SLO County takes over day-to-day management of beleaguered beach town CSD
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- County Public Works assumes interim management of San Simeon CSD under CalWARN.
- Public Works managers stabilize operations, oversee testing, billing and meters.
- District faces possible dissolution; LAFCO study will determine successor agency.
Daily management of the long-beleaguered San Simeon Community Services District is, for now, in the hands of San Luis Obispo County Public Works.
Fluid Resource Management, the Arroyo Grande firm that has managed the actual water and wastewater plants and operations for some time, has gotten good reviews and will remain on the job.
But general management will fall to Public Works division manager Suzy Watkins, with her overseeing everything else and assuring that operations are stabilized and the water and wastewater services run smoothly.
She’s expected to work up to 20 hours a week — at more than $83 an hour — and be in the CSD’s offices two days a week, according to a temporary assignment outlined Sept. 29 by deputy director of Public Works Kate Ballantyne.
Wendy Hall, division manager for Public Works support services department, will also be involved as the liaison between the services district and the county, according to the CSD staff.
That emergency arrangement may last a year or so while a necessary study is completed about dissolving the district, according to Supervisor Bruce Gibson.
It’s not known if this recent action is the forerunner of having the county taking over the district operations permanently if the district dissolves, as its directors have been discussing for more than a year.
“While it’s not a guaranteed deal, for now at least it seems that the county would be the likely successor agency,” Gibson said.
Before that’s known, there’s “more work to do,” he said.
“We’ll know more sometime next year,” Gibson said.
How did the county get involved in San Simeon’s CSD?
A state mutual-aid program allows the county to get involved in interim situations like this if the ailing agency requests it. The mutual-aid program is the California Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network, or CalWARN.
The San Simeon district’s board — facing millions of dollars in demands from government agencies and reeling from years of discord — has been discussing and planning to dissolve the agency for some time. The CSD made that formal request to the county in late July.
“The SSCSD situation is stabilizing with our work under the CalWARN agreement,” Gibson told The Tribune on Friday.
“One of key tasks is to work through the study for how services would be provided after the district dissolves — LAFCO needs that info as part of their proceedings,” he said of the Local Agency Formation Commission that controls such action.
Dissolving the six-decade-old district is a long, complex procedure, guided by LAFCO and a study required by the state. The CSD’s lengthy LAFCO application calls for converting the district into a county service area.
According to the application filed in May 2024, the district includes 10 motels, five restaurants, 11 condominium complexes, four apartment complexes, one mobile-home park and 11 undeveloped properties. The document estimated a population of 307 permanent residents and 205 voters.
On July 30, the board approved asking the county for the emergency assistance, including maintaining operational compliance, supervising water-system testing and certifications, replacing elderly water meters, correcting billing errors and completing a Proposition 218 rate study.
Directors have considered raising sewer and water rates, but such an increase could be hard on struggling businesses and lower-income residents, especially those working in the service industry or retirees who survive on only Social Security income.
The tiny town — divided up recently into five voting districts, according to state voting-act requirements — has been in upheaval for years, with Board of Director and general manager resignations and controversy-laced management.
With such a small pool of potential candidates for management positions and the board, finding people to fill those positions has been difficult. Keeping them has been just as hard.
The district currently has only three directors on what’s supposed to be a five-member board.
CSD has wrangled with woes of managing small town
After the resignation of former General Manager Patrick Faverty in May, and the resignation of interim GM Geoff English in July, the district has labored unsuccessfully, again, to find a replacement.
Director Jacqueline Diamond resigned the day after English left, leaving Vice Chairperson Karina Tiwana and directors Holly Le and Michael Donahue on the board.
Tax and business revenues in San Simeon have dropped drastically in recent years, due to a great extent to the nearly three-year landslide-caused closure of the scenic but slide-prone stretch of Highway 1 that leads from the tiny town to Big Sur and Carmel.
The owner of the Manta Ray Restaurant in San Simeon recently told The Tribune that the income at his dinner house had dropped by almost 60% since the recent spate of landslides began.
With reduced tourist visits to the tiny town, the CSD’s water sales and tax revenue also have declined, according to staff reports.
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
