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Brickbat misses target

December 30, 2013

Julie Tacker newwOPINION By JULIE TACKER

The Dec. 20 Tribune Brickbat levied at the newly hired Oceano Community Services District General Manager Lonnie Curtis, while completely warranted — missed the target.

Plagiarizing another man’s work as one’s own for a job application is foolhardy at best, but a PowerPoint presentation accepted as a writing sample should have garnered a hefty brickbat to the OCSD Board of directors, especially Vice President Mary Lucey. Lucey is the chair of the district’s personnel committee and holds herself out as an expert in human relations. In the case of Curtis, she too, overlooked the district’s hiring criteria in tapping him for the position.

Curtis was hired by the OCSD board on Oct. 9. The Board had seen the PowerPoint months before the plagiarism was brought to their attention — something any one of them could and should have checked. Under the California Public Records Act, I promptly requested his resume and application package. Weeks went by. Excuses were plentiful including, “my computer, which failed last week and is being repaired and should be operational this week.”

I was certain the documents were on the man’s home computer, so any delays due to district computer glitches did not hold water. Photocopies had to have been provided for the board. Why a hard copy not in a personnel file and easy to access? I did not buy it and hadn’t experienced this type of unprofessionalism from OCSD staff since former general manager Tom Geaslen was terminated. I was persistent and enlisted the assistance of Board President Matt Guerrero in acquiring the long overdue request.

No one wanted to see Oceano pull itself out of the Geaslen ashes as much as I did. But, the moment I saw they were hiring Curtis at the same rate of $126,000 annually, plus benefits, just because that was what had been budgeted, I became skeptical. While I hoped for a GM with engineering experience, as his resume indicated, I did not expect they would hire one whose license is about to expire. Neither did I expect the board, especially Lucey, to overlook their own goals in a candidate and hire someone who has worked in the private sector for the last 10 years.

Their April 24 resolution adopting a revised general manager job description requires someone with 5 years of management experience in a public agency, which Curtis does not have.

Oceano is a disadvantaged community, having the highest unemployment rate in the county and twice the national average. They also have very high water rates with infrastructure that suffers from years of deferred maintenance. Mismanagement has put the water fund into serious debt, some $770,000 in just the last three years (most of which was spent during Geaslen’s tenure, with every dollar approved by a board that ignored warnings from the public). The deficit spending continues; budget adjustments for cost overruns and unforeseen expenditures are the norm for this district, and depleting reserves leave the district vulnerable in an emergency.

From 1997 to March of 2011, OCSD didn’t raise its water or sewer rates. When the district realized funds were rapidly dwindling, they slashed expenses dramatically, from cutting staff to freezing salaries to “share the pain” board members ceasing to take their stipends. Yet, legal bills mounted as Director Lori Angello was improperly appointed and a citizen ballot initiative aimed at preventing a proposed 100 acre foot, $2 million water sale to a development in Pismo Beach became a reality. The OCSD Board’s only option was to raise rates. Rate increases were based on a formula that included a general manager salary of just $87,500 and smaller staff of lesser paid individuals than the district (thanks to Geaslen) employs today.

The little community of 7,600 people is in for a rude awakening in 2014. Rate increases are concurrently being discussed at the OCSD for water and sewer system upgrades, at the Five Cities Fire Authority for increased personnel and apparatus and at the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District to cover the $1.1 million fine levied by the water board for the 2010 sewage spill, over $500,000 in legal bills and upgrades at the waste water treatment plant.

Lucey has been involved in all the hiring and personnel policy decisions since being elected to the OCSD board in 2008. Recently, the OCSD staff, feeling uncertain through the management turmoil, felt it necessary to seek union representation. Lucey and Curtis are now the labor negotiators representing the district in negotiations with the union. I predict, legal costs will be incurred, and as history repeats, as it often does in Oceano, the outcome will not be good for the ratepayers.

