The first SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting of 2023 was kind of like a Trump rally for Democrats. The board chamber was packed to overflowing, filled with cheers and applause for the new liberal majority, and complete with murmured jeers for the old conservative one.
Newbie 4th District Supervisor Jimmy “I Finally Made It” Paulding was all smiles, as was 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, who was elected to the seat she was appointed to after Adam Hill‘s death. The belittling belligerent banter about election fraud that’s come to define supervisors meetings was nowhere to be found—and in fact, elected county Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano received a standing ovation for doing her job.
That definitely wouldn’t have happened just four short years ago. Nobody gave two hoots about the clerk-recorder back then. Tommy Gong easily won an uncontested reelection cycle after cycle. But along came Trump, and local Republican “leaders” ate the bait.
Now, we’re here. Dems barely scraped by, with 2nd District Supervisor Bruce “I’m Glad That Recount is Over” Gibson hanging onto his longtime seat by a mere 13 votes in a race he should have lost by at least 1,000.
The recount efforts lobbed by the San Luis Obispo County Citizens Action Team (SLOCCAT)—a new PAC/organization created by Darcia “The Recount Queen” Stebbens and the renegade conspiracy sniffers who she partnered with—revealed not one iota of discernible proof that voter fraud suspicions had any legitimacy. They didn’t change the vote counts in either the Paulding or Gibson races, and it seems like the wild goose chase for “relevant materials” didn’t give them what they needed to sue Cano or the county, either.
A very long press release sent out by the “action team” and Stebbens during the last week in December didn’t state anything important except that they weren’t going to continue pursuing the recount effort in the 2nd District race.
“SLOCCAT finds it impossible to conclude that the system isn’t designed for abuse,” the release stated.
And also, SLOCCAT found it impossible to prove that the system is being abused, but they forgot to mention that!
So where does that leave us? Well, it leaves liberals as the new guardians of SLO County’s most powerful governing body, and it leaves the conspiracy sniffers to continue breathing deeply.
It should leave the Republican leadership in San Luis Obispo thinking deeply about the candidates they chose to back (Bruce “I Couldn’t Win a District Designed to Elect Me” Jones), the tactics they chose to use, and the national political causes they chose to champion locally: Election fraud claims; anti-history, anti-minority, anti-abortion rhetoric; accusations of public schools grooming children to be transgender (Paso Robles Joint Unified School District races didn’t pan out well for them either); Donald tRump politics; gerrymandered redistricting maps that don’t do the job they were gerrymandered to do—that’s not what the majority of people in SLO County are looking for, folks.
Most people are looking for good government, elected officials who care about all of their constituents and the policy decisions that impact them directly. At least that’s what I’m taking away from the shenanigan-filled election cycle that got us to a new board majority being sworn in on Jan. 3.
That meeting’s elation was infectious, as enlightened liberals from across the county celebrated their win over the darkness of conservatism that’s hung over their beloved bucolic coastline for eight years. Gosh! Eight whole years! Could it be? Republicans’ hold on SLO County is gone.
Nay. It’s not, you nincompoops. What we have is an extremely divided county full of constituents who won’t hesitate to hold you accountable for your actions. So govern well.
Be done with all of the partisan, ideological bullshit. It’s infiltrated every aspect of life, circling over policy conversations that it shouldn’t, preventing sound decision-making, devolving much-needed discussions into name-calling contests, and creating space for bad government. One thing it hasn’t done is make life better for SLO County residents.
Let’s take a couple of recent ridiculous decisions into consideration—what I’ll call the old majority’s last stand of ideological, ego-driven decisions: lame duck 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton‘s push to rid her then district of an advisory council that she hated because of the people who were on it, and 5th District Supervisor Debbie “Water Banks Are Real” Arnold‘s push for a Paso Robles agricultural ordinance that every major stakeholder and the county Planning Commission opposed. Supervisors voted to increase the amount of water pumpers could pull out of a severely overdrafted water basin by a factor of five. Like that makes any sense. Good luck with your wells, rural Paso.
It was an embarrassing December to cap off an already embarrassing couple of years for government in SLO County. What a circus.
I hope that this “new” majority can stay on a nonpartisan course, but I’m not holding out past February.
“We have had a little bit of a legacy here of some partisanship, some division, and I want to tackle that head-on,” Paulding said. “Let’s work together, let’s build consensus, let’s work across the aisle, let’s do what’s right for everybody.”
Yes. Let’s.
Don’t think I’ll stop watching the board with an eye for criticism. I’ll be here to remind you of your statements should you stray. ∆
The Shredder will always shred. Send opinions to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 5-15, 2023.
Yep, Standing O for Ms. Cano. It only took her a month to find enough votes for Gibson to win.
Let’s get back to business with the County Commissioners, extorting $ from Cannabis businesses. The Commissioners have bills to pay.
If you look at how the board was flipped in Paso Robles Mr. Shredder the unions poured in a bunch of money, nobody got a majority, Joel “Mr. Grand Jury Report” Peterson got exactly zero votes and Kenney Enney got kicked off the board in a way that was clearly unconstitutional. I can prove that James Brescia colluded, yes that big bad collude word that makes you libs so mad, with the petitioners. So you can throw out your ill informed opinions all day long but you cannot deny that the biggest threat to democracy is you and people just like you. Stop being a propaganda machine and do some real work if you want people to take you seriously. I was accused by the progressive candidate in Templeton of being part of some national board flipping movement which actually would have been nice because maybe I could have had a better budget to work with. But when there is a board flipping movement in Paso Robles progressives are rejoicing like fans at a Beach Boys concert, which by the way was one of the best concerts ever. That’s all for now but I’ll be back.
So this is what progressives do. They make a big fuss about voting rights and threaten to sue Paso Robles. So at large elections now become Trustee Areas. Somehow faux candidates run, split the conservative and progressives win with a minority of the vote. Elaina Cano slow walks the demographic data for the Trustee Areas to CAGOP severely impinging the ability of candidates to campaign. Somehow Joel “Mr. Grand Jury Report” Peterson runs unopposed and just gets to occupy a seat in defiance of all logic. And then Kenney Enney gets kicked by a small vocal minority thereby disenfranchising everyone who voted for the four trustees who voted Mr. Enney and every single person who voted for Chris Bausch, his predecessor. Every single person in Trustee Area 2 was disenfrachised. In true twilight zone fashion you progressives use the voting rights act and nefarious to means to shape the school board in defiance of the real wishers of the voters. Thus revealing the true nature of progressives to grab power by any means necessary. A great thing to teach the children of Paso Robles. Have a nice day Mr. Shredder.