Dist. 2 County Supervisor Candidates Jim Dantona (left) and Michael Erin Woody were grilled by Cayucos residents on Saturday, May 16 in the final candidate forum before the June 2 Primary Election. Photo by Neil Farrell
The two men vying for the Dist. 2 County Supervisor seat met for the last time before the June 2 Election to discuss issues specific to Cayucos.
Jim Dantona and Michael Erin Woody were hosted by the citizen’s group, Preserve Cayucos and held before a standing room only crowd at the Boradori Garage, the candidates answered an impressive 41 questions posed by the audience, mostly dealing with the various issues facing Cayucos residents.
And once again, Shelley Higginbotham, who also moderated a Rotary Club sponsored forum in Morro Bay last month, moderated the forum.
Asked to describe their relationship with the Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council or CCAC, Dantona laughed because he used to sit on that body, which advises the Dist. 2 Supervisor on land use issues.
He already has a close relationship with the advisory council, Dantona said. He added that since the start of his campaign he’s attended all their monthly meetings, as well as the advisory council meetings in Los Osos (LOCAC) and Cambria. He said they are one of the most important bodies in the County’s sphere.
Woody said he plans to work closely with the CCAC on a hand-to-hand basis and develop personal relationships with them, and “not just pay lip service.”
He said he’s been to far too many meetings when it looks like the decisions have already been made and citizen’s comment or concerns get ignored.
They were asked about the Cabrillo Bridge, the footbridge over Old Creek that the County closed to electric carts, much to the displeasure of South Cayucos residents who have purchased the carts for travel around town.
Dantona said they needed to re-engineer the bridge’s structure. “It’s cutting off South Cayucos from Downtown,” he said.
Woody, who is a civil engineer by profession, said he’s inspected the bridge and didn’t feel it needed to be rebuilt. “The bollards,” he said, “need to come out.” (The County installed metal poles in the middle of the path leading to the bridge to prevent the e-carts from driving over it.)
“You don’t have a structural problem out there,” Woody said.
They were asked if they agreed that the Cayucos Station of Cal Fire needs to have an emergency medical technician on duty at all times?
Dantona said, “Yes,” and that it was very important to have fire department medical staff on duty. He said there is much disparity in emergency medical service among the communities in Dist. 2 — Los Osos, Cambria and San Simeon — and he’d like to improve the coverage. But, “We need to find a way to pay for it.”
Woody agreed that Cayucos should have EMTs on duty with the fire department.
They were asked about Hang Glider Hill, and what they believed should be done with it. The hill overlooking South Cayucos is a popular spot for hang gliders to take off from and also a popular party spot with young people, who often leave trash strewn about.
Dantona said “It’s off limits now,” and added that if the question refers to whether development should be allowed on the top of the hill, he said, “No”. He added that any development that occurs must be kept within the Urban Reserve Line; the boundary of where public services like water and sewer service could be extended.
He also favored talking about limits on public access to the hilltop.
Woody also said development should stay within the URL and also opposed too-dense housing in town as well, calling it “pack and stack development.”
“We need to preserve what this community is,” Woody said, and not let it turn into a Los Angeles or other crowded urban cities. They were asked about the recently rebuilt Vet’s Hall, now called Cayucos Landing, and the high costs the County set to rent the space? How could they make it more affordable for Cayucos groups and residents to use?
Dantona said it was a “huge issue” and the County has to find a way to give discounts to locals, who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help pay for the job.
“The people [of Cayucos] should have a greater discount,” Dantona said, “adding that they will need to find the money to pay for it.
Woody said during his campaign he’s held town hall meetings in Los Osos, and Cambria and was able to do so because he could afford it. “The locals should pay less than the people from outside,” Woody said.
A follow up question pointed out that the citizens of Cayucos raised a lot of money for both the Cayucos Landing and Cayucos Pier projects, and how did they feel about the community having to do this?
Woody, who lives in Morro Bay, said he was tired of watching communities like Cayucos being told the County doesn’t have money. He said the tourism promoters use places like Cayucos and Cambria as backdrops to lure tourist here but then the County leaves them wanting when it comes time to spend money on the communities.
Dantona, who is a Cayucos resident, said he too donated money to both the Landing and the Pier projects. He noted the County had to borrow money to fill a funding gap and “you can’t eliminate the loan.” He advocated for the County doing a better job taking care of the infrastructure and facilities like the Pier and Cayucos Landing.
They were asked about the County cutting the public libraries’ hours back to cut costs?
Dantona said cutting hours at libraries, like other budget cuts necessitated by a tight County Budget, are the challenge that the next Supervisor will have to face. He said they need to better prioritize spending and “libraries are definitely a priority.”
Woody disagreed, asking how you could say you’re prioritizing spending when the Supervisors vote themselves and the staff big raises? “This is the type of policy,” he said, “we’ve had for the past 10 to 15 years.”
The pair was asked about several County projects that have been halted before being completed, such as repairs to the Hardie Park Pool?
Woody said he wants to see a breakdown on the amount of taxes that are collected vs. the money spent on the community’s infrastructure. “I want to make sue that it’s very clear to everyone” how their money is being spent.
