Ty Lewis and Paso Robles City Council versus the community

October 21, 2024

OPINION by JAN ALBIN

Not only did the mayor not stand up and take control, but he and his two vote-like-they’re-attached-at-the-hip cohorts, Paso Robles councilmembers Steve Gregory and Sharon Roden, perpetuated the situation by publicly, and in unison, attempted to embarrass and demean a sitting council member by using their position on the dais.

Their apology had no merit. It was all a BS move. Councilman Chris Bausch had said nothing that warranted an apology. But that bogus, grandstand move gave credence to the complaint City Manager Ty Lewis would later file.

This council brought this entire mess on themselves and we, the community, are collateral damage, because now, we have to either read about this dog and pony show every day and stay up to speed or ignore it, read about it later, and hope that truth prevailed. It’s hard to ignore a claim for $2 million-plus from a city employee against your own city.

I would not presume to know if Mr. Lewis’ claim is legitimate or just a plea to be heard.

But there are several bad players in this soap opera, and they all work for the City of Paso Robles. No commenting citizen, or newspaper, or reporter, or social media poster can be blamed for where this massive snafu has descended to.

In fact, if it weren’t for those sources, we would have no information at all. But now, the responsibility of wading through the swamp and figuring out who to believe is on you. We’re never going to get the whole truth. There will be too much hidden under the cloak of “privacy” for us to ever be fully informed.

Reputations will be forever tarnished. Trust in our electeds is gone. In fact, I wonder how their supposed investigation can be trusted. With the mayor already choosing a side and making his own determination of right and wrong, how can we trust the process? I feel like, at this point, it no longer matters who is right and who is wrong. Now it’s…who cares?

We’re a broken community. And maybe it took something like this to wake us up to what’s been happening right under our noses for years and years; them against us, the lack of transparency, the cronyism, the favoritism to special people, special developers and special interest groups, the conflicts of interest that go unchallenged because they get stopped at the front door.

Most importantly, we elect our council members in the hopes they will make independent decisions in the best interest of the people. Not collude in the back room and ban together in order to have it their way.

But elections are here and all on us. And if we want a smarter, stronger, more honest and effectively run city, we can’t keep the council we have had for 10 plus years. Replace Gregory and Roden on Nov. 5 and when it’s Hamon’s turn.