Pismo Beach residents decided to stick to what’s reliable when it comes to who’s sitting on the City Council, with all three incumbents winning reelection.
Mayor Ed Waage and Councilmembers Scott Newton and Marcia Guthrie were sworn in to continue their time on the dais during a Dec. 17 Pismo Beach City Council meeting.
Waage, who won 65 percent of the votes over his competitor Kevin Kreowski, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, said he’s thankful that the community is again entrusting him to lead them.
“It’s important we have that opportunity every two years, four years, to cast your ballot to decide who you want to represent you or what kind of policies you want to adopt,” he said during the meeting.
Waage often referred to past accomplishments during the 2024 campaign.
New Times previously reported that Waage led an effort to approve both a new fire station and police station that will reduce response times by 90 seconds, worked on projects that helped repave a third of the city’s streets, and finished construction on new playground equipment at several city parks.
He aims to continue this work and help address the problem of parking in Downtown Pismo Beach, he said.
While Newton won his second term, Guthrie won her third term on the council.
Newton previously told New Times his platform has always been to put residents first, and during his time he helped complete the largest paving project in the city’s history.
“We built both Chumash and Palisades park[s], opened the new Morris stairs beach access, and approved new pickleball and tennis courts,” he said.
Coming into her new term, Guthrie previously said she will continue to work to maintain a sound and responsive government that creates policies to protect the city’s quality of life.
This includes finishing the city’s general plan and local coastal plan, as well as discussing solutions for their residential and commercial properties that are experiencing land erosion, she said.
“I just want to thank the public for their trust in me, and I hope you know, you feel free to call me or email me with anything, any of your concerns,” she said during the Dec. 17 meeting. “I feel like I’m finally getting it now.”
Following the swearing in of the current council members, General Manager Jorge Garcia said community members will see their sales tax measure F-24 take effect starting April 1.
Garcia said the half-cent sales tax that’s traditionally used for capital projects such as street, sidewalk, and park improvement projects.
“We do anticipate that it will be $4 million annually,” he said during the Dec. 17 meeting.
This isn’t the first time Pismo Beach has had a sales tax and F-24 is actually an extension of their sales tax Measure C, Garcia said.
Traditionally this sales tax has been used for capital projects, Garcia said, but the council will be able to choose how they use the funds, as long as it’s for any “lawful purpose that is a government use.”
“The sales tax has a 12-year sunset,” he said. “Moving forward, we’ll do annual audits of all sales tax money consistent with what we’ve done in the past and every two years during our budget, the City Council will have an opportunity to provide us direction on how to spend those dollars.” ā
This article appears in Jan 2-12, 2025.