What is happening in South County? Between the Oceano Community Services District, Arroyo Grande City Council, and Grover Beach City Council, there's no shortage of policy-making in disarray.

I feel bad for the elected officials who sit on the governing bodies—except for Oceano's, of course as they brought it upon themselves (they are the agitators). They seem scared to even say anything for fear of the reaction it will get from a small number of agitators who just have to insert themselves into everything.

I'm not talking about the big issues that rally everyone to the political discourse table: like oil, large developments, or homeless shelters. In South County, even the little discussions become big discussions because of how the public chooses to conduct themselves at public meetings.

Grover Beach can't get through an agenda item without someone from Grover H20—I'm talking to you Brenda Auer, Debbie Peterson, and Elizabeth Doukas—yelling at council members about the increased water rates that are no longer increased (sounds like the council did listen). It came up again during the Aug. 26 discussion about whether city executive staff should get the same cost-of-living increase the rest of city staff received.

Not only did the water rates issue come up, Auer didn't fill out a speaker slip, she just casually traipsed her way to the podium to say that Grover H20 is "a good group, full of love" in response to an earlier comment that sounded "a little angry" about how conversations about the pay raises on Nextdoor got out of hand. Peterson took to the mic to take a pot shot at former Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee, who spoke in favor of the pay raise. Did she forget that public comment isn't a Nextdoor comment thread?

Sounds very loving, amirite?

Peterson—who was the city's mayor until she quit and accused everyone of corruption but is running for mayor again—served on the very same dais she seems to relish disrupting!

Doukas actually got into an argument with Mayor Karen Bright about what was allowed during public comment, causing Bright to call a recess and close public comment. Is it really that hard to understand the rules that govern public meetings?

During public comment at the end of the meeting, Pamela Storton (yet another Grover H20 member) said: "We're in a war and trust has gone away and we need to find a way to really, truly engage."

I'm not sure that wars are where engagement really, truly happens, Pam.

Both Doukas and Auer showed up and spoke at the Aug. 27 Port San Luis Harbor Commission meeting that devolved into community members calling commissioners liars who are in the pocket of Big Wind, and 3rd District SLO County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg was booed for making a comment about how change is hard. Man, public discourse is really on a downswing: #proud.

Meanwhile, in Arroyo Grande, the same lovely lady who caused the SLO County Board of Supervisors to change its rules about public commenters borrowing county equipment for their presentations and who, in part, caused the Arroyo Grande City Council to reduce the number of minutes that some public commenters can speak for, waylaid yet another meeting to show how fit she is to be the city's next mayor and rail on about her favorite subject: the culture war.

Gaia Powell attempted to stage a coup against Arroyo Grande's new one-minute limit for public comments on items not on the meeting agenda. Powell questioned the council before it broke for closed session: "What happens to the citizens who refuse your dictates? Will you call the police?"

The city didn't call the police—although it's within the council's rights if the disruption gets too crazy. Powell did proceed to grandstand during public comment on items not on the agenda for more than a minute, causing Mayor Caren Ray Russom to recess the meeting!

"Obviously, you're discriminating against me and others who have grievances about DEI and the fact that you will not voice your opposition to ... pornography at the high schools," Powell said. "I'm not complying. ... The Constitution protects me."

Not in this case. Governing bodies can make rules about how the public interacts with them, including limiting public speech to a minute per person. Even though it sucks.

Powell needs to run for the Lucia Mar Unified School District board if she's so concerned about high school pornography, but maybe she didn't get the memo about what board's in charge of education.

What is happening? We don't understand how local governments function—although a certain segment of public commenters seems to think they know (even though they obviously skipped civics class in high school). We are slipping ever more quickly into social media-style incivility.

And it's impacting those who really do need to be heard by the governing bodies that represent them. Disruption—not the good kind—pushes the people's business to the bottom of the agenda. Thanks to people like Powell and Peterson, two governing bodies have been stifled from conducting the business they need to conduct.

When people like them make it onto the daises they pine for, we get the Oceano Community Services District—where public infighting rules the agenda, namecalling is a regular occurrence, policy proposals sit stagnant, and progress isn't a thing. Good luck. Δ

The Shredder thinks everyone needs a time out. Send notes to [email protected].