Recalls in Morro Bay: Then and Now
By Gene Shelton, Former Mayor of Morro Bay and Long-time Activist
After moving to Morro Bay in 1969, I began to look more closely at the community with the thought of finding out how this bustling coastal village worked. It was then, as it is today, a delightful place to live, and it didn't take long to discover an undercurrent of energetic political interest and activity.
I met a local businessman and former city councilman, Joe Giannini, who proved to be a reliable source of information. He had a vivid memory and excellent recall and became a friend and reliable source of information from then until his death at 94 years of age. (See Gianni Memorial)
Joe was involved in the process of Morro Bay becoming a city in 1964, and he vigorously served on the City Council and as mayor until he felt that he could do more for the city as a private citizen. Therefore, he resigned his position on the Council but continued to attend meetings and let his voice be heard as an audience member and private citizen. He was a highly-principled and a vocal critic of those who use public office, rather than contribute to the office they served in and were elected to. Joe often spoke of his love for Morro Bay but was quick to caution a fledgling politician about an undercurrent of meanness and how some people can be cruel and insensitive.
Joe felt strongly about the community — so intensely, in fact, that he bought one of the weekly local newspapers, the Morro Bay Sun, to provide balanced reporting of the issues, and he undertook the newspaper challenge while continuing to commercially fish and operate his marine supply business. People respected his opinions and relied on his analysis of the issues which included the following: the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the California Coastal Act and formation of the Coastal Commission, banning vehicles from the beach, the proposed road west of Morro Bay High School and the extension of Coleman Drive along with the proposed bridge over Morro Creek, high density use of the property that has become the Cloisters, direct election of the mayor, the development of the agricultural land east of Highway 1, citizen groups like Morro Bay Tomorrow, Don't Ruin Our Coast (DROC), the Civic Action League (CAL) and countless other issues and ideas facing the coastal resident.
One of the things Joe disliked most, however, was public officials or private citizens who sought special privileges from the public coffers, and he made his feelings known. Thus, despite his high popularity rating, there were people in Morro Bay who didn't like him, and the benign coastal community could explode in a cloud of angry and hateful rhetoric when those who expected or wanted something from Morro Bay clashed with Joe and those who were indignant because of greedy expectations.
I became involved in local politics because there appeared to be those who were running the community and were making decisions that benefited a few in the city at the expense of the aims of the majority. I had been attending City Council meetings, and I concluded that a reasonable and more youthful voice needed to be heard. Thus, in 1976 I ran for Morro Bay City Council, and on election night I tied with Nino Pipitone when the vote was tallied. The election at that point was going to be determined by a coin toss or drawing of straws, but the city administrator examined the voting machines and he supposedly "discovered" six ballots that the machine failed to count for my opponent — and he won the election.
Meanwhile, I continued to work with the citizen activists who were changing the way politics in Morro Bay was carried on. I became involved with the formation of DROC (Don't Ruin Our Coast) and chaired that dynamic group from its inception until the super tanker port project folded its tent and left town. Chevron of Ohio had wanted to develop the project in Estero Bay beginning directly north of the rock and extending north almost to Cayucos.The entire bay would be dominated by three giant mono buoys that would be used to, on and off, load huge supertankers out in the bay. They sent an articulate, knowledgeable young engineer to Morro Bay where he opened the local Chevron office at the site of the Chevron holdings where the tank form was sited at the Morro-Cayucos border.
Steve Knox, the engineer, joined every city and community group that influenced local and regional opinions, and he became a recognized figure at Morro Bay and county meetings. He was a credible representative for the large corporation, and Chevron spent lavishly on experts and knowledgeable support staff to get their message across. Their polished and graphic Environmental Impact Report cost them over a million dollars, bandit was attractive and impressive for anyone to see, although it was a thoroughly intimidating publication to anyone who might be inclined to oppose the supertanker port concept.
However, DROC met regularly and discussed the Chevron issues late into the night. DROC membership included Joe Giannini, Willard MacGonigal, a Cal Poly professor; Don Bailey, a retired Sacramento State University dean; Bud Meyer, a retired aerospace engineer who lived in Los Osos; Charles Turner, a retired Wall Street executive who lived in Cayucos, and myself as chairman, a Cuesta College speech instructor. However, DROC did not have any experts, and each time they faced Chevron (and its people) and presented a graphic slide show, they felt overpowered until a book by Noel Mostert entitled "Superships" was published in 1975. The publication, along with occasional newspaper clippings, describing devastating oil spills all over the seven seas, helped DROC document and verify that the Estero Bay is no place for a supertanker port.
