I don’t know if you’ve been to the Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) meetings lately, but I must warn you if you haven’t been.
There has been a consistent pattern of negativity during these meetings, and as we all know, negativity can become cancerous. This negative energy I’m talking about has been present since Charles Varni became a director on the OCSD board last December.
At his first meeting, he grilled Utility Manager Tony Marraccino regarding OSCD purchasing a much-needed vehicle for the utility department. He went through the process of asking Marraccino if we could purchase a smaller, less productive vehicle only to, a few weeks later, backpedal and give kudos to Marraccino for his desire to improve services within the OCSD.
He fought ferociously to become president as soon as he began on the board. You’ll notice a demanding Varni pressing to turn over every leaf of what he hopes is impropriety, only to find what he is looking for doesn’t exist. It’s one thing to be fiscally concerned, but Varni goes over the top trying to over-scrutinize current, productive, and, yes, even legal practices only to come up empty handed.
The consequences of this, of course, are legal fees exploited at the cost of hard-working Oceanoans like you and me who will have to pay for this. We will see our very little savings disappear before our eyes as the wasteful wantonness of Varni and his supporters continues.
First I would like to opine on appointed director Beverly Joyce-Suneson, who terms out in 2026. It would be productive if Joyce-Suneson showed that she has a mind of her own. She follows exactly what Varni says and does. When she was appointed as a director, perhaps she forgot or does not understand that as a representative of a district in Oceano, she should represent the needs of her district and not just follow what another director suggests. Here is another idea: Try doing some studying and ask questions outside of a meeting.
She receives a stipend. Ask OCSD staff members for assistance. Do you spend any time at home researching and learning about issues you don’t understand? My point isn’t that you ask, it’s that you ask these simple questions that you could have answered before the meeting begins. This is wasting the district’s time, and again, continued wasteful spending!
Varni and his cronies continue this unreasonable badgering for one purpose: to oust the current general manager and certain board members. Don’t forget, late last year, ex-SLO County 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton and the majority of the Board of Supervisors at that time voted to no longer recognize the OAC, Oceano Advisory Council (on which Varni served), as an active body in SLO County.
Julie Tacker is someone that is present at these meetings as well. I commend her involvement during public comment at these meetings. But she’s a resident of Los Osos, just so the public knows, and we need more public at these meetings, and at one time she suggested that because Cal Fire provides fire services for Los Osos, so should Oceano. Oceano’s needs are much different than Los Osos’. Oceano is clearly not Los Osos!
The other crony is April Dury. When she comes to the mic every time she gets a chance for public comment, she tries to make her point by raising her voice, thinking it will make her sound more intelligent. It doesn’t. It is the same April Dury who has created a reputation for herself: a person without manners, a person who speaks to others without respect, and a person who gave the OAC a poor reputation with her venomous remarks about others.
These busybodies do nothing but stir up trouble. For example, during the Sept. 27 meeting, Tacker took a jab at another board member challenging her about her statements of being fiscally responsible.
Here is my point, Oceano. Voting time will be here before we know it. Varni’s term expires in November 2024. His “promises” of “sidewalks for Oceano” have not come to pass. His desire of tyrant control over the board is painfully obvious. Do you really think we should continue having someone on the board that not only does not have your best interests at heart, but has not done anything he has promised?
But don’t take my word for it. Log on to SLO Span (slo-span.org) and play the Sept. 27 meeting for yourself. You will see exactly what I’m talking about. Change is certainly overdue! Δ
Steve Montes served on the OCSD in 2022. Write a response for publication by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 12-19, 2023.
I may be a Morro Bay resident, but I see a ton of coverage on the Oceano CSD on social media and Nextdoor. And when I came across OCSD Director Charles Varni’s degrading Nextdoor comments toward his female colleagues on the board, I reported them to the OCSD and called for his censure or resignation. Their legal counsel advised Varni and the OCSD to appeal to a better standard of decorum when engaging with the public. And when I saw Varni attempt to silence anonymous public correspondence that was critical of him, I reminded the board that silencing anonymous viewpoints would infringe on their First Amendment rights, citing applicable case law.
This is a pattern and practice for Varni, who had his own advisory council formally unrecognized by SLO County, for misconduct that was documented extensively in hours of recorded YouTube video. This is pattern and practice for someone with a history of accosting women. While he had a restraining order request dismissed this year, Varni did admit in his response to a private citizen who accused him of harassment that he “civil[ly] confronted” them, which is an oxymoron since confronting someone is an aggressive act in itself. Confronting private citizens and lying in wait to confront them is definitely not something elected officials should be doing.
Varni should resign from the OCSD as he is clearly unable to civilly and coherently perform his duties.
SLO County residents April Dury and Julie Tacker have every right to participate at OCSD meetings, but it’s important to put into context their involvement and why they participate in the way they do.