At the exorbitant salary Curtis is being paid, his learning curve should be ever so small. Yet, he recently asked the district for an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles to go to a water conference as part of an extended Thanksgiving weekend and suggested the district offices close for the holidays from December 20 through January 5. He provided no cost analysis to the board in either case. Thus far, he has not only violated district policies, but also the Brown Act and Public Records Act. He’s been called into closed session three times for performance reviews. Still the board majority, including Lucey, rally behind him, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Three seats on the OCSD Board come up in November, two 4-year terms and one 2-year term. Candidates who are willing to stand up to VP Lucey and haven’t lost touch with the community need to be seated to serve the public, not simply exist just to pay the salaries and benefits of staff.


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Julie –

Just came across this and thought you’d be interested…


http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=57198&P_LTE_ID=741


Before you raise another ruckus about it expiring in 2015, please know that Professional Engineering licenses are only valid for two years at a time in California.


Move along now, please…


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Glad Oceano is getting stuck with his license renewal fee. Just another in a long line of unforeseen expenses the district can ill afford.


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Just another example of how the OCSD Directors are spening our Water Rate Increases.


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I hope you can tune in to the replay of tonight’s OCSD Comedy Show, starring Mary Lucey — que the theme from Bonanza — nearly everything out of her mouth was wrong or completely off the mark. Did you know that Oceano “is equestrian friendly” and should have hitching posts outside of Sylvester’s? Wow, I guess I missed that meeting.

What the Board seems to be oblivious to is that every set of warrants they pass has is a notation that they are going over budget on one line item or another.Eventually, something’s got to give. They will realize they are bleeding to death or they won’t.

They accomplish so little, and there is so much to do. It’s really sad for the ratepayers to pay so much and get so little for it. The Jetter fiasco is the epitome of the collateral damage done by Geaslen and perpetuated by Curtis, that ultimate responsibility lies with the Board.

Additionally, tonight’s meeting was a complete smearing of the Brown Act, why have the Brown Act if the public can’t participate? If the “public” is Jeff and Julie, then it’s OK to disrespect, lie, and continue to be inept? I think not, at the price paid for the attorney and Mr. Curtis to sit there through the Lucey blather, the agenda’s should be stellar and meetings should run smoothly, but NO they continually have to ditch items or admit what I’ve brought to their attention is correct (again and again).

Tonight we finally saw the lawyer written letter or the Will Serve appeal that’s been on the agenda for months and CarolAnn’s Wrongful Termination Claim. The real question is, will these correspondence be attached to the minutes so people can see them into the future or will they be hidden away, and the public expected to play games with the GM over what is public record and what a 10-day response really means? Both are claiming the (and continues to repeatedly) District violate state law.

Tune into the replay, it’s worth the price of admission.


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We need a fresh start in Oceano. I just do not understand why the Joint State Audit Committee has not reviewed the finances of the OCSD and help this elected board balance the budget. Residents of Oceano have a crisis in confidence that grows wider each day.

The only reason this board has survived is because so many individuals in this small community are fighting and using their energy just to survive.

Many similaries to the City of Bell. In the end, someone at the County or State will come to the OCSD and this fragile house of cards will come tumbling down on top of a lot of people.


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The CarolAnn story is just very sad. She was the one person you would want to talk with if you had to come to the office with a problem. She respected each individual and provided excellent advice and guidance.


You never like to see another lawsuit in the OCSD. Many of us support her claim and wish her the best in her professional career.


They will hide it under employee confidentially. It would be refreshing to have a stipulation to make the record public.

This claim will be paid off quickly. They cannot afford to have CarolAnn go public.


Can you ever imagine CarolAnn, under oath, then asking her questions about the OCSD. Her answers would crash the OCSD and bring to light all the real legal and financial problems in the OCSD.


I can just see a Erin Brokovich[ CarolAnn] type movie coming about the OCSD in the future. Good luck CarolAnn, your story is much larger than just wrongful termination.


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Why is the Oceano CSD Directors afraid to let the Voters decide if they want CalFire or 5 cities fire + new fire tax ?


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Julie, there is no “Reply” button on your last two posts, so I will have to reply here.


You misrepresent what the Blakeslee Compromise asked you to do. It wasn’t “pipes to nowhere,” as you characterize it, it was to hold a 218 vote to make sure the citizens of Los Osos were behind what you were asking them to support.Your board chose NOT to do that.


We did a 218 for the sewer we are building now, which you opposed. But you were angry that the old board did not hold a 218 for Tri-W! So your NO decision on holding that 218 Blakeslee asked for had nothing to do with what you believed in, just what you thought was most politically expedient for you and the new board.


