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Bond rating for Los Osos is suspended

August 21, 2016

Money toiletBy KAREN VELIE

The financial bad news for the Los Osos Community Services District continues; earlier this summer the Standard & Poor’s suspended its rating for district bonds.

The credit rating service said it could not continue to rate the district’s fiscal integrity because a promised outside audit of the 2014-2015 books was not submitted on time. While the rating is suspended, the district is unable to get approvals for grants and low income loans for future infrastructure project associated with the community’s seawater intrusion issues.

While the suspension occurred on June 21, the district board was not informed until activist Julie Tacker brought it to their attention several weeks ago. Nevertheless, before it was suspended the district had already been saddled with a poor rating.

Back in Dec. 2014, Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating for the district to BBB- due to the district’s financial reporting failures. Because of the district’s lower ratings, it is required to pay higher interest rates on bonds.

“This action follows repeated attempts by Standard & Poor’s to obtain timely information of satisfactory quality to maintain our rating on the securities in accordance with our applicable criteria and policies,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Misty Newland in 2014.

The recent suspension is another indication of widespread accounting failures that have plagued the district for the past few years.

Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service, Employment Development Department and the Social Security Administration sent the district delinquency notices for misreporting staff salaries and wages. The district owes fines and interest for under-reporting almost $100,000 in wages during the past two years.

Last year, CalCoastNews analyzed former General Manager Kathy Kivley’s personal payroll and found that she had overcompensated herself by approximately $6,000 during her two-year term. Following a district funded two-month investigation into the financial irregularities, Kivley retired in January.

In February, the district hired Peter Kampa to serve as its interim general manager. In April, Kampa said he refused to provide financial statements until the reports were “grounded in fact.”


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that is the plan for all the csd’s. so that larger cities could annex them. the larger cities then grow the smaller unincorportated areas. “cambria is the last one” said a right-wing functionary busy destroying other communities.


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Emerging victorious, Kampa has opted to auction his copy of the playbook “How To Ruin a Community of 10,000.”


Sources report a heated bidding war developing in the 93442 zip code.


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IMHO, as a business owner in Los Osos, I believe that the train went off the track & put us into bankruptcy happened early on, when the board chose the Tri-W site vs the out of town Turri

& Andre site. That’s when the shit hit the fan.


At the time many business owners with long-term investments in property & operations in town thought that was a bad idea because of the potential rotten-egg smell which would permeate from the plant being up-wind of our businesses.


I don’t think there was a single member on the recalled board at the time that owned or operated a business in lithe center of town at the time.


The misleading statements in the ‘facility report’ & literature stating that the ‘majority’ of residents

wanted an amphitheater….dog park……picnic area….water garden…….play fields etc., was all “drop dead gorgeous” lies. No survey of town-folk was ever taken to my knowledge.


The aforementioned is what lead to the majority recall, along with the behind the scenes last-minute maneuvering, like jump-starting the project & illegal back-dating of the contract by our soon to be terminated CSD manager at the time.


Many today that visit the new plant out of town, which looks like a small city, are grateful that the County had the foresight to build it downwind out of town.


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