The legal storm between The Tribune, the city of Paso Robles, and Councilmember Chris Bausch is settled, but local governments need better public records rules, according to Tribune Editor Joe Tarica.
Tarica said he considered the case a success—a small-town paper tackling government transparency.
“Yes, 100 percent, it’s been worth it,” Tarica said. “It’s interesting to see how it evolved and what it became, because it started out as allegations of conspiracy—allegations of harassment and a hostile workplace.”
The lawsuit revealed the legal gaps in California’s Public Records Act (PRA), he said, that could prove costly to any city that doesn’t establish stricter policies around conducting city business on private devices.
“One of the big takeaways that we took was that the cities’ local governments don’t have policies that are strong enough in this area, because, depending on who we talk to, … we found some that were very strong,” he said, “and then there were others who had almost nothing. No policy. And that’s where the problem comes up because now there’s this gray area where people are using different devices, they’re using different accounts, they’re using personal email.
“How do you hold elected leaders accountable if they have ways to work around state law for maintaining public records?” he asked.
It’s been more than a year since The Tribune started its effort to determine whether there was a conspiracy in Paso Robles after former City Manager Ty Lewis submitted a $2.2 million complaint to the city in August 2024, accusing Councilmember Bausch of creating a hostile work environment that caused Lewis to go on medical leave.
In his complaint, Lewis accused Bausch of working with a team, including CalCoastNews reporter Karen Velie, to oust him from his position as city manager.
From August 2024 to January 2025, The Tribune submitted 19 requests to the city for documents and interactions sent to and from Bausch’s email and phone under the PRA, which gives every person the legal right to receive the available public records within a reasonable timeframe.
“We ran into that wall with Bausch and his private devices, and he just refused to turn over any of the public records there,” Tarica said. “Eventually in March, we were compelled to act at that point because we had a public official who was not responding to a lawful public records request for legitimate documents.”
So the newspaper sued, and the situation turned into a cross-complaint standoff. The Tribune sued the city and Bausch, Bausch sued the city, and the city sued him.
Through all the chaos, Tarica said the case clearly turned into something larger than an alleged conspiracy.
“Then it pivoted to this councilman who was not following the law—to be frank, he was not following the law,” Tarica said. “So we sue. We went to court and right off the bat, the judge was like, ‘We have to get these records.’ There was no hesitation there.”
Eventually, Bausch turned over 900 emails and 3,500 emails, but Bausch told New Times that he was never ordered by the court to hand over the documents—that he had them ready all along but was waiting for the OK from his legal counsel.
He said he had given himself six months to sort through at least 700 documents.
“I wasn’t stalling, I was being pragmatic,” he said. “It’s been unfortunate that [the lawsuit] ever took place in the way that it did, both on the part of the city and the part of The Tribune”
Tribune Editor Tarica doesn’t buy it.
“Any argument that comes from Bausch is a load of baloney,” Tarica said. “The court compelled him to turn it over. It was a court order that took it and then he turned it over.”
On Sept. 16, the Paso Robles City Council announced a settlement, agreeing to pay $250,000 for the newspaper’s legal fees and $27,000 for Bausch’s. Including its own legal fees, the ordeal cost the city more than half a million dollars. That same night, Mayor John Hamon suggested recalling the councilman.
Tarica said the cost to taxpayers was the most painful part of the pursuit.
“[The lawsuit] was not our first choice. Sure, that’s why we have the Public Records Act so that we can file these things and governments can respond. But if they don’t, then the taxpayers and the voters need to know about it, so I hope that they see that value,” Tarica said. “And I think a lot of them do know more about their elected officials and which ones maybe they want to reelect, and which ones maybe they don’t.”
Hearing Mayor Hamon’s criticism of Bausch felt like “a little bit of redemption,” Tarica said.
“It was rewarding to see the city and people like the mayor be so blunt about things. A lot of times, they’ll just keep their cards really close, and the lawyers will direct them how to respond to things and they’re not going to have comments, and they’re not going to give you lots of details,” he said. “In this case, if you look at their communications, they were not shy about stating their opinion on why this turned out the way it did.”
Mayor Hamon said via email that his opinion on Bausch’s actions remain the same as it did on Sept. 16, but now, he intends to move on.
“While Mr. Bausch may continue to put forward his own version of events, the facts are settled, and further debate will not serve the community’s best interests,” he said. “My responsibility as mayor is not to relitigate the past but to ensure that the city moves forward.”
Attorney Karl Olsen, who represented The Tribune in the case, told New Times that overall, the settlement proved the importance of government transparency.
“It vindicated the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and, you know, the whole controversy around the city manager,” he said. “I think The Tribune has a right to be proud of what it did, and I’m happy with the way it turned out.”
Olsen also said the case exemplified the ways that some cities haven’t implemented the rulings from City of San Jose v. The Superior Court of Santa Clara, a 2017 case establishing that if public business is conducted privately, those records are still considered public.
“There are many other public officials in California, of both parties, that just don’t seem to have gotten the message that the California Supreme Court sent. That’s very sad,” Olsen said. “I would hope that the result of this case would be to send that message not just to Paso Robles, but also to other public officials and other cities. I think now more than ever, the public’s right to know is just vitally important.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Libbey Hanson at lhanson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 9-19, 2025.
What the Trib fails to disclose is that they found nothing in the records to support a conspiracy! The records were innocuous snd some were not relevant, i.e. campaign communications must be done on private devices. It is illegal to use City resources for candidate purposes. There is also an option for the city to work with the requester of records to narrow the request or to advise why it may take more than 10 days to respond. That should have happened right up front. If the Trib is such a crusader for transparency they should explain to the public how the process works, and some of the nuances. I challenge both papers to interview a panel of experts to help the public and candidates understand transparency process and best practice.
When The Tribune conducted a public records request, they performed the request as a legitimate attempt to investigate allegations made by former Paso Robles City Manager Ty Lewis that there was a conspiracy between Councilman Chris Bausch and his supporters to harm Lewis’ reputation.
And records did show coordination between Bausch and Karen Velie, who continues to write stories about Bausch and Lewis — and because she was shown to be personally involved as handling press for Bausch, she clearly demonstrates a conflict of interest; that Bausch had a series of communications between Paso Robles resident Linda George and Gary Lehrer, who is a member of the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County Central Committee and Executive Board, discussing Lewis. And several emails were left redacted due to Bausch citing attorney-client privilege, so it’s disingenuous to say all the records were innocuous. And an independent investigator hired by the City of Paso Robles did determine that some of Lewis’ allegations were partially substantiated.
While Peterson is right that campaign communications should be done on private devices, the issue is that Bausch did actually conduct city business on a private device, which is a huge no-no. And if he was awake during seminars held by League of California Cities up in Sacramento, he would’ve known that conducting city business on private devices is unlawful pursuant to the California Public Records Act.
All of this could’ve been avoided had Bausch complied with the CPRA, and worked in good faith with the City of Paso Robles to retrieve the records as requested. All of this could’ve been avoided had Bausch complied with the law.