San Luis Obispo mayor apologizes for leaking Grand Jury report

San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart offered a formal public apology this week for improperly sharing a confidential civil Grand Jury report with Cal Poly officials, an admission that has roiled local politics and brought the city's often-fraught relationship with the university back into the spotlight.

At Tuesday evening’s San Luis Obispo City Council meeting, Stewart took the dais to address the unauthorized leak, which occurred over a year prior. According to a report by CalCoastNews, the mayor became emotional as she read from a prepared statement, taking responsibility for her actions while also attempting to clarify her rationale for sharing the sensitive document.

"I wanted to take a moment to apologize for the handling of the release of the Grand Jury report. This was the Round and Round with Town and Gown report that came out last year," Stewart said, choking up at times. "I am sorry that I did that and I take full responsibility for my actions."

The "Town and Gown" Report

At the heart of the controversy is the Grand Jury’s examination of long-standing friction between Cal Poly and the city of San Luis Obispo. The city and the university have a decades-long, deeply intertwined history, periodically clashing over housing density, neighborhood nuisances, and the municipal costs of supporting a rapidly expanding student population.

The leaked document in question was a draft of the Grand Jury's findings regarding these exact issues. On June 13, 2025, the Grand Jury sent a copy of the draft report to Stewart. The document arrived with a strict, explicit warning: sharing the preliminary findings was a violation of the law. Civil Grand Jury reports are kept strictly confidential during the draft phase to allow investigated parties to respond formally and to protect the integrity of the ongoing inquiry.

However, just over two hours after receiving the draft, Stewart shared it. Because Stewart is a long-time Cal Poly employee, she forwarded the restricted document to Courtney Kienow, an employee in Cal Poly’s Office of the President, asking if she knew the report was finished.

Text Messages Contradict Public Apology

During her apology at the city council meeting, Stewart sought to explain the leak as an innocent administrative error. She told the council and the public that she had "mistakenly assumed that Cal Poly was included in the draft distribution."

However, text messages obtained and published by CalCoastNews appear to directly contradict the mayor’s claim of an innocent assumption. In the hours and days following the initial leak, Stewart and Kienow exchanged 32 text messages that not only trashed the Grand Jury's work but also explicitly acknowledged that university leadership was not authorized to receive the report.

In one exchange, Kienow explicitly noted the legal hurdle Cal Poly faced, texting Stewart: "Problem: Cal Poly is not identified in the report as a required respondent so I don’t believe they intend to share it with us at all before it’s published. Our leadership has not received it."

Despite the clear lack of authorization, Kienow thanked the mayor for the breach of confidentiality. "So many people have the advanced copy of the report now… they’ll never know it came from you. Still, greatly appreciate you stepping out for whats right," Kienow texted.

Stewart, seemingly aware of the potential fallout, texted back that she had already strategized a defense with a colleague named Whitney: "So interesting. I told Whitney that I had assumed the university was going to be asked to respond and therefore I gave it to you. So, if it comes up, I am fine with being outed if I have to."

Community Trust and Next Steps

The revelation of the text messages has sparked widespread condemnation from San Luis Obispo residents and community activists, many of whom have been highly critical of the city council's handling of student housing and neighborhood relations. Earlier in the year, when the leak was first discovered, Stewart notably responded that she would "do it again," a stance she walked back during Tuesday's meeting.

Stewart used her apology to reiterate her commitment to the city and the seriousness of her role. "During my seven plus years on this council, serving as a council member and serving as mayor, I have taken this job very seriously and I am committed to ensuring that the mistake is never repeated again," she said.

While the mayor has publicly closed the chapter on the incident with an apology, the underlying issues highlighted by the Grand Jury report remain unresolved. Stewart herself noted the intense, ongoing interest the community has in student and neighborhood relations. Moving forward, city officials and Cal Poly administrators face the difficult task of continuing to partner on critical local issues—such as housing development and neighborhood integration—while navigating a noticeable breach of institutional trust. For San Luis Obispo residents, the focus will likely remain on whether future collaborations between the city and the university are conducted transparently and in strict accordance with the law.