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Paso Robles needs new city leadership

February 18, 2024

Gary Lehrer

OPINION by GARY LEHRER

The latest chapter of the parking saga in Paso Robles leads me to believe City Manager Ty Lewis has been totally incompetent in dealing with this situation. The Brown Act was violated as there was no formal proposal on the table when parking rates were discussed.

The city has admitted the parking district was not properly put into place. And now Lewis has the ridiculous idea that we need to fill out a stupid, and I mean stupid form to get our money back. Lewis thinks that because of the Government Claims Act, he only has to go back a year.

Does he really think that we are naive enough to believe that there is not a record of every single payment that was made, how much and for what reason?

I started working with flat file databases with the inception of the personal computer. I moved on to relational databases when Access came out. I took classes in COBOL and wrote routines to index and extract data from databases. Over the course of my career in IT Consulting I have worked with sophisticated databases and even wrote a food safety database for one of my clients.

The notion that they can’t run a simple report and identify every single refund is astonishing to me. This defies what I have learned working with computers since 1979 when I started with punch cards. This is an insult to my intelligence and every single person who knows anything about database management.

If it is necessary for people to fill out refund requests, then whomever was tasked with keeping track of the tickets was grossly negligent.

It’s time for Ty Lewis to go. This parking situation has caused people to question the integrity of the entire city government.

People are wanting to look into every single aspect of how the city is run. How can you manage a spaceport project or a homeless program if you cannot run a simple parking program?

Ty Lewis is running the city into the ground. He did not even ask if we could negotiate our way out of the parking mess. Using legal counsel to throw up technicalities is just not suitable for running a city. Style is substance and his style shows a contempt for the people he is serving.

There was a really obvious violation of the Brown Act and he cannot own up to it. That added with asking people to fill out a stupid form is the end of the road for me. I can no longer work with this person. He has to go.

 


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I totally agree with Mr. Lehrer. Refunds should be sent out to all who received parking tickets since this ridiculous paid parking system was imposed. My daughter, received a parking ticket while at an appointment at Central Coast Spa. She had parked in the same area for years and never had to pay. This past year she parked in the same area and got a ticket. When she called regarding the ticket, she was told…”That area has been changed to paid parking now. You have to go to the kiosk.” She paid the $50.00 ticket and no longer patronizes any downtown Paso businesses. I have not patronized any downtown businesses either. Bob Lata who as City Manager was responsible for Paso Robles becoming the beautiful little downtown it is. But now it is unfriendly to local patrons, corrupt and cares nothing for the small businesses. Start over and get some decent people in.


1

First of all, what former police chief knows anything about managing a city. I don’t know of one. He was picked because he kept his mouth shut and did not investigate the embarrassing fleecing of millions of dollars from Paso Robles School District.

Now it seems he is palls with Chris Williams, holding town meeting at William’s Cal Coast Brewery. Something is not right!!


25

Just remember what Williams did to our tax payers, and our community reputation. I know I don’t.


0

me too


0

Ty Lewis lacks the management skills and leadership capacity to competently manage a city like Paso Robles, and city residents are right to call for his replacement.


Mr. Lewis is also accused of assaulting a city resident, Michael Rivera, and apparently a full investigation has not yet been completed. If Ty Lewis is found to have acted inappropriately in regard to Mr. Rivera, he ought to be fired immediately.


To whom much is given, much is expected.


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