The San Luis Obispo County Bar Association (S.L.O.C.B.A.) is committed to the mission of promoting the honor and dignity of the legal profession, fostering the highest professional standards, encouraging collegiality, educating the public, and advancing the fair and effective administration of justice in our community. Public confidence in the impartiality of our justice system is essential to those goals.
In recent days, concerns have been raised in the community about statements made by an elected legal official. While the S.L.O.C.B.A. does not take positions on political matters or evaluate individual officeholders, we recognize that the words of those entrusted with prosecutorial authority carry significant weight. Statements that may reasonably be perceived as targeting individuals or groups based on faith, background, or ideology risk undermining the appearance of fairness that is foundational to the administration of justice.
The S.L.O.C.B.A. reaffirms that all legal professionals, particularly those in positions of public authority, must conduct themselves in a manner that promotes confidence in the integrity, impartiality, and independence of the justice system. The appearance of bias can diminish trust, impede effective advocacy, and burden the work of attorneys on all sides of the system.
We encourage all members of the legal community to be mindful of how public communications may affect the people we serve and the institutions we represent. The principles of fairness, equality, and respect are not political values, they are professional obligations. Our justice system functions best when every person can expect impartial treatment and when every attorney, prosecutor or defender, can do their work without the shadow of perceived bias.
The S.L.O.C.B.A. remains committed to supporting an equitable and trustworthy justice system for all who live and work in San Luis Obispo County.
This statement was made pursuant to a majority vote of a quorum of The S.L.O.C.B.A. Board of Directors at a duly called Special Meeting, with no Judicial Officials or members of the District Attorney’s office present or voting, and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of any one S.L.O.C.B.A. Board member
Kerrin Adams, Executive Director
San Luis Obispo County Bar Association
Windmills and Unicorns
We live in a place that is pristine, beautiful beyond compare and one might even say is magical. A place where rocky headlands meet the sea in turbulent majesty, where rolling golden hills become verdant and poppy-filled in spring and where the coastal redwoods create places so magical that one would expect to come across a unicorn or maybe a wood gnome or two peeking from behind the fairy rings and lush ferns. This is a place to be cherished and protected, a place unlike any other
We all love our home and its magic. It elicits a kind of creativity we all appreciate, EXCEPT when it comes to the folks we expect to protect it and ensure its future is bright and filled with promise. Magical thinking and creative communication about reality (most of us just call it lying) should not and cannot be tolerated. We all love the concept of unicorns, but to have a public servant embrace one instead of the reality of the real natural beauty we are stewards of is not only dangerous but destructive.
The unicorn I speak of is the offshore wind project, one that many of our state politicians and Bruce Gibson locally embrace. It’s shiny and sparkly, with shimmering rainbow hues created by a greedy and manipulating industry and painted as such with promises of “green, reliable, affordable and world saving,” but after all, let’s face it folks, it is just a fantasy proffered to a public desperate for unicorns in a sometimes dark and unpleasant world story, a fairy tale,
It’s understandable that folks want to embrace the fairy tale, but let’s get real, the only magic we need to embrace is the one that already exists here, our pristine oceans, our beautiful coastal communities and our lovely quaint harbors. To do otherwise in favor of an illusion deftly created for public consumption would be its own form of delusional insanity.
To lie (remember creative communication) to convince a trusting public that the unicorn is real; that his own brand of magical thinking is beneficial to our lives, is not just delusional it is blindly self-serving and destructive to everyone’s lives here on the Central Coast, and this is precisely what Bruce Gibson has done for years. Case in point, recently in a NCAC meeting County Supervisor Bruce Gibson told the participants that the offshore wind industrial port project(s) on the Central Coast were “a done deal’. In what reality is he living when he decides that an industrial port project is a “done deal” when the Port San Luis port commissioners haven’t even decided to accept a grant from the state meant to convince them to “mature” the project, an attempt by the state to push a project that is vastly opposed by a knowing local public?
It is time that Bruce awakens from his little fantasy and quits trying to manipulate the public in an untenable abuse of power. To lie to the public may be common in the world of politics and power brokering, but it is NOT acceptable to those of us whose lives he impacts.
It’s time to recognize that floating offshore wind is a boondoggle, a fairy tale of the most destructive and dark kind. It’s time we demand our public servants (after all, that’s what politicians are) listen to their constituents, act ethically and respect our right to not be lied to. It’s time that everyone realize the destructive potential of believing the offshore wind fairytale and stop the industrialization of our oceans and coastline now.
It’s time we wake up and write a new, healthy chapter in the real fairytale that is our beautiful Central Coast
Mandy Davis
President REACT
Serve on the MBNMS Advisory Council
NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council has several seats to fill: Agriculture Primary and Alternate, Commercial Fishing Primary and Alternate, Education Primary, Recreational Fishing Primary and Alternate, and Research Primary and Alternate.
General requirements for membership include attending quarterly meetings. The Advisory Committee will next meet on Friday, January 9, its first meeting since the government shutdown. Remote attendance will be offered.
Specific requirements for seats include specialized knowledge of the subject, such as agriculture, commercial, or recreational fishing, and education.
Candidates will be selected based on their expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying, community and professional affiliations, and knowledge regarding the protection and management of marine resources. See the details at https://montereybay.noaa.gov/sac/.
Deadline for applications is December 31.Applications can be obtained from the sanctuary’s website athttps://montereybay.noaa.gov/sac/#apply or by contacting Robbin Porter, Program Specialist, robbbin.porter@noaa.gov, (831) 647-4206.
Completed applications should be e-mailed to Robbin Porter at robbin.porter@noaa.gov.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council was established in 1994 to assure continuous public participation in the management of the sanctuary. The volunteer advisory council’s twenty voting members and seven ex-officio members represent a variety of local user groups, the general public, and local and state governmental jurisdictions. Alternates attend meetings when primary members are not available and assume a seat if a primary member resigns.
Members serve for three-year terms.
The advisory council’s role is to provide the sanctuary superintendent with advice on the sanctuary’s resource protection, research, education and outreach programs. Recently, the advisory council has focused on marine protected areas in federal waters and management plan review, and the January 2025 Moss Landing battery fire. https://nmsmontereybay.blob.core.windows.net/montereybay-prod/media/docs/250523acletter-ashfall-battery.pdf
For more information, contact Robbin Porter at (831) 647-4206 or view the sanctuary’s webpage for the advisory council at https://montereybay.noaa.gov/sac/advisory.html.
Christine Heinrichs is the San Luis Obispo Citizen At Large member of the MBNMS Advisory Council. Contact her at
christine.heinrichs@gmail.com.
Kudos to Neil
I commend Neil Farrell on his recent article entitled, “Battery Storage Project is Apparently Dead.” His treatment of the arc of this ill-fated project and why it succumbed to the weight of its own inevitable fatal flaws serves as an appropriate exclamation point to finally complete this story.
It also serves as a stark reminder that while job creation and economic vitality are worthy goals, the catastrophic Moss Landing fire should not have been necessary to drive home to Assemblywoman Addis, Senator Laird and their colleagues that the number one responsibility of government is the protection of the people and the public they serve.
Well done, Mr. Farrell. You’re a credit to the Estero Bay News and the communities you serve.
Mike Maggard
Cayucos
