The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) will investigate whether recent votes cast by San Luis Obispo County 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson to deny vacation rentals licenses in Cayucos, where he lives, violated conflict-of-interest laws, according to the state agency.
Los Osos resident Julie Tacker filed the complaint against Gibson with the FPPC in April. Tacker alleged that Gibson’s votes on Cayucos vacation rentals could impact his property value, and therefore presented a conflict of interest.
On May 10, the FPPC responded that it would investigate the allegation to determine if any violation occurred.
“Be advised that we have not made any determination about the validity of the allegation or about the culpability of the person you identify in your complaint,” the FPPC’s response read.
Gibson, who’s running for re-election on June 5, denied Tacker’s allegation and forwarded New Times a letter he sent to the FPPC in response to her complaint.
“No evidence suggests that my property is at all affected by granting or denying a vacation rental permit,” Gibson wrote. “I therefore conclude that any asserted effect on my property is only speculative, hypothetical, or theoretical.”
Most vacation rental licenses in SLO County are issued administratively over the counter, but, if denied, they can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors. Gibson has openly opposed the expansion of vacation rental homes in Cayucos—a community with the most vacation rentals per capita in all unincorporated SLO, according to public records—for their neighborhood impacts.
“Mr. Gibson has taken a strong and biased position in opposition to permitting any new short-term vacation rentals in his district,” Tacker wrote in her complaint. “He is especially vocal about them in the communities of Cayucos and Cambria where he owns property.”
The votes under scrutiny include decisions on two vacation rental applications on Pacific Avenue—about 1,300 feet from his residence—and on Bakersfield Avenue, a little less than a mile from his residence. Tacker’s partner, real estate agent Jeff Edwards, represented the applicants for both Pacific Avenue vacation rentals.
If Gibson’s votes are ruled a conflict of interest, he could receive a fine and/or be barred from voting on future vacation rentals in Cayucos. Δ
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 10, 2018.
A poorly disguised attempt to dis the leading candidate 5 days before the election. Regardless of Gibson’s stand on vacation rentals, property values continue to rise – rapidly – in Cayucos. And Julie Tacker ‘s reputation is not in the same league as Bruce Gibson’s
As owner of a residential property in Cambria, I, along with a majority of Cambrians, welcomed the County Ordinance put in effect in 2003, in which Vacation Rentals (VCR) are required to be distanced 150-200 feet apart, so that not every house in residential neighborhoods would have the ability to become a Vacation Rental. In Cambria, we are currently inundated with Vacation Rentals, and the last thing we need is for the ordinance to be undermined by changing it from its original intent, so that Mr. Edwards, by representing his clients, can use their properties for commercial use and profit, at the detriment to full-time residents. Let’s not forget that for every client Mr. Edwards represents, is money in his pocket, whether he wins or loses on their behalf!
Cambrians and Cayucans didn’t purchase their homes to be surrounded by homes purchased for commercial use, in a residential setting. I find it interesting that Ms. Tacker and her partner, Jeff Edwards, who represents clients attempting to find a way to get around the ordinance, live on a property that has an acre of land. They certainly will never be affected by the issue of Vacation Rentals next door to them, will they?
The SLO County Planning Dept. has denied the Vacation Rentals that have come before the Board of Supervisors, and most recently, in an appeal to the Coastal Commission relating to a Cambria VCR, it was denied, yet Mr. Edwards continues to beat the drum for commercial use in single family residential neighborhoods.
Supervisor Gibson stood up for his constituents and the County Ordinance to avoid VCR’s next door to one another, for which I, and hundreds of people who wrote letters to the Planning Dept., Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Commission, are grateful for. I do not believe for a minute that this amounts to a conflict of interest, but rather the interests of Supervisor Gibson’s constituents.
Tina Dickason,
Cambria
Mr. Gibson’s extreme bias against Vacation Rentals is serving to harm many of the Local Property Managers that have been in business for decades in Cayucos and Cambria by completely ignoring a loophole in the 2003 Ordinance that allows the holding of Vacation Rentals Licenses even if the owner does not operate a real Vacation Rental. It can be held indefinitely.
Recent reports from the Tax Collector show that 45% of the Licensed Vacation Rentals in Cambria are not being used as Vacation Rentals, and 42% in Cayucos are inactive. This has resulted in a declining inventory to offer Visitor Serving Lodging and is affecting our ability to offer employment opportunities and support vendors who rely on the business from Vacation Rental companies.
This subject has been brought up many times with Mr. Gibson, including the SLO 2015 Grand Jury Report, where the Grand Jury recommended the Planning Staff and the Tax Collector to address it – at that time the there was an average of 37% inactive. As the number of inactive licenses grows without being corrected, the local businesses who rely on this industry are negatively impacted. Mr. Gibson does not address it, because it is inline with his agenda.
In towns as small as Cayucos and Cambria, this could have a big economic impact.
why Does Mr. Gibson continue to deny that such a high percentage of the licenses are inactive? Why is that not included in his many comments the area is “oversaturated”? Why is he not addressing the issue and finding ways to help the local business be successful.
The comments I have witnessed in hearings and personally received from Mr. Gibson exhibit a very strong bias against Vacation Rentals. Even when almost half of them are inactive, he continues to spread the nonsense that Cambria is Oversaturated – without even providing a definition of the word.
This allegation is nonsense. If anything the effect on property values would be to suppress them not increase. Having short-term rentals available pushes property values up. Gibson is clearly in the right here. The towns on the coast are starting to resemble Carmel with hardly anybody living there. Just ghost towns full of vacation rentals. The quality of life, local economies, and cultural activities of any type are diminished by short-term rentals run-amok.
Anyone who thinks Vacation Rentals are the cause of increasing prices and empty homes should take some time to ask Realtors these days who they are selling to. Take some time to look at the Elephant in the Room. I have interviewed several realtors who tell me that the majority of homes they sell in Cambria and Cayucos go to “baby Booomers” retiring or hoping to retire to the area or they want a 2nd home – most of these new owners do not want to Vacation Rent or Full Time rent – but they will keep their license active, which contributes to the large # who are not active.
The lack of building new housing and developing a healthy economy to create a community with jobs and reasonable growth would be a big step for improvement. For decades, Mr. Gibson and the Advisory Councils of these communities have promoted a “no Growth” culture that is causing a shortage of property and stunting the possibility of economic vitality. Ask any marketing person if the supply goes down, prices go up. They have succeeded in creating a very tight market and then villanize Vacation Rentals. In the meantime, their property values are going up and up.
The 7 local Property Management companies I interviewed are all showing signs of decreasing Vacation Rental inventory. So villanizing the Vacation Rental Industry to avoid addressing the real housing issues is causing local businesses to suffer.
If you try to suggest adding some new housing solutions, it receives the cold shoulder from the Advisory Councils and Mr. Gibson. I have been told that residents worry additional housing would decrease their home values. Villanizing Vacation Rentals is a much easier solution that will do nothing to fill vacant homes or improve the economic vitality of our communities. Carmel is a very good example – they banned Vacation Rentals years ago and continue to have High prices and lots of Vacant homes.
Toni LeGras