Atascadero candidates debate tourism, economy

Atascadero’s financial future was at the forefront Thursday night, as candidates for mayor and City Council debated economic development, tourism and high-wage job creation during a forum sponsored by the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce.

City officials have made rebranding Atascadero and marketing the city as a destination for visitors a priority. And while some candidates agreed with this strategy, others said they want to see the city move in a different direction.

Mayoral candidates

When asked how he would improve Atascadero’s branding efforts, mayoral candidate Nicholas Mattson said the city is “missing the mark a little bit right now.” Atascadero is stacking too many events on top of each other and not focusing enough on attracting new residents and businesses, he said.

“If we can focus on marketing our city as more of a destination that a business owner or a family wants to come and live and establish a business and really root and grow their family here — I think we will do ourselves a bigger favor moving in that direction than in simply throwing events,” he said.

Incumbent Mayor Tom O’Malley responded to Mattson’s criticisms by defending the city’s efforts to draw visitors. “Tourism has a place, as well,” he said. “We are in a tourism region. For the first time in our history, we’re claiming some of that market share.”

O’Malley said the city hopes to attract more events by developing venues. He said investing in “portable infrastructure” — such as parking, stages and sound systems — would help Atascadero “jump-start” new events.

“We’ve successfully brought in several car shows now from other areas because we’ve been competitive in doing this very kind of thinking,” he said.

Ann Ketcherside said she was running for mayor primarily because she’s seen businesses leave Atascadero and head north to Paso Robles. “Planning actually chases businesses away,” she said. Atascadero has “too many rules and regulations” that discourage business growth, she said.

“Our rules are too hard to get new businesses in here,” she said. “And the existing businesses — I don’t know what’s being done to them, but they’re being chased out of here.”

All of the mayoral candidates discussed other specific issues they felt strongly about.

For Ketcherside, that was Atascadero’s need for a bigger, better senior center with more programming.

“It’s an insult to our seniors to have that little, tiny building 35 years later,” she said. “They have buildings in Texas that are as big as Wal-Mart for the senior citizens.”

O’Malley said he wants to see the city continue to make progress on the Del Rio Road interchange on the northwest side of Atascadero. Extensive roadway improvements will need to be made before the nearby Annex project can be developed and a planned Wal-Mart can open. A new shopping area will help generate more sales tax dollars for the city, O’Malley said.

“We’ve worked for 10 years to finally get to a point where that’s moving forward,” he said. “That’s how we can correct that jobs-housing-shopping imbalance. The best thing we can do for our environment is to correct that — reduce vehicle miles traveled.”

Mattson said he’s concerned the city isn’t focusing enough on creating jobs and attracting new businesses, which is among the reasons he decided to run for mayor.

“I haven’t seen any action toward attracting high-wage jobs,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of energy spent on Wal-Mart, which is a fine thing and will fit nicely in our community, if they ever decide to build. And tourism fits nicely in our community. ... That doesn’t do anything for our long-range, high-wage jobs, and I think that’s where our focus should be.”

City Council candidates

City Council candidates also had ideas for improving Atascadero’s economy. Both Daniel Eister and Charles Bourbeau suggested technology jobs as a good fit for the area.

“We need to be focusing on bringing in folks who ... want to have high-paying, high-wage jobs,” Eister said. “I think we haven’t really focused enough on that.”

Bourbeau said the city’s lower cost of living could help draw smaller tech companies with higher-paying jobs to stimulate the Atascadero economy.

“Our housing is affordable, compared to San Luis Obispo,” Bourbeau said. “And many of those kind of firms that are located in San Luis Obispo, many of their employees already live in the North County, and even live in Atascadero.”

Bourbeau also said that as Atascadero’s tourism industry grows, it will start to generate real revenue once city hotels start filling up with tourists paying taxes on their rooms. “Take a city like Pismo Beach,” Bourbeau said. “In a single month in the summer, they can generate $1 million in bed tax. And while we will never achieve that, we can do a lot better in our bed tax.”

Bret Heinemann suggested encouraging development of more home-based businesses, which don’t require owners to buy property or pay rent. “We can still keep on chasing the tourist economy,” Heinemann said. “But this won’t support our needs in the long term. It’s part of our economy, but it’s only part.”

Incumbent Councilwoman Roberta Fonzi acknowledged that jobs can sometimes be difficult to attract to the area. Even so, she said the City Council has made efforts to partner with the Economic Vitality Corp. of San Luis Obispo County and help businesses find commercial spaces.

“We have to locate places to put business,” Fonzi said. “We have to find the places for those people to live affordably, and we have to have a quality lifestyle.”

When asked about the most pressing issue facing Atascadero, the candidates all had different answers.

Bourbeau said developing the Annex property and maintaining the city’s infrastructure would be among his top priorities. Eister wants to reopen a recycling center.

“I think that’s costing local businesses a lot of money,” he said.

Heinemann said it will be important for the city to plan for future population growth, as well as developing jobs.

Fonzi said maintaining local control of the city’s water will be important, especially during the drought.

“Right now, we’re doing fine,” she said. “We have water that will take us far into the future. But I think our neighbors are looking at our water saying, ‘Hmm, I’d like to stick my straw in that basin and have a little.’ ”

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Atascadero candidates debate tourism, economy."