Two candidates running for the Port San Luis Harbor District Commission’s 2nd District seat answered some of the hottest questions about the port’s future at a recent forum, including the topic of the night: offshore wind farms.
Retired business owner turned commercial fisherman Richard Scangarello said he spent the better half of the last 25 years working with other fishermen in the harbor and developing relationships.
With so much uncertainty in the port right now, he said that he’s what the harbor needs: someone who has spent years establishing trust and respect with local fishermen.
“You need to be able to have dialogue with everybody that you’re dealing with, and that again is trust,” he said during an Oct. 16 candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.
Katie Lichtig, a retired city executive who spent time working as San Luis Obispo’s city manager, is running against him.
Lichtig said her years of experience working with various government organizations will help guide her, and, if elected, she will focus her responsibilities on balance and compromise.
“My view of the world is that we need to be listeners, we need to be able to analyze, we need to be able to figure out creative solutions to balancing the budget, and we need to work with staff to manage and set expectations for them so that they can then turn that into action,” she said during the forum.
Lichtig said it’s important to have the majority of the board support one opinion because “policies are not made by individuals; they’re actually made by a majority of the commission.”
The two differed on how the port should handle offshore wind, a topic that’s dogged port commissioners in recent months.
Current commissioners and Port San Luis Harbor staff have sat through heated district meetings after voting 3-2 in August to collaborate with Clean Energy Terminals (CET) on studies about whether Port San Luis can be a potential site to support offshore wind development.
Scangarello said he is completely against offshore wind farms, and using the port to aid that development off the coast of Morro Bay would take away Avila Beach’s historic value.
“They say it’s perfect and it won’t affect anything, but it’s a panacea,” he said. “Nothing’s perfect.”
Lichtig said she’s not taking a position on offshore wind farms yet, but she recommends that the commission look at all the facts to ensure that they have enough information to make a decision.
“I happen to believe that public policy should be based on data and facts, and so I believe that we should evaluate the feasibility study. Make sure it’s rigorous, make sure its thorough, and make sure that all of those issues are studied thoroughly,” she said.
Lichtig said that Port San Luis has been an industrialized port since its beginning by bringing over oil and “other industrialized items, including items that were helpful to the creation of Diablo Canyon.”
“I think it’s a misnomer to say that we shouldn’t industrialize the port,” she said. “I’m not saying that we should do yes or no at this point.”
Leaning on her experience managing city budgets, Lichtig said that it’s important to balance the port’s budget so that it can be sustained over the long haul.
Scangarello agreed with Lichtig and said that having a balanced budget will help sustain the critical life of the port.
“You’ve got to be able to talk to the people at the port,” he said. “I know everybody, they have an open line of communication with me, and I’ve been supported by the union and by the fishermen association.” Δ
This article appears in Pet Issue 2024.