SLO County supervisor candidates square off at forum. Here’s what they said
As the June 2 primary election draws closer, the two supervisor candidates running to represent San Luis Obispo County’s Second District faced off at a forum Wednesday night to showcase their views on issues affecting North Coast communities.
More than a hundred people packed into Morro Bay’s Veterans Memorial Hall to watch the event hosted by the League of Women Voters of SLO County.
Attendees were able to submit their own questions to candidates Jim Dantona and Michael Erin Woody. The forum was also livestreamed and will be posted on the league’s YouTube channel.
During the forum, the contenders discussed how they would lead on the county Board of Supervisors, answering questions on local water issues, energy infrastructure, immigration enforcement and affordable housing.
Here’s where the contenders stand on major election issues:
Top priorities for District 2 supervisor candidates
The first question of the night called on the candidates to list their top three priorities for the Second District, which runs along the coast from Los Osos to the Monterey County line.
Michael Erin Woody, a civil engineer from Morro Bay who previously served one term on Fresno City Council and is running with no political party affiliation, said he would not allow any industrialization to occur on the district’s coastline, including offshore wind, nuclear energy and battery storage projects.
“I am sick and tired of watching this region, and specifically Morro Bay, being used as the dumping ground for the energy industries,” he said.
He also pledged to roll back the county policy that allows a 0.4% growth rate in Los Osos due to water quality issues like seawater intrusion.
Democrat and Cayucos resident Jim Dantona, who’s the former president and CEO of the SLO Chamber of Commerce and the Supervisor Bruce Gibson’s current chief of staff, said he’s focused on protecting the North Coast from offshore oil initiatives spurred on by the Trump administration.
Dantona said he’s determined to fix infrastructure issues and lower the cost of living amid what he called “an affordability crisis.”
“The pressure is building on everybody, families who have built their lives here are being forced out. The next generation is not finding a way to stay here,” he said. “We need to tackle that crisis.”
Where do SLO County supervisor contenders stand on energy issues?
While the two candidates agreed on issues surrounding health care and cost of living, they split on whether to bring more renewable energy infrastructure to the North Coast.
When asked about offshore wind projects, Dantona said he supported the idea in the past, but it was impossible to build at this point.
“The Trump administration has killed that off. It is not coming,” he said.
Instead, he doubled-down on the danger of offshore oil projects, calling them “the true threat” being pushed by the federal government.
Woody concurred that the county needs to stand firm against oil drilling off the Central Coast, as well as any future offshore wind initiatives. However, he disagreed with Dantona, arguing that the offshore wind project is not “dead in the water.”
“We know that the Trump administration, in fact, has not killed off this project,” Woody said. “It’s just simply in a holding pattern at this point.”
When asked about whether Diablo Canyon Power Plant should stay open, Woody said it must be closed within the next five years due to its location and aging infrastructure and called the plant’s operating extension until 2030 “a mistake.”
“We have a nuclear power plant sitting on top of a seismic fault line,” he said. “I mean, this doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
Dantona disagreed that there was any chance Diablo Canyon could be shut down anytime soon. In the meantime, he said the state needs to ensure it’s regulated and “absolutely safe.”
“If we turned off Diablo Canyon in five years, we would all have blackouts,” he said. “We need to keep Diablo Canyon running for as long until we create that other power source that we can take it offline.”
On the topic of battery storage, Dantona said he was in favor of safe battery storage facilities near the district’s infrastructure, though he said it would not go at the Morro Bay power plant site since residents have already voted against it.
Battery storage “is how we’re going to ensure our long-term sustainability of carbon-free energy, because solar, if it’s not being stored somewhere, is going to be lost,” he said.
Woody said he was strictly opposed to a battery storage plant being constructed on the North Coast.
“Would you put a garbage dump next to a high school? No,” he said. “Is that NIMBYism? No, it’s common sense.”
Supervisor candidates on SLO Sheriff’s interactions with ICE
The supervisor contenders were also asked about their stance on the SLO County Sheriff’s Office’s interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dantona said that ICE had destroyed lives and stoked fear across the nation, often without the required constitutional due process.
While he admitted the county had little power to take on the federal government directly, he said he would ask the Sheriff to limit work with ICE, so people can be given due process.
“We need the Sheriff — when he has the ability to make a determination — to err on the side of our residents and making sure we are doing little to nothing with ICE,” Dantona said.
Woody said that after fatal shootings in Minneapolis, ICE has shown that they are not properly trained in de-escalation tactics. He said until they prove that they have adequate skills, the Sheriff’s Office should not be working with the federal agency at all.
“We are a nation of laws. We have to make sure those are followed,” he said. “But likewise, this county should not be cooperating with any federal agency that’s improperly trained or not doing their job correctly.”
