SLO County Board of Supervisors barred speakers regarding cannabis project

July 17, 2025

OPINION by MURRAY POWELL

San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisor’s Chair Dawn Ortiz-Legg on Tuesday barred multiple members of the Templeton community from speaking against a proposed cannabis cultivation project in Templeton, a project she supported. The board then voted 4-0 to allow the project to move forward.

On Tuesday, the board of supervisors held a hearing regarding an appeal over the county’s approval of the cannabis farm. In Jan. 2025, a County Planning Department employee permit hearing officer approved a permit for the project to move forward.

Supervisor Ortiz-Legg essentially controls the conduct of Board of Supervisor meetings. Typically during hearings, county planning staff presents a report that is followed by 10 minute presentations by both the applicant of the project and the appellant. Following these presentations, a public comment period is open for anyone attending in-person.

Twelve members of the Templeton community attempted to speak at the hearing.

After opening public comment on the pot farm appeal, Supervisor Ortiz- Legg  immediately interrupted the process before allowing anyone to speak. In an obviously orchestrated action, Supervisor Ortiz-Legg and SLO County Counsel decided that anyone who was listed on the appeal would not be permitted to speak during public comment, something that has always been permitted in the past.

County counsel agreed that their public comments were incorporated as part of the appeal’s 10 minute presentation made by the actual named appellant Robert Ballow.

The result of Ortiz-Legg’s actions with county counsel approval were that eight of the 12 Templeton area community members that took time away from work, time way from caring for their families and driving to SLO from as far as an hour away were denied their legal rights to provide public comments during this illegally, in my opinion, conducted appeal hearing.

During the past year or more, county officials have worked to substantially eliminate and discourage the public from attending and participating in Board of Supervisors and other county public meetings.

Another major concerning issue that became apparent during Tuesday’s hearing is the disclosure by SLO County staff that certain county agencies that are authorized to make legally binding multi-million dollar land use permit decisions are apparently not subject to California Brown Act provisions that dictate the conduct of governmental public entities.

County planning issued an eight-page staff report recommending denial of yesterday’s
appeal. This staff report included comments that the Jan. 2025 original Planning Department hearing officer project approval hearing is not subject to the Brown Act.

One of the bases for the appeal was that the Jan. 2025 hearing was illegally conducted due to violations of the Brown Act. The hearing officer had an obvious conflict of interest resulting from his employment as a County Planning Department staff member who then has authority to approve a land use project permit.

Additionally, the Jan. 2025 hearing was conducted by online ZOOM only. The public cannot attend in person. Public comment is allowed during these ZOOM meetings either online or by phone in. However, the hearing officer failed to recognize or allow certain participating members of the public from presenting their public comments.

The conduct of this hearing is another example of the county’s total disregard for the public’s right to be represented and heard during public meetings and hearings. It is time to cleanup our corrupt San Luis Obispo County government from top to bottom.