They brand themselves as activists, traveling from one municipal body to the next, raising issues that are sometimes valid. But in their wake, they create chaos and dysfunction in hopes of removing any leadership that could potentially obstruct Tacker from seeking employment as a General Manager in any municipal body they challenge. According to public records dating back as far as 2016, Tacker has made inquiries into applying for GM or City Manager of local governments she opposes. And when she is rebuffed, Tacker asserts herself more into the public process. And in the case of Oceano, Tacker is there to push for the closing of the Oceano Airport. Closing the airport would help advance the agenda set out by her partner Jeff Edwards, who has tried for years to turn that space into a mixed-use development that the community overwhelmingly rejected time and time again. Her activism is intricately tied to undisclosed financial interests.
In the case of Dury, this is someone who was convicted of felony embezzlement in 1999 when she was working as a bookkeeper for an animal hospital in Reno, Nevada. While she claims she’s been open about her conviction and has used that as her personal redemption arc to justify his activist zeal, Dury continues to behave like a con. According to SLO County Sheriff’s Dept. records, Dury was accused of stalking and harassing Oceano residents, oftentimes chastising them on social media. Dury’s misconduct was actually cited at the SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting when she served on the Oceano Advisory Council.
One of the tactics Dury and Tacker like to deploy in the weaponizing of closed session discussions, which is actually illegal in itself. They will befriend members of the board and gain their trust, receive closed session materials, turn it around and spin it for public consumption without important details. In the case of OCSD, Dury disclosed on social media documentation that was not publicly accessible as a way to show “proof” that the district was somehow not disclosing that one of their employees may or may have embezzled funds. Tacker piled on, describing the matter as “foot-dragging.” Both Dury and Tacker called for the OCSD GM’s termination. However, they didn’t disclose the fact that in order to show embezzlement, a forensic audit needs to be performed prior to recommending any charges to the District Attorney. There is nothing wrong with a district exercising proper due diligence on personnel activity. You can’t just scream “embezzlement” without having all your ducks in a row. If you do that, you could be exposing the board to violations in labor code and public employee union contracts. But nuance is lost — purposefully.
That’s not activism. That’s controlled chaos. And Varni, who is friends with both of them, is part of that chaos. There is absolutely zero benefit to causing this chaos. If they were *actually* activists, they would be focusing on constructive solutions in addition to raising issues. But they fall well below commonly observed activism standards.
Thank you Mr. Ochs. Your comment is right on the money regarding the sordid attempts going on by this crew to as they say “Take down Oceano”. All for monetary gain by a disgraced realtor/want to be developer from Los Osos. The good and honest people of Oceano will rise to these attempts to destroy the OCSD. Wait and see.
Wasn’t Varni behind the ill-conceived plan to have Grover Beach annex Oceano? I’ve supported him in his past advocacy for environmental issues, but now I’m thinking he should go back to raising succulents and making pottery. I find it hard to believe that he’s “friends” with Tacker and Dury. How sad for the people of Oceano!
This provocative, incendiary, hateful , ignorant, and distorted piece of garbage from Steve Montes is filled with factual errors, untruths, and fake news. Montes is a sore loser who l defeated 57% to 43% in the 2022 election and he is continuing the character assassination and personal attack of lies. The examples of my “treachery” include asking for more information on why OCSD was purchasing a $122,000 Ford f450 Super Diesel pickup versus and gasoline powered one. He spins this as somehow being offensive to an employee. From Montes perspective, if you question staff you are being disrespectful, exactly what his rubber stamp board gave the General Manager.
I am an independent Director and I am not conspiring with anybody. I am in this position because i embody commonsense community wide betterment, physically and socially–like safe routes to schools, flood control, recreation, keeping Oceano tax dollars in Oceano, safe water and community.
OCSD has some serious issues which require some changes. Pay attention to the accurate news in the coming days and weeks and see what the facts are. Montes and Ochs dont know what they are talking about and are grinding their own narcissistic axes.
Charles, there is nothing narcissistic about pointing out your own words, which you published; hours of YouTube videos of you speaking — that your advisory council uploaded. You are severely prolific in your nonsense, which is why you’re constantly unable to share with the class about all the things people get wrong about you. You can’t because there is documentation and it’s extensive — and it’s sad, really.
You can’t slap the truth around like you try to do with every woman who dares to disagree with you.
At least when Montes was on the board even for his short amount of time, he took time out of his day to get to know the field staff and even toured the water yard facilities. I do believe that all other directors have at one time toured the facility included previous director Repogle. But this is something neither Director Suneson or Varni have done but they seem to care sooo much right. How can they claim they want to make changes for the community to have safe water and services but take no time to even see what it is that the district staff does for the community. Varni has a one-track goal these days and that is to fire Mr. Clemens (unjustly) and place Julie Tacker in his position. And I may remind you that she has no actual qualification besides being a self-appointed activist on special districts with no other qualifications besides being on the Los Osos’s board which under her time there almost went bankrupt and they made very poor decisions. Also, he says he’s not conspiring with anyone, but I do remember at one meeting when he requested changes to the By-laws AGAIN, there was a list made and when other directors asked if Villa and Suneson had helped with this list, they stated that they had. Which is conspiring together and a violation of brown act and possibly the by-laws. Safe routes to school, flood control are all outside of the purview of the OCSD same as sidewalks are as well. The district can only provide WATER, SEWER, LIGHTING and TRASH services to the community though they can advocate as a board for other things to be implemented throughout the district of Oceano.