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Sewer nut shreds the Shredder

October 17, 2011

Julie Tacker

OPINION By JULIE TACKER

Shredder:  Dear Shredder,

I think I’m having a problem communicating. Every week I go to the Board of Supervisors and say the exact same thing and nobody seems to listen. Also, my application to lynch Paavo Ogren and Maria Kelly was rejected, again. What am I doing wrong?

Los Osos Sewer Nut

Dear Nut,

It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Julie: The same can be said for the sewer decision makers (1980-98, County of SLO, 1999-2005 LOCSD, 2006-today County of SLO) study after study, design after design, to still end up with an energy hungry gravity sewer IS insane.

Shredder: I consider what I am about to say the most important piece of advice I have ever given: shut up.

Julie: No Shredder, you shut up!  If you can’t be part of the solution, get out of the way.

Shredder: For years I’ve listened to you rant about your sewer.

Julie; You may have heard the dedicated concerned citizens of Los Osos week after week, but you obviously weren’t listening.  If you had been you would know why they go and perhaps have joined them in their plight.

Shredder: You hate it. You really hate it.

Julie: We don’t hate the sewer, we hate the process (tainted by corporate greed, small town politics and now a love affair that revealed what we already knew, Maria’s vote to settle with mondo-engineering firm MWH let lover-boy Paavo off the hook (for illegally ordering the backdating of a contract).

We hate having our voices quashed by those who claim to be doing what’s “good” or “right” for Los Osos. Those who do not live with the complexities of the issues in Los Osos, those who do not care what the dissention has done to a community that is otherwise quite lovely.

Shredder: You want more funding. You’re not happy about the funding you got.

Julie: “Funding?”  What funding?  Los Osos could have got a better loan from a loan shark than it’s getting from the USDA. The County’s “skilled negotiators” portrayed Los Osos as “deadbeats who defaulted on a $6 Million loan in 2005.”  This is completely false. The loan in question was rescinded by the State when their own engineer agreed with the District’s engineer and newly elected Board that moving the sewer from downtown would reduce the project cost by $25 million. That engineer was quickly removed from the project and buried in a cubical somewhere in Sacramento.

Shredder: I’m not sure what you want, and I don’t think you are either.

Julie: Los Osos has always wanted a fair process and a chance to build an environmentally friendly project. For example, this project doesn’t even provide for solar panels on the rooftop of the plant to offset costs of operation.  When this was brought to the attention of the permitting authorities, the County’s response was to orient the building east/west to absorb the southern sun, but not add the panels. The rate payers would pay for the panels up front, but would also benefit from the long term cost offset…maybe you Shredder, can get the answer “why not?”

Shredder: You’ve had years to formulate a cohesive statement, argument, manifesto, anything.

Julie: At one time (1998) 87 percent of voters were in agreement of one thing; to take the project away from the County. They were sold on “faster, better, cheaper” and are still in search of it.

Shredder: Instead, all anyone’s heard for years is incoherent rambling against anyone and everyone even remotely connected to Los Osos.

Julie: Again Shredder, you haven’t been listening to those weekly speakers.  Each brings something different.  They come from all walks of life, political parties, religious preferences, and myriad life experiences. Some speak sewer, others water, some to cost, the complex details, or as of late — the recently revealed love affair involving key players, Maria and Paavo.

Shredder: And if they’re not on your side—whatever the hell side that happens to be—they’re against you.

Julie: Not necessarily.  The Los Osos issues are very complex (if you were listening you would know that). Those citizens who march like lemmings to the podium to agree with the County ARE against those who bring forth the issues, concerns, and flaws. They like living like mushrooms; in the dark being fed compost.  Clearly they haven’t taken the time to go through the studies, add the figures themselves, or look at the logistics of the permits (e.g.  Harming/killing no more than 15 snails over the course of the 45 mile long project, emptying 5,000 septic tanks in under a year, tip-toeing through Native American ruins/burial grounds, daily dewatering of a million gallons of polluted groundwater from trenches, digging in sugar sand, the complex list goes on and on).

