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.

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.

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.

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.