Where do SLO County District 2 candidates stand on water, housing and homelessness?

Two candidates are competing for the District 2 seat on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in November.

Incumbent Supervisor Bruce Gibson and his challenger, retired orthopedic Bruce Jones, discussed their policy positions at a forum Thursday night at Atascadero High School hosted by the League of Women’s Voters and the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce.

Gibson and Jones were the top two vote-getters in the primary election, launching a Battle of the Bruces this fall.

At the forum, they answered questions on topics ranging from water and building fees to election integrity.

Here’s a look at how candidates answered those questions.

Where do candidates stand on redistricting commission?

During Thursday’s forum, candidates were asked whether they’d support an independent redistricting commission.

Jones said he wouldn’t, adding that voters would hold the Board of Supervisors accountable for a poorly drawn map.

“If they draw maps that are unfair, they have to face re-election,” Jones said.

Gibson disagreed. He said that voters in a gerrymandered district can’t hold supervisors accountable “in districts that they purposely drew to favor their own re-election.”

Gibson said he would support an independent redistricting commission, and noted that he suggested that idea to the board because the current district map is in court for allegations of gerrymandering.

“Elected officials should not be in charge of choosing their voters,” Gibson said. “When district boundaries are drawn for purely political reasons, that degrades our democracy.”

Are elections secure in SLO County?

Jones said San Luis Obispo County should require voter identification and exclusively use paper ballots to ensure election security.

“I think that there is some concern by many citizens about election integrity,” Jones said.

Gibson, however, is confident in the security of SLO County elections and said that there is no evidence of election fraud in the county.

“These concerns that people have voiced to us are completely vague, completely unsubstantiated,” Gibson said. “Our elections are fair, they’re accurate, and they are above reproach.”

Gibson also called voter identification rules “a classic voter suppression technique.”

How should SLO County address water issues?

If elected to the District 2 seat, Jones said he would work to develop new sources of water, from using more recycled waste water to desalination.

He said he would also expand the county’s storage capacity for water through methods such as retention basins during times of flooding, repairs on the Santa Margarita Lake, also called the Salinas Reservoir.

Jones said he supports “high-tech irrigation” and drought-resistant landscaping.

Gibson said he supports using new technology to address the water crisis, but added that there’s a bigger issue when it comes to water.

“The fundamental aspects of the argument over a scarce and diminishing resource is a human one,” Gibson said. “To me the base need in dealing with our water is political will and a set of relationships to bring the affected parties to the table to have a serious conversation.”

He said the county needs to improve its water conservation policy, noting that some grape growers use twice the amount of water as others.

What can SLO County do to reduce building fees?

Gibson said that San Luis Obispo County aims to process building permits quickly and at a reasonable cost.

He noted that the county must meet state requirements for processing building permits — such as subjecting a project to environmental review to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. This adds time and cost.

Gibson said that unaffordability in the housing market “is not fundamentally a matter of our county fees.”

In fact, he said, SLO County’s fees are low compared to those in local cities and neighboring counties.

“We are always looking to streamline our process to the extent that we can,” Gibson said. “But the problem is much bigger than that.”

Jones said his goal is to reduce costs during the building processes.

Jones suggested that the county introduce house plans that would be automatically approved by the county.

That way, if developers select that plan, they “do not have to go through certain processes,” Jones said.

“We need to be able to build more homes that people can affordably live in,” he said. “We have artificially made them too expensive.”

How effective are cannabis permitting and code enforcement programs?

Jones said that he’s noticed problems with code enforcement for cannabis in the county. He believes that the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office should be responsible for enforcement rather than county Planning Department staff.

When he served on the Templeton Area Advisory Group, Jones said he voted to approve a cannabis development.

However, he said the project has created issues for the town — ranging from community complaints to code enforcement challenges.

“I think we have to be careful with cannabis, that they stay between the white lines of the rules,” Jones said. “If you have smell, you’ve got to deal with it. If you have other issues that impinge on the neighbor’s property, that has to be dealt with.”

Gibson called the county’s response to the cannabis industry “quite a mess” due to the conservative board majority’s “inconsistent policy decisions.”

“This industry — which is legal, I will remind everybody, in the state of California — has an opportunity to be part of the economic mix here,” Gibson said. “But instead of getting in and organized, we ended up with a huge illegal black market because of policy decisions, such as the board majority’s refusal to allow storefront dispensaries in unincorporated communities.”

Gibson said the board needs to make consistent decisions about “what kind of cannabis activities we should allow” so that the industry can grow and generate revenue for the county.

“Cannabis comes with a lot of baggage,” Gibson said. “We’ve got to get past that. We’ve got to understand that this is a legal business that we need to regulate.”

What’s the best way to reduce homelessness?

In August, the Board of Supervisors approved a five-year plan to reduce homelessness by half.

Jones said he supports most aspects of the plan, such as having a centralized department to manage the county’s response to homelessness. However, he thinks this department should report directly to the county’s chief administrative officer instead of the county Social Services Department.

“We have to move forward, but we need to move forward in a way that we don’t get lost in multiple layers of management,” Jones said.

Gibson said he is “absolutely enthused” about the new plan. He said that it’s critical that the plan concurrently address building more housing, improving mental health and addiction services. He also said he appreciates the Citizens Oversight Council that will hold the county accountable for executing the plan.

He noted that “political will” is critical to moving the plan forward.

“We need to discuss where we’re going to do this housing, how much of it we’re going to do, who’s going to pay for it,” Gibson said.

The supervisor said he’ll use the relationships he formed with staff and agencies while in office to facilitate those discussions.

Should a wind farm be built off Morro Bay coast?

Jones said that he’s in favor of wind energy, but not enthusiastic about the proposed offshore wind farm off the coast of Morro Bay.

“I believe that most of the people living on the coast don’t want to look out and see windmills,” Jones said.

Jones compared the proposed wind farm to an oil rig, noting that both are expensive to maintain and deteriorate quickly because of the salt water.

Gibson, however, said that oil rigs and offshore wind turbines are not comparable, and called the Morro Bay offshore wind farm a “tremendous part of our renewable energy future.”

He said the wind farm proposal has the potential to produce one and a half times the energy output of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near Avila Beach, and will also create local jobs.

He said the potential aesthetic issues caused by wind farms are “a small price.”

“I get aesthetic preservation,” Gibson said. “But we’re in a crisis folks, in terms of global climate change, and this is a small but important piece of solving that.”