Shredder: There are two ways to go about this. One way is to sit down privately and try to reach a resolution.
Julie: Which issue would you like “resolution?”

Gravity verses step? Good loan verses bad? Who is eligible for subsidizes and who isn’t? Farmers will take the wastewater or they won’t? Seawater Intrusion marches on while the County sits on $5 million intended for conservation devices? Denitrifying septic returned water for drinking? Selling our Solid Waste franchise to the County for a mere $2.8 Million, never to get it back? Paavo and Maria? Which?

Shredder: The other way is to grandstand on TV and the radio every week clearly getting nowhere.

Julie: You obviously do not follow these dedicated citizens very closely; they attend many more meetings that are not televised than are. (They are not allowed appointments with individual Supervisors to take issues up behind closed doors.) They spend their precious time, days and often very long nights, reading documents, buying copies of documents, and mounting travel expenses to cross the state to speak to the State and Regional Water Board, Coastal Commission, and others to make their voices heard.

Shredder: You’ve fallen in love with the sound of your own ramblings, and probably driven away people who might have something important to contribute to the subject.

Julie: What you call “Rambling,” I call free speech. You in the newspaper business are supposed to be the biggest advocates for the 1st Amendment. As for others who may have been “driven away,” I say, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Shredder: You have managed to accomplish nothing, really.

Julie: Really Shredder? These hard-working, dedicated individuals have brought the overarching Los Osos issue of Seawater Intrusion to the forefront. While you sit comfortably on your porcelain throne and don’t give flushing it a second thought, the informed citizens of Los Osos have to weigh flushing pollutants into their future drinking supply while depleting their current drinking water supply and paying dearly for it.

Shredder: Might I suggest a hobby? Perhaps crocheting unicorns onto pillowcases; believe it or not, that’s actually a more substantial contribution to society.

Julie: Crochet away dear Shredder, I’d prefer to read the latest Water Conservation report.

Shredder: I’m a cheapskate, but I’ll happily chip in for yarn if you’ll cork it.

Julie: I’m a cheapskate too. I’d like an affordable sewer bill so I can afford a hobby. You say you’ll chip in for yarn? Nice. How about chipping in to pay the bills? Sewer and water combined are estimated at $500 per month per house.

I’d rather be a “Los Osos Sewer Nut” than a mushroom. Thanks for the compliment.

Julie Tacker is a 40 year Los Osos resident and longtime dedicated “Sewer Nut”


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Ya think we can send our bills to Julie when all the lawsuits are finally settled and the WQCB levies their fines. I would have been flushing with a smile by now if the Julies of the world had settled in another town.


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It’s easy to point to villains, but what happened in Los Osos involves a complex series of events that led us to a sorta “Buridan’s ass” paradox involving two equally unaffordable choices.


It all started using a triangle of words “Better, Cheaper, Faster” & “ALL ABOARD, $38.75”. They were using a STEP/ STEG Collection System and an unprecedented 87% of the community bought into it.


Here we are today with the same iron triangle, only with different words like, “Worse, Slower, Expensive”.


Further complicating the matter is there doesn’t seem to be a universal consensus about what “better” means when it comes to choices and thinking..


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Dreamers, lay down your guns. Let me take you back to school.


There is no “silent majority” in Los Osos. People in Los Osos have a very dynamic array of opinions that don’t reflect one position or another. I, for one, cannot say that I speak for any “majority” because I don’t know. Saying, “I don’t know” is a rather cathartic, more honest approach to a discussion about this contentious sewer project. The Community Survey, which is the closest thing to assessing people’s specific opinions on the sewer, had a return rate of 34%, and part of that 34% included residents outside the assessed Prohibition Zone. Though the return rate is high, that’s not a majority, and it cannot statistically be considered a “majority” view.


The 218 assessment, which was passed on a 80-20 vote in late 2007, is not indicative of people supporting “the” sewer, as it stands currently as of October 18, 2011. It’s indicative of people supporting a sewer — a sewer being STEP collection, gravity collection-based, varying project sites etc. Given extensive testimony by the CCRWQCB/SWRQCB, voting “no” on the project would have likely resulted in recriminations by those enforcement agencies (“fined out of existence”). The 218 is not an individual vote, but rather, a “stack the deck” parcel vote that allowed homeowners to vote repeatedly.