You could not have “moved the sewer” without Measure B behind you, illegal though it turned out to be, and you know it! All your protests before the State and the water Board hinged on, “But we CAN’T build it there, the citizens voted for Measure B!” You stood staunchly behind Measure B!


“Your beloved County is building the sewer you wanted.”


No, actually it isn’t. I was in favor of Tri-W, but the County-built sewer is fine with me now, even though it is quite a bit more expensive. And we have wasted YEARS by not being able to have the good water conservation measures the Tri-W sewer would have provided the community with our compromised and depleted aquifers. 2008 vs. 2016 – that EIGHT years of lost water conservation.


The Oceano airport is in the hands of the Supes, not Oceano, and certainly not you and Jeff. Battle away all you like over the airport, on the Los Osos sewer (weekly at the BOS), fighting solar panels for schools, whatever. It is not upgrading your approval rating except among your few followers.


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You make me laugh out loud. You think I do what I do to get “approval ratings”. Inviting criticism is risky. I take that risk because I know things that others should. I study hard and boil down the information and share my opinion.


You can’t have it both ways Lynette, either we needed Measure B or we didn’t. We needed a Board majority only. We got that hands down. Measure B was the will of the people, Moving the Sewer was the will of the people. The Supervisors are servants of the people, not kings. If the will of the people is to Move a Sewer or close an airport, thy will of the people will be done.


How’s that water conservation program working out for you? They haven’t even spent $500K. So much for incentives. You know the LOCSD’s conservation program was only $1.7M and of that only $500K was a grant, the other $1.2M was in the SRF loan. At least the County got a grant for their whole program.


I take my concerns regarding the LOWWP to the Supervisors because there is nowhere else to go. Michelle Houser doesn’t return calls. HDR is tasked with reporting the violations of the project, I don’t buy that for one second. So, I take my case to the Supes, so what.

For you to still support a sewer in the middle of town that wasn’t being built and didn’t need to be built for at least 18 months into a the 2.5 year construction timeline — well that just says something about you and how you think democracy should work. Apparently, you don’t think it should. You think the public is stuck with every decision made by the representatives at the time, no way lady, that’s how laws are repealed and this great Country keeps its freedoms. Maybe you think women still shouldn’t vote?


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Democracy was thwarted time and time again with all of the lawsuits piled onto the original Tri-W project. Did you forget it was only going to cost $84.6 million in 2001? How many supported those lawsuits?—just a handful, but boy, did they throw a monkey wrench into the cost of even that project, which was $154 million by 2005. So no wonder people were fooled by the LIE, “$100/out-of-town.” And how’d that work out for the community? $173 million for the County’s project and that is only because the sewer haters had only run out of options to sue, and probably the cash to do it too. If they hadn’t, who knows what the cost could have ballooned to! You owe everyone in town apologies!


Did you forget that Measure B won by 20 votes? Hardly a mandate. That was witness to the will of the people as carefully crafted and manipulated by Gail. You did not have that majority to move the project until she got things going against Tri-W.


Well, you don’t have a “Gail” to craft public opposition against the Oceano airport. You’d actually need a new Board of Supervisors supported by all those changed public opinions that you can’t get. And that Julie, is why you need approval ratings, to influence things like public opinion. So far, you’ve alienated far more than you have won over.


Ha-ha-ha—it’s nice to see that you have found ONE good thing to say about the County’s project! The grant the County got!


You got some good advice from one of the posters on here, “If you really want to make an impression, learn to recognize serious problems and limit your critiques to them.” You might take them up on it. Start with your weekly Board of Supes appearances and your nit-picky complaints.


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Wow Lynette, for someone who appears to study the Los Osos sewer so much, you really don’t have a clue as to what caused the prices to rise. What you also fail to mention is that it sewer was only going to be $33M in 2000.


I never filed a lawsuit, which are also part of democracy.


LeGros was recalled y 200 votes, and guess what even if you base your argument on how many votes Measure B got, it passed.


Didn’t you say all of this before somewhere….blah, blah, blah.


