Dissolving the San Miguel Community Services District (CSD) was a hot topic once again at its most recent meeting , three months after board members previously claimed they wouldn’t speak any further about the matter.
According to the meeting’s agenda, board members John Green and Owen Davis proposed that the board revisit the topic on July 24 after receiving a letter from resident Gregory Campbell requesting that the district be dissolved and turn its services over to the county.
In addition, the board members requested that staff form an ad hoc committee to review options for dissolving.
But not all the board agreed the topic should have been up for discussion again.
At the July 24 meeting, board member Rod Smiley asked why one letter would suddenly place such a big topic on the agenda again.
“I don’t believe the public wants to do away with our district,” he said.
Board member Green countered, “If anybody in this community has a concern—something they want addressed that’s under the purview of the CSD—I think we should honor it. Which way we go with it is entirely up to the public.”
This is the second time the board has discussed dissolving this year, after resident Campbell’s letter inspired the first discussion on April 17. There, District Manager Kelly Dodds told the board the cons of dissolving outweighed the pros. Amid this discussion and public opposition, eventually, the board decided to quash the idea and iterated it wouldn’t revisit the topic.
But resident Campbell wasn’t ready to give up on that fight so easily.
At the July 24 meeting he told the board, “Let me give you a little clarification on the history of the San Miguel Community Services District. One person started this district. It was me.”
According to Campbell, he had started the petition back in 2000 to make San Miguel its own community services district. But times have since changed, he said.
“We have a federal government that doesn’t like California. We’ve thrown our politics in their face for a long time, and they are getting even with us. They are taking away our money,” he said. “The state is broke. The county is broke. I don’t want to be sitting here when we have a broke CSD.”
But public commenters that night disagreed.
One asked, “Why do we want to dissolve something that’s working?”
Another said that being its own services district brings the community together.
“These little, small institutions are what makes that happen,” she said, among claps from the audience.
Eventually, the board ended the discussion without advising staff on forming an ad hoc committee, and District Manager Dodds told New Times via email that staff has since not received any instruction.
“The board did not directly request to staff to create an ad hoc committee to dissolve the district,” he said. “Unfortunately, clear direction was not given to staff on this item.”
New Times contacted CSD Board President Ashley Sangster for clarification but did not receive a response before publication. Δ
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.