I noticed that many of these comments, here, are critical of Julie Tacker. Now, Tacker is an easy target, I admit, because of some of her questionable actions when she was a member of the LOCSD. However, the viewpoint — this message — is about the New Times’ efforts to suppress and demonize the project opposition as “sewer nuts,” and advocating them to “shut up.” If you look at the people who have been the most vocal critics of Tacker are allowed to speak their mind. From Solutions Group to “Move Forward, Save the Dream” to Taxpayers Watch, these organizations have always used their First Amendment rights to speak out in favor of the project that caters to their personal preferences. To date, there has been no editorial, in any local news publication, that has expressed the desire for those individuals to “put a cork in it.” Not one.


The investigation between Paavo Ogren and Maria Kelly may have been used as a wedge issue to derail the sewer project, but it does raise questions about the validity and objectivity of public officials who have been entrusted to make crucial decisions on behalf of 5,000 homeowners in the Prohibition Zone with a $200+ million project. Though Kelly had no authority over the project, she used the influence she did have to allow the County to achieve milestones, such as the 3-1 vote she made in closed session to settle with MWH, which allowed the controversial contractor — in turn — to freely and legally proceed in the RFP process when they could no do so before. Earlier, she ran a campaign with Marshall Ochylski solely to garner votes that were also in support of the wastewater project. It’s found in her own campaign literature. Then when we find out that she’s been dating the Director of Public Works for a lengthy period of time. This naturally raises suspicion. This is not commonplace dating. Here’s another way to look at it. Though she had no authority over former president Bill Clinton’s decisions, Monica Lewinsky and her relationship with Clinton naturally raised questions about Clinton’s decision-making.


To say, “People should just shut up,” about these issues is just wrong, rude, and out of touch with the rest of the country.


By the way, that $500/month is not all contained in sewer costs. That figure is based on $200/month plus rate increases from water purveyors that are trying to resolve seawater intrusion, water recycling that this project does not accomplish. If anything, this project is set to remove one-tenth of 1% of human-septic contamination that barely passes through the septic, several layers of sand, and a leach field that has proven to effectively denitify the groundwater. This was explained the 1994 Los Osos-Baywood Groundwater Study conducted by Dr. Tom Ruehr. And when he passed away, Lynette Tornatzky was the first to say, “Good riddance. He’s finally shut up.”


End the bigotry, or people will end it on their own terms.


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TheFacts,


Your nitpicking over the word “majority” and its modifiers is immaterial. The point really is, enough agreed to go ahead with the County’s project. That’s all that is relevant here. The project is moving ahead, no matter who likes it or doesn’t.


As to no publication asking other organizations who spoke in the past to “put a cork in it,” so what? Perhaps they did, you are asking us to take your word on that. This is now, and those who continually ask the County to basically stop a project this far down the road to make it be one that the citizens DID NOT support, is – well, misguided is the kindest word I can think to use. It would certainly be detrimental to the water basin to cause ANY more delays to the kind of water conservation measures needed — and that this project provides — to make a significant impact against saltwater intrusion, which changing/stopping this project would do.


You forget that Ms. Kelly also ran in 2006 and supported working with the County. I quote from the Bay News August 23-29, 2006. When asked what the role of the CDS should be in future sewer decisions she said,”If we (the CSD Board) can go in and work with the County, work with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, then I think they (the CSD) should have a say, if they are willing to work to the terms that are necessary to come to a solution.” Nobody knew Paavo Ogren would even have a role in a sewer project at this point. It is clear Ms. Kelly intended to work with the County whoever its representatives would be.


Who voted on the MWH issue? Sparks, Kelly, Ochylski, Cesena. Senet was absent or didn’t vote, right?


Please explain HOW Kelly influenced any of these board members. You act like they had no thoughts of their own. How would YOU have ANY idea on what went on in closed session to be making the claim that she influenced the other Board members? Either you are making stuff up, someone leaked information from closed session, or you put a bug in the room. Which is it?


