Heather Moreno, Susan Funk face off in debate for SLO County supervisor seat

While rain pattered on the roof of the Atascadero Community Church on Monday night, the two candidates running to represent District 5 on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors debated everything from water management to election policy.

Current Supervisor Debbie Arnold will retire when her term ends next January — opening the door for Atascadero Mayor Heather Moreno and Atascadero Mayor Pro Tem Susan Funk to compete to replace her on the board.

Moreno was appointed to the City Council in 2012 and later elected mayor of Atascadero in 2018. Funk was elected to the Atascadero City Council in 2018.

The League of Women Voters co-hosted the forum with the Atascadero American Association of University Women and the San Luis Obispo County chapter of the NAACP.

Here’s where the candidates stand on the issues.

How would candidates address homelessness, safe parking

In March, the county will close the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking Site, which opened in 2021 as a place to temporarily house people in their vehicles. Numerous residents stayed there long-term, however, and the county encountered safety and operational challenges over the years.

Now, the county and Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo face a lawsuit alleging that they mismanaged the site and are unlawfully removing residents.

Funk called the parking site a “challenged project,” but said the county did its best to divert vehicle camping away from Palisades Avenue in Los Osos.

She said the county could learn from its mistakes at the site. In the future, a safe parking site should be paired with support services, establish clear expectations with residents about conduct and length of say, and have a dedicated organization managing the site.

Meanwhile, Moreno said she would not have voted to support the safe parking site, calling the program “a disastrous decision from the get-go.”

“There was some funding, somewhat of a plan, but it was very scattered,” she said, pointing to fire danger, security issues and a death at the site.

Future safe parking sites should be smaller, have a designated organization managing its operations, and should only allow residents to stay for 90 days, Moreno said.

Otherwise, Funk encouraged the county to follow its plan to reduce homelessness by half in five years — a plan she helped build as chair of the Homeless Services Oversight Council.

She emphasized “recognizing the humanity on all sides of this,” from people who live on the streets to people who want to feel safe in their neighborhoods.

Funk also supports combining transitional housing with support services, she said.

Meanwhile, Moreno said the county should take three steps to improve its homeless response. First, complete a performance audit on all money spent on homelessness then reallocate the funds to successful programs. Next, improve coordination and communication between homeless service providers — including the county, cities and nonprofit organizations. Finally, collect data on homelessness more than once every two years.

Moreno also supports policies that prohibit people from living on the streets, such as Atascadero’s camping ordinance that regulated where, when and how people can camp on public property.

This allows law enforcement to remove people from the streets while also connecting them with support services, she said.

“We need to balance compassion with accountability,” Moreno said.

How can the county combat climate change?

When asked how she would combat climate change, Moreno supports the continued operation of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

In December, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted a relicensing application to keep the plant open for another 20 years — operating past its originally scheduled closure dates in 2024 and 2025.

“This has to be part of our clean energy portfolio,” Moreno said.

She also said the county should consider new energy technology, such as the offshore wind farm proposed for Morro Bay. Before accepting the project, stakeholders should examine its impact on marine life, commercial fisheries and the nearby community, Moreno said.

“It is a decision that we need to take our time with,” she said.

Funk also supports the continued operation of the nuclear power plant and offshore wind energy, but “it has to be done well in a way that respects our environment,” she said.

She said the county must plan for the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise and an increase in extreme weather events.

Early in her career as a council member, Funk asked the council to examine how fire risk is being affected by climate change. As part of this project, the council supported the development of Zone Haven, now known as genasys — a website where Atascadero residents can find emergency and evacuation information based on their location.

Funk said that “others on the council” didn’t want to use the term climate change when examining fire risk, so she pushed the project forward by focusing on fire and traffic data instead.

Still, Funk said it is critical ”to recognize that as human beings we are a contributing factor to climate change.”

Funk’s comments seemed to be directed at Moreno’s past position on climate change.

In 2014, Moreno co-wrote a viewpoint in The Tribune, which said, “there is increasing debate about the climate sensitivity of the Earth and how much impact human-generated greenhouse gas emissions actually have upon the planet and what, if anything, can be done about it.”

Moreno has since adjusted her viewpoint, acknowledging that human activity contributed to climate change.

Voting and the Clerk-Recorder’s Office

Both candidates said they support the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.

