Tension among Grover Beach residents has escalated since a 3-2 vote to approve a city-wide water rate increase for the Central Coast Blue project back in December, which the city opted out of in April due to rising costs
"Nobody's ever seen anything like this," said Debbie Peterson, the leader of the Grover H2O group advocating for affordable water solutions and representative leadership. "Grover has never had a voice."
Peterson explains the first round of recalls targeting Grover Beach Mayor Karen Bright and councilmembers Daniel Rushing and Zach Zimmerman, who supported the rate hike.
“I started looking at the project and asking questions and thinking, 'Is there some other way we can do this that's affordable, that's viable?' And I wasn't the only one," Peterson said.
Her group demanded a court order to approve the recall petition, which, according to the city's website, was denied due to numerous technical errors and misleading statements according to their website.
“The city really tried to stop them at every turn. And recalls are very difficult," Peterson said. "They seldom succeed, and they've become more difficult more recently. “
Months later, the group started a new recall process for councilman Daniel Rushing, collecting 521 valid signatures, surpassing the 504 needed, it took Grover H2O three weeks to collect all signatures.
Peterson said the signatures need to be certified by the next city council meeting to meet the August 9 ballot deadline.
KSBY reached out to Rushing for comment, part of it reads:
“It was a vote that I made using the best information available at that time, supported by years of study and regional support. When it became clear that Central Coast Blue was no longer viable, I reversed my position in response to the new information available."
Peterson said their goal with the recall is to give residents a voice.
"They want people who represent them, who listen to them and give them that voice. And they feel that the that the council and the city hall really hasn't done that of late," Peterson tells me.
According to the city attorney’s office, the city clerk will present the certificate of sufficiency to the Grover Beach City Council on July 22.
The recall election will take place between 88 and 125 days after the order is issued, potentially extending to 180 days to align with a scheduled election.