Anyone can raise suspicion about anyone. I would put out to the readers to consider the source and what are the source’s motives? I think the regular speakers to this topic have made it clear why they would raise suspicion – they want to stop this project! They use innuendo, not facts—good to influence newbies perhaps, but falling on deaf ears elsewhere.


It is clear from your post that you do not support this sewer for Los Osos.


Why don’t you direct viewers to my comments on Dr. Ruehr, rather than misquote me? Oh, that’s right, the Trib took down the blog comments. Well then, I guess it is just your word against mine, and I did not say “Good riddance…” I use my name on my posts, anyone can find me and talk to me on these topics. Why are you avoiding doing so yourself? Don’t want to stand behind your words as a real person?


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“Your nitpicking over the word “majority” and its modifiers is immaterial.”


—————-


Don’t let the fact that your take on “majority” doesn’t fit this context slow you down on your Sewer Train Express.


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The problem with Lynette is: I have no modifiers. This is all true, verified, and readily available. She claims she speaks for the majority, but does not. Her talking point on that is now moot.


The project is a monstrosity. I do support a sewer, but not THE sewer as it is right now. She continues to warp my words. Oh well. No need to nitpick her stuff, really.


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OK, TheFacts. This is a question I have asked other places too but have received no answer. (I will ignore the tired, worn-out words, “I want a sewer, just not this sewer.”) Maybe you can and will answer it.


What is YOUR plan to keep the money, keep on the timeline—yet —CHANGE— the project to—well, to what?


Keep in mind permits/hearings/designing take YEARS. Meanwhile, the mantra of the latest “I hate this sewer group” is, “saltwater intrusion is killing us!”


Delaying the big bucks needed to instigate meaningful conservation measures can’t be what they want can it?


No County project = teeny, tiny conservation, not nearly enough to stop the demon SWI. As has been noted by these same people, the ISJ has produced nothing and the water purveyors don’t have the clout to do it or they would have done it already.


Where did I say I spoke for the majority – I simply said that the majority needed to push this project into being did just that. There will be a sewer, the County’s sewer, because enough people supported it. Do you understand my meaning now?


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Unless there have been modifications on the design, I don’t believe Ogren’s Sewer Vision addresses the problematic soils in Los Osos.


This is a fatal flaw; not quite as fatal of a flaw as Fukushima plant design was, but as ethically and cronyfied compromised Fukushima’s design was.


In addition, as I’ve pointed out before, if Ogren’s Sewer Vision for Los Osos was just what the Los Oso residents need, then he wouldn’t have had to fraudulently backdated the contract, and he wouldn’t have had to get his shack-up to violate state ethics regulations to get the needed modifications pushed through.


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I don’t remember what your exact words were, but I do know you were very disrespectable to Dr. Ruehr the day after his passing. Something about his position on the sewer to be irrelevant and his passion was probably what caused his death. If you would like, I know where to look to find the exact words and let everybody make their own judgement on it.


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At least I’m a real person.


Here is what Lynette Tornatzky said on Calhoun’s Cannon about Ruehr:


“Having heard him speak more recently made me think that being mindful of our blood pressure should be a concern for all of us. Obsessing on sewer issues should not impinge on our health. If it does, check with your physician. Consult with a shrink on biofeedback or do some yoga.


Also, don’t believe every impassioned speaker. Do your own fact checking. Experts often disagree. Consult several sources on differing sides to an issue before committing to a stance. Allow yourself forgiveness if you find later that you were wrong. Learning is a lifelong endeavor.


Go in peace, Dr. Rhuer.”


http://calhounscannon.blogspot.com/2009/01/lost-osos-i-have-received-several.html


The “Good riddance…” line was posted on Tom Ruehr’s sister’s blog.


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Thank you for posting my words on Ann’s blog.


Now, I did not write on Dr. Ruehr’s sister’s blog – didn’t know she had one. Maybe you can point us to that link too.


You are a real person? Do you have a real name too?


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What a slimy, underhanded, slap in the face that was to Tom Ruehr. Out one side of her mouth she blames Dr. Ruehr for the cause of his own death, and undermines his impassioned speech by telling people not to believe what they hear from an impassioned speaker.


