SLO and Morro Bay spending big to secure city offices amid safety threats
Citing heightened political tension as well as online harassment, city councils in San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay have approved thousands of dollars to better secure municipal buildings.
The San Luis Obispo City Council recently approved $380,000 — and the Morro Bay City Council voted in favor of allocating $52,000 — for measures to protect against potential attacks, intrusions or harassment against council members and staff. One plan includes bullet-proof materials at key locations.
Other cities across San Luis Obispo County are also considering or have already implemented building security plans.
The spending comes as online personal attacks and harassment against San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon and Morro Bay City Council member Dawn Addis, as well as a disturbing series of mass shooting incidents nationwide in recent years.
Those include a 2019 shooting at a municipal center in Virginia that left 13 people dead, including the gunman.
“At the federal level, there has been such a high level of violent and threatening language toward a lot of folks, but women in particular, that can carry down to the local level,” Harmon said. “Social media compounds that, where a culture of spouting vitriolic comments exists.”
Harmon added that “these things have huge implications and outcomes, and our number one priority is to keep our community safe, including our city employees.”
SLO City Council plans safety upgrades for 10 buildings
San Luis Obispo’s City Council allocated the security funding at its Feb. 18 meeting. The new safeguards will be added to 10 city buildings, according to a staff report.
Those safety measures include adding “ballistic-resistant” materials in doors and windows at key locations and generally protecting “windows, doors, and the City Council dais,” the report stated.
“Improvements will include adding glass partitions to some public counters which will improve safety, but still allow for interaction with community members,” San Luis Obispo City Manager Derek Johnson said in an email. “These improvements will increase the city’s level of preparedness for potential emergency situations and will be implemented over the coming months.”
Harmon said that “nobody wants to spend money on something that’s not necessarily,” but the council members feel it is imperative.
In 2018, the council approved a $1.3 million allocation for Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market bollards — short, sturdy posts used to divert traffic from the road — to protect people in downtown San Luis Obispo.
The downtown bollard project, which took into consideration a fatal car crash into pedestrians in Santa Monica in 2003, has yet to be completed as city officials continue to plan the work before implementation.
Morro Bay adds to existing security measures
As part of a mid-year budget adjustment Tuesday, the Morro Bay City Council unanimously approved a $52,000 expenditure to cover costs for secured doors and to protect public greeting windows, with small holes in the style of bank teller-style windows to allow for conversations between staff and community members.
The allocation will fund improvements to the city’s Public Works, Harbor Department and Community Center buildings, where the public has more direct access to city working spaces.
Morro Bay already spent about $10,000 to upgrade its City Hall building with similar door and window safety improvements.
Morro Bay’s police and fire departments also already have secured public access spaces that separate staff members from walk-in visitors, though the public may enter department office spaces with city staff permission.
“I’ve grown concerned about security since I’ve been here,” said Scott Collins, Morro Bay’s city manager. “People get along really well overall. But things do happen as we saw with the Virginia Beach shooting. The city has taken hard look about their security and making sure City Hall and other buildings are safe for our employees.”
Security concerns prompted by Virginia shooting, local incidents
The safeguards come as the one-year anniversary approaches for a mass shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach on May 31, 2019. A city employee shot and killed twelve people and wounded four others before he was shot and killed by responding police officers.
Local incidents have also prompted security returns.
A San Luis Obispo man was arrested Jan. 6 after jumping over a half door at San Luis Obispo’s City Hall in attempt to meet with Harmon, pushing a staff member to the ground.
Hearing the commotion, San Luis Obispo City Manager Derek Johnson left his office and confronted the man, holding him down until police arrived.
The man, 58-year-old Lannen Bowers, was arrested on suspicion of battery and trespassing.
No San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office case is listed on file for the January incident involving Bowers, though multiple city officials filed for a temporary restraining order against him, which has been granted.
Harmon said the incident “traumatized the office.”
“This job has created a certain level of PTSD that, without overstating it, is creating a certain level of constant concern,” she said.
Harmon has spoken out about being the target of repeated, personal online attacks that insulted her looks and intelligence, as well as demeaning sexual comments and even suggestions of violence. One social media post suggested her death with the image of a bus directed at her on a roadway.
Harmon also cited threats suggesting that cars run into bicycling advocates in connection with the city’s Anholm bikeway project, which was controversial because of separated bike lanes that removed parking spaces.
Morro Bay council member says politics ‘more and more contentious’
Addis, who’s running for California State Assembly, said her primary concern is “a safer situation for employees.”
“My support (for securing City Hall) had to do with city staff expressing they don’t feel they have the security that’s needed,” Addis said. “Our decision came after the Virginia Beach shooting, and it was in the context that politics has been more and more contentious.”
In February 2019, Addis spoke out against threatening and harassing emails she received from a man — identified by police as 65-year-old Morro Bay resident Mark Charles Hanson — that included comments of a sexual and gender-based nature.
“Annoying/harassing communications have been received by all members of council (from Hanson),” Morro Bay police Chief Jody Cox told The Tribune at the time.
Hanson told the Tribune in 2019 that he stopped his emails to the council after a police sergeant spoke with him about it. But he said he’d continue commenting on social media.
“When women and others take the chance to share our voices and leadership in public ways, we should be able to do without vicious attacks,” Addis said in 2019. “When women and other victims speak truth, we amplify our power. Silence and fear do not help us and do not help those who will face abuse after us.”
Addis said Morro Bay’s city building security measures are partly in response to a tense political climate that can veer to personal attacks over issue-based discussions.
She said the Morro Bay wastewater treatment facility project in particular has created community divisions and tensions, adding that, in the broader context, “uncivil exchanges are becoming more acceptable.”
“Politics has been more and more contentious,” Addis said. “That has played out locally, unfortunately.”
Other SLO County cities examine security measures
Some other local cities are considering implementing protections at their buildings, or have already.
Jim Bergman, Arroyo Grande’s city manager, said the city’s staff is developing “a list of recommended security improvements for city offices.”
“We are reviewing requests and will consider these projects in our upcoming budget and capital improvement plans,” Bergman said.
In Atascadero, the city hasn’t recently allocated money for installing security measures but has implemented provisions in the past.
“When we were rehabilitating the building in 2003, there were some security measures put in place at that time,” said Terrie Banish, Atascadero’s deputy city manager.
In Paso Robles, the city’s staff “evaluates our security measures on a regular basis and makes adjustments as necessary,” said Freda Berman, the city’s maintenance superintendent.”
“I wouldn’t want to detail what we have in place,” Berman said.
The Pismo Beach City Council recently approved $150,000 for security work at City Hall, city manager Jim Lewis said.
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