Heartened by the victory over Chevron's attempt to occupy Morro Bay, I remained active and involved in community groups and was elected to the city council in 1978 where my education in Morro Bay politics intensified. I was the lone vote in a five vote council and faced four-one decisions for the next two years, but it gave me the opportunity to voice minority opinions and energetically argue for the minority. Meanwhile, I continued to devote time to community groups who, as it turned out, were able to accomplish much more than elected officials.
There was plenty to keep active people busy in Morro Bay. Developers and speculators were hungrily eyeing the bare hills east of the community, the sand spit, the oceanside area between Morro Bay High School and the Cloisters and any other sites in the community that were not built on or fully filled in. There were grand schemes to connect Highway 41 to the Embarcadero and the Bay by constructing a bridge across Little Morro Creek. And there were other proposals to build that road on the west side of the High School to north Morro Bay into what is now the Cloisters site. Morro Bay was essentially under siege by those who were determined to change the character of the community.
During this period, Morro Bay was suffering from water shortages. Some of our wells were not producing enough water to keep up with the demand, and there were developers and promoters standing in line to use additional water. We had to restrict water usage, curtailing additional projects that were water intensive. We developed a system of water equivalencies, restricted new development and promoted water conservation while we sought new sources of water.
What resulted from the turmoil of the drought was a common sense approach to community development. Expansion of the boundaries of the city was limited and growth was limited to in-fill expansion and restricted construction. The builders and real estate interests were unhappy, but the community was systematically considering the consequences of each construction project, and the boom and bust era that continued in other communities slowed to manageable proportions.
By 1978, the mood of the community had decidedly shifted and activist groups sensed that we were entering a new era in Morro Bay. The 1978 election clearly verified that change was preferred rather than continuing with the thinking of the past. Peter and M'May Diffley, the leaders of CAL and active community organizers along with Willard and Faye MacGonigal, organizers and leaders of Morro Bay Tomorrow, and Howard Gaines and Joe Giannini along with a host of others felt that the time was ripe to elect a new council for Morro Bay — and they were right.
The 1978 election was unquestionably a growth — no growth election in which the Chamber of Commerce and related interests were facing off against community action groups and neighborhood interests. I was elected mayor; Charles Reasor, Tom Harmon and Tom Cantine were elected to the City Council, and there was one chair that had to be filled by either appointment or special election. We opted to appoint Shirley McGuire, a hard-working, articulate and pleasant community activist who filled out the new decision-making body for Morro Bay.
The new Council was ready and eager to roll up their sleeves and get to work, but before we could begin to initiate the changes that we all agreed must be made, some felt that personnel matters had to be addressed early on. We met in executive session and on a four-one vote the Council decided to ask for the resignation of the city administrator, a very able and experienced administrative official who had made many friends and not a few enemies during his years as city administrater.The personnel session was soon followed by the city administrator, the assistant city administrator and the city clerk resigning en masse.
From that point on until months had passed, the city, lacking top staff, could not accomplish anything of significance. Council work sessions produced volumes of information and recommendations, but the city was stalled and unable to move forward without trained and knowledgeable administrators to guide the recommendations forward. We were at a standstill, and the longer we were unable to move, the more frustrating it became for both elected officials and citizens alike.
The Chamber of Commerce coalition grew even more hostile, and the Chamber actually hired a director with instructions to "do something" about the City Council. For a time, the director fanned the flames of dissent and disorder until he was sent to prison for an unrelated action and was never heard from again. Meanwhile, the city continued to stumble along until administrators were hired and positions filled to accomplish the day-to-day activities. By then, a new election cycle was coming around, and the threat of a recall began to surface.
The recall effort was not taken seriously by the City Council, however, and we continued with a business as usual attitude while the signatures were being collected, compiled and verified by an ad hoc group calling itself PURG (People United for Responsible Government) and led by Dale and Dan Reddell. The recall targets were Tom Cantine, who was gifted with the uncanny knack of alienating almost anyone with whom he came into contact, including his supporters, and Tom Harmon, who was perceived by the re callers as an easy target. Their goal, it seems, was to change the council composition and to encourage additional building and construction activities in Morro Bay while they promoted a pro business attitude.
Those who were seeking to retain their elected offices in the election were myself and Councilman Charles Reasor, while long-time citizen activist, Eleanor Kolb, was running for the first time. Former Los Angeles Board of Supervisors member Warren Dorn, who had recently moved to Morro Bay, was the Chamber coalition's choice for mayor while John Lemons, a former Los Angeles public works engineer, and a long-time Morro Bay restaurateur, Roger Anderson, were running for Council.