The way a speaker presents the information gives no cause to warn people from believing what he said.


I had the good fortune to take four soil science classes from Dr. Ruehr, and I really take exception to Lynette’s crap. Dr. Ruehr was a compassionate man, with the underlying message in his courses always being “assess for how this impacts humanity.”


What a despicable person she must be to take cheap shots at a fine man like Dr. Ruehr, especially when he was in the grave and unable to defend himself.


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Sadly, I read your post, and I’ll answer because I have some time to kill.


1. You have mentioned “we” and “majority” in the same sentence several times. Just type “Sewertoons” on Calhoun’s Cannon search. Also, you’ve been debunked on several sites by several people about the “majority.” The “majority” is not owned by anyone — and anyone who thinks they speak for the people should have their head examined. Anyone who curses at others on a blog all day does not have the capacity to be a good leader. Leaders will take disagreement and move forward without having to lower themselves to digital mud-slinging.


2. I’m not asking anyone to take my word. People are free to Google, and do the research that I did. No problem. It is a little dumb, on your part, to talk about delays causing more problems to the groundwater basin because — let’s face it — if a project doesn’t address seawater intrusion, water recycling, and ag reuse, it’s like there’s no project at all. You denitrify the groundwater basin — and so what? Now you’re handing off brine water to farmers who are going to reject it. We’re essentially paying $200 million for a problem that could be treated at the well head. We’re paying for a problem that was ambiguously assessed in 1983 without new studies. Relying on 28-year-old scientific calculations to make changes now is just a bad idea. Who knows? If a study came out tomorrow that showed septic tank contamination as the primary source of groundwater pollution, then more power to you.


3. Why are you bringing up 2006? That doesn’t make any sense.


4. Influence is not always about who is influence, but it’s sometimes about the votes that someone casts. It wasn’t about casseroles. It’s about the votes, and what she voted on. Closed session vote tallies are found in the minutes on the LOCSD web site (losososcsd.org) and public records requests. You keep assuming that someone “leaked” the information from closed session. That’s just stupid because that information is readily accessible without having to pester a board member. No need. Information that is unavailable to the public is discussions on pending litigation, but vote tallies are public.


5. Yes, anyone can raise suspicion about anyone, and that factoid is sufficient to allow people to be suspicious. Saying “No! No! NO! That’s not true!” over and over again is meaningless when there’s something tangible to be suspicious about. If Kelly dated some guy on the street, it wouldn’t mean anything. There wouldn’t be a story. And, really, not all of what you see about Ogren and Kelly is “innuendo.” Raising the “innuendo” flag is just a cop-out to objectively looking at all the facts laid out on the table. You’re hellbent on prescribing intent to everyone who disagrees with you, trying to find ulterior motives, and yet that has taken you nowhere. All people see is some nutty person writing 20+ comments a day, attacking the messengers and not the message.


6. I support a sewer and science. You just support a sewer and trust the County unconditionally like a blind lapdog that likes to mark their scent on everyone and anyone who potentially has a cogent argument to make against the sewer project. It’s bonkers. Nobody does what you do, even though there are a few stragglers in the crowd that call Julie Tacker names like a bunch of angry teenage girls fighting over the same boy. Is this the kind of behavior you teach your children? You’re really a poor role model, and so are your friends mrcyberdoc, asthecrowphlies, Aunt Joan, Realistic1, Wonky1, MrsWonky, LO_Kahuna, StatusCymbol, Crapkiller, Spectator, Shark Inlet, Solomon, MoveBy2010, Insider, InsideTheCSD, Together, zorro69, and MrDooley.


And you’re asking for MY real name? You’ve hid as Sewertoons, taking pot shots as everyone in the community with those lunatics I just mentioned — and once you got busted, you were like, “Oh, I’m Lynette Tornatzky. Everyone knows me!” and being a hypocrite, you demand that everyone should “stand behind their words as a real person.” That’s really idiotic. At least with a pseudonym, you don’t put the Tornatzky name to shame. Now the community avoids you like the bubonic plague. You put your real name out there on the Internet, and then everyone knows who you are. You’re the emperor with new clothes. You think you’re just clever and transparent when in reality, you’re pathetically opaque, and repeatedly fail to disclose that Kelly is your friend and 2006 LOCSD running partner. It’s just as biased as relying solely on the people you label as “obstructionists.” When you have two biased groups accusing each other of bias, I prefer to do my own homework, form my own conclusions, and call it like I see it.


