Over the past few days, there have been two City of Paso Robles City Council candidate interview opportunities. One from the San Luis Obispo Tribune and another from KPRL Radio, the Sound Off show with Karen Velie. During those interviews, it sounded to me that Steve Gregory, my opponent for the district 3 City Council seat, was denying any involvement in the downtown parking debacle. Though he believed the council should be held accountable, I understand he is saying that he wasn’t involved in those votes because he recused himself due to a potential conflict of interest.

In response to a question on the KPRL Sound Off show, Mr. Gregory said it wasn’t appropriate to blame law firm BBK for all the costs incurred on the troubled parking system. He believed the City Council (“the policy makers”) was to blame—but that he was not part of those council decisions.

During the KPRL Sound Off interview (the 2nd segment at approximately the 30:00 mark) Mr. Gregory states, ‘I was conflicted on the parking until January of 2023 so I wasn’t on the original decision. Just so everybody knows that.’

During much of the city’s parking discussion, I understand Mr. Gregory’s wife owned a downtown restaurant that caused a potential conflict of interest with the downtown parking discussion. When he says he was conflicted, I understand he is referring to the potential conflict of interest associated with his wife’s downtown restaurant.

However, I remember Council Member Gregory being at the City Council dais for every downtown parking presentation and vote. I remember him being actively involved in all the downtown parking votes. Though I believe he should have recused himself from this parking discussion and associated council votes, I do not recall him ever doing so.

To check that, I looked back to the City Council meeting minutes from 2018 through 2019 when the downtown parking system was being discussed by the City Council—and when Mr. Gregory claims he was not involved. The following images are snapshots from relevant items on City Council meeting minutes from March 6, 2018 to October 1, 2019. These meeting minutes and the associated agenda packets are available in full on the City of Paso Robles website (prcity.com).

According to these items pulled from City Council meeting minutes, Council Member Gregory was, in fact, involved in all these downtown parking decisions and voted ‘Aye’ for each and every one of them.

March 6, 2018 City Council Meeting