The April 8, 1980, election was a rout for the Chamber of Commerce coalition. Warren Dorn was elected mayor to replace me, and John Lemons and Roger Anderson were elected to the Council where they joined the lone holdover, Charles Reasor, on the Council. They selected Dortha Deausch to fill the empty chair on the Council. However, the two councilmen who were the target of the recallers, Cantine and Harmon, were recalled.
Needless to say, the citizen activists were stunned and very disappointed by the turn of events. The Chamber of Commerce coalition was ecstatic, and they wasted no time getting rid of anything smacking of the former council majority and mayor.
Upon reflection, those groups and individuals who had worked to change politics forever in Morro Bay had become complacent, and an energetic, well-organized, lavishly-funded group that had learned that community activism could work for them, too, along with advice from a former city administrator who wanted to get revenge on his former city council who fired him, all worked together to make the change in the 1980 election.
To his credit, Dorn was a credible and active mayor who showed leadership skills, but he really did not seem to relish the process of rolling up his sleeves and getting down to work to accomplish the day-to-day tasks needed to move the Council and city forward. Dorn's great forte was his ability to look into a camera lens or respond to a reporter's questions and convey the feeling that he knew what he was talking about. Lemons, on the other hand, worked tirelessly to accomplish what Dorn seemed to be uninterested in. However, he was merely one out of five, and although he stood out as an energetic, well-prepared city councilman, he couldn't do it alone. He was also saddled with the trying task of bringing Roger Anderson, Herminia Ward and Dortha Deausch along in the steep learning curve to council competency in order to accomplish his pro-growth agenda.
The new mayor and Council became a moving target for the active citizens who were unhappy about the results of the 1980 election because the winners supported grand projects that would increase the density of the community and were receptive to enlarging the boundaries of Morro Bay. Their achilles heel was their attention to promoting growth and higher density as we will see in the 1982 election.
By 1982, the quality of life argument in Morro Bay was as important as in previous elections because of the efforts by builder and real estate interests to promote growth. Community groups and individuals were eager to make their feelings known. Howard Gaines, Robert and Rose Lane, the McGonigill family, Don and Jane Bailey, Peter and M'May Diffley, Eleanor Kolb, Dorothy and Fred Cutter, Joe Gianini and a host of people were eager to make their preferences known.
There were some encouraging signs during this period: the Friends of the Library were composed of many people who, led by Jane Bailey and a local realtor, Grace Melton, accomplished fund raising and planning tasks that had no motive other than to bring a modern library to Morro Bay. They accomplished their goals — stunningly and enjoyed the proud accolades that followed their accomplishment. The library branch that is being remodeled today illustrates that community participants can overcome long-standing biases and work together for the good of the community.
During the spring months in 1982, the growth/no-growth sides in Morro Bay had taken shape. I was anxiously preparing for a new run for mayor while Raymond "Bud" Zeuschner, a Cal Poly professor, and Bruce Risley, a member of CAL and retired telegrapher who tirelessly walked precincts in his campaign, sought council seats. The growth slate included Dorn for mayor and Dorotha Deutsch and Herminia Ward for Council. The election was held on June 8 and the results were very pleasing for the Shelton, Zeuschner and Risley candidates, (who won) and disappointing for Dorn, Deutsch and Ward. Now, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work — which we did.
The primary similarities between the 1980 recall and the one today is the desire to control the vote of the City Council. Those who wanted projects that would promote growth — then and now — felt threatened by those who were comfortable with slow growth, and when the City Council composition changed as it did in this last election, community activists gathered to modify the real or perceived vote profile. For example, the effort to recall Jamie Irons is clearly an attempt to obtain one more pro growth vote for the City Council. Otherwise, why were the two council persons who voted along the same lines as the mayor not included on the recall? Similarly, the 1980 recall initiated by builder/real estate interests and led by the Reddell brothers wanted to seat a City Council with a majority of votes in the pro-growth column. They accomplished their goals for a time but hard-working, selfless citizens who are willing to stand up and be heard were able to change the directions and priorities of the city — at least for a while.
The city of Morro Bay is blessed to have knowledgeable, intelligent, selfless citizens who know the issues and are willing to devote their time and energies to good government. Our greatest resource is our human resource who is willing to take the time and spend the money to keep our coastal community functioning for the good of the people while we protect our unique environment and protect fish and wildlife species that inhabit the Central Coast.
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Afterward: Dale and Dan Reddell, both realtors, were active in the 1980 recall, and reportedly are active in the current move to recall Morro Bay Mayor Jamie Irons. Editor, Jack McCurdy |