7. Ruehr’s sister deleted your comments, obviously. Many of your inane, most hateful rhetoric has either been edited or removed by moderators. Fortunately, people are still able to type “Sewertoons” on Google, and arrive at their own conclusions. Because you blog so much, you’ve exposed yourself to criticism that has ultimately led to your downfall. The rest of your life is now stained with that narcissistic digital fingerprint that will prevent you from being successful. Good job. You did it to yourself. How does it feel? Get a life, and stop soiling yourself.


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Wait, does this mean that Ms.Tacker won’t have to answer the questions or report on “facts” because it’s been asserted that Sewertoons blogs too much and anyone that doesn’t agree with you and that you perceive to be poor role models don’t deserve the truth? You’re not telling us to shut up are you?

In response to paragraph #2 , makes you look kind of dumb for not understanding the Clean Water Act or RWQCB or putting dirty water in and taking dirty water out and then cleaning it.

Scenario – I own a restaurant that has old food, fat, dishwater and I’m just going to put it in the ground (we know nitrates also come from decomposing food) and let it sit there until I need some more water and then pump it out, strain it, clean and voila! I serve it to my customers. Meanwhile, any clean water that was left is now contaminated with the food scraps, fat, dishwater because I was too cheap to use the correct procedure and make sure that clean water was put into the ground for later use. (Sounds pretty selfish and stupid to me as well as violates all sorts of public health and safety rules and state and federal guidelines.) I should just be allowed to do it because I want to, I know what I’m doing and anyone that tells me other wise is a mindless nitwit!


Now I suspect your going to say but we can just use our septic tanks….what if technology hasn’t advanced far enough to manage and ever increasing increase in pollutants and nitrates to treat at the well head? When is too much too much? Are you going to answer that or because we are all sooooo dumb you don’t have to.


1

I don’t know about your reading comprehension skillset, but I never once said that anyone who disagreed with me is a poor role model. It’s about the way people like you and Lynette behave. It’s a behavioral issue. Take the sewer away, take the conflict of interest allegations and the New Times away. What you have left is one group of people expressing an opinion, and another group telling them to shut up, and being too enthusiastic over suppressing someone else for having a different opinion.


If we weren’t adults, this would be Exhibit A of schoolyard bullying, everyone — who is bullying — lives in glass houses. Everyone is vulnerable, so why bother? If we were to transfer this bullying to the playground, kids would commit suicide, thinking there’s no hope in this world. In Los Osos, the people being attacked have been marginalized, hated, and they have to live amongst your hateful lot — and somehow find some peace. You never give it to them because your hatred goes beyond understandable. It becomes unconscionable, and you’re a poor role model because you’re communicating that it is acceptable behavior to discriminate against others.


The Clean Water Act and RWQCB is actually irrelevant. Here’s why. The Clean Water Act, the Porter-Cologne Act is a firm commitment to establish a basin plan and protect the water. A basin plan is always important, sewer or not, septics or no septics. That has to be done anyway, but these regulations do not define a pollutant or nuisance discharge, and Los Osos has been haphazardly added into the fold as basically an afterthought because the State Dept. of Health had concerns. Basically, the regulations you mentioned establish the standard, but doesn’t go as far as to explain how Los Osos specifically applies to those standards. If the RWQCB was more specific in their application, there would be less outcry.


Actually, in your scenario, that qualifies as a prohibited discharge and you would face enforcement if you were caught. That would be a smarter, more targeted method of enforcement instead of having thousands of homeowners paying for your misdeeds.


