The San Luis Obispo City Council meeting drew a notably quiet crowd Tuesday night, a stark contrast to the large turnout the previous week when residents packed a Personnel Board meeting to advocate for the censure of Mayor Erica A. Stewart.
Only one person gave public comment solely focused on the Personnel Board's actions during Tuesday's meeting. Once it was apparent that only one individual spoke out about the lack of punishment for the mayor, nearly the entire audience departed. Only a handful of people remained while the council went through a variety of planned items on the agenda.
The low-key session followed a Personnel Board vote that rejected Council Member Jan Marx's request to recommend a censure hearing to the full council. The board ruled that Stewart's action of sending a confidential grand jury report to her employer, Cal Poly, in June 2025, was a one-time lapse in judgment and not a pattern that met the threshold for a censure hearing.
Marx, who prompted the censure push the previous week by stating the mayor violated the law and ethics, sat next to Stewart during Tuesday's meeting. There was no mention of the outcome of the censure hearing.
The 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.
Labeled "confidential," the report was sent to Stewart’s City email on June 13, 2025. It stated that it was an advance copy from the Grand Jury foreperson, "two days in advance of its public release," mentioning that responses are due according to California Penal Code 933.
In an exclusive interview with KSBY News, Stewart told 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. 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.
"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.
Mayor Stewart was present last week as the three-person personnel board determined whether her actions warranted their recommendation for censure to the full city council.
Two board members voted "no," while one member voted "yes."
Chairman Cal Stevens said the city council does not have to take the personnel board's recommendation and could still decide to hold a censure hearing, but that would be an "exceptional" move.
During a prior San Luis Obispo City Council meeting on July 21, Mayor Stewart issued a public apology, saying in part, “I want to take a moment to apologize for the handling of the release of the Grand Jury report. I am sorry that I did that, and I take full responsibility for my actions,” she said.
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