Following a pair of recent threats to the safety of city staff, the City Councils of San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay have approved thousands of dollars in security enhancements to city buildings.
At its most recent meeting, the San Luis Obispo City Council voted to approve $380,000 in funds for safety improvements, while the Morro Bay City Council OK'd $52,000 in funds.
The allocation of safety dollars by the San Luis Obispo City Council comes just weeks after a man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a city employee in an attempt to enter the Mayor Heidi Harmon's office.
And on Tuesday, almost exactly one year after Morro Bay Councilwoman Dawn Addis received harassing letters from a citizen, her fellow council members voted to allocate funds to enhance security for city employees.
Safety installations are already in place at the Morro Bay City Hall, but City Manager Scott Collins said improvements to other government buildings are long overdue.
"We're going to do everything we can within our control to create a safe environment for our employees so they can be productive and helpful to our community," Collins said. "You can't take that beyond our building but we certainly believe we have a safe community."
San Luis Obispo's safety improvements will be paid for through the city's capital reserve fund.
The funding approved in Morro Bay will come from the city's general government impact fees and harbor accumulation fund. It will support safety improvements to the city's Public Works and Community Development building, Recreation Services building, Active Adults Center and Harbor Facility.
KSBY reached out to city leaders in Lompoc and Santa Maria to see if the topic of security improvements was on any future agenda for those city councils but they did not return a request for comment.
