John Wallace steps down from sanitation district

February 21, 2013
John Wallace

John Wallace

Amid allegations of mismanagement, South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District Administrator John Wallace announced his retirement at Wednesday’s board meeting.

During a closed session to discuss his performance, Wallace said he would be resigning after 27 years with the district.

Wallace is the chief administrator of the district and also owner and president of the Wallace Group, a private engineering consulting firm located in San Luis Obispo that receives between $50,000 and $80,000 a month from the district for a variety of engineering services.

The sanitation district, which serves the residents of the Oceano Community Service District, Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach, is governed by a three person board consisting of one representative from each community. Grover Beach Mayor Debbie Peterson had recently asked for a complete audit of the district’s finances and a review of Wallace’s performance.

In October, the state levied a $1.1 million fine against the district because of a 2010 sewage spill determined to be caused by Wallace’s mismanagement. The district is facing additional fines for three releases of improperly treated sewage into the Pacific Ocean during the second half of 2012.

The district board later appointed an interim administrator, retired engineer Paul Karp.

 


Loading...
26 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I bet he ends up “retiring” in a place with men named “Bubba” all having to shower together.


The residents of Oceano, Arroyo Grande, and Grover Beach should now sue Mr. Wallace, and the Wallace Group Inc. to recover the cost of ALL the fines associated with his mismanagement of the district resulting in the illegal sewage discharges.


I wonder if CAPSLO and/or the Family Ties people or Supervisor Hill or his girlfriend paid Wallace to step down to take away the spotlight from them and their theft and get people to talk about Wallace and his theft


Step down, or slither away????


slither forward, backing up would catch scales


Wallace stepped down as District Administrator. Is the Wallace Group still retained for engineering services at $50K – $80K per month?!


The Wallace will still get their money if AG’s Mayor Ferrara has any ability to make it happen, let’s hope Grover Beach’s new mayor will put a stop to that.


Why hasn’t anyone asked for an audit before? Lets audit them too.


spot on….thick as theives?


So, as soon as someone requests an audit he retires? Wow.. hypotheticly speaking IF there was millions misappropriated would those funds returned be able to be spent on the streets? With a local contractor? Just asking out loud?


Yay!!! Although I would like to have seen him booted out on his @$$ I’ll take his departure anyway I can get it.


please give the homeless his address and the promise of free burgers


what’s his pension?


Part of it will be that the ratepayers will have to pay the 1.1 million dollar fine, plus possible additional fines, instead of John Wallace or his company for his failures of management and operations


no comment


There are circumstances where John Wallace would have to pay for the fine.