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Supervisor Jimmy Paulding explores dumping Oceano

April 11, 2023

Supervisor Jimmy Paulding

By KAREN VELIE

After years of strife between community leaders in Oceano, freshman Supervisor Jimmy Paulding is considering dumping Oceano after just three months on the job. Paulding’s latest plan is to shutter the Oceano Community Services District and make the community part of Grover Beach.

During the 2022 District 4 campaign, Paulding courted residents of Oceano with allegations former Supervisor Lynn Compton did not care about sidewalks in Oceano or the impact that vehicle riding on the dunes had on the community. Supporters of shutting the Oceano Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area walked door to door, posted signs in their yards and donated to Paulding’s campaign.

Paulding then won his election even after redistricting moved Oceano out of District 4 and into District 5.

Once sworn in, Paulding adopted the orphaned community of Oceano. This was after District 5 Supervisor Debbie Arnold assured Oceano residents she would represent them until the 2024 election.

In February, Paulding presented a unification compact in an attempt to prevent differing political factions in Oceano from discussing controversial issues.

The compact identified specific controversial projects in Oceano as those the members of these groups were to avoid discussing, including closing the Oceano Dunes to off-highway vehicle use and the improvement or redevelopment of the Oceano Airport. Paulding’s proposal also included a code of civility.

Paulding asked Vitality Advisory Council of Oceano Chair Linda Austin to sign his unification compact. Paulding also asked Charles Varni, the former chair of the Oceano Advisory Council – a group the board of supervisors shuttered last year – to sign his compact.

Varni’s group and Austin’s advisory council have battled for years over the dunes, sidewalks and more recently redistricting.

“The compact builds on our initial conversations around making a conscious choice not to pursue certain controversial goals in the interim, and instead, to work together around common goals that will result in meaningful and tangible improvements to the community of Oceano,” Paulding said in his Feb. 16 proposal.

Neither Austin nor Varni were willing to stop espousing their views on the dunes and the airport, and agree to focus on issues Paulding suggested such as safe routes to schools. Both refused to sign Paulding’s compact.

“The Oceano Advisory Council and Vitality Advisory Council of Oceano independently took issue with how I characterized the advocacy around the Oceano dunes and airport as controversial political activity,” Paulding wrote in response to the rejection of his compact. “My intent was not to place blame on any one group. It was simply to indicate that advocacy around those two issues has been controversial.”

Paulding then noted his plan to explore annexing Oceano into Grover Beach.

“There is an idea out there that a study should be commissioned to evaluate the potential for Oceano to be annexed by the City of Grover Beach,” Paulding wrote in a March 13 email to 19 recipients. “This discussion was prompted due to Oceano’s inability to pay for fire services.”

In his email, Paulding recognizes that Oceano has a “unique identity” and questions whether it should retain its name, “much like the community of Shell Beach did after it was annexed by Pismo Beach.”

“As the supervisor representing Oceano, I’m certainly not opposed to studying possibilities,” Paulding wrote. “Right now, I’m just trying to understand if there is even any interest in studying the possibility with city, county, and CSD representatives.”


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Great idea for Oceano to annexed by Grover Beach. Oceano lacks the tax base of a city and any sales tax collected goes to the county instead of back into the city. Becoming part of Grover would allow us to get some much needed improvements like sidewalks and parks, fire and police protection. It might put some of these arguing politicians out of a job but who really cares, they weren’t accomplishing much for us anyways.


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The county has much more funding than Grover Beach, one of the poorest cities in the county. And while the Grover Beach City Council has done great passing a measure to improve its sidewalks and roads, it is for their citizens. How in the world do you believe Grover Beach has the money to pay for sidewalks and roads in Grover Beach?

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While Paulding votes to spend $300,000 on settling a lawsuit they could have won and almost $200,000 to pay off a CEO he didn’t want, he doesn’t want the county to provide SLO County Calfire resources to the community of Oceano. Why I ask?


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Almost 20 years ago, was the last time a community became a city, largely because counties continue to keep most of the property tax revenue while the city is responsible for things like fire and police. Without a tax base from hotel or auto dealers, it is tough to get there.

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In addition, most of the people I know like being part of Oceano and until Jimmy Paulding began pushing to end the CSD, they were proud members of the Oceano community. Now he is claiming people are better off working with city government than with the county, after he is appointed to the board. Wow!


9

As an Oceano property owner very concerned about emergency service response times, I applaud Jimmy Paulding for having the wisdom and courage to bring the subject up in public in a very transparent way. He is asking us to consider the pros and cons of working cooperatively with Grover Beach. I trust that Mr. Paulding will, as he’s done before, listen to the public, and do what is best for the community as a whole. As far as I can tell, he is asking the community to consider the idea and is not trying to push anything that the community does not want. It is certainly a subject worth considering. I love Oceano and want its residents to be treated fairly and equitably with great consideration for the health and safety of all who live here. Thank you Mr. Paulding.


