Ridiculous ridicule 

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I’m not sure what’s more obnoxious: the fact that Paso Robles hasn’t allowed dogs in city parks for the last four decades or the concern that City Councilmember Chris Bausch brought up about preventing dogs from peeing in the parks that they can now be in.

“How do we clean that up?” Bausch asked Paso Police Cmdr. Ricky Lehr during the July 16 council meeting.

Rake the forests? Lucky for everyone, the Police Department has no plans to enforce against dog urination. Because a urination station probably isn’t going to cut it, and … I really don’t know what else to say. What? 

Bausch, though, had a lot to say about this new dog rule to allow canines to run free—on leashes, of course—on city-maintained grass owned by the public. And, what about the poop? Dogs already poop in parks they’re not allowed to step a paw into.

“If we can’t enforce it now, what makes me believe we will enforce the new ordinance?” Bausch asked, adding that Paso police don’t enforce myriad other rules, either. Cannabis delivery. Loitering. Illegal fireworks. 

Rude. Aren’t you from the pro-police side of the fence? 

Paso’s police chief was miffed. 

“Mr. Bausch, we enforce all laws,” Chief Damien Nord said. “It’s a park. People bring their dogs to hotels, people bring their dogs to restaurants, people bring their dogs everywhere with them.”

It’s true. And it’s ridiculous that dogs have been illegal in city parks for 40 years. What the hell started that, anyway? According to one council member, a man brought his child into the police office one day covered in dog poop. “Fix it!” he demanded.

Wow. Amazing to have so much power! 

Instead of installing poop-bag stations in and around city parks, the city banned dogs. Cost-effective! I mean, enforcement is ten-tenths of the law so … let there be dogs and dog poop bags. 

You know who else has power? The people! The people of Grover Beach have so much power that one of the city’s council members is headed for a recall election in November. The Central Coast Blue recycled water project that now sits solely on Pismo Beach’s back got Grover’s residents riled and rowdy. 

But because there’s a recall on the ballot, some residents are pushing back against the residents that pushed back against the council, which already changed its mind about all the things that pissed residents off in the first place. It’s Grover H2O (former Mayor Debbie Peterson’s group of anti-extra-water residents—apparently, it’s rained enough) against Grover Forward (which a random resident is threatening to start to “fight” the recall).

I’m pulling up a seat and popping some corn. South County should be sizzling come November. 

City Councilmember Daniel Rushing’s name is on the recall ballot, and he’s got supporters, not just detractors. Even SLO County 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg is standing up for him! 

She showed up to the July 22 meeting where the recall was discussed to chastise the recallers.

“I always look at Grover Beach as such a beacon of progress, a beacon of civility, and really just a bunch of cool, great people coming together, and it really disturbs me that this is happening tonight in regard to going ahead with the recall,” Ortiz-Legg said. “Being in [a] leadership role requires us to have thick skin, requires us to make tough decisions. … But what it doesn’t require us to do is to be insulted and to be taken in such a term where you’re less than treated in an honorable manner.” 

Oof! Shots fired.

But she’s not wrong. A city that used to solve its differences with grace is in the throes of soap opera-style semantics and dramatic license. What happened?

Grover H2O did try to defend itself, with members saying it was nothing personal against Rushing, it’s just democracy, you know? Community engagement. 

Kind of like the Ironman competition did when it announced on Facebook that it wasn’t coming back to Morro Bay next year, unbeknownst to the city of Morro Bay, which it had a three-year unfinished contract with. It engaged the Facebook community, not the city it had business with.

In fact, the city had to reach out to the Ironman company. Only after that did Morro Bay receive confirmation that the contract would be terminated a year early.

Wow. Talk about a lack of honor. 

The competition’s inaugural Morro Bay races in 2023 and 2024 weren’t exactly what I’d call smooth—and apparently the race company, World Triathlon Corporation Ironman, had to refund 300 racers money after the recent event because of the trouble they’d had with the swim portion. 

Tides were coming in and swimmers weren’t going out, causing hundreds of racers not to finish the competition. It’s not like tides are a surprise, though. Like, brah, check the tide charts. The water can be totally gnar.

Then there was the whole truncated racecourse issue because Morro Bay State Park wanted tens of thousands of dollars for a four-hour permit—also wild. And all the businesses that bitched about crowds blocking them but not shopping or spending money during the race. And Cambria residents complaining about bicycle race route traffic on Highway 1.

This, people, is why we can’t have nice things! ∆

The Shredder is sick and tired of everyone being sick and tired. Send remedies to [email protected].