Power play 

We elect politicians we believe will best represent us. In turn, elected officials run the government and make decisions that will best serve their constituents. This is representative democracy. We don't always like the decisions officials make, so sometimes when they run for the office again, we vote for their opponent. It's not a perfect system, but it's obviously more efficient than the micromanaging alternative of citizens voting on every little thing.

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The city wants to erect a new stoplight. Let's have an election and vote on it. The city wants to allow cannabis dispensary deliveries. Let's have an election and vote on it. Obviously, this system would be untenable. Out in Morro Bay, however, Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation (CEBP) want to strip elected officials of their decision-making power when it comes to public land zoning.

This is the kind of boneheaded decision that leads to unnecessary expense and inefficient governance. If a plot of publicly owned land is zoned commercial but a business wants to lease the land to start an industry, do we really need John and Jane Q. Public weighing in via ballot? We vote in elected officials to make these decisions so that we don't have to.

But because CEBP really doesn't want Texas-owned energy company Vistra to turn the old Morro Bay Power Plant site into a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), they're willing to gum-up the governmental works of the Morro Bay City Council for years to come with Measure A-24, which has been placed on the November ballot and if voted into law will require the public to vote on public land rezonings.

All this for one project? Worse still, Morro Bay Citizens Opposed to A-24 argues it won't even guarantee Vistra will be denied permission to build because Assembly Bill 205 allows companies like Vistra to bypass local governments and apply for approval from the state or the California Coastal Commission. I get you're passionately against Vistra's BESS, CEBP, but you don't need to create a law that strips your elected officials of power to stop it. Let an informed City Council guided by its staff decide. Wouldn't you rather have your elected officials overseeing the Vistra project than state officials?

Speaking of elections and representation, Paso Robles is gearing up to vote on three City Council seats, and the race is already turning accusatory. Go grab some popcorn. I'll wait. During public comment at Paso's Sept. 3 meeting, perpetual candidate and eugenics advocate Michael Rivera, who's running for the 3rd District seat, accused 1st District Councilmember Sharen Roden of stealing his campaign sign from in front of a local business and replacing it with one of her own.

"More disturbing is that after removing my sign, she placed her campaign sign where mine had been and zip-tied it to the public fencing," Rivera claimed. "When placing mine, I purposefully used T-posts to avoid using the city fencing—those are the rules."

According to Rivera, former secretary of Californians for Population Stabilization, a hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, another campaign sign for 3rd District Councilmember Steve Gregory near the same location was also hanging but later removed, ostensibly by Roden. Evidence? Nah.

"This act is a direct challenge to our election laws and a complete disrespect for a candidate," Rivera whined. "I interpret this as a serious case of election interference by someone who should know better."

Oh boy! You're running for Paso Robles City Council, not student body president.

Go pop some more corn. There are still 54 days before Nov. 5.

The other popcorn-worthy race is the matchup between sworn enemies Charles Varni and Shirley Gibson competing for the 5th Division seat of the Oceano Community Services District (OCSD). Varni's the current board chair and Gibson's a board member.

Gibson was accused of making shit up about nonprofit Ecologistics, which she classified as political organization that battled the Coastal Commission, supported Dana Reserve opponents, and maybe—Gibson wasn't sure—helped sue the county over the development.

"None of these things are true," countered Ecologistics, whose mission statement is to collaborate with people and organizations to create environmentally and economically sustainable communities. They sound simply dreadful, don't they?

Varni was the dude who inspired OCSD legal counsel Daniel Cheung to quit and who former board member Steve Montes identified as the source of OCSD's dysfunction.

"Our new general manager, Peter Brown, has brought a lot of just very positive energy to the district," Varni recently claimed. "We'll soon be hiring new legal counsel, but we have interim legal counsel now, and I'll tell you honestly if it was a continuation of 2023, I think I probably would have just sat back and let somebody else stand up for it."

Hm. Sounds like a real stand-down guy.

As Gibson said after Brown was hired, "There's a price to pay for the last year and a half of district dysfunction and ugliness that has engulfed our district meetings."

Hm. Vote for the guy who says he wouldn't stand upon his convictions again or the gal who's threatening revenge? Δ

The Shredder buys bulk popcorn. Butter it up at [email protected].