This opinion piece is about Oceano and the trouble they’re in. If you can’t contribute on topic, you probably should stay out of it. Again, you enjoy dogging me so much, please read up on Oceano. There’s a new FB page you can join called, Oceano Watch.


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Does one-upping me on the sewer price in the year 2000 absolve you from your part in raising the cost yourself later on? What caused the price to rise was the obstructionism! No one is against democracy, just note the cost impacts from your definition of “democracy.” Nice rallying cry, but in this case there was NOTHING your group had to take the place of the Tri-W project which your board ground to a halt, initiating the bankruptcy of the LOCSD and the takeover of the project by the State.


So, you are claiming that you were not part of CCLO? They named you Citizen of the Year in 2006! What about the CCLO Prop 218 lawsuit against the CSD in 2004? Remember that? Not to mention all the stoppages CCLO caused at the BOS and Coastal Commission by the multiple appeals.


Your opinion piece should be framed by your history so readers who haven’t had the “benefit” of viewing your “work” first hand here in Los Osos can see who they are dealing with and what sorts of bad outcomes there are for faulty assessments and poor decision making.


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Really? More around and around, parsing every detail?


Again?

and

Again?


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I, and many other who live in California Valley and work for a living (and even went to college!), are proud that Julie and many others showed up at every meeting between the Solar Industrial Parks (I refuse to call them farms or ranches no matter how much their PR people try to brainwash me) to remind the county that their numbers & facts they were getting from the Solar plants paid workers were not adding up. Like the concern over water out in the Carrizo Plain.


But the county is so used to being the ‘smartest person in the room’, that even high-profile experts were dismissed from the conversation as ‘nuisance’ from outside interest. At least Julie is a local gal who tries to do the right thing….consistently. And even though the county deemed her comments almost as a joke (as they did everyone who questioned their county’s decision to take hundreds of acres of ag land of the market), Ms. Tackers insight have proven to be remarkably accurate.


She predicted there was NOT enough water out in the Carrizo aquifer, and they county would cover their mistake by allowing water to be hauled in. She was 100% right. She also commented how very few people from SLO, let alone Cal Valley, would find jobs during construction. She was 100% right. I did safety training out here for those construction companies, and 99% of the trainees were from Kern County. So much for those big $$$ SLO officials predicted would roll into SLO’s coffers from all of this construction.


I embrace solar power more than any person in California Valley. But the lies told to the citizens who have to live with those solar panels for the next 50 years was deplorable and beneath what really ills this county.


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I am heart sick to see the (predicted) outcome of the solar farms


Thanks for the nice words rockhound1965.


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I thought this was another well written article about the financial and legal problems facing

the Oceano Community Services District.


Ratepayers are currently placed at risk because of the actions of the board and a lack of ethical leadership.


Over the years, a culture of waste, fraud, mismanagement, and greed has created a climate of no confidence from those of us who make Oceano our home.


As we begin 2014, we are not only looking at more water rate increases, a New Fire Tax,

New Cuesta College Tax, more Property Tax Increases, more Sanitation Tax Increases.

All these Taxes, Fees, and Bonds will have a significant impact on families, seniors, renters, and local small businesses.


With those of us lucky to still have a job after the Great Recession, we have salaries that have remained the same over the past six years, the cost for basic goods and services have increased, taxes and rates across the board have gone Up !


In Oceano, with high unemployment and poverty levels , I watch daily as my friends and neighbors struggle with financial problems.


This problem is not about Julie the messenger, or Lucey, or Board Policies, or even the new GM. This is about people who are struggling to find hope in the future.


We need to give Oceano residents a break from rate and tax increases.


Proposals:


1. Freeze Current Water Rates

2. Reduce Staffing

3. Reduce Salaries

4. The New GM needs to set an example with a 10% cut in Salary.

5. Eliminate New Fire Tax Propsal

a. close one of the three stations to reduce costs

b. or contract with Cal Fire [ pismo beach]

6. Consider County Takeover- if we do not want to make these tough decisions.


This is certainly one of those Profiles In Courage Moments, we need some strong moral and ethical leadership.


Thank You


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Ms Tacker,


There is only one choice left for you to save Oceano.

Move to Oceano and run for office. Oceano could use your stellar experience gained as a

LOCSD director from 2004 to 2008.


