County air board hiring consultant to help end discord

Meetings of the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District Board of Directors have become so dysfunctional that the board has approved spending up to $5,000 to hire a facilitator to teach them how to get along with one another.

The workshop could take up to four hours and will be held at the board’s next meeting, tentatively scheduled for March 23. At that meeting, the board, via the facilitator, will discuss adopting a set of rules or norms that would guide the panel during contentious discussions.

The norms could contain such guidelines as:

• Treat all participants in the public process equally and with courtesy.
• Do not direct cheap shots/personal attacks at one another or staff during public meetings, in the press or at any other place/time.
• Maintain a sense of humor.
• Embrace and respect diverse points of view.

The move comes after a series of particularly contentious meetings that featured clashes among board members, usually along partisan lines, and divided votes. Meetings that used to be finished within several hours now often drag on into the early afternoon.

“We are having problems,” noted Roberta Fonzi, an Atascadero city councilwoman. “We are not functioning effectively.”

The board oversees the activities of the air district. It consists of 12 members — all five county supervisors and a representative from each of the county’s seven cities.

Disagreements often break down along partisan lines with Democrats — such as Supervisors Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson, San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx and Morro Bay City Councilman Noah Smukler — disagreeing with Republicans — such as Fonzi, Supervisors Debbie Arnold and Lynn Compton, and Pismo Beach City Councilman Ed Waage.

Much of the discord on the board stems from a highly controversial rule adopted in 2011 that requires State Parks to reduce unhealthy amounts of dust blowing onto the Nipomo Mesa from Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. Opponents question the science behind the rule while supporters say it is needed because the air pollution district must do what it can to reduce dust levels.

“The dust rule is a public health matter, but it has become a political football,” Hill said.

Several board members, including Arnold and Compton, said they opposed spending any money on the workshop and questioned its efficacy.

“People are going to act the way they are going to act,” Compton said. “I don’t think a four-hour session will correct that.”

A prime example of the board’s dysfunction occurred at Wednesday’s meeting, just before the board voted to hold the facilitated workshop. The item was a recommendation to extend the employment contract of Larry Allen, an air pollution control officer, for another year and give him a 4.8 percent cost of living adjustment.

It took three separate motions and an hour of debate to approve extending Allen’s contract with a 2.5 percent pay increase. A motion to give Allen the full 4.8 percent increase and a motion to extend his contract without any pay raise failed. Several of the board members said they think Allen is already highly paid.

“I am concerned that this is an excessive salary,” Arnold said.

Before Allen’s raise Wednesday, he earned an annual compensation package of $239,324 of salary and benefits. The 2.5 percent increase brings it to about $245,000.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "County air board hiring consultant to help end discord."