2014 October PASO Magazine

General Election set for November 4
By Bob Chute
The General Municipal Election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014.
Locally, we will be making decisions for positions on area School Boards
and two seats on the Paso Robles City Council, as well as ballot measures.
First of all, once again, let me express my heartfelt thank you to each
candidate for taking on the challenge of seeking election - an often thankless
task in service of our residents. Space limitations prevent us from
including comments from every candidate appearing on the ballot. Our
September issue carried comments from candidates explaining why they
are seeking a seat on the Paso Robles City Council and why they deserve
your vote. Former City Councilman Steve Martin ran unopposed
for Mayor and was therefore elected at the deadline.
This month we get more specific on their positions. We posed four
questions to each candidate and asked them to respond to each in 200
words or less. Hopefully, this will help in your decision selecting those that
will lead us over the next four years.
Their are five candidates for the City Council, in alphabetical order:
Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director
Pam Avila, Planning Commissioner Steve Gregory, incumbent Councilman
John Hamon, Mayor Duane Picanco and draftsman Jim Reed.
Martin was in the middle of his four year term as a city councilman and
the newly seated council will decide whether to hold a special election or
appoint a replacement to complete the two remaining years of his term.
The format will feature each of the four questions with each candidate’s
response, again in alphabetical order.
Question #1: Do you feel the current direction of the city is
appropriate? What is the most significant change you would want to
implement as a Paso Robles City Councilman?
Pam Avila - I share the concerns of many Paso Roblans about the leadership
and direction of our City. I am troubled by the lack of transparency
and responsive leadership at City Hall. I’m concerned because I don’t see
a clear direction being presented by our current City Council.
After weathering the economic downturn our current City Council is
not making any significant move to return the services that were cut. Public
safety is still below pre-2008 staffing numbers. We’re just now starting
to see some of our streets being repaired. The City squandered an opportunity
to work with our business community to open a key health and
fitness resource – the Centennial Pool. Even though we have few parks,
the majority of them remain in unacceptable condition.
Going forward, there must be a plan in place – with action steps and
accountability – for making Paso Robles not just bigger but better!
We need a plan for creating more and better-paying jobs, diversifying
our economy from dependence on a single industry (tourism), making it
easier to start or grow a business, repairing our streets, reducing crime,
training our high school graduates for meaningful jobs, improving our
parks and maintaining the quality of life that is so important to all of us.
Steve Gregory - Paso Robles is a great place to live and we need
to continually improve our City. We need the City Council to advocate
transparency in government and do a better job managing our assets.
Let’s use technology to expedite information about the City needed
by citizens. The City Council must listen to the community and work
together, with staff and with citizens to resolve issues. When stakeholders
are involved, the problems are easier to solve. I will bring strong leadership
and management skills to the City Council.
Our City needs strong leadership to manage and direct the City’s
Pam Avila
Director of Economic Development; Technology
Industry Consultant Education
Steve Gregory
Planning Commissioner for 5+ years and
owned large and small businesses
John Hamon
Incumbent Councilman, business owner,
city Volunteer Fire Department for 19 years,
5 years on the Planning Commission, 8 years
on County of San Luis Obispo regional boards
Duane Picanco
Incumbent Mayor, former business
owner, over 20 years experience on
Planning Commission and as City
Councilman and Mayor
Jim Reed
Self-employed
Designer / Draftsman
Questions for Paso Robles City Council Candidates
planning and development for the future. I strongly support economic
development, balancing new with our past. We have much to offer new
businesses and we need to ensure our existing businesses are strong. City
revenues are increasing and it’s time to return important City services:
re-open Centennial pool, improve parks maintenance by hiring back employees,
and continue to repair streets and roads so we can be proud of our
City. We need to enhance quality of life for all residents and respond to
them in a timely and professional manner.
John Hamon - Our city is slowly coming out of a recessionary period
that had many services reduced or turned off all together to save money.
It was a prudent decision based on the reduced revenue the city was seeing.
I made the commitment to design a budget that would “live within
our means” and adjusted the financial plan accordingly. The picture it gave
our city was not what any of us wanted however just like every family
in town having to reduce their expenses, it had to be done to keep this
City in the black.
Coming out of this recession I want to use rising revenue to get our
City back to pre-2008 levels of service. I would put these dollars to work in
areas such as our public safety departments, restoring our assets like building
maintenance, streets, parks and landscape maintenance, and for the Centennial
pool which needs to be readied to open for next summer’s aquatic season.
The new increased income needs to be spent on our public properties maintenance
first and not increased employee wages. That is why I was the only
one that did not support the city employee wage packages which came before
our council for approval a few weeks ago. In these times, we must spend our
money wisely and for the improvement of our town first.
Duane Picanco - Nothing is perfect; the bad economy had a huge
negative impact on City, County, State and Federal governments. As City
income increases, I would support increasing police and fire staffing along
with reopening Centennial Park. We need to put more money into street
repairs and striping as revenue increases. I do not believe in spending
more revenue than we receive.
Please see ELECTION page 12
10 Paso Robles Magazine, October 2014