Septic tanks can be replaced and upgraded to comply with SWRQCB enforcement. They haven’t outright prohibited septic tanks around the state. At least, not yet. They’re in phase 1 of withdrawing most of the septics because, as you were implying, technology hasn’t advanced far enough to manage the ever increasing increase in pollutants and nitrates. The biggest flaw with septic tanks is that none of them are “zero discharge.” With Los Osos, if you can get something like a Wickham Piranha system and limit the discharge to the smallest percentage, chances become slim to none that whatever is discharged enters the aquifer because of the unique qualities of our sand and the leach fields. In other words, Los Osos is a special case. If Los Osos was, instead, located more inland, then a sewer would have to be built right then and there, no questions asked.


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If you actually read the Porter Cologne act, the least amount of land allowed for a septic tank, and it is for a specific town named in the act is 1/2 acre, otherwise it is a full acre. And Magic Sand doesn’t get a mention in this act. Please explain how 8 -12 houses per acre is OK for Los Osos.


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That’s not mentioned in the act. You’re done, sweetheart. Go home.


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I know there is a silly law against it, but it seems to me it would be much easier to clean water coming from the well head than cleaning raw sewage. A whole lot less piping, and a whole lot less money. Ah, there’s the rub.


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This post says far more about you than it does me.


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Welcome to Hell, Lynette. You’re finished.


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You backed Kelly as she back stabbed her neighbors by being in bed with the county, LITERALLY. You backed the county, proven corrupt contractors and the BOS as they back stabbed your neighbors. And you crow over the decision to rip off your neighbors of 100 million bucks.

And you have friends like Kelly.

If people like you are part of a majority in LO I’d move tomorrow.


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I am fairly confident speaking for the silent majority of the rest of San Luis Obispo County…we are tired of the noise, and we are tired of the distractions this small band creates for the BOS and County Staff. It is time for these folks to move on or move out (perhaps to the country where they can use septic systems). The costs associated with the delay in this project impact all of the rest of us in SLO County.


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Glad not all of the Los Osos peeps roll over for Ogren and his sewer vision.


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I AM ONLY WRITING TO THOSE READING AND POSTING TO THIS TREAD NOT JULIE . This is the last time I am posting to this thread . Julie is a sociopathic liar , who is now looking for some attention to keep herself relevant . After all these years , she is still making the same crazy arguments , using the same crazy lies , excluding the all her crazy wrongs , …. why do I go on , she could go on and on and back and froth over and over this stuff and never hear an opposing word . She also brings with her a few of her loyal followers that will spill the same old rehashed stuff . After all these years , if she can not find reality ( see above ) then let her keep drinking those cups of crazy juice , I do not care what she has to say any more .


Good has finally triumphed over evil , the sewer is coming . I am hoping that if no one will post to her threads then CCN will stop wasting time and space to her . If I have to post to her I will only post that word from one of the Monty Python movies ……….


NEAK ! ……….. ( If you are a Monty Python fan please correct my spelling if this is not spelled right, thanks)


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Don’t forget she and Schicker ran on the lie that they had a cheaper, better alternative sewer project plan. They had nothing.


She fails to that she authorized using close to $500,000 in CSD/State loan funds to reimburse the lawyer fees for the opposition groups who had lobbied against the sewer project and helped get her and Schicker elected. Talk about paying off your friends! This was clearly in violation of the loan terms and helped lead to the State’s decision to cancel the loan and demand immediate repayment of the monies already lent.


She fails to remember she bankrupted the CSD by defaulting on the State loan, cancelling builder contracts, etc. This is why the project needed to be actively taken over by the County immediately. They did not TAKE it away from the CSD for some devious power grab. It is the biggest headache they’ve had to inherit in the last 20 years, not to mention all the staff that have had to be publicly flogged, ridiculed, and slandered in print, radio interviews, and at the public comment period at the Board meetings by the her and the other sewer naysayers. She also conveniently fails to mention that action was the basis for which the Coastal Commission stayed their action to begin fining Los Osos and each residence $1,000/day for non-compliance with implementing a solution to the groundwater pollution problem (a sewer plan) by the mandated deadline. That would’ve bankrupted every resident in Los Osos too! Even the State recognized the incompetence of Tacker and the CSD to actually implement any sewer solution and realized the County taking over the project was the only realistic way a sewer would be implemented and the groundwater pollution issues resolved.


