Hopeful leadership changes in San Luis Obispo County

July 5, 2025

OPINION by JULIE TACKER

Leadership around San Luis Obispo County is changing. Morro Bay just let its city manager go. In May, San Simeon swapped out its Interim General Manager for Geoff English to lead the charge towards dissolution and two leader of the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) stepped away.

IWMA Executive Director Peter Cron resigned or retired while Daniel Cheung, the IWMA’s former legal counsel, parted ways.

In this opinion piece, I want to focus on why change is especially good at the IWMA.  A new executive director has been chosen, Coby Skye will be relocating to San Luis Obispo County from Los Angeles.

His three-year contract includes $8,000.00 in relocation expenses, on top of a base salary of $195,000. He’ll also receive a nice benefit package that includes retirement, medical and one month off each year for vacation and administrative leave.

Skye begins work on July 7. I’m hopeful that he is a breath of fresh air, builds trust and a cohesive team that will focus the agency on its purpose, and get the biggest bang for the ratepayers buck.

After just three years under Peter Cron’s leadership, all but one of the six employees have resigned or been fired – some positions having turned over twice.

Even though every home and business in this county pays a small fee on their garbage bill for its existence, this small agency is relatively unknown. The fees add up, with each of our households and businesses contributions the revenue this fiscal year is expected to be approximately $3.75 million.

Formed in 1994, this agency mainly, “Designs and implements programs for our community to stay compliant with mandated state laws regarding resource management,” as it relates to trash and recycling. The goal is to educate us on keeping solid waste from entering the landfills.

In 2021, the San Luis obispo County District Attorney’s Office found embezzlement. In recent years, there has been suspected misappropriations of funds in this agency.

The agency’s goal is laudable. But at the same time this agency is keeping waste out of the dump, under Cron’s leadership, the real waste has come from questionable management decisions.

Decisions that have caused costly employee turnover. As a result, after several employee grievances were filed, expensive investigations into their concerns, the employees bandied together to protect their jobs by joining a union.  Adding ongoing cost to the agency – Cron’s legacy.

One of the duties the IWMA manages for our county is the household hazardous waste stations that take our e-waste, paint, motor oil and other hard to dispose of items. This is a good use of our money and this program should be expanded, more stations built and hours extended so they are easier to use.

No one likes saving items for that narrow window these stations are open. This inaccessibility along with higher garbage rates leads to more illegal dumping.

The IWMA is represented by a member from each of the seven city councils, one from the the county’s community services districts, and one county supervisor.  These are all of our representatives, if they don’t hear from you they think they’re doing a good job.

Join me in paying attention and speaking up. Hold them accountable with our money and cross your fingers they’ve made a good decision to hire Skye, fix what’s broken and put the past behind us.