SLO mayor leaked grand jury report on fraternities to Cal Poly, records show
San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart shared a copy of a SLO County Grand Jury report with a Cal Poly official before the report was officially published last year — an action the Grand Jury says violated the law, according to records obtained by The Tribune.
The Grand Jury report, titled “Round and Round with Town and Gown,” centered on the city’s management of noisy parties and fraternity activity in the neighborhoods near campus. The jury investigation ultimately found that the city hadn’t done enough to curb the neighborhood disturbances, and it issued a series of findings and recommendations.
The city sent a list of corrections to the Grand Jury on June 20 before the report was published — but nothing appeared to have been changed as a result of the corrections. The city rejected the report’s findings in September.
Now, records show that some of those corrections may have been developed with input from Cal Poly, after Stewart forwarded the advance copy of the report to Cal Poly economic development official Courtney Kienow, who responded with frustrations about the report and concerns about certain information that had been left out.
The Tribune reached out on Tuesday to Stewart, who responded via text that she believed at the time she forwarded the advance report that Cal Poly was already among the recipients of the document due to its history of collaboration with the city on issues involving Greek Life and student housing.
“In order to provide a thorough and factual response to the grand jury report, I believed it was necessary to receive data from one of the stakeholders of this report, Cal Poly, in order to serve the interests of both parties in a fair-minded and evenhanded fashion,” she wrote.
Mayor shared confidential report with Cal Poly official
Stewart received an advance copy of the report on June 13, 2025 — 10 days before it was made public, an email thread obtained by The Tribune showed. A letter sent along with the report noted the draft copy was “confidential” and cited a California law requiring the Grand Jury to provide a copy of a part of a report connected to an individual with the report ahead of time.
“No officer, agency, department, or governing body of a public agency shall disclose any contents of the report prior to the public release of the final report,” the cited law read.
“Please keep in mind that this report must be kept confidential until its public release by the Grand Jury,” the letter, issued by Grand Jury foreperson Bonnie McKrill, concluded.
Within three hours after receiving it, however, Stewart had forwarded the report to Cal Poly economic development official Courtney Kienow, who has previously spoken as a university representative on the fraternity issues, the email chain showed.
In an April compliance report released by the Grand Jury and obtained by The Tribune, the jury expressed its suspicion that the draft report was leaked to Cal Poly ahead of its official release. It cited a response to the Grand Jury from Cal Poly that was dated June 16, 2025 — a week before the report was officially published.
“Evidently Cal Poly was given a copy of the final report prior to its release date,” the report said. “This action is not in compliance with the procedure prescribed in the Penal Code.”
Texts show Stewart, Kienow discussed report before public release
The Tribune also obtained public records containing texts exchanged between Stewart and Kienow the day the advance report was released to the city — 10 days before it was released to the public.
The texts showed that Stewart first asked Kienow if she had received the report around 4:24 p.m. on June 13, 2025. After Kienow responded that she hadn’t received the report, Stewart sent it to her around 4:38 p.m., the email timestamp showed.
“Coming your way,” Stewart texted. “I just finished reading it. I look forward to hearing your take on it.”
“Thank you so much for sharing it,” Kienow responded, in part. “I’d hope they’ll be sharing with me soon too!”
The two then began discussing the contents of the report, sharing frustrations about what details were included and what details were left out. Stewart claimed the report appeared “as though some of our local friends wrote it.”
Kienow was frustrated that the jury didn’t acknowledge the student housing Cal Poly added since 2005 while discussing the university’s growth. She claimed later in the thread that there were fewer students living in the neighborhoods in 2024 compared to 2005.
“It really is like the anti-student neighbors wrote it,” Kienow wrote to Stewart.
The following day, a Saturday, Kienow broke the news to Stewart that the report likely was not meant to be shared with Cal Poly ahead of its official publication.
“I’m working on a rebuttal,” she told Stewart. “Problem: Cal Poly is not identified in the report as a required respondent so I don’t believe they intend to share it with us at all before it’s published. Our leadership has not received it!”
Kienow said she reached out to a jury representative for an advance copy — but asked Stewart if she was comfortable with Cal Poly sending corrections to the Grand Jury if Cal Poly was not provided their own copy of the report. Stewart responded that she was happy to share her responses.
“I have so many problems with this thing as well,” Stewart said as part of the same message.
Later Saturday morning, Kienow texted Stewart that she didn’t want to overstep but felt that the city should share statistics about the decrease in noise violations over the last 10 years with the Grand Jury.
“They’ve dropped a ton and remained pretty steady (outside COVID) over the last decade,” Kienow wrote. “Counter to some of their accusations that those issues are ratcheting up.”
She continued: “The framing of the whole narrative is wrong.”
Stewart agreed there was “so much wrong and left out” of the Grand Jury’s report.
On the following Monday, June 16, Kienow texted Stewart that “so many people” had their hands on the advance copy of the report.
“They’ll never know it came from you,” she added. “Still greatly appreciate you stepping out for what’s right!”
“So interesting,” Stewart responded, adding that she assumed the university would be asked to respond.
“So if it ever comes up,” Stewart continued, “I’m fine with being outed if I have to.”
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