She also used CSD resources for her and Jeff Edwards’ personal gain. Remember the chipping days where they falsified the usage applications, saying all their surrounding neighbors were requesting chipping services, but used the chipper exclusively for their own use, to clear their own personal property in Los Osos free of charge?


Finally, she is lying above with the $500/month figure. Every analysis the County has done and provided at public workshops and to the Board of Supervisors shows the cost will be around $200/month. Painful for sure, but nowhere near the $500/month that Tacker obviously pulled out of thin air.


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2nd paragraph should start out “She fails to mention that…”


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Argh, another typo. It was the Regional Water Quality Control Board that was to fine the CSD and each resident $1,000/day…


Need more coffee, less typos.


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No, we can never have too many typos. Typos are human.


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It doesn’t matter whether you agree with her or not. She still has the right to speak her mind. For the New Times’ staff to tell anybody to “shut up” is simply insulting, since there are many of us who would go to the mat for the New Times right to publish its opinions.


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If people don’t like what the project opposition has to say, change the channel. Agree to disagree. Move on.


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2005 is not now. There were only 20 votes that stopped the project we had in 2005. Hardly a mandate.


What is relevant to NOW is that people wised up and decided to get this thing done. The small group at the BOS are entitled to their opinions, but they are not going to change a thing.


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I think it may be more of a situation that–instead of the people “wising up” —the political whores who shoved this sewer down the throats of the citizens got more whoreish, or got better whores.


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“Julie: Sewer and water combined are estimated at $500 per month per house.” Really? I’m sure glad you don’t balance my check book. My taxes, after completition of the sewer plant, will show an increase of about $100 a month. Add to that the monthy bill for sewer operation, we’re looking at about $150. So our water rates are going to be $350 a month? I can remember when our water was under CSA #9. Compared to Cal Cities, we had good cheap water. As soon as the CSD took over, the water rates went sky high and interestingly enough equaled Cal Cities, a for profit company. Julie, don’t you get tired of beating your war drums to a select few like minded individuals? As far as using solar panels on the sewer plant to generate electricity, a little birdie told me they are going to capture all the hot air generated by your group, use it to boil water, create steam to make electricity. Enough Julie, time to move on.


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Check book, schmeck book – J.Tacker doesn’t care about money being spent or actual dollars and cents! She approved MILLIONS getting spent on fighting losing legal battles. One thing is for sure, she doesn’t know math or engineering. In fact, she should post her credentials to bring some educated validity to fluff up her adjective filled rhetoric. She wouldn’t understand an engineering equation or do any statistical data analysis even if it was a spread sheet that was big enough for her to sit on.

Not that long ago it was $300 a month then, $400 a month! Now it’s $500.

Prove it J.Tacker, post the calculations with documentation to prove it’s $500 a month. It is simple to compare the voracity of this opinion to the fundamentalist biblical ramblings of those who used fear to control the masses. Difference is that this is 2011 and she has no control over the outcome of this project. Of course there is always tying oneself to a tree….


While you are at it, please decipher the significance and sequence of how the following tasks would be accomplished if you were the project manager of this or any large scale project – when the ramblings finish, provide the technical definition of “sugar sand” (Wikipedia doesn’t count):


….Clearly they haven’t taken the time to go through the studies, add the figures themselves, or look at the logistics of the permits (e.g. Harming/killing no more than 15 snails over the course of the 45 mile long project, emptying 5,000 septic tanks in under a year, tip-toeing through Native American ruins/burial grounds, daily dewatering of a million gallons of polluted groundwater from trenches, digging in sugar sand, the complex list goes on and on).


(good news is that she finally admits that there is a million gallons a day of polluted groundwater seeping and sloshing around the basins of Los Osos!)


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Thankfully the moon beams, nut jobs, odd lotters, and wack-a-dos who kicked the can down the road for 30 years while pollution accumulated, costs soared, the community atrophied, and young talent fled have been marginalized. Sadly, it will take decades for their children and grandchildren to fix the mess they created.


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