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Not interested Richard.


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That would be like throwing gas on a fire. I doubt the Welcome Mat would ever be provided, regardless of how bad it gets.


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Ms Tacker


Not interested? Everyday you claim to be on the front lines to save Oceano; so why notjust cut to the chase, and jump out of the frying pan into the fire of the Oceano CSD board? Oceano will love ya for doing so just as Los Osos loves ya today. Spread the love.


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Richard,

Los Osos has been my home going on 44 years now. It will likely be my home for the next 44 years — God Willing.

My interest in Oceano peaked when I saw so many parallels to Los Osos. The first was the consolidation of their fire department into the JPA with Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach, without asking for a CalFire quote. Wouldn’t you agree our contract with CalFire was one of the best things Los Osos has ever done? I’ll give you credit for entering into that contract in 2004 Richard, just before I was elected.

Today the Oceano residents are facing a fire assessment without ever getting a quote from CalFire to see if they could offer the same services for less money. The Board bought the per capita arguments sold by the Fire Authority, per capita is not how costs for services are measured against other communities. The Board is responsible for getting the best value for the ratepayers dollar and they haven’t made that simple request.

This fire assessment will be $66 a house (average single family home) but no one considered that $66 in Oceano verses $66 to a home in Arroyo Grande mean very different things. The socio-economic make up of a family in Oceano is hugely different than one in Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach, the two cities will carry the weighted vote, and the Oceano residents will be forced to pay the same with no one on the Board advocating for cost reductions or apples and apples cost comparisons.

Sadly, I have watched the Oceano Board be wasteful with ratepayer funds more often than I’ve ever seen in any other district or agency. They are operating with dangerously low reserves, something has to change very soon, but no cost cutting is contemplated, raising rates is their only answer.


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“Sadly, I have watched the Oceano Board be wasteful with ratepayer funds more often than I’ve ever seen in any other district or agency. “


Really? How on earth could you forget about Los Osos when you were on the board!


When were all these “analytic skills” in 2004-2008?


Selective memory in action! The Los Osos reserves went down to ZERO under your watch. Then the District went bankrupt!


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Oh Lynette,

You seem to think the bills of the district weren’t the bills of the district and somehow we could have not paid them. The bills that sent us into bankruptcy were those of the recalled board. We were obligated to pay them, we couldn’t, we cut staff and fought with the union over pay increases.

I know exactly how bad it was in Los Osos. I don’t want to see Oceano make the same mistakes.

You seem to watch my every move, kinda creepy.


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The bills of the District were sewer related bills, awaiting payment from the next influx of SRF money. Your board STOPPED the project, thereby cutting off the funds. So where you thought the money was going to come from when the Water Board and the State got mad at the CSD and he board needed tons of money for lawyers to defend an indefensible position, I have no idea. You think it was the recalled board that caused the bills, you are right—they were actually BUILDING A SEWER, something your board could not figure out how to do.


20 votes difference on Measure B was not a mandate where you could throw away a project already started. Or kick sand in the faces of the Water Boards! You had the chance to move the plant out of town and you decided not to.


Julie, you are everywhere, in every venue, its kinda hard to miss you. If you don’t like my comments, don’t write CCN “opinion pieces.” And you might want to decline to be interviewed on stories that make you look bad.


You are delusional if you think Oceano is giving up that airport so Jeff can build some project, I don’t care WHO his investors are.


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Lynette,

See how the County is currently building their sewer? Plant AFTER collection. We should have been allowed the same courtesy, but NO we were told we couldn’t use the money to build “pipes to nowhere.” Which is exactly what the County is doing. What do think the whole Blakeslee Compromise was?


You seem to forget that Richard LeGros was removed from his seat by 200 votes. Changing the board majority was the all mandate needed to Move the Sewer. Move on, I have.


I am an activist. I chose what I want to study and make comment on. If you don’t like what I say, that’s your prerogative. I would encourage you to learn more about other thins than dwell in the past. Your beloved County is building the sewer you wanted. You won, so why dog me?


