The Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) no longer has a leader after the interim general manager it hired in January resigned.
Paavo Ogren joined the OCSD on Jan. 1 after previous General Manager Will Clemens announced his retirement from public service during an Oct. 25, 2023, district board meeting.
According to previous New Times reporting, Ogren said he knew his time at the OCSD was limited to a year of service and planned to focus on finding the best future general manager while overseeing district projects.
OCSD board President Charles Varni told New Times that Ogren was a great general manager who provided guidance on important issues like fire services, water and sewer system upgrades, groundwater management, and day-to-day district operations.
“He was hired as a temporary general manager, and, you know, it was intended to end relatively soon; we had full discussions about that. We had anticipated that it would probably be around the end of April or certainly by the end of May,” he said. “Our goal was to have a new general manager in place, and that was the No. 1 job for Paavo when he came on board.”
Ogren announced his resignation in an email to Varni on April 19, claiming that the OCSD had a good set of candidates for the general manager position and that he had some personal commitments he would like to return to.
“I do believe that we have been productive in 2024 during this transitional period, and with my departure at this time, staff will have the benefit of some opportunity to operate independently prior to the start of the new general manager,” his email reads. “They are a good team, and I have no reservations in their abilities.”
Varni said the board will discuss the top candidates at its April 24 board meeting and hopes to get the ball rolling on beginning interviews the first week of May.
“We have some strong applicants and a number of very positive candidates with a depth of experience. They have been in the public sector, many of them, and county government, city government, in community services districts, so they come to the job ready to perform and don’t have much of a learning curve at all,” he said. “We’re a small but busy community services district, and there are a number of significant issues that we’re dealing with.”
One of the most important issues is that in 23 years Oceano will need a new wastewater treatment plant that’s not next the ocean, Varni said.
“That will definitely be part of their job, and we also have an interim attorney, so we’re in search of a new attorney,” he said. “We’ll be looking for someone that has water expertise because sewer and water are kind of core functions of the district, and it’s important that we have people that have experience in that.”
The OCSD will begin accepting applications for a new legal counsel later in May to give the new general manager a chance to settle into the role and become an active part of the decision-making process, Varni said. Δ
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 5, 2024.
Readers, here is the reason for Ogrens 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’s usual spin in New Times is on display above.
Varni caused the boards 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 notably dismissed the attorney’s caution about violating the confidentiality rules of the Brown Act. Varni said he knew the Brown Act better than the attorney and essentially said that his “means” justified his “ends.” He’s that kind of guy – everyone else is wrong and he’s right.
Varni caused the former General Manager Will Clemens to resign after a campaign of harassment featuring 6 performance reviews demands.
Ogren became acting General Manager under the auspices of Supervisors Paulding and Ortiz-Legg, who corralled Varni to accept him. 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) to try to harness Varnis 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.
Having caused a hash of OCSD’s fire service authority, Varni has now embarked on promoting OCSD’s financial support of a running track at the Oceano Elementary School. This yuppie venture is likely of little interest to Oceano’s elementary school students and their taxpaying parents; Lucia Mar School District doesn’t have such a running track in its feasiblilty proposal for a big new bond offering it hopes to present to voters in November; and Oceano residents have a 25 mile long beach available – for free – nearby! This is just the latest of “Varni’s ventures” that waste OCSD funds, its administrative staff’s attention and patience.
On Ogren’s inabilty to harness Varni, I suspect that task proved too daunting for Ogrens patience. OCSD staff is reportedly fed up with him – calling meetings of staff to demand their fealty to him. Acting as de facto General Manager although he is just one of five OCSD Board Members, without authority to do so.
Will Varni demand fealty of a new General Manager? Would any competent and reasonable candidate for the position accept the job under this history and such circumstances?
Plainly, Ogren is gone because of Varni. OCSD is at risk because of Varni.
Its time to Save Oceano!
Chuck bell, you nailed it.
Im adding this as well. Varni has planned on getting his good buddy Julie Thacker in as the new GM and it’s been his plan since he set up all those reviews on Will Clemens. Julie Thacker has applied for the position at least two times before. Makes no sense considering the damage she has done everywhere she goes.
What I find interesting about this whole thing is that if the Board knew he was going to be resigning soon, why did they not just ask him for a tentative date so that not only the Board but more importantly the STAFF were not caught off guard? Why would Paavo go into work leave for a personal commitment and while gone write a letter or resignation? Seems really fishy to me. Something had to have happened during that day or leading up to that to drive him to leave immediately. I remember in multiple articles as well as meetings him saying he was staying on until the new GM was hired and trained. But Varni is saying differently. I would be curious to see the actual email, not just what Varni is saying that it said. You have now had 3 contract employees resign from the district under this board. Why is no one questioning this? When office or the field staff start resigning, will people pay attention then? Wake up people!!!