Arroyo Grande mayor candidates trade barbs at election forum
A pair of candidates vying to be the next mayor of Arroyo Grande traded blows Thursday evening at a candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.
The forum — which initially was supposed to also feature two City Council candidates before one backed out — saw incumbent Mayor Caren Ray Russom and candidate Gaea Powell share their thoughts on the future of Arroyo Grande.
From the opening statements, Russom and Powell showed they were ready to go after each others’ records.
“The reason I got involved is because I’m very concerned about the direction that our our beautiful city is going in, and I’m concerned about the millions being wasted on some of the cultural, social justice policies that I don’t think should be in our city government,” Powell said. “I am a constitutional candidate; I believe that the Constitution is the bedrock of our country, and I think we need to make sure that we always honor it, and I feel like the current administration of our city makes a mockery of our flag and our Constitution and our liberties.”
Russom hit back and said Powell lacks the qualification and temperament to effectively run a city government, touting her own record and awards from the previous year.
“In that same period of time, my opponent has made a name for herself by disrupting City Council meetings again and again, subjecting staff and council and audience to heinous imagery and hate speech and has shown hardcore pornography at the Board of Supervisors,” Russom said. “My opponent has brought toxicity, disruption and venom, not only inside our chambers, but outside. Your choice was clear in 2022; your choice is crystal clear in 2024.”
Powell focuses heavily on cultural issues
During the forum, candidates were asked their opinions on a variety of issues effecting the city, including affordable housing, road repairs and ballot Measure E-26, a one-cent sales tax for the next 10 years that would fund infrastructure projects, generating $6 million each year over the next 10 years.
However, on several questions unrelated to social issues, Powell defaulted to the same talking points she’s expressed at public comment at City Council meetings, fovusing on LGBTQ+ issues and the City Council’s decision to fly a Pride flag at city buildings in June.
For example, on the fourth question of the night on how to continue completing road repair projects, Russom said she supported the sales tax measure.
“The fact of the matter is, we just don’t have the budget to be able to do what we need to do to keep our aging 100-year-plus infrastructure and 70-plus miles of road to the degree of satisfaction that you expect from us,” Russom said. “Times have just simply changed, and my opponent is not wrong when she speaks about the dictates that come from California — we have to do so much more with less.”
In response, Powell said the city must protect its “sovereignty” from the state and touted her background as a business consultant as a way to find money in the budget before veering hard right into her opinion on LGBTQ+ issues.
“Roads are very important — our schools are also important,” Powell said. “The reason I disrupted some of the meetings is because I found pornography, very graphic pornography that I’ve shared with the City Council and the Board of Supervisors, and I don’t expect them to go demand that all the books be pulled down — I heard that it’s not their jurisdiction — but it’s everyone’s moral obligation to put a stop to child abuse and at least speak against it.”
Powell brought up her claim that pornography was featured in Arroyo Grande High School’s library, her stance on other civic issues such as flying a Pride flag or implementing diversity, equity and inclusion in no fewer than six of the 12 questions that night.
Only three of those questions were related to civic issues at all, including a question on what guides the candidates’ judgment, Powell’s role in organizing a Moms for Liberty-backed protest in December at AGHS and overall youth rights and safety.
Responding to the questions, Powell said she organized the protest to “remind the children that are not in the LGBTQ community that they also have rights,” and called the LGBTQ+ community a “horrible cult.”
“I don’t care who you are, if you’re not speaking against it, you’re complicit if you do nothing,” Powell said. “Some people will try to call me a bigot or a homophobe or racist or whatever the name-calling is — I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to make sure that our constitutional rights are protected and that we protect the constitutional rights of all children.”
With so many questions turning into a referendum on the candidates’ views on LGBTQ+ issues, Russom said the City Council has almost no influence on issues beyond land-use and infrastructure topics.
She also said she supported welcoming the LGBTQ+ community and said it’s “absolutely not my job to tell you how to run or live your life.”
Where do mayor candidates stand on city and infrastructure issues?
On issues within the City Council’s purview, candidates still found space to distinguish between each other.
The recent changes made to public comment by the City Council due to continued disruption by Powell was one such issue.
Russom said she’s heard both positive and negative feedback on the rule change and stood by the council’s decision to shorten the time limit for general public comment, but said there’s more room for outreach.
Powell called the shortening of public comment “a discriminatory action against me” and her supporters, calling Russom a “dictator” for changing the rules.
“I know what the First Amendment is, and it’s to protect citizens so they can actually air their grievances to their elected officials, and if they don’t like what the elected officials are doing, they can elect new officials,” Powell said.
Candidates also answered a question on how best to develop East Grand Avenue past the Village. Powell said the area could benefit from an extension of they type of building seen in the Village, with shop owners and residents living above businesses.
Russom said the space could be made much more pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and said mixed-use infill development and more public congregation spaces would be a good fit.
Asked how they would fund infrastructure without the added Measure E-26 funds, the candidates were again far apart.
Powell said she’d need to get into the weeds of the budget to re-engineer it and will figure it out once she’s in office, before again raising the issue of whether or not to fly a Pride flag in June.
Russom said budgets are public knowledge and criticized Powell for not having a plan.
“If the tax measure doesn’t pass, I genuinely don’t know what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be drastic, because all of the things that my opponent is talking about cutting are one-time monies and we need that funding to come year over year over year over year,” Russom said. “The budget’s public, but we can’t cut our way there without losing something we all want. So it’s going to require serious cutbacks if we don’t pass that.”
City Council candidate skips forum
Thursday’s forum would have featured twice the number of candidates onstage but shrank to just Powell and Russom when District 3 City Council candidate Marlea Harmon failed to appear for the forum.
“Marlea Harmon from District 3 changed her mind at the last minute, so due to the League of Women Voters’ policy, Jamie (Maraviglia) will not be able to participate this evening, with the exception of opening statements,” South County Chambers of Commerce CEO Jeff Chambers said at the start of the forum.
After the forum, Maraviglia said she was disappointed to miss out on what may be her only opportunity to introduce herself to voters.
Maraviglia, an Arroyo Grande Planning Commission member, said she would have loved to talk about East Grand Avenue development.
“My district is a big chunk of East Grand Avenue, and I see it just as this huge potential for the city in terms of things like affordable housing and public development, but also just a place that people can congregate,” Maraviglia told The Tribune after the forum.
Maraviglia said she supports Measure E-26, and said without it, the city has little financial wiggle room.
“We’re fiscally sound, but there’s really no more cuts without doing extensive damage,” Maraviglia said. “This measure will allow visitors to help fund our needs.”
The Tribune reached out to Harmon for comment but did not receive a reply.
This story was originally published September 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM.
