Where do Pismo Beach City Council candidates stand on water, tourism and infrastructure?

Pismo Beach voters will have the opportunity participate in three elections for City Council seats this November, including the mayoral seat.

At the top of the ticket, incumbent Mayor Ed Waage is defending his seat from retired federal agent Kevin Kreowski, while three candidates — incumbent councilmembers Marcia Guthrie and Scott Newton and newcomer Gianni Scangarello — are vying for two City Council seats.

All candidates save for Scangarello responded to The Tribune's requests to participate in the Voter Guide.

Candidates discussed their overall vision for the city along with priority issues such as the Central Coast Blue water sustainability project, cost of living and ballot measure F-24.

Here are the candidates' responses, organized by person and in alphabetical order. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.

Marcia Guthrie

Who are your top three campaign contributors?

Private citizens, top contribution $250.

What is your vision for what your city should look like in 5 years? 10 years?

My vision for Pismo Beach would focus more on making the downtown more walkable with added outdoor dining. Free parking on the perimeters of Pismo Beach to encourage people from circling the downtown repeatedly looking for parking. Affordable housing to be added to every project including the projects downtown or Shell Beach.

What do you believe is the most important issue facing your city today, and what will you do to address it?

Sea level rise. It's the short-term increases in sea level rise that create the strongest impacts to infrastructure and development. The city performed a Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment study and then took these known risks and created a Sea Level Rise Adaption Plan. This adaption plan will be included in the revised General Plan/Local Coastal Plan.

The Central Coast Blue water sustainability project was put on hold earlier this year after the partner cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach pulled out of the project. What course of action should your city take on the Central Coast Blue project or other water sustainability initiatives going forward?

The need for water didn't go away as scientists tell us that the droughts in California will continue to get worse and go for longer periods of time. I would like to utilize the state grants that were awarded to Pismo Beach prior to forming the partnership and perform Infrastructure and other improvements as this will put us in a position to be ready to proceed forward when the next drought hits.

Home values, rent and cost of living have risen significantly in recent years for many Pismo Beach residents. What can the City Council do to make life easier for local residents struggling with cost of living?

Pismo has built 2 large affordable, low-income and over-55 housing in the last two years. We need to continue along this path. We do offer income assistance for water bills and assistance with child care programs.

Ballot measure F-24 would establish a half-cent sales tax that would raise around $4 million each year for infrastructure projects and repairs. Do you support or oppose Measure F-24? Why or why not?

I support Measure F14, the Fair Share Tax. 63% of the tax revenue is paid by visitors to the area, and historically Measure C tax money has been used for direct projects that benefit the quality of life of our residents such as Shell Beach Streetscape, rebuilding of the Pier, beautification of the Pier Plaza as well as fixing potholes, maintaining storm drains and paving. In addition, if passed the sales tax will be 8.25% which is lower than Santa Maria 8.75%, Morro Bay 8.75%, SLO 8.75% and AG, which has a sales tax measure on the ballot and is currently at 7.75%. It is lower than other destination cities, with Santa Barbara at 8.75% and Monterey at 9.2%. The tax fund is audited every year to ensure the money is being spent correctly.

Kevin Kreowski

Who are your top three campaign contributors?

Self-funded.

What is your vision for what your city should look like in 5 years? 10 years?

Small beach community.

What do you believe is the most important issue facing your city today, and what will you do to address it?

Infrastructure, spending more on our residents and businesses, we have spent plenty improving downtown, time to invest in our communities.

Revisit/negotiate after the current election.

More affordable housing here and in the Five Cities.

Pretty sure it is a 1-cent tax, either way, enough taxes.

Scott Newton

Who are your top three campaign contributors?

Dan Scarry (neighbor $200) and Raymond Fada ($100, retired optometrist). Those are the only contributions I have received.

What is your vision for what your city should look like in 5 years? 10 years?

In the next five years I would like to see us continue the trend of focusing on the quality of life for our residents. Tourism is a strong contributor to our economy but it must be closely balanced so that it does not compromise and become a burden to our residents. In 10 years I would hope we would see a regional rail from Paso Robles to Santa Maria, but I am very doubtful of that. Removing traffic from the highway that splits our city would have so many benefits for everyone. And we have to find a way to enhance our downtown. I have heard for over 15 years that downtown traffic is a top concern, yet I was unable to get the City Council majority to fund a study that would look at all options (we, the City Council are not traffic experts). We are being short-sighted if we believe that we are going to solve our traffic congestion by paving over all of downtown. It is time to look at how we can enhance the downtown visitor experience, and this deserves to be treated as a top priority.

