Shoals, Lee and Peterson win Grover Beach races; marijuana tax passes

Grover Beach Mayor John Shoals will have a second term at the city’s helm, and be joined by council veterans Debbie Peterson and Jeff Lee, based on unoffical election results Tuesday night.

Shoals secured about 63.7 percent of the unofficial tally in Grover Beach, defeating mayoral challenger Ron Arnoldsen, who only garnered about 36.2 percent of the vote.

For the City Council race, former mayor Debbie Peterson and incumbent Councilman Jeff Lee were the two top-vote getters, with a respective 41.4 percent and 36.3 percent of the vote. They beat retired IRS revenue officer Terry Wingate, who secured only 21.9 percent of the vote.

The city’s Measure L-16, a tax on marijuana, was also successful based on unofficial results Tuesday night, with 71.4 percent of voters voting in favor of the measure.

The results could still change depending on any yet-to-be counted vote-by-mail ballots and provisional ballots. County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong said he expects those to be counted and the results to be certified by the end of the week.

The five candidates vying for the three open seats in Grover Beach have focused primarily on continuing the current council’s momentum toward making the city a “hip, young” town.

Shoals is seeking his second consecutive two-year term as mayor, facing off against former councilman Arnoldsen, also a former Grover Beach mayor.

Arnoldsen has heavily criticized Shoals’ record as mayor, especially his time as a representative on the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District, saying Shoals’ decisions on that board have been expensive for ratepayers.

Shoals has pushed his own voting record while mayor, citing the city’s ongoing street rehabilitation program and improvements to the Grand Avenue corridor as examples of how he has worked to make Grover Beach appeal to a younger, hipper clientele.

Beside mayor, two four-year seats on the City Council are up for grabs, with three candidates competing for two spots: incumbent Lee who has served on the council since 2012; Peterson and Wingate.

By-and-large, the trio don’t differ much on issues concerning the city. Water availability in a drought was a primary concern for both Lee and Peterson, while Wingate has said his primary concern is the city’s underfunded liability of retirement payments.

Of large importance this election cycle is Measure L-16, which would allow the city to tax marijuana sales, and potentially generate up to $2 million for the city’s coffers.

Measure L-16 would set up a dual taxing system for marijuana businesses that open in the city. It would levy an annual charge on nurseries of $25 per square foot for their first 5,000 square feet of grow, plus $10 per any additional square foot, while separately taxing all other marijuana businesses based on their annual revenue. The tax rate for those would be 5 percent for medical marijuana-related businesses and 10 percent for recreational marijuana businesses.

The city is concurrently working on updating its land-use and zoning ordinances to figure out where it would theoretically allow certain types of cannabis businesses to operate.

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 8:42 PM with the headline "Shoals, Lee and Peterson win Grover Beach races; marijuana tax passes."