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Eight candidates vying for SLO County administrator position

February 17, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors interviewed eight candidates vying for the county administrator position during a special meeting on Friday morning.

Supervisors will whittle down the number of candidates before conducting in-person interviews in the future. On Friday, the candidates appeared via Skype.

In Nov. 2023 , the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted to fire then Administrative Officer John Nilon because of allegations of sexual misconduct. Shortly after he was hired in May 2023, two county employees accused Nilon of inappropriate touching.

Following Nilon’s termination, the Board of Supervisors tasked Assistant County Administrative Officer Rebecca Campbell with temporarily leading the county.

 


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God forbid they should appoint Bronson. His city is in uproar and he admittedly says it’s because city hall didn’t communicate well. He’s had to hire PR experts to clean up the mess. He exacerbated it with multiple miscommunications and failings of communication during the Proposition 218 process and later when his staff retroactively implemented the increases to 3 days before it had been approved, resulting in over $90,000 in refunds to citizens, over 3800 of whom have made written protests either to the rate increase or to recall 3 council members and repeal the rate increase. One advantage to the board of supervisors. He will be malleable.


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As I mentioned in an earlier post, the story of the contract termination of former CAO Nilon continues to be misrepresented. After a review of the public record, it is evident that no one accused Mr. Nilon of sexual misconduct, nor was Mr. Nilon accused of inappropriate touching by anyone. County Counsel even said, “There are no written complaints.” Obviously Nilon lost favor with the Board, but whatever he did to lose favor, it’s clear it wasn’t sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, or inappropriate touching of women.


I know sensational stories sell publications, but jeez the guy is long gone; why is it necessary to continue to pile on with the misinformation? I, for one, am tired of character assignations.


Back to the story at hand, eight candidates could be a strong pool from which to choose..


My guess is that the new CAO will be Grover Beach City Manager, Matthew Bronson. He’s Ortiz-Leggs’ darling. He runs a small 2 square mile city with a $18 million budget; so he should be easy to control by the Board.


Campbell won’t get the job because the Board knows her as a backstabber. After losing the interim CAO recruitment to Nilon, Rebecca Campbell took copious notes of everything Mr. Nilon said or did that she thought could possibly be used against him. These notes were the foundation of the “evidence” against Mr. Nilon. After plotting to have Nilon fired, Campbell was then appointed as acting CAO. While Campbell got the acting job, it’s likely that’s it’s temporary only. No Board member wants their CAO to keep notes on what they say or do to be used against them.


Given the fact that the County has had two CAO’s, the Homeless Services Director, and the Economic Development Director all leave the county in less than nine months, quality candidates will see that the Board’s leadership has created a toxic environment.


The high quality candidates will do their due diligence and avoid SLO county like the plague. So you probably have one or two local candidates with big dreams and little qualifications and you probably have a few more candidates who are the “always passed over for CAO” types from other California counties.


My bet is still on Bronson.


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Now is the chance for the BOS to start getting outrageous salaries and benefit packages in line, offer a reasonable compensation package, this will end the lie of “we have to pay such high compensation to get quailty people”, but something tells me they won’t do it.


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Hire the person with the MAGA hat. At the very least, they will understand how a business is supposed to operate.


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Classic!

That is without a doubt the single funniest post of pure sarcasm I’ve read since the dawn of the interweb……Congratulations and thanks for the laugh out loud!


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Sharing truth and reality in a humorous way, makes me smile too! Glad you agree with me :)


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