Two candidates are running for Arroyo Grande City Council. Only one of them is talking | Opinion
Well, that was weird.
The candidate forum many Arroyo Grande voters had been looking forward to didn’t go off as planned Thursday night.
The reason?
Only one of two candidates running for the District 3 City Council seat showed up for the event sponsored by the South County Chambers of Commerce and moderated by the League of Women Voters.
As a result, candidate Jamie Maraviglia was denied the opportunity to participate — but don’t blame the League.
For unknown reasons, Marlea Harmon, the other council candidate, pulled out a few days before the forum — after it had been well advertised and marked on many calendars.
That meant Maraviglia couldn’t take part either, although she was allowed to make a brief opening statement.
It sounds grossly unfair, yet the statewide rules governing League forums in California are clear:
“A League may never hold or cosponsor a forum if only one candidate is able to participate in a forum event,” the guidelines state. “This is true no matter what the reason for any candidate’s failure to participate. To hold a one-candidate event could easily be construed as partisan, an endorsement of the candidate present or a contribution to or expenditure on behalf of that candidate.”
There you have it. Absolutely no wiggle room.
While we can debate the wisdom of giving a single candidate the power to sabotage an event that has been in the works for weeks, if not months, the League is nonetheless bound by the rule.
The only chance to see the candidate in action?
We don’t know why Harmon was a no-show; Jeff Chambers, CEO of the South County Chambers of Commerce, said she “changed her mind at the last minute.”
If Harmon’s absence was due to illness or a family emergency, then of course it was justified. But if she arbitrarily pulled out, that was a huge disservice to the League, to her opponent and to voters.
This was Maraviglia’s opportunity to make her case before a large audience. She was prepped and ready to go and was justifiably upset that she was not allowed up on the stage to answer questions alongside the other candidates.
The audience — both those watching in person and online — was disappointed as well, because they lost what might be their only chance to learn about Harmon.
So far, she’s been an elusive candidate. She has not responded to emails from The Tribune, and little can be found about her online, save for some information provided by the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party, which endorsed her.
According to the GOP website, Harmon has “a concern regarding election irregularities, fiscal irresponsibility and government overreach that included social justice initiatives like unjust mandates, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as well as forced acceptance of elected officials’ personal ideologies and dictates.”
Harmon may also have engaged with another conservative organization; she was listed as one of the candidates who participated in a “meet and greet” sponsored by the Great State of New California.
In case you are not familiar with that group, the Great State of New California is described on Facebook as “a new state in development by egregiously aggrieved Californians exercising our constitutional right to form a new state separate from the tyranny and lawlessness of the State of California.”
Mayoral candidate Gaea Powell was listed as a participant as well, as were Lucia Mar school board candidates Paul Bischoff, Mike Fuller and Paul Hively.
A familiar name
The Thursday night forum was not a total loss.
Thankfully, the two candidates for mayor — incumbent Caren Ray Russom and Powell — were both willing to participate.
You may recognize Powell’s name.
She led the group that showed a video containing graphic images — including male frontal nudity and oral sex — during a public comment session at the county Board of Supervisors. The video, which was shot at an event in San Francisco, was meant to warn supervisors of the perils of recognizing Pride Month. (A resolution recognizing LGBTQ+ Pride passed anyway. The board also banned the showing of any videos at future board meetings.)
Powell also has shown up at public meetings to crusade against pornography in school libraries. Predictably, she brought up the subject several times on Thursday night.
“I am determined to remove pornography from the local schools and protect parental rights,” she said during her closing statement.
You may wonder why Powell isn’t running for school board, since the City Council has absolutely nothing to do with with school libraries.
Except, Powell has other goals for the city.
‘Arroyo Grande can be sovereign’
She wants Arroyo Grande to become a Constitutional Sanctuary City, whatever that means.
She also wants it to end spending on diversity, equity and inclusion and ban flying the Pride Flag at City Hall, as well as cease hiring high-priced consultants who do things like help the city update its massive General Plan.
She wants to restore the three minutes that used to be allotted to each speaker during general public comment. (The City Council cut it to one minute to discourage ideological rants about issues over which the city has no control — like books in public schools.)
And she wants Arroyo Grande to thumb its nose at Sacramento by disregarding some of the state laws the city is required to uphold.
“In my opinion, Arroyo Grande can be sovereign,” she said, “but we have to have the courage to stand up.”
While those positions may play well with the MAGA crowd, they do not reflect the values and beliefs of most Arroyo Grande residents — and voters should be aware of that.
That’s where the League of Women Voters comes in. It plays an outsized role in educating voters in an unbiased, bipartisan manner by moderating forums throughout the county. Those events give voters information they won’t find in glossy mailers, well-curated posts on social media or TV soundbites.
As we saw on Thursday, however, the process only works if the candidates themselves are willing to cooperate.
If they’re not, voters should keep that in mind when they mark their ballots.
This story was originally published September 21, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
