With messages like “stop the stupid,” Grover Beach residents are weighing in anonymously about the upcoming election. Their thoughts arrive via text, email, Facebook, and appear on signs staked in front yards.
Those efforts extend to several websites urging people to vote against lowering building heights, switching the city clerk position from an appointed role to an elected one, and certain candidates.
Measure mockery
In late September, a website called the Sandcastle Gazette began getting clicks. It mocks citizens’ measure F-26, which aims to limit building heights and establish a minimum 33 percent commercial component in mixed-use developments.
“Some walls hold back the tide. This one holds back the budget,” the website said.
Illustrated with what appears to be an AI-generated image, the website displays a duck atop a sandcastle bearing the words “height limit measure” with a little flag that says, “Local control!” The duck’s sash says “Coveduck for District 1.”
“Kelvin Coveduck says, his height-limit measure will protect Grover Beach. The state already warned it conflicts with California housing law and can’t be legally implemented,” the website states.
Coveduck, 65, is a vocal supporter of the building heights measure. He belongs to Save Grover Beach, a group that opposed a string of new developments on the western end of downtown Grover Beach and believes that tall buildings will diminish the city’s small, beachy feel.
Earlier this year, a letter from the California Department of Housing and Community Development warned Grover Beach that the measure could be voided even if it passes. That means the California Office of the Attorney General could find Grover Beach in violation of state law.
“Passing [F-26] anyway won’t change the law. It schedules the lawsuit and sends taxpayers the bill,” the website states.
The site declares that it’s a parody page created by community members and that it’s not affiliated with, authorized by, or paid for by any candidate, campaign, or committee.
Coveduck told New Times that F-26 would receive overwhelming support from locals, consequently sending “a strong message to the Grover Beach City Council.”
“There are legal ways to adjust heights and still stay in state compliance,” he said. “There have been more affordable housing units built with three-story buildings than the four- and five-story buildings currently constructed.
“The cartoon parodies are misleading to the public and not based on truth. The Grover Beach scenic views of the Pacific Ocean and sand dunes will be lost forever if voters do not pass the No More Tall Buildings initiative.”
Another website, Stop the Stupid, also asks Grover Beach residents to reject F-26. Stop the Stupid also criticizes Measure A-26—the push to make city clerk an elected office—and called it expensive, limited, and spiteful.
“In 2024, a ballot measure circulated to recall the District 2 City Council member for voting yes on a water recycling project,” the website said. “The original text contained misleading statements about the council member. Under legal guidance from the city attorney, the city clerk declined to process it until those statements were corrected.”
The ballot measure to recall the council member came from the Grover H2O group. It successfully sued the city in 2024, alleging that City Clerk Wendi Sims violated the California Elections Code.
Measure A-26 came out of residents’ discontent with the city clerk’s actions. If it passes, people who want to be the next city clerk will need to be 18 years old, a registered voter, a Grover Beach resident, and the winner of that special election.
According to the Stop the Stupid website, that election could cost the city more than $300,000.
The website creator, who said they weren’t behind the other sites, requested anonymity, adding that they don’t believe their neighbors are stupid, and their intention isn’t to be mean-spirited.
“I have to laugh because I feel a bit like Lady Whistledown from the Bridgerton series. I’d like to keep the mystery going a bit if I can,” Stop the Stupid’s creator said. “I don’t think I’m alone in feeling exhausted by the abusive, coercive tactics some Grover Beach residents have been using on staff, council members, and commissioners for years. Mostly, it seems, because they can’t get elected or appointed themselves.”
The creator hopes locals notice the “real harm” the measures could do to Grover Beach’s finances and social fabric.
“It would be satisfying to get to 784 page views, as that’s one more than
signed the A-26 petition,” they said.
Former Grover Beach mayor and measure proponent Debbie Peterson wasn’t amused.
“The very people that two California courts said violated election law are calling thousands of Grover Beach citizens who signed petitions to put issues on the ballot stupid,” she said. “Is that their only defense? So much for listening.”
Candidate conundrum
Two other pages—isswiftready.com and thompsonstaxes.com—turned their attention on Grover Beach Planning Commissioner and mayoral challenger David Swift and City Council candidate Allen Thompson, respectively.
Swift hopes to unseat incumbent Mayor Kassi Dee in November. The website scrutinizing his campaign notes that he’s never won a race for public office and that he unsuccessfully applied to fill the 2nd District City Council seat after Dan Rushing was recalled.
