Paavo Ogren abruptly quits SLO County waste agency

August 16, 2021

Paavo Ogren

By KAREN VELIE

The head of San Luis Obispo County’s regional waste agency quit suddenly on Wednesday, just hours before a board meeting where the members squabbled over the future of the controversial agency.

At the beginning of the Aug. 11 SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) meeting, Linda Somers Smith, an attorney with the firm of Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green, informed the board that Executive Director Paavo Ogren had quit prior to the meeting. Ogren, the IWMA’s fourth executive director in three years, lasted less than a month.

Somers Smith then announced that IWMA legal Council Jeff Minnery had recently taken an extended leave of absence.

Legal counsel Jeffrey Minnery

As a result of the absences, board members agreed to have several emergency discussions: who to have lead the agency in the interim, and what to do about the county’s plan to exit the agency. Without staff reports or direction, the meeting was chaotic.

On July 14, the board approved Orgen’s hire as proposed by the executive committee. In the past, the full board was provided several options inline with the agency’s hiring guidelines. However, at the July meeting the board’s only option was Ogren with a salary of $186,120 a year, even though the position has a cap of $150,000 a year.

On Aug. 3, prosecutors charged a former IWMA board secretary with 10 felonies — nine for embezzlement of IWMA funds and one for destruction of public records, providing fuel to members already considering leaving the IWMA.

During an Aug. 10 SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, members of the public accused Supervisor Bruce Gibson of having a conflict of interest in the hiring of Ogren, his friend. After discussing the criminal charges and allegations of mismanagement, the supervisors voted 3-2 to exit the IWMA and to have county staff comply with state waste mandates.

At the Aug. 11 IWMA board meeting, SLO Councilwoman Jan Marx supported an adversarial relationship between the cities and the county. Marx argued the county had no right to the IWMA’s assets, which include millions in a bank account that was funded by ratepayers in both the county and the cities.

“The proverbial line in the sand has been drawn by the majority of the board of supervisors,” Marx said. “The withdrawing members do not have any right to the assets.”

SLO Councilwoman Jan Marx at IWMA meeting

After initially wanting to give the IWMA a chance to negotiate, Paso Robles Councilman John Hamon said his city might also withdraw from the IWMA.

“I will never forget the way we got to this point, but we are where we are,” Hamon said. “Paso Robles is going to consider leaving at this point in time.”

The board then discussed ordering the county to leave the IWMA at a date agreed on by its remaining members, while other members argued the IWMA board did not have that right.

“We need to give the board of supervisors a deadline,” Marx said. “Put the responsibility where it belongs, the people who made this really very bad decision.”

With a focus on money, Cayucos Community Services District Board Member Robert Enns asked if the IWMA could continue to collect monies from county ratepayers after they leave the IWMA, which attorney Somer Smith said was unlikely.

SLO County Supervisor Bruce Gibson, who along with Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg wanted to remain in the IWMA, questioned the right of supervisors Debbie Arnold, Lynn Compton and John Peschong to participate in discussions.

“Given the discussion and unanswered question about our board majority’s decision yesterday, I am not sure anyone has standing to comment within this forum,” Gibson said. “The board majority trashed the reputation of this organization and by extension other directors of this board.”

The IWMA board then agreed to direct legal counsel to discuss an exit strategy with SLO County Counsel, and to have IWMA employee Patti Toews serve as acting executive director.

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It’s never to late for building a resume..


Minnery appears to have some serious mental health issues. Paavo reminds one of a modern day P.T. Barnum


In it up to their eyeballs… Ogren and Minnery are both well versed in the ways of the government boondoggle, so it’s no surprise that when the going gets tough and the end of the cash cow is in sight Ogren bails! More about Minnery in a matter of a few weeks…


Gibson must be investigated. He’s a pox on the local community.


A pox for the entire central coast.


Does Pavo get some exorbitant severance pay that is always in these types of employment contracts?


My gosh, I hope not. I think he was only in the job a week or two, wasn’t he?


I’m not going to assign any nefarious motives to either Ogren or Minnery. I think they’ve both just realized that the IWMA has become completely dysfunctional, thanks to its original management’s possibly criminal actions and the realization by its Board that they haven’t done their jobs for decades. Look at the headaches faced by anyone coming in to try to manage this mess right now:


Who is leaving and who is staying?

Do we have to split up the money on hand to those that are leaving?

How do we split it up?

How do you go forward with fee collection adjustments given some jurisdictions are leaving and some are staying, and those staying may leave in the near future.

And probably a hundred more issues that we can’t even see out here in the public.


Why would anyone want to walk into the middle of this right now?


The Board should try to hire an interim manager whose primary assignment is the put together a plan to dissolve the agency and turn its activities back over to the cities and the County.


I hope Jeff Minnery is doing okay. The OCSD cancelled their regular meeting and Jeff is legal council there as well. In fact, Jeff is legal council for many government agencies in SLO county.


IWMA is another government agency that does little other then paying very high salaries to government employees that also do very little. We could completely get rid of it and nothing would change in anyone’s lives.


Minnery’s picture looks like that of the cat who got caught eating the canary


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