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In reading this article, it is understandable that Supervisor Paulding would require Mr. Varni and his gang to adhere to a civil code of conduct.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l_2UIEmuozg


-J. Arse


6

A blatant two-face political hypocrite. Straight from the mold of Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson. Their latest protege. Hang on to your wallets. He’s coming for your hard-earned money.


17

Funny how during the redistricting by the previuos board Jimmy Paulding spoke out how Oceano didn’t belong with Grover Beach in the newly defined District 3, now that he was able to to con the Oceano voters to help elect him now his says they belong together.


22

Groceano Beach named in memory of J.Paulding.


16

Oceano is too small to be an independent City, too large to be an insane asylum. A merger with Grover Beach is the fiscally responsible thing to do and would benefit those who live and visit.


Realistically the Five Cities should be organized into one municipality with separate neighborhood advisory committees, but I think that would trigger this audience.


4

I understand that nobody likes changing their address but Nipomo, Arroyo Grande and Pismo will be the likely outcome of de-segregation. I admire those who want their neighborhood to be a different jurisdiction but duplication in governance is just another waste of everybody’s tax dollars, especially when the government, business as usual, model starts with waste.


16

Small cities throughout California are having difficulties keeping up with regulations. It is better for Oceano to stay as part of the county, bigger in scale and use Calfire. Under Paulding’s and LB Jefferies’ idea, Cayucos should join Morro Bay, Cambria and San Simeon should become a city, Santa Margarita should join Atascadero, and Los Osos and Nipomo should become cities. The thing is, neither Los Osos nor Nipomo have the tax base to pay the cost of being a city and need to stay with the county. And to stick Oceano without a tax base with Grover Beach, would harm Grover Beach’s financial standing.


24

I think these should be the municipalities: Nipomo, Five Cities, SLO, Morro/Osos, Atascadero/Templeton, Paso. Isolated places like Cambria are too small and I would agree have no business being semi-independent polities. Cities can have low levels of service until the tax base grows as the city matures (specifically Nipomo). I can see how Grover’s budget will be strained in the short run by annexing the unincorporated community, but I also think it’s valuable for Oceano to have a higher level of community services, infrastructure, and should develop with the Five Cities region into a richer community through more housing, mixed use construction, businesses, services, amenities, and tourism. We don’t just draw cities around business properties, residents must be included.


If you want to hear my real dystopian vision, someday we will have three cities: one from Pismo to Nipomo, one from SLO to Morro and Los Osos, and one from Atascadero to Paso… I love this future, but of course this is in the next 75-150 years.


-11

Yes, I caught that Santa Margarita should join Atascadero. If you watch the SM Ranch proposals, this trajectory is sobering. Development on steroids with the likelihood of granted projects for sale and re-sale while creating more fees, taxes and sure the developers are entitled to profit. My opinion is that the County has been promoting this pay day. In the 60’s Santa Margarita School became a party to the Atascadero School District, in the 90’s the County gave up Santa Margarita’s Permit for the Salinas Reservoir water, legally severing Santa Margarita’s recharge system. 20 years later this ripened into Santa Margarita’s emergency ready connection to the Atascadero Mutual Water District. Today the S.M. Ranch is attempting to morph their approved Ag Cluster Ranch Development of 111 housing parcels into the annexation of the 3778 acres TRACT Map which includes this Ag Cluster into Santa Margarita’s CSA23. This will change the size of Santa Margarita from over 300 acres to over 4000 acres. The talk of a sewer system and a co-joined water system while the County Public Works annexation conceivability sculptors have been very busy. As a result, years later, some of the public will cry on their way to the bank or have moved to another state with crappy weather. Regardless, those who moved away will find it difficult to return because they have been priced out and those who stay will just have to adjust.

I now know what the lyrics, “paved paradise and put in a parking lot” must really mean. Traffic, because we wait in line for free and there is never enough money.


-2

Jimmy fanned the flames in Oceano for years, claiming that Lynn should be using county funds to put in sidewalks. Then he argued that for redistricting Oceano belonged with Nipomo and Arroyo Grande.

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.Now, he is the supervisor for Arroyo Grande and he has to deal with the fact that most sidewalks are installed by developers.

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.So, after Oceano’s leaders refused to only discuss his favored topics, he now says the community belongs with Grover Beach, which he believes has the money to install sidewalks. Arroyo Grande has more money and Jimmy had said the community belonged with Arroyo Grande, but he is now in office with his District including Arroyo Grande and the truth comes out. Find the money for your promised sidewalks Jimmy, and do not ask the people of Grover Beach to pay for your promises.


43

Leave Oceano alone. We do not want to be annexed into Grover Beach. It is your job to figure out how to pay for the Fire Services. Do your job.


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