San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica A. Stewart says she made a "good faith error" when she forwarded a confidential Grand Jury report to a Cal Poly staff member before its public release.
The mayor is speaking publicly for the first time after a California Public Records Act (CPRA) inquiry resulted in the public release of her text and email communications with city staff and Cal Poly employees.
The San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury report, titled "Round & Round with Town & Gown," addressed the increasing student population at Cal Poly, nearby campus neighbors' complaints about noisy, large, unauthorized street parties, and allegations that the city and Cal Poly leadership failed to enforce ordinances.
“It was a 'town and gown' report... town being the city, and gown, as in, you know, commencement gowns, being the university,” Mayor Stewart explained.
The report, labeled "Confidential," landed in Stewart's mayoral inbox on June 13, 2025. It stated that it was an advance copy from the foreperson, "two days in advance of its public release," mentioning that responses are due according to California Penal Code 933.
Stewart told KSBY News Reporter Jessica Roe that she interpreted that as her responses were due in two days and she was unclear if that meant business days or 48 hours, and as a part-time Cal Poly instructor, she was also finalizing grades ahead of graduation. In reality, as the penal code states, she had 90 days to respond.
“I’m not just passing it on to everybody," Stewart said. "I thought that Cal Poly was an affected agency, was an entity that should have received the report, so there wasn’t a 'Hey, I want to just give this to Cal Poly.’ That is not what I was doing.”
Public records posted on the city website show Stewart shared texts with a Cal Poly staff member and forwarded the report.
Stewart said she assumed Cal Poly would also be getting an advance copy, only later learning that the city was the only party to receive it.
"I didn't think at the time... I mean, it was a solid good-faith error. I had no idea that I was doing something wrong," Stewart said.
She added that she should have sought legal counsel and gone through proper channels to communicate.
“I made an assumption, I assumed and believed that Cal Poly received it," she said.
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow would not confirm or deny whether his office is investigating, but he did explain how his office would approach a case involving the sharing of an embargoed grand jury report.
"The law is very clear: it's illegal. It's a crime to share an embargoed copy of a report that's given to someone for comment," Dow said. "Without disclosing if we have an investigation, we look at the evidence. If the evidence supports a charge that's a felony, then we go forward with a felony; if the evidence supports only a misdemeanor, we go forward with that."
Mayor Stewart remains steadfast that she made a mistake, she is sorry and that she wishes she'd handled things differently. She said the city is already working on ways to ensure she and other staff handle this type of situation more professionally in the future.
"There's definitely some questions I wish I'd asked, you know, kind of that Monday morning quarterback," Stewart said.
If you have a story idea you would like to send to KSBY Reporter Jessica Roe, you can reach her directly via email at jessica.roe@ksby.com.