What do you believe is the most important issue facing your city today, and what will you do to address it?

The greatest threat to the city of Pismo Beach is the Coastal Commission. The Coastal Commission continues to work against our homeowners and businesses that want to protect their properties. While the Coastal Commission believes in coastal retreat, the city has no land available to practice this. The city relies on tourism for its primary revenue source, however it will disappear if the Coastal Commission does not change its policies. Over the next 20 years the city could easily see over 60% of its revenue end as hotels and other properties are forced to abandon their properties. The Coastal Commission needs to allow for city of Pismo Beach, as a fully developed city, to be an armorment zone. This would allow the city to issue permits for repair, maintenance and replacement of seawalls. Only 14% of the California coastline is considered developed and by allowing this, it would allow for re-development of areas instead of new development of our undeveloped coastline.

CCB demonstrated the difficulty in creating regional solutions. Projects of this size take many years to design and with City Council elections (changes), there is little guarantee that member cities (city councils) won't change their mind. As a city we have no option but to continue to look for additional water resources since droughts are a reality that is not going away. I expect the city of Pismo to continue to lead the way, however I do believe it will be without partners. Time is of the essence, and history has proven that moving forward alone will save a great amount of time.

At a city level, the reality is that we have limited authority to have major impacts to reduce the costs of living. We do offer a low-income discount program to qualified households. The low-income discount gives the customer a credit on each bill for both the water and sewer fixed service charges (varies based on the meter size). The city council also adopted a ban on short-term rentals (VRBO's). This makes more homes available for rent for residents and by creating more rental property inventory, it can lead to stabilizing rental rates. The city also offers many programs (especially over summer) where scholarships are available for children who need assistance.

I oppose Measure F-24. While I see the attraction to the increased revenue from tourists (who make up about 64% of our sales tax), it doesn't negate the fact that our residents still will bear increased costs. Many families are struggling, and we need to be mindful that not everyone can handle increased costs. The tax measure is being marketed for multiple purposes, but the reality is that the funds are not earmarked and will go into the city's general fund. The ballot measure should have been a specific tax so that the taxpayers would be guaranteed of how the additional funds would be spent. The city of Pismo Beach is and has been for many years, been in a strong financial position and has not demonstrated the need for increasing taxes. Sales tax revenue is self curing for inflation, the city is well funded, there is no need for additional funding for the most prosperous city around.

Ed Waage

Who are your top three campaign contributors?

Peter Keith, Georganne Ferini and Sam Blakeslee

What is your vision for what your city should look like in 5 years? 10 years?

In five years, our city will be healthier, safer and more attractive with the completion of our new public safety complex, with more attractive landscaping and with additional recreation opportunities for our residents. In 10 years, our public infrastructure improvements will be complete and the city will have more funding to provide even more amenities for our residents.

What do you believe is the most important issue facing your city today, and what will you do to address it?

We had an antiquated downtown fire station, which slowed our fire response. I led the effort to build a new fire station, which will reduce response times by 90 seconds. That project is underway along with a new police station and will be complete within two years.

We need to find a scaled down project for Central Coast Blue if possible. We have grants still, and we have accomplished a significant amount of groundwater studies along with gaining expertise on water recycling. This makes it easier to move forward if the appropriate project is identified.

We have partnered with People's Self Help Housing for a 50-unit affordable housing project, which is now open, and we partnered with the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo for a 25-unit affordable senior housing project, which is almost complete. We also contribute to HomeShare, a nonprofit that assists homeowners with a room to spare, to pair up with renters. This helps generate more income to the resident and helps renters find a place.

I support Measure F-24, which will help fund our ongoing street repaving program along with other essential capital improvements such as fixing drainage problems. All of the funding from past sales tax measures has only been allocated to fixing up the city, and none of it has gone toward salaries or benefits. The measure has a sunset provision.

Where do Pismo Beach City Council candidates stand on water, tourism and infrastructure?

Marcia Guthrie

Kevin Kreowski

Scott Newton

Ed Waage

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