Tom Geaslen’s new gig

agriculture1, what kind of Koolaid is Tom serving you? The same kind he served “disfunctional [sic] board”. Geaslen misrepresented himself to the Oceano CSD Board from the get-go. He was allowed into the office on Saturdays for weeks ahead of his hire, giving him a leg up over some really qualified competition. He had no public sector experience and used the district’s enterprise funds (water bills pay for water, sewer bills pay for sewer, trash bills pay for trash services, etc) as if they could be commingled — making a mess that was reconciled by a $770,000 inter-fund loan, costing the ratepayers 3.25% for the next 30 years.

He worked without a contract for over 10 months, putting the district (and himself) at risk.

Geaslen promised to “upright the ship” touting “Enrolled Agent” (the highest credential the IRS awards) and his ownership of a lending company as qualifications to get out of date audits done and make sense of the districts books. His EA status had been revoked for over two years before ever applying for the GM position and his lending company had not been in good standing with the state for nearly as long.

He hired consultants and staff without the proper public processes, sole sourcing and costing about $150,000 to do the books he said he would do. At one point improperly fired a disabled employee costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, investigators and a handsome settlement (fortunately covered by insurance, but driving premiums through the roof).

Geaslen’s “overpayment” was greed at its finest. When hired he said he wouldn’t take cell phone or health insurance stipends, he did. He stopped the board’s ability to see the payroll, only a few staff were privy to the amount he was paying himself, it was one with a pair of keen eyes that noticed the nearly year-long bi-weekly draw that triggered the return of $45K in district funds. Had they pressed charges, perhaps the district could have recovered the $28K in legal bills associated with the firing. No amount of money can overcome the collateral damage done by incompetence.

What “politically motivated small group” are you talking about that “egged on” the board? Perhaps it was the dozen or so hard working volunteers that embarked on a year-long quest to bring a Farmers Market to Oceano. Boy oh boy, weren’t they in for the let-down of their lives when the OCSD board awarded them $5,000 (from what Geaslen dubbed “excess taxes” (causing Howard Jarvis to roll in his grave) from the fire fund) and then took it away when informed citizens cried foul.

And if you’re speaking of me, my roll as activist is proven. I will always watch out for the public’s money, demand transparency and call it how I see it. Geaslen tripped the BS meter the day I asked for his non-existent contract. It began to peg out a month or so later when he cried “computer hacking” and filing a false police report to back up his reasons for not following board direction.

What I found most interesting about the article on RVPlusYou was the focus on finding loopholes and avoiding taxes. The sobering experience at OCSD doesn’t seem to have changed him much.