“A mayor needs three votes on a five-member council to get anything done. The same council that passed him over would be the one he has to win over,” the website said. “Swift runs as the outsider against the current city establishment. That message draws the same voters who powered the Grover H2O water-rate protests led by former Mayor Debbie Peterson, a vocal critic of city leadership.”
Swift told New Times in a statement that the opposition websites come from “distinct political vulnerability.”
“Leadership is not about playing political games to secure three easy votes among a closed circle; it is about having the courage to demand accountability, respect diverse viewpoints, and deliver tangible results for the people,” he said.
He added that during the interviews to appoint the next 2nd District council member, multiple sitting council members apologized privately to Swift for not selecting him. They chose to keep him on the Planning Commission instead.
“This admission highlights that the opposition’s argument is rooted in political convenience rather than a fair evaluation of leadership capability,” Swift said.
The planning commissioner also criticized Dee for allegedly not speaking out strongly against the websites.
Dee said via emailthat the two of them agreed to run a clean campaign. The Stop the Stupid website was the only page she was aware of until the others came up during a recent campaign forum, she said.
“While I’d much prefer kinder language in our city, I can’t pretend the site’s tone didn’t exist. I personally would have used ‘unnecessary’ instead of ‘stupid,’” Dee said. “As for the candidate websites, I do not condone the behavior, but most importantly I have no clue who created them. I have talked to my close supporters, sent an email blast out, and posted a reminder to keep the campaigns civil.”
First District City Council candidate Thompson is also dissatisfied with Grover Beach leadership. He’s running against incumbent Jules Tuggle.
His past refusal to pay more than $16,000 in transient occupancy tax (TOT), a lawsuit filed by the city, and Thompson’s eventual $39,000 settlement are featured on the Thompson’s Taxes website. The satirical page includes an AI-generated image of Thompson wearing big rings and a green shirt embossed with a dollar sign.
“The last time Thompson dealt with that budget, he held back the city’s share, fought the bill at a public hearing, refused the audit, and settled once the city took him to court,” the website said. “District 2 deserves a council member who pays what everyone else pays.”
The website cites New Times’ coverage of the 2023 lawsuit and settlement. Thompson claims that the city lied to New Times and covered up its miscalculation of his penalties.
“[City Clerk Sims] calculated the tax correctly, … but when she went to calculate the penalties, she didn’t calculate it as a percentage of the tax,” he said. “She calculated it as a percentage of the rent.”
According to Thompson, Sims walked away from him when he approached her about the alleged miscalculation.
City Manager Matt Bronson confirmed that Thompson met with Sims in 2022 to review the tax bill calculations, but it got contentious.
“During this meeting, Mr. Thompson began getting argumentative and yelling at the city clerk when she informed him that she did not develop the calculations as these were estimated by our finance staff,” he said. “After multiple attempts to respond to him, she said that he would need to discuss this with [then] City Attorney [David Hale] and subsequently left the meeting.
“The city attorney recommended that staff discontinue further contact with Mr. Thompson and have him meet with the city attorney from that point forward.”
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2026.
Well, I’ll be damned. The more I read through this whole dog-and-pony show, the clearer the battle lines become. The minute council quitter and professional naysayer Peterson pipes up, you know the circus has officially come to town.
On one side, we’ve got a fellow with a tax-dodging cloud hanging over his head, another hombre who’s apparently never met a tall building he wouldn’t vote for—until suddenly he’s against tall buildings—and a third character whose entire political philosophy seems to boil down to, “If it’s taller than my hat, I’m against it.”
Now there’s a mighty impressive collection of civic visionaries, if I ever saw one. And then there’s Peterson. Seems she got her feathers ruffled by the city clerk, and now she’s determined to hitch up the wagon, throw it in reverse, and drag the whole darn city backward just to settle a score. Apparently, her band of disgruntled followers is more than happy to ride shotgun.
Never mind progress, common sense, or the future of the city. We’ve got bruised egos to tend to, by golly!
When you step back, squint a little, and take in this whole three-ring rodeo, you have to ask yourself: Is this really about doing what’s best for the city, or is it just a collection of personal grudges masquerading as public policy? Or is it….just stupid?
Because from where I’m sitting, this whole outfit’s priorities look about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Thankfully, I sat down with a couple of my Grover friends, and it was refreshing to hear that they see right through this mountain of political malarkey.
Turns out there are still a few folks in town who can tell the difference between genuine leadership and a bunch of cowboys kicking up dust because somebody hurt their feelings.
All hat, no cattle—and not a trail boss in sight.