Community infighting dominates Grover Beach's executive pay increase discussion 

The bitter remnants of a Nextdoor conversation spilled into a Grover Beach City Council hearing on Aug. 26 about whether upper management should receive a cost-of-living increase.

"There's a lot of noise coming from a small group about certain staff's salary to the point where it just seems vindictive. Most of it on Nextdoor," resident CJ Vigil told council members. "When people try to disagree through respectful discourse, they are met with people essentially acting like a bully. That is not OK."

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• File Photo By Samantha Herrera
• SPILLOVER EFFECT Members of Grover H20 such as Brenda Auer, who started out protesting Grover Beach's water rates increase, spoke out against pay increases for city executive staff.

He added that many of the comments seemed personal.

"Incredible cities deserve exceptional staff," Vigil said. "When exceptional staff are undervalued, they go where they are valued. ... Please don't let that happen."

Although, he didn't specify the Nextdoor post, two threads started by former Mayor Debbie Peterson—who is once again running for mayor this year—zero in on City Manager Matt Bronson's salary and benefits of more than $325,000. According to Transparent California, Bronson's annual regular pay was $218,000 a year in 2022.

In the post, Peterson calls for Grover Beach residents to show up to the Aug. 7 meeting to make their voices heard about executive staff pay. The City Council's decision on whether to give executive staff a cost-of-living increase was pushed from July 22 to Aug. 7 and again to Aug. 26.

"Poor (anti community) decisions and lacking communication continue today," she wrote. "The people are (sic) at the helm of OUR city now do not seem to get it. The past year has been a huge debacle in Grover Beach."

Jill Stegman posted that the city manager deserved a raise, adding that she was impressed with Bronson's efforts to improve the city, including bring in affordable housing and attempting to control vacation rentals.

"A big fail on the part of this self-serving city manager using his power to thwart laws," Elizabeth Doukas said in response. "Too many failures and costs to this city we can no longer afford."

Doukas, who ran for mayor in 2020, also spoke at the Aug. 26 meeting, where Bronson "voluntarily agreed to forgo" a cost-of-living increase, City Attorney Rob Lomeli said. Other city executive staff such as the police chief and community development director were up for cost-of-living adjustments of 4 percent this year and 3 percent in both 2025 and 2026 that were "commensurate with other city employees," who were approved for the increases earlier this year.

"It has become very apparent with each decision made ... you are limiting the access to City Hall," Doukas said at the meeting. "Just inexcusable to ask for more money while reducing services across the board."

She continued by talking about Grover H20's recall petitions against Mayor Karen Bright and City Councilmember Zach Zimmerman, and water rates and the city's court fight against the petitions before Bright cut her off and asked that she return to speaking about the agenda item at hand—the cost-of-living increases.

"I'm going to continue," Doukas responded.

After a back-and-forth, Doukas continued by talking about the part-time, contracted city attorney, who was not up for a pay increase.

"If you will not continue on this subject, I will have to call a recess and we will end this," Bright said before banging her gavel, calling a recess, and ending public comment.

Earlier during the item's public comment period, city resident and Grover H20 member Brenda Auer commented that Vigil "sounded a little angry" when he said "the word vindictive." She added that many of the city executives make twice as much as the average person who lives in Grover Beach.

"We are a poor community compared to all of those other communities that are making more than you," she said. "Most of the administration doesn't really live in Grover Beach."

Councilmember Zimmerman said that while he understood both sides of the argument, he felt it was important to pay staff comparatively to what other cities pay for similar jobs.

"While these numbers are very steep compared to what the average Grover Beach resident makes, for example, I think compared to all of the comparative cities that they've provided for us, I don't think that it's an astronomical increase," he said.

Bright added that Grover Beach used to be a training ground for new hires. Once they received their training, they would move on to other cities with higher salaries that paid better.

"We realized how expensive that was," she said. "Our city is no longer a training ground."

No longer being stolen way by other cities, Bright added, Grover's staff now has longevity and is forward thinking, able to bring money in and engage the city.

"That is, I think, important, and I believe is what makes our, this small city, so mighty."

The City Council unanimously approved the increase. Δ