Steep steps

Whoo! Things are so hot in the city of San Luis Obispo right now. 

City Councilmember Jan Marx fought with her neighbor over the length of a red curb, and it turned out to be a disgruntled former employee who sued the city for alleged retaliation after he quit his job. What are the chances? Marx said she didn’t know who this neighbor was at the time—former Chief Building Official Michael Loew—and he didn’t sue until after the paint settled on the whole parking issue. But still, it’s a spicy meatball, amirite?! 

Then, Mayor Erica Stewart claimed she did nothing wrong in disclosing an unofficial, confidential, early draft of a SLO County grand jury report about the whole town-gown fraternities mess to Cal Poly prior to its release. But showing confidential documents to a third party is illegal, and the grand jury said as much in its final report of the season, so we’ll see what SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow has up his sleeve. 

Stewart is running for reelection this year, and the whole fraternities issue has city residents fired up. So, who will be running against this incumbent who just got her hand slapped and has an obvious conflict of interest when it comes to the university? Anyone? Bueller?

Dow’s got a thing for filing cases and sending tersely worded letters to public officials about their alleged wrongdoing, so I’m sure something will pop up from his office. Just like it finally did with the San Simeon Community Services District general manager all those years ago. 

What a mess that whole thing turned out to be, amirite?

After years of allegations about Charles Grace and his company, Grace Environmental Services, which provided all the services for the CSD that he managed, the DA finally sued Grace over conflict-of-interest issues. The parties settled in 2023, the CSD fired Grace, and he and his company had to pay fines over the whole mess.

“Public officials such as city council members, county supervisors, appointed officials—including general managers—must exercise their authority in a way that upholds the public’s trust,” Dow said at the time. 

I would be a little worried if I was Stewart about that whole public trust thing, you know?

After Grace’s fall from grace (Too much?), the CSD that was already living in chaos unraveled at a rapid clip. The new general manager decided that enough was enough: Patrick Faverty pushed the CSD to call for its own dissolution because it couldn’t afford to fund its obligations without raising water and wastewater rates. 

And now, the CSD is stuck between its obligations and paying for them—despite its slow march to dissolution that residents hope will end with the county taking over. The county isn’t going to take over until it can ensure that those obligations are funded, according to county Public Works Director John Diodati. 

“The county, if we take over, we need assurances that we can fund the projects that are mandated,” he said. 

Those projects include building a California Coastal Commission-required new wastewater treatment plant or paying fines. 

And that means one thing! Rate increases. The CSD’s customers have already experienced some of that pain with water and wastewater rates increasing by 32 and 36 percent, respectively, in February. But the pain will get worse. 

The county estimates that combined, rates will need to increase from approximately $183 per year to $585 per year—worst case scenario. That would pay for deferred maintenance, overdue audits, and critical infrastructure repair, and demonstrate that the community is committed to investing in its utility systems. 

Which, is it? That would be a crazy increase, but if the CSD board had been committed to investing in all of its infrastructure in the first place, San Simeon wouldn’t be in this giant mess right now. 

“We have to look at this with a worst-case scenario approach on rate,” Diodati said. “If we are the successor agency, our team would work on grant funding, low-interest loans, and explore alternatives … to bring the most reasonable and feasible cost to the ratepayers as possible.” 

Well, of course. And the CSD could have already been doing all of that, if it was indeed committed. These obligations aren’t new—some have been nipping at San Simeon’s heels for more than a decade. 

He pointed to the Los Osos wastewater project as a great example of how the county can play a role in reducing future costs. Um, that project was so controversial that I would not use it as an example. People are still moaning about it—it even came up in arguments about the town’s ballot measure to fund purchasing the old Sunnyside School property and turn it into a park.

But, the Los Osos wastewater project did receive $21 million in grants, according to Public Works’ webpage. Even though building and running it costs a typical family home about $1,980 per year.

Steep, amirite? 

But that’s life. Their sewage, which no one wants to see, is taken care of. If you put something off long enough, you end up paying way more for it than you would have if you had just bit the bullet earlier. Slapping some paint on something and calling it good is not the way. 

Marx and the city of SLO can attest to that. ∆

The Shredder likes dark purple lipstick on pigs. Send some to shredder@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in July 2-9, 2026.