Funk said the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office has proved that its processes are accurate through ballot recounts and its regular 1% manual tally.

“I support the county clerk-recorder,” Funk said. “I think that the work that office is doing is well documented and clear.”

Funk also said the board should support the Elections Office when the public questions their integrity.

She condemned “the attacks that essentially drove our previous clerk-recorder out of town,” she said, referring to former Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong’s departure for a job in the Bay Area after members of the public questioned his integrity to the extent one speaker at public comment asked him if he was “a member of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Moreno also supported the Clerk-Recorder’s Office.

“I don’t have any particular issues with the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office. I think they are doing the best they can,” Moreno said.

However, Moreno said the California Secretary of State’s Office should clean the voter rolls to ensure people only receive one ballot.

Moreno also said the state should prevent “ballot harvesting,” a practice in which people collect ballots from voters and drop them off at polling places or the Elections Office. In 2022, the SLO County Republican Party offered to collect ballots for voters.

Recall Supervisor Bruce Gibson?

Moreno said she supports the right of a citizen group to initiate a recall effort but did not think it was productive for her to take a position efforts to recall recall Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

Funk, however, opposed the recall effort.

“There’s a time and place to recall people,” Funk said, such as if an elected official accepts bribes. But the committee organizing the recall effort did not present a compelling reason to remove Gibson from office, she said.

“We don’t need bogus efforts to go back and re-do elections that have already been won,” Funk said.

Who should pick district boundaries?

Last month, the board voted to direct the county to work with state Sen. John Laird’s office to write a law creating an independent redistricting commission.

The commission would be an appointed, nonpartisan group of citizens tasked with evaluating and establishing district boundaries.

Funk supports an independent redistricting commission, she said.

“I am deeply committed to government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” Funk said. “That means that the voters get to chose the elected officials. The elected officials should not be running around selecting their voters.”

Moreno, however, would prefer that an independent commission select a few district maps for the board to chose from.

“I don’t like the idea of a solely un-elected, unaccountable body making decisions,” she said. “I don’t like removing the electeds completely out of the process.”

Proposition 13 and ACA 1

Another issue on the minds of recall supporters is Proposition 13, the landmark initiative passed by voters in 1978 that limits property tax increases in California and requires a two-thirds vote to increase taxes.

This November, voters will have the chance to vote on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1, which would lower the voter approval threshold for increasing taxes from two-thirds to 55% for initiatives that fund public infrastructure or affordable housing projects.

Moreno said she doesn’t support the amendment as she doesn’t want to degrade the two-thirds voter threshold established by Proposition 13.

“Rather than looking at where are more funding sources, I think the state needs to look at why don’t we stop spending so much money and be more efficient with what we do,” Moreno said.

Funk said she supports Proposition 13, as it prevents “people from getting taxed out of their homes,” she said.

She added that the amendment would not threaten Proposition 13, as it doesn’t change the process for evaluating property taxes.

Funk wants to consider new funding sources for county projects. All California voters will get to decide if the amendment is the right approach to seeking more funding in November, she said.

Water management in North County

In the North County, the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin is considered “ critically overdrafted .”

Funk said the county must move forward with the Paso Basin Sustainability Plan to bring water levels back to where they should be. She supports water conservation policies and using technology to recharge the basin, she said.

“There’s much more use than there is replenishment of the groundwater, and it’s essential that we get that back into balance,” Funk said.

Funk implied that Moreno supported the planting ordinance , which allowed farmers to use 25 acre-feet of water from the basin annually instead of 5 acre-feet of water.

“I don’t see how this helps us,” Funk said.

The new board majority repealed the ordinance last year, resetting the water use limit to 5 acre-feet.

Moreno, however, said she never stated that she supports the concepts in the planting ordinance.

“I’m not sure where that came from,” Moreno said.



Instead, Moreno supports using recycled water to recharge the basin and paying farmers to voluntarily fallow their land.

“We need to do something to make sure these people are made whole,” she said.

Catch the last debate

Voters have one more chance to watch Funk and Moreno debate the issues.

On Wednesday, the Latino Outreach Council and League of Women Voters will host a debate at the Pavilion on the Lake at 9315 Pismo Ave.

A meet-and-greet with the candidates will start at 5:30 p.m., and the forum will start at 6 p.m.