He said the “design-build” model of project delivery is a good chance to cut time and money off big projects.
Dantona said the pool “has underlying issues,” and the County needed to get the pool fixed and reopened. “People deserve to see what is being done,” he said. “That’s where our kids go.”
They were asked their feelings on the County’s efforts to hire one person to take on oversight of short-term rentals or vacation rentals (VRs)?
Dantona said one person is not enough staffing. Vacation rentals are one of the biggest housing issues, he said. There are too many of them and there are also illegal (unpermitted) ones, too. He said on the block he lives on in Cayucos there are three full time residents and 27 VRs.
Woody said VRs are essentially a miniature motel operation located in a residential neighborhood.
‘They’re turning the town into nothing more than Dollywood,” he said. All VRs should be treated like what they are — commercial lodging operations — and concentrated in a commercial core area.
Should the County put a cap on VRs?
Woody noted that between Cayucos and Cambria there are about 700 — 400 in Cambria and 300 in Cayucos. Dantona favored setting an overall cap on them and distributing them more fairly throughout the County.
Parking in Downtown Cayucos is disappearing, according to the next question, and what do they propose be done about it?
Dantona said a lot of the problem is the County has granted parking waivers too often and that’s making the available spaces more in demand.
The County needs to stop granting waivers and they need to keep the visitors from parking in the neighborhoods.
Woody said they do need to get the parking out of the neighborhoods and the County needs to garner transportation monies (from the State and Federal Governments) and look for vacant parcels that can be turned into parking lots.
They were asked if they thought the County’s Community Services Area-10A water system should be privatized, now that the County is looking to raise rates about 25% to pay for water infrastructure repairs?
Dantona thought that was a great idea. Adding that he’d spoken to the manager of Paso Robles Mutual Water Co., one of two private water companies in town, how they operate? He noted that CSA-10A already has debt attached to it, which could complicate going private.
Woody said it’s difficult for him to explain to people why a town of just 2,500 residents has three water companies. He favored starting the transformation to private water companies.
He added that CSA-10A was “a cancer that’s spread.”
Dantona said private water companies can move faster and do projects cheaper because they don’t have to go through the whole County process for developments.
They were asked if they believed Cayucos needed affordable housing?
Dantona said yes, everywhere needs affordable housing. He suggested cutting down on the number of licensed VRs could help return some of the homes that used to be rented out to the market. He aid they also needed to protect the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Cayucos, calling it an affordable housing development. They also need to look into having more secondary dwelling units aka granny houses added to single-family home properties.
Woody too wants to protect mobile home parks and believes we need to start building things like duplexes and triplexes, which he said we’ve gotten away from.
They were asked how more visitors could be enticed to visit Cayucos?
Woody laughed, “That’s a problem? You’re doing a good job already.”
Dantona said no one is begging for more tourists to come here. “You don’t need to incentivize more people to come here.”
Asked about mental health services, Dantona said, we need more help. He said his nephew was struggling with his mental health and his parents had to take him to Santa Barbara to get him the help he needed. “People realize the need is here,” Dantona said.
Woody said he was surprised to learn that two-thirds of the calls for service the Sheriff’s Department answers involve some kind of mental health crisis. He blamed the incredible use of recreational drugs for the crisis. “We need to have an honest discussion,” he said, “and stop turning a blind eye and start addressing these issues.”
They were asked about the Supervisors’ 2021 redistricting map that split up the North Coast Communities into three different Supervisorial Districts?
Woody said that map was drawn for political and personal reasons. They needed to make sure the North Coast communities stayed together in the sane district.
Dantona commented that he’d worked on a map that was submitted by the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, as he was the executive director of that Chamber at the time, and that ended up being much closer to the map Supervisors adopted in 2023.
He said that exercise in redistricting led Supervisors to form a citizen’s redistricting commission and the next Supervisor will help draw up the rules for the 2030 Census and the next districting process.
Asked how they feel about District Attorney Dan Dow and how well they will work with him, Dantona said Dow gave his mother-in-law, who works for the Probation Department, an award, so he feels he’s a good man. However, he believes some of the decisions on prosecutions Dow has made were politically driven.
“I imagine we will not have a great working relationship.” Dantona said.
Woody said he believes the opposite of Dantona, and that it’s very important for Supervisors to work well together with the D.W.s Office.
However, he does have some concerns over partisan politics. “That’s why I left partisan politics,” said the former Fresno City Councilman.
Ballots for the June 2 Primary Election have already been mailed to all voters in Dist. 2 and Estero Bay News readers should have already gotten theirs in the mail. This will be the first chance for all the North Coast communities to vote for Dist. 2 Supervisor since 2018.
Five-time incumbent Bruce Gibson, who has held the seat since 1007, announced last year that he was retiring from the post. Either Dantona or Woody will win the seat in a 2-man race, was a candidate must get 50%-plus one vote to win; unless the election ends in an absolute tie, which is highly unlikely, then the two would have to run again in November’s General Election.
The winner will take office after Gibson’s term ends in December and get to work in earnest next January.