If you want to learn more about the Oceano Airport, I invite you to. Then, let’s have a chat about the pro’s and con’s of having an airstrip in the heart of a beautiful beach. You’ll se what we do, Oceano gets all the impacts of crappy land use choices while Pismo, Arroyo and Grover Beach rake in the benefits of those who trample that community. Seriously, learn more about Oceano and you’ll see the similarities and the differences that I do with our home. It’s fascinating, the people are humble, hard working and kind.

I get many “Thank You’s” for my involvement all over this County. But, I do what I do because I believe in it.


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BTW, Oceano doesn’t have the airport. It belongs to the County — which, last time I checked is ALL of us.


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I hate to disagree with Julie, but she is wrong when she says the board in Oceano has been more wasteful with ratepayers money than any other district or agency.


That award goes to California Valley CSD. It is still misappropriating funds under the misguided eyes of the county & agencies meant to be oversight, not permissive nannies. And it has a long history with no intention of stopping. Ask about all of those donations the solar farms made to the district. What happened to all of that money? It went directly into the wallets of the board. No one else out here got any “benefit’ from those solar plants except more trespassing on private property & vandalism. Oh….and we just love all of the big water hauling trucks coming in from Kern County. What happened to all of the water we had out here? Plenty of water to support thousands of acres of solar farms we were told. But when your county officials lie to you to your face during public hearings, whatcha going to do? In SLO County….nothing.


What undermines all politics in this county is the inability to stop their district attorney’s from protecting the CSD & start providing the community with transparent government, not the complete opposite. Having a Grand Jury that is simply a puppet show doesn’t help either.


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Did I mention the $250,000 the CVCSD spends on DIRT ROADS?!?

Not even Morro Bay spend that kind of money on PAVED ROADS. WTF???


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I wish I was Board Watching at that time. That would have been easy.


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With all due respect, Julie… Oceano CSD and Los Osos CSD are two unique and different political entities … there are no common issues that have common solutions. I, too, wonder what your adenda is. Why have you not haunted Templeton, Nipomo, or San Simeon CSD? You have no skin in the game in Oceano, I don’t know what you are doing there. Again, with all due respect, you have no influence in Los Osos and you have less in Oceano. Putting in endless demands for expensive, time consuming public records request is not only a waste of Oceano taxpayers money, it diverts management/board capital from things that don’t move the district forward. Julie, stay home, write apology letters to all the citizens of Los Osos that will spend excessive money for their sewer because of your destructive tenure on the LOCSD Board … and try to convince Jeffy that any attempt to close the Oceano Airport is a fools errend and will continue to be met with swift and effective opposition.


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Ms Tacker,


Thank you! I was confused about all that stuff.


You obviously have a great big heart for all the ‘little folk’ residing in Oceano. Please run for the OCSD boar as Oceano cannot function without your loving guidance. Just ask the ‘little folk’ of Los Osos. They sure love and appreciate what you have done for them over there too! Make it the same in Oceano, please.


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Mitch,

I actually watch most communities agenda’s; school districts, San dist’s, CSD’s and cities. I send emails to the board’s or call staff when I have questions.

I am on a first name basis with City Managers/GM’s, Board/Council members and city engineers in many of this counties agencies.

I have yet to see such blatant disregard for the people’s money as I do in Oceano. When you were GM you were last paid around $69,000. Nothing else has changed as far as revenues, so how do you think they are paying for a GM at nearly twice your salary? This rate of pay comes after the FCFA was formed — so even less administrative draw to be able to pay a salary like that…not to mention there’s less to do.


Jeff has the right to point out land use conflicts with the airport, he will continue to do so, and I couldn’t agree more. That airport is an anchor around the neck of a little town that could be something wonderful.


What “demands” are you suggesting I have made of OCSD staff? I asked for a resume, how “expensive” is that to provide? When requested LOCSD provided Kathy Kively’s in just three days, no questions, no excuses. The public, including me, has the simple right to ask for a resume. If not for the requests I made during Geaslen’s term, I don’t know if they would have found his hand in the cookie jar (certainly not when they did, it would have been later, as part of the audit — maybe).


I owe no one an apology. OCSD should be doing their own research. Instead they are hoodwinked or head-faked time and time again.


You don’t know diddly about my work as an LOCSD board member. I endorsed you for GM; when the majority wouldn’t. Perhaps that was a mistake.


