This week’s San Luis Obispo County government meetings

May 6, 2024

By CalCoastNews staff

The Paso Robles City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. on May 7 in the council chambers.

Following a public attempt to end paid parking in the downtown area through a referendum, which city staff claimed had fatal errors, Councilman Steve Gregory asked city staff to place the paid parking ordinance on a future agenda. While both councilmen Chris Bausch and Fred Strong have repeatedly argued the program harms local merchants, council members Gregory, Sharon Roden and Mayor John Hamon repeatedly supported paid parking.

In response to public outrage, under Item 6 on the agenda, the council will discuss scrapping the paid parking ordinance.

In addition, multiple members of the public want the city to pay back all illicitly garnered parking fees and fines. After agreeing their downtown paid parking program was not legally set up, the Paso Robles City Council announced plans to refund parking tickets given during a 12 month period. However, most people have not been paid back.

Under items K-6 and K-7, the council will discuss providing funds to the Main Street Association and the Hispanic Business Association as part of the city’s long term and strategically aligned partnerships program.

To support Main Street’s marketing, visitor services, and economic development objectives – the group is requesting $110,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. The Hispanic Business Association is seeking $150,000, or $75,000 a year, to support their work providing Spanish language resources and services for the city’s
Hispanic/Latino business community.

The Pismo Beach City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on May 6 for a closed session meeting and then on May 7 at 5:50 for an open session meeting in the council chambers.

During the closed session meeting, the council will discuss a lawsuit filed against the city. In 2020, Vince Lopez filed a petition with the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court that accuses Pismo Beach city officials of threatening harm to his business unless he paid the city money they were not entitled. The court case, anticipated to last two weeks, starts Monday.

Under item 11-A on the agenda, the council plans to authorize the sale and issuance of $48.500,000 in bonds for the construction of a public safety facility project.

The San Luis Obispo City Council will meet May 7 at 5:30 p.m. in its council chambers.

The city council plans to discuss the fiscal year 2023-2024 third quarter budget report and preview of the
fiscal year 2024-2025 supplemental budget under item 8-e on the agenda. The third quarter budget is on target with estimated costs and expenditures.

The city is nearly through the first year of the two-year 2023-2025 financial plan and must quickly adopt a balanced budget for fiscal year 2024-2025. Staff will bring the fiscal year 2024-2025 supplemental budget before council for approval on June 4, 2024.

The Cambria Community Services District will meet at 1 pm on May 9 at the Cambria Veterans Memorial Building.

The SLO Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) will meet on May 8 at 1:30 p.m. in the SLO County Board of Supervisors Chambers.

Noting that garbage bills should be going down soon, the IWMA reports revenues continues to outpace expenses as solid waste collection rates increased at a greater rate than planned. As a result of the over earning, the IWMA plans to  temporary decrease its fees from 5.4% to 3.2%, or closer to what the county charged for the same service, under item 10 on the agenda.

The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission will meet on May 9 at 9 a.m. in the SLO County Board of Supervisors Chambers.

Under item 6 on the agenda, the commissioners will review a request for a permit to create 76 residential lots and nine open space parcels on an 18.3-acre parcel, as part of the Monarch Dunes Specific Plan. The 76 residential units will consist of 38 duplexes. The proposed project is located on the Nipomo Mesa, approximately two miles west of the community of Nipomo.

The Templeton Community Services District will meet on May 7 at 7 p.m.