The San Miguel Board of Directors is set to discuss a proposal at Thursday night's meeting involving the possible dissemination of its community services district. Fire protection, water, wastewater, street lighting, landscaping, and solid waste services are all controlled and serviced by the San Miguel Community Services District.
San Miguel resident Gregory Campbell wrote a letter to the board suggesting that San Miguel should partner with the county of San Luis Obispo and organizations like Cal Fire to provide more resources to the community while getting rid of its own community services district.
Campbell's full letter reads as follows:
Dear Board Members,
I am writing to formally request that the San Miguel Community Services District (SMCSD) be dissolved and its administration and execution of services be returned to the County of San Luis Obispo. Given the current operational landscape, I believe that transitioning these responsibilities to the County would result in more efficient, cost-effective, and transparent governance for our community.
The SMCSD was originally established to consolidate multiple service districts under one board, streamline operations, enhance transparency, and provide better local oversight. These objectives have been largely achieved. However, in today’s environment, larger organizations such as the County of San Luis Obispo have the capacity to provide more economical and flexible services with fewer personnel and less bureaucracy while still ensuring strong public oversight through agreements for local member representation.
Returning the administration of our essential services to San Luis Obispo County and bringing on board CAL Fire would allow for improved resource allocation and access to a broader range of expertise. The County and CAL Fire already have the infrastructure, personnel, and operational experience to manage these services effectively, which would reduce redundancies and administrative costs while maintaining the community’s voice in governance.
It is time for the SMCSD to evolve and embrace a more sustainable model of service delivery. By dissolving the district and reintegrating with the larger organizations, we can ensure that San Miguel continues to receive high-quality services without the burden of maintaining a separate administrative entity.
I urge the Board to seriously consider this proposal and initiate discussions with LAFCO, the County of San Luis Obispo, and CAL FIRE regarding the transition. I appreciate your time and attention to this matter and look forward to your response.
According to the board, a benefit to doing away with the Community Services District would be the consolidation of administrative resources and operational resources, as well as availability of additional administrative and technical resources for projects.
Drawbacks, however, outweigh the pros at the moment, according to the staff report prepared by Kelly Dodd. The agenda for Thursday’s board meeting states there would be no local personnel to assist customers or respond to issues, operations personnel would be shared with all county service areas operating out of Santa Margarita, and decisions the district previously handled would instead be made by the county with no local control.
Community members shared concerns about losing local departments.
“I've seen fires break out here in town off of Estrella Road," Rita Barrera, San Miguel resident, said. "We had like two really big ones last year that i could see from my house. If they weren't so close, maybe their losses would have been greater than they actually [were]."
They would like to see more deputies patrolling the area.
“I would hope it would make it a little bit cheaper," resident Max Amaya said. "The concern I would have would be public safety. It'd be nice to have more sheriffs' presence here.”
The board meeting starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the San Miguel Senior Center located at 601 12th Street. While no final decisions will be made, the board could choose to add it as a future agenda item.
