A group of residents has filed a lawsuit against the City of Grover Beach. They claim their recall petitions for the mayor and two council members were unlawfully rejected.
Grover H20 member Lesley Marr sat down with me on Monday to discuss the lawsuit. Debbie Peterson, who has led the case, joined us on Zoom as she was out of town.
I asked Peterson what series of events led to this moment.
"The city clerk slow-walked the petition process for three months until it was actually too late to recall Mayor Bright or Mayor Zimmerman in the election. However, she hasn't yet managed to stop us from recalling council member Rushing," Peterson said.
The recall petitions, aimed at Mayor Karen Bright and council members Daniel Rushing and Zach Zimmerman, came after they voted to increase water rates. A move many residents were not happy about.
“Our group is, is asking for transparent governance," Marr said. "And we are going and asking the hard questions and they're really not used to that.”
Grover H20's lawsuit argues that the city clerk’s actions violated the California Elections Code.
A new law passed in 2023 allows individuals to challenge the accuracy of statements in recall petitions by petitioning the courts to have a superior court judge determine the accuracy of those statements.
“This lawsuit is important because it's the first one since the inception of the January 2023 law," Marr told me. "So it will be the first case to set precedents for the future.”
According to Peterson, the city clerk rejected the recall petition for Council Member Rushing, citing alleged false and misleading statements.
“There's a method for dealing with that and the method is, and it's a new law since January 2023, that if anyone feels that anything is inaccurate, then they have the right to petition the courts to get a judge, a superior court judge, to weigh in and determine the accuracy,” Peterson said. “The city refused to do that”
As a practice, the city won’t comment on existing litigation, but shared the following statement with me:
"The City maintains and asserts that the City Clerk’s actions regarding the petitions submitted by Grover H2O have been in accordance with the California Elections Code and applicable judicial precedent, and it disputes any assertion to the contrary."
I also reached out to Rushing and Zimmerman who I did not hear back from, but Bright told me she supports the city's decision.
The court case will go to the San Luis Obispo Superior Court this Thursday at 9 a.m.
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