Sanitation district administrator accused of racism

Trouble in this district goes back many years; the Wallace years (read the Knudson report) are evidence of that. But, since Wallace left there’s been a lot of catch up and damage control to work through. Prior to Hubner was Rick Sweet, who, even though he worked 10 hours a week said he “didn’t have time” to accomplish all the things the board asked of him. His complaints led the board to believe a part-time administrator wasn’t enough. What they should have realized it was that particular part-time administrator that wasn’t up to the workload. Ten hours a week may not have been enough; but forty hours a week is far too much.

Before Sweet, was Paul Karp, who worked 6 hours a week and seemed to get a lot more done.

Both did a lot of outsourcing, but it was CPO John Clemons who kept bringing things in house to save money. As an example, reinstating the lab (after Wallace shut it down in order to fire Devina Douglas) was a big savings.

John Shoals negotiated Hubner’s contract, including a $350 a month car allowance and the hiring was done before the board could examine the districts benefit packages they’ve historically given out. The “lifer” factor could have been adjusted to include new employees contribute or eliminate the perk completely. The public continually raised these issues, yet the board signed off on Hubner (only interviewing 2 of the 10 applicants). The board was hopeful Hubner’s “Walter Board connections” would result in a good outcome with regard to the fine/litigation/settlement and his license as a Geologist would be an asset in the coming “Redundancy Project.” Neither has panned out in my mind. The fine was converted to projects in and outside the district, most of the money (3/4’s) will not be coming back to the district, instead it will benefit the water purveyors of the Northern Cities Management Area and the Bay Foundation in Morro Bay toward greater watershed issues (not necessarily in the south county).

Hubner lost me quick, when he wouldn’t release his resume (in April) via the California Public Record Act. He engaged the district’s legal counsel to write letters giving irrelevant case law trying to justify why the public couldn’t have it. It wasn’t until California Aware the watchdog group in San Francisco threatened to sue the district did Hubner turn over the document (in August). What on earth was he hiding?

His resume says his experience working on the Avila Beach clean-up writing “enforcement orders, community/media outreach, EIR/EIS preparation” which would lead one to believe he was capable of writing a newsletter and/or the letter the board directed him to write to the Oceano sewer plant neighbors alerting them to the upcoming Redundancy Project, apparently not. In June he hired contract Public Affairs Consultant, without board approval (under his spending authority) to accomplish these things, suggesting he didn’t have the expertise.

Hubner felt it necessary to spend over $700 on plane fare, at the district’s expense, to go Sacramento to speak with the State Revolving Fund loan staff (rather than pick up the phone and talk to them via conference call) only to learn there are no funds available in the loan program at this time and the district will need to look other places for funding.

Hubner doesn’t like the sewer plant work environment (it has odors), he suggested an offsite office for himself and the district’s Administrative Assistant as part of the budget. The board disagreed and he moved forward on his own leasing and furnishing the infamous unpermitted trailer. The 12x60ft. trailer has been there since August with no one occupying it but for a family of raccoons.

The examples of “bad fit” are many…how many more does the board need to sever this relationship?