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In the case of Curtis, she too, overlooked the district’s hiring criteria in tapping him for the position.


Wow….you actually want your district to uphold their written policy & procedures?


HOW DARE YOU!


Out in California Valley…..they just throw that criteria out the window when it comes to hiring. Because no one will vote for someone with an education out here. That might mean that person might uphold the law & stop all of the graft.


Why would anyone care about those things? Especially in another part of the county where they don’t live?


Because its an epidemic this county refuses to acknowledge; we have some of most corrupt CSD’s in the state. But if the newspapers & officials look the other way…it just doesn’t happen, right?


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Your interest in Oceano actually seemed to “pique” when you and Jeff’s attempt to “re-vitalize” Oceano including getting rid of the airport fell on deaf ears, and you were told to quit meddling in the community’s affairs.


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PLEASE…don’t attempt to destroy yet another community. You have yet to atone for what you did to Los Osos.


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Julie , you always do your homework! I don’t live in Oceano, but I sympathize with the plight of the City.


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But, the answers are always wrong.


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For heaven’s sake. Tacker doesn’t have to justify where she lives, nor does she have to justify being a political anti-corruption activist.


The tactic you use is “blaming the messenger.”


Tacker is not to blame for any of the OCSD BOD’s negligence in administration of their duties on behalf of the OCSD residents and rate payers.


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Wrong! You continue to use the “don’t blame the messenger” defense, when in fact, she is nothing more than the POT calling the kettle black.

Do your homework before you attempt to defend the indefensible.


.


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Julie –

It should be noted that the issue you raise regarding Mr. Curtis’s licensure and its pending expiration is a tempest in a teapot. EVERY Professional Engineer registered in the State of California is subject to renewal of their licensure every two years. This is public information, readily available to anyone, and does not even require the California Public Records Act requests of which you are increasingly fond. It is something anyone “could and should have checked” prior to writing an Op-Ed piece raising this as any issue at all. Here’s a link to the pertinent site:

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/licensees/renewal_info.shtml

Please note that, per the “Renewal Period” section on the referenced page, “Licenses are valid for two (2) years from the assigned renewal date (not the issue date).”


Where is the editorial oversight and fact checking??? For shame, for shame…


“No one wanted to see Oceano pull itself out of the Geaslen ashes as much as I did.”

This is, at best, a half truth…You may have wanted to see Oceano pull itself out of the ashes, but ONLY at the hands of either yourself or Mr. Edwards. Anyone else, you can and will road-block and inundate with tedious clerical requests so as to exacerbate the struggles of this poor little district. It’s really sad and I can’t figure out what the motivation is for you and Jeff…I can only think it is one of financial gain on your part.


Additionally, it’s interesting that the past “glory days” of the District that you cite seem to coincide with the period directly before you and Mr. Edwards rode into town…What do you have to gain? Do you want the County to take over the District so that you can somehow gain access to the airport for development?


I’m waiting for Cal Coast News to do the REAL investigation that they claim to be interested in and find out WHY Tacker/Edwards are so interested in Oceano…I won’t be holding my breath, however.


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Amen, Veritas, AMEN.


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Veritas means truth. Right? December 31 is tomorrow.


http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=57198&P_LTE_ID=741


The District has many more problems with this GM than the validity of his engineering license.


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I don’t know what your motivation is for your critiques either since you are not even a resident of South County to say nothing of the Oceano CSD. I do think that you raise some valid concerns but I also agree with “veritas” that you go overboard and exaggerate “ticki-tack” stuff into major issues.


In addition to the one he pointed out, why is Mr. Curtis’s typing speed relevant to his position. If I were in his shoes, I would also have used “n/a” as an answer to that. I would assume that he has at least one staff member capable of dealing with any documents needing fast, accurate typing. I probably haven’t taking a typing test in at least 35 years and wouldn’t have more than a vague idea of my speed because it is, at best, minutely relevant to my work capabilities.


If you really want to make an impression, learn to recognize serious problems and limit your critiques to them. I have the feeling that your nit-picking and obsessiveness turns off people who might otherwise listen to what you have to say. This can result in public officials making decisions that are poor just as a way to tell YOU to “go to he11.”


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