3 candidates enter SLO council race

April 13, 2016

Three candidates have announced plans to run for San Luis Obispo City Council seats in November. Excluding the mayoral race, two council seats will be up for grabs, and no incumbents will be running. [Tribune]

Councilman John Ashbaugh is not running for re-election because he is termed out. Councilman Dan Carpenter is currently in a heated battle for the District 3 county supervisor seat, and Carpenter says he will not seek re-election to the council regardless of the outcome of the June 7 primary.

Mike Clark

Mike Clark

Mayor Jan Marx has said she will run for re-election. Thus far, Marx is running unopposed.

The three candidates who have entered the council race are: Mike Clark, a retired Army colonel; Andy Pease, an architect and businesswoman; and Brett Strickland, a project supervisor for an engineering firm.

Clark ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 2014. Pease and Strickland are first-time candidates.

During the last council race, Clark opposed Measure G, the 2014 ballot initiative that renewed the city’s half-cent sales tax. The tax measure passed with more than 70 percent of voters supporting it.

Pease served as co-chair of the fundraising committee for Measure G. It is unclear if Strickland took a position on the tax measure.

Andy Pease

Andy Pease

Clark, 71, served 29 years in the Army and California Army National Guard. He says he is running to maintain open space, be responsible with taxpayer money, protect residential neighborhoods, add on-campus housing and keep the downtown family-friendly.

Pease, 49, is co-founder of In Balance Green Consulting, a small, women-owned San Luis Obispo business. Her priorities include maintaining a healthy economy, protecting the environment and creating more affordable housing.

Brett Strickland

Brett Strickland

Strickland, 30, is a supervisor and project leader for engineering firm GP Strategies Corporation. He oversees projects at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Strickland said, if elected, he would seek to dismantle the city’s rental inspection program, over which he has privacy and legal concerns.

Under the new city program, an inspector enters and examines rental properties to determine if they are safe and habitable. A city ordinance requires landlords to pay for the inspections, and many city residents have voice opposition to the program.

Clark said he has mixed feelings about the program and recommends the city begin by only inspecting rentals that have been subjects of complaints. Pease has not taken a stance on the rental inspection program.


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get rid of ALL the disgusting politicians that are against Cannabis reform and supporting public opinion.


Councilman John Ashbaugh is not running for re-election because he is termed out. “

BEST NEWS I’VE HEARD ALL DAY.

Mayor Jan Marx has said she will run for re-election. Thus far, Marx is running unopposed.

WORST NEWS I’VE HEARD ALL DAY.


I hope that Donald Hedrick is going to run (again) against Mayor Marx. In the past I’ve voted for her, donated to her campaign, and endorsed her via yard signs. She has participated in what will be a HUGE loss of quality of life in SLO and the worst has yet to come. We have way too many building permits for developments being issued at a time when our future water supply is questionable & we’re giving it to people who do not even live her yet while we conserve, let our gardens & trees die & get charged more for our water use. Traffic is already a mess (residents have noticed), and our environment is being neglected through the cozy relationships between the City Manager, CDD , elected officials, and advisory bodies. Mayor Marx, you are our main elected leader and protector. It’s time to start protecting the City before all that makes it special is gone forever. Just try to attract those tourists when we look like the very towns/cities that they’re looking to escape. Oh, and affordable & workforce housing, we used to have plenty until Cal Poly grew so much and the students (it’s not their fault) started occupying what used to be family housing. Make Cal Poly build housing on their thousands of acres and require students to live on campus then we’d get our workforce/affordable housing back.


Oddly enough, I’ve always voted for Don. Even had a hand-painted, fully re-used (recycled) yard sign. I liked him because he was far more honest than most of the current board, and definitely more honest than Jan Marx (but that’s pretty easy, actually). He was the only one who brought up SLO’s very uncomfortable UN/Agenda 21 crap (that IS signed into SLO regulations) – no one else seems bothered by that. I mean, a giant quasi-government entity; what could go wrong?


Unfortunately, Don’s “residentially-challenged” disposition is often looked down upon by the snobby elites. Well, not this snobby elite! I will vote for him again!


Marx will have a fat campaign wallet packed with gifts from the developers she votes to help destroy SLO. She voted, just before the last election, to raise the legal campaign donation limit by 50%, then along with Rivoire and Christianson pocketed huge gobs of money from the developers who knew this wrecking crew would give them whatever they want. Building 30 feet taller than allowed in the zoning code? No problem. 1200 homes under the noisy flight path in and out of the airport, in a no-housing safety zone? No problem. To think she told us when elected she was an enviro? No more, if ever. Marx must go.


The way I see it, both political party candidates lie. The republicans say one thing and do nothing. The democrats say one thing and do the opposite. Are you surprised that Hill, Marx, et.al. consistently fail in the honesty department by doing the opposite of what their leftist constituents want? I’d say similar for republicans, but I don’t remember the last republican in office around here (Romero?).


How I wish that Marx cared enough about the City of San Luis Obispo to step aside. Her lack of leadership has been abysmal.


Bravo! Marx needs to go.


Oh please, please SOMEONE run against our entitled, elitist, arrogant yuppie Queen Jan Marx, and get rid of our thieving, vastly overpaid, City Manager! Why, I’d even vote for a Republican against Jan Marx!


At the local level it is to bad party has anything to do with voting. I do agree we need to retire Ms Marx and let her return to her brothers.


Please somebody unseat Marx!