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Paavo Ogren quits Oceano Community Services District, no notice

April 19, 2024

Paavo Ogren

By KAREN VELIE

After leading the agency for three and a half months, the head of the Oceano Community Services District quit several hours after showing up for work today. This is the third time Paavo Ogren has suddenly quit a government agency in less than four years.

Interim General Manager Ogren arrived at the Oceano district office at about 8 a.m. on Friday, sent an email to staff saying he was leaving to fulfill a personal commitment and left at about 10 a.m., said Carey Casciola, Oceano account manager.

Ogren is the third official to quit Oceano in less than seven months.

Following a meeting rife with interruptions and refusals to abide by the Brown Act, the attorney firm representing the Oceano Community Services District resigned on Oct. 11, 2023. Attorney Daniel Cheung, with the firm Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green, quit after chastising a board member for violating public meeting laws.

A few weeks later, during an Oct. 25 district board meeting, then General Manager Will Clemens announced plans to retire at the end of 2024 because a change in the makeup of the board has made his job untenable.

The board then selected Ogren to temporarily replace Clemens. The board is in the process of selecting a new general manager.

Ogren has a history of abruptly quitting government agencies.

At the beginning of the Aug. 11, 2021 SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) meeting, the authority’s attorney informed the board that then Executive Director Paavo Ogren had quit prior to the meeting. Ogren had lasted less than a month.

On Jan. 12, 2022, the IWMA board again appointed Ogren to the interim executive director position at a salary of $186,120 a year, a position he vacated in May 2022.

 


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Paavo was employed by Cambria CCSD. We get our share of rejects


15

Anyone who employees Paavo is getting a reject, but he just keeps laughing all the way to the bank.


8

His dealer may be laughing louder.


1

Readers, this is the key sentence that unlocks the “reason” for Ogren’s early departure:


Ogren is the third official to quit Oceano in less than seven months.


His departure clearly rests at the feet of Charles Varni, current OCSD Board President.


Varni caused the board’s attorney to quit after that attorney properly “chastised” him for violations of the Brown Act. Varni is now subject to investigation by the District Attorney initiated by complaint of two local Oceano residents whose article in CCN in January 2024 outlined his Brown Act and conflict of interest violations.


Varni caused the former General Manager Clemens to resign after a campaign of harassment featuring 6 “performance reviews” demands.


Ogren undertook his latest assignment with two challenges: (1) to get OCSD out of the jam caused by its surrender of fire service authority to the County following the failure of 2 separate parcel tax raise measures to permit OCSD to maintain fire service; and (2) harnessing Varni’s demands for sole power and his cockamamie schemes for new services OCSD has no authority to provide or funds with which to do so.


On the fire service tax measures, Varni- you guessed it – led the opposition to both. The first lost by only a dozen votes. Now, OCSD faces stiff county demands that likely will lead to its loss of virtually all discretionary funding and its headquarters to the county, and more importantly will lead to costly increased fire and emergency response times for OCSD residents.


On the harnessing of Varni, I suspect that task proved too daunting for Ogren’s patience.


Plainly, Ogren is gone because of Varni. OCSD is at risk because of Varni.


It’s time to Save Oceano!


26

I heartily disagree. I am not a Varni fan, so I’m not in it to defend Varni. Looks to me that you are so anti-Varni that you can’t see anything else. Or, perhaps you are using Varni as opportunistically to deflect attention from the real Ogren. The best I can give Ogren is that he’s just looking for a cushy job and departs when the heat is on. I think it’s more likely that someone knows his secrets and where he’s doing what he shouldn’t be doing and threatened to out him. He ran scared, just as John Seitz did when the South SLO County Sanitation District was going to be audited, and just like Ray Beiring did when the DA started poking around at the Integrated Waste Management Authority.


-6

Rockin’ the neck scarf. Looks like Commander Lawrence from The Handmaid’s Tale.


-1

The good thing about Ogren working in Oceano is that he was not working for my town. The ultimate SLO County bean counter is on the job hunt again and could be coming to one of our towns.


15

Are we losing our ability to self-govern?

As for Ogren’s desertion, no great loss to the community.


22

The wrong guy dipped. Varni, who is also pauldings buddy is the one that shoulda did it.Bro is out of control! Remember those oac vids?? wild


30

In fairness to those who need a permanent job and the agencies, Paavo should not treat these jobs as a temporary jobs while he is bored during his retirement from SLO County.


16

This guy keeps resurfacing, hopefully this time he’ll be gone for good.


25

The bigger question is why agencies in SLO County or anywhere else continue to hire Ogren. Dude, get a hobby, a girlfriend or travel or whatever else.


54

@SLO Friend…I agree 100%…why in the world any agency would hire this guy is beyond me.


19

That was my first thought, they keep hiring him… Who’s the dummy, doesn’t appear to be him!


16

Paavo is the choice of the corrupt kingmakers who want to retain power in SLO County.


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