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San Luis Obispo fire chief’s unexpected resignation

December 16, 2025

San Luis Obispo Fire Chief Todd Tuggle

By KAREN VELIE

After just three years, San Luis Obispo Fire Chief Todd Tuggle is resigning the beginning of January, the city announced on Monday.

For more than a month, rumors regarding Tuggle’s impending departure have swirled through the community. While the city did not explain why Tuggle is leaving, his departure comes at a time many residents have voiced concerns over the city’s plan to implement Wildfire-Urban Interface codes that require removal of vegetation and other fire safety measures.

While many fire departments offer fire inspections, and then certifications, to help residents protect their ability to procure affordable fire insurance, San Luis Obispo does not. Instead, Tuggle suggested residents self report changes in fire safety zones to their insurance companies.

In addition, Tuggle announced plans to vigorously enforce regulations based on complaints about property owners who have not complied with the codes.

City administration plans to appoint Randall Harris as interim fire chief on Jan. 5. Harris is the current deputy fire chief for Paso Robles and will soon retire after 28 years of service to the city. He brings extensive command experience and deep knowledge of fire service operations in San Luis Obispo County.

In Paso Robles, if requested, staff will inspect properties and provide instructions on complying with fire safety codes, which also helps residents reduce insurance costs.

 


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i had a couple chats this week with some very well connected, longtime Grover Beach people. It is no secret that Grover Beach is a cesspool of corruption….Analyticone NAILS it right here. If everyone was to look into JUST what Analyticone wrote, and asked a couple people who know whats going on….they would see…..the developers and the council people are in cahoots. and it is NOTTTTTTTTT for the good of the citizens. It is to ENRICH THEIR OWN BANK ACCOUNTS. DISGUSTING! I totally think i am misspeaking to say Grover is a cesspool of corruption—- as we see here it involves SLO. It is a massive, sickeningly greedy cabal. Ruining the sweet small towns.


8

unsettling that appointed council member Jules Tuggle is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the Grossman tenements just as unsettling that her husband as fire chief let down residents dealing with fires and lack of fire and safety inspections at Grossman’s San Luis Ranch ghetto.


9

Looks like he didn’t do fire inspections at the Avila Ranch properties. Next, there are 4-5 fires. Grounds for firing for sure!


8

Hold HIS feet to the fire.


10

I’ll bet that the City can’t wait to appoint a carpet-admiring variety of a female of color to be the next chief.


5

Yeah that worked out well for the residents of the Palisades and AltaDena.


3

Mopar – your choice of words: priceless!


4

There’s more than one way to beat a censor.


3

Other citizen reports are that he colluded with Grossman, refusing to do fire inspections at San Luis Ranch when there were issues with build quality and at least four fires in unfinished homes. Doesn’t play well for his wife, who the Grover Beach City Council appointed to fill the post of the 2024 recalled council member. She is tied to a neighbor and former 5-Cities Fire Authority Chief, Steve Lieberman, who led the charge against the 2024 recall and water rate reduction ballot measure, financed by Grossman.


50

Grossman’s projects were exempt from all sorts of building and fire code requirements and inspections, and it shows, and is coming out with the lawsuits. Many properties are doomed due to being built on pads without drainage away from the structure. Any inspector who questioned anything was forced out by the city.


21

And now it looks as if any city employee who knows where the skeletons are buried is retiring or resigning.


9

Former SLO City Planner Kyle Bell resigned and brought his SLO City’s Institutional knowledge to Grover Beach to process the new wave of grover projects.


5

SLO-City-trained planner Kyle Bell, part of the team working on Grossman’s projects that did not do final building or fire safety inspections before providing certificates of occupancy, was hired by the City of Grover as the chief planner on the Grossman projects.


2

Not surprised, many of us remember the mysterious but convenient and profitable fire at Grossmans San Luis Ranch that consumed the historical farm building. The same building that he promised to relocate within the development, that would have cost him a lot to move but after the fire he graciously offered to build a replica building at a fraction of what it would have cost to move the original. The fire investigation was questionably lacking in specifics and details with no clear answer to how the fire started, but it ended up saving Grossman a lot of money.


45

oh, the corruption runs deep around these towns! Now, let me guess…the name Grossman is also connected to the Coastal Community Builders. The really concerning thing now becomes WHO IS HIS WIFE? That seems to be quote the clue to the whole disgusting five story ruination of Grover Beach being a small quiet town.


32

Grover Beach City Council Member, Jules Tuggles.


5

Enjoy that 135K yearly pension, chief. Well done.


2

Unlikely his pension is $135K a year, maybe if you multiply that by 2 or 3 you’d be close.


12

His wife is a Grover counsel member. Just another team of out of town money grab.


17

I wish everyone would take the few hours as i did to call a couple people who know the details of the Grover City Council and the planning people and the real estate developers……Oh, i wish more people would do that. I do not live in Grover. But I certainly care about it. The bad bad bad things happening there are BY DESIGN. Watch the city creeps DELAY a vote on height restrictions. WATCH IT….WHY???? so they can let the evil get moving. Miss the date, and its on….They have lobbied and passed measures, bills, propositions and now you have state requirements, sickening mandates….LOOPHOLES that they CREATED in order to SEIZE the opportunity to EXPLOIT YOUR SWEET QUIET NEIGHBORHOODS! The giant looming apartments casting shadows and ruining the surrounding, long time neighbors beautiful lives. Watch these evil people as they sell it all out and create a situation where the current homeowners cannot even afford the increasing house taxes….Get Thee To A City Planning Meeting…..GET THEE TO YOUR CITY COUNCIL MEETING…..if you sit and shake your head, without taking ACTION— YOU are complicit in the demise of yet another nice place to live and raise kids. YOU are to blame for the traffic you will bemoan on Grand Avenue, on the 101…. YOU will be to blame for the cars parking all up and down the streets, not in driveways because there are 4 working adults in one “condo” they cannot afford. But you are lied to…..the city CAN limit this by mandating height restrictions….But guess what….they arent doing that. AND they told you their hands are tied by the state……LIES! GO GET ACTIVE IN YOUR CITY AFFAIRS OR YOU WILL BE PRICED OUT AND LIVING IN A NEW SANTA MONICA!!!!!


7