Voting for Grover Beach city clerk headed to the ballot

October 19, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

Grover Beach voters will decide in 2024 whether or not residents elect their city clerk in the future.

Members of a citizen’s group, GroverH2O, collected 783 signatures in an attempt to make the city clerk an elected position. The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve placing the measure on the 2024 general election ballot.

Earlier this year,  Grover Beach City Clerk Wendi Sims refused to approve recall petitions unless certain statements she found false or misleading were removed from the petitions. Grover H2O, Debbie Peterson and Brenda Auer then filed a lawsuit that argued the Constitution and California’s election laws forbid election officials from engaging in this type of unilateral censorship.

In May, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge found that Sims violated the law in her rejection of recall petitions for Mayor Karen Bright and councilmen Daniel Rushing and Zach Zimmerman.

After engaging in multiple disputes regarding Sims’ job performance, members of GroverH2O worked to make the clerk an elected position in hopes to have a clerk that represents the public and not city officials.