Could Los Angeles style politics invade San Luis Obispo County?

December 24, 2025

T. Keith Gurnee

OPINION by T. KEITH GURNEE

Apparently, according to San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Bruce Gibson, it can’t happen soon enough.

Gibson’s recent endorsement of Los Angeles denizen Jim Dantona to take his seat on the SLO County Board of Supervisors in 2026—and his subsequent boosting of Dantona as his legislative aide bankrolled with county taxpayer revenues– it sure looks that way.

Before Dantona became the executive director of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, he was up to his eyeballs as a lobbyist in Los Angeles who served three powerful Los Angeles City Council members over the years. The last councilmember he worked for was Council President Nuri Martinez who had to resign in shame after being recorded making racist remarks at a working meeting in Los Angeles.

Since leading the SLO Chamber, Dantona has been a busy boy. But not in a way that has made San Luis Obispo better.

Behind the scenes, he has been one of the leaders of the charge to bring hundreds of off-shore wind turbines — and the coastal industrial facilities needed to sustain them — to our scenic Central Coast.

With recent articles in the Tribune extolling the virtues of our waterfront communities like Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, and Avila Beach as some of the top attractions in the nation, one would think that turning them into unsightly factories would take them off those lists.

We need to remember how heavily dependent the chamber is on city funding in order to exist. It doesn’t have the stones to fight city actions that have demeaned what was once a great community.

The chamber’s failure to strongly oppose the SLO City Council’s action to increase downtown parking fees is crippling our downtown. Add to that, supporting tax increases (Measure G-20), turning our local streets into nonsensical and outrageously expensive obstacle courses, and increasing density in our neighborhoods have all happened with the acquiescence of the chamber.

Wake up! We need to recapture what our city and county have been to those of us who have lived in and loved this place. What we don’t need is the influence of a lobbyist from Los Angeles— a city that has overtaken San Francisco as the most dysfunctional city in the most dysfunctional state in the nation.