for voting to raise water and sewer rates, Peterson has once again declared them "corrupt"; that Grover H2O would only be supporting "incorrputable" candidates.

Peterson uses this incendiary language, which implies criminal conduct, to push for a recall of elected officials who voted to raise rates. Once again, no evidence of corruption. Presenting this as a matter of "corruption" only undermines concerns the community has about their local government and devalues any legitimate inquiry about actual corruption.

Full disclosure: In her 2022 book, Peterson falsely claimed I was in cahoots with former District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill to denigrate his perceived political opponents, despite the state Second District Court of Appeals ruling in 2021 that there was no evidence of Hill coordinating with anyone.

Shortly after her book was published, I presented her with the relevant portion of the case ruling, which she ignored. After I submitted evidence that contradicted her spurious claims, Peterson retaliated by personally attacking me in a pair of childish, negative reviews on amazon.com—as former city leaders and elected officials are known to do.

This leads me to my next point. Shredder wondered aloud why "everyone" was writing a book about SLO County's "shitty small-town shenanigans" ["Sue everyone," May 2]. There are people and certain online tabloids in SLO County that engaged in extraordinary misconduct as a means to putting a spotlight on what they perceive as "corruption." Their flawed processes have led to actual corruption being left uncovered and community issues being whitewashed by their sensationalism clickbait and bombast. If only this was about small-town shenanigans.

Don't let partisan hackery hijack the conversation we should be having about the local issues. Support grassroots organizations that prioritize conversations over carnivals. Δ

Aaron Ochs writes to New Times from Morro Bay. Send a response for publication to [email protected].