In 2023, the county revised the Advisory Council Handbook to promote consistency for all advisory council boards and procedures and set the expectation that all community councils would move toward elected membership. Accordingly, Oceano’s county supervisor, Jimmy Paulding, asked VACO to transition to an elected council by the end of March 2024. To make the transition, last month VACO drafted bylaws that fail miserably in equitable representation of the Oceano community. Instead, it re-proposes entrenched members and business representation, despite the fact that Oceano is primarily a small residential community.
VACO plans to establish an election committee run by a VACO member, an ex-VACO member, and an out-of-town person with not even one lay person from Oceano.
We believe the election committee should be completely independent from VACO and staffed with Oceano residents.
VACO plans to elect only five members out of nine. The rest would be appointed by various chambers of commerce and organizations that have no right to represent Oceano. Members would not have a residency requirement.
We believe all members of a community advisory council should be residents of that community.
VACO plans to elect the first three members of the new council in July 2025. The other two would be elected in July 2027.
We believe an independent election committee should be established immediately and elections held as soon as possible.
Finally, here is VACO’s bylaws’ most appalling, discriminant, and undemocratic Article IV 2:
“Persons previously rejected or removed from membership in a community advisory council (CAC) or who served on a CAC that was unrecognized in San Luis Obispo County by the county Board of Supervisors shall not be eligible for election in the VACO.”
We believe it is unconstitutional to ban anybody from running for a public office unless convicted of a felony. This ban blatantly targets former members of the original Oceano advisory council (before VACO) which was unrecognized and disbanded by former 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton.
Finally, we believe that if VACO doesn’t immediately comply with the county’s guidelines to hold fair and unbiased elections free of partisan influence and discriminatory policies, then VACO should be “unrecognized” by the Board of Supervisors.
Our district’s supervisor should then appoint an independent election committee to oversee elections for Oceano. The new council’s board will then draft its own new bylaws.
Bonita Ernst, Allene Villa, and Lucia Casalinuovo
Oceano Beach Community Association
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 7, 2024.
What is it with this Paulding guy? Wherever he goes the community starts fighting
What would be awesome is to just bring back the old advisory council, those guys used to post some wild vids… might be best if they just took a chill out tho
Reading this I thought you three were all for VACO and their bylaws because everything you mentioned in this article sounds like it is exactly how it should be. Why on earth would anyone with half a brain think it would be ok to welcome in people who were disbanded for lack of civility not by Lynn Compton alone (as pathetically as you mentioned above) but by all but one supervisor (and lates face it his ethics are very questionable as shown in recent news). Not to mention that you state people who have been convicted of a felony should not serve on an advisory council yet the council you served on, and are defending now, had April Dury as a member and she is a convicted felon. Such hypocrisy in your entire article. So you see how your article looks Ike you are actually making statements that appear you are supporting VACO???
I wonder how much input Charles Varni had in the writing of this letter. The Charles Varni who pushed his way into becoming the president of the Community Service Board. The Charles Varni who is the actual head and mouthpiece for the Oceano Parks and Recreation which he initiated and runs today. Now he wants the County Board of Supervisors to disband VACO. Gee I wonder why? Is this because he is not the head mouthpiece for VACO nor are any of his gang on the VACO board. Vani has publicly stated that VACO does nothing, yet he has not done anything to help. And secondly, who or what is this Oceano Beach Community Association? How many members does it have and what does it do except advocate the closer of the Oceano Airport, the Oceano beach to all vehicles, shut down Pier Ave. and act as Varni puppets? When are its meetings and how come we never hear about them being open to the public if they ever happen? Are there any minutes being taken or published? I’ve lived in Oceano for 39 years not and I don’t recall ever hearing about any actions or service this association has done. I’m very sorry to see Allene’s name associated with this gang.
OBCA has more than 140 people who receive our newsletter. We have been in existence since 2018. Over the past 5 years we have organized many alley, parks, downtown cleanups in Oceano; we obtained the lovely mural for Chachos and for the past 2 years have pulled weeds and planted plants to beautify the Senior Center. OBCA organized and held a community informational forum on the ODSVRA prior to COVID with a full house of citizens. We kick started the triangle community plaza renovation when we met with County offiicals and SLOCOG in 2018 & 2019. We have a web site and numerous videos on YouTube. We often post notices on the bulletin board we purchased for the Deltina Coffee shop. What we DON’T do is sue the County, sue State Parks, sue the APCD, etc….all that costs taxpayers millions – so maybe that’s why you don’t know about us. We support parks that are accessible to the Oceano kids and community. We support a vehicle free and safe beach for everyone.