Linda Austin and Shirley Gibson are the best votes for good government in Oceano and should be reelected to the Oceano Community Services District board of directors. One is a Republican and the other a Democrat. If only our Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress could work together as well as Austin and Gibson, then certainly our nation would be much better as a result.
Austin and Gibson have acted together far longer than others on the ballot seeking election to the board. They have been steadfast in their commitment to representing Oceano’s interests and needs on water and sanitation issues, which are the primary purposes of the district and represent 98 percent of the district budget after excluding fire and emergency medical services.
Both Austin and Gibson have successfully served on regional and countywide governmental boards including the county’s Zone 3 Advisory Committee (Lopez Lake/water), the Water Resources Advisory Committee, the State Water Advisory Committee, and the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District. With Austin and Gibson’s leadership, Oceano has maintained water resource reliability that rivals all other communities in San Luis Obispo County, including the big cities like San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. Plus, Austin and Gibson have ensured that Oceano did not spend limited financial resources on Central Coast Blue, which have cost Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, and Arroyo Grande millions although the project appears to be floundering. Wastewater upgrades at the sanitation district and timelines coordinated with the California Coastal Commission for long-term resource management have been accomplished.
The current problems with bantering about Oceano politics is that it has lost a focus on the benefits accomplished for Oceano by Austin and Gibson, which directly relate to the district’s primary purposes and priorities.
In contrast, Charles Varni, the current board president is focused on raising donations for a track at Oceano Elementary School. Certainly, promoting recreation for youth is important, but a quick look at the Oceano budget shows that Varni convinced the board to another year of spending money on “parks and recreation” with “zero” revenues. All governmental entities need to do better at controlling costs and living within their means, and this is especially true for Oceano.
The district’s expenditure of its funds to pursue fundraising for the school district is not good government. Simply said, the district has no parks, provides no recreational services, and yet Varni pushes forward spending district money for the school district so he can point to the wonderful things he is working on. Considering his efforts, Varni should be running for a seat on the Lucia Mar Unified School District board.
More importantly, Varni showed he pursues his own priorities over the good of the district and the community in his opposition to the fire tax. Varni supporters on the Oceano board have recently blamed retired Five Cities Fire Chief Steve Lieberman for cost increases at the Five Cities Fire Authority, which is yet another finger-pointing attempt to distract from Varni’s opposition to the fire vote although a majority of community voters consistently showed their support. Those votes were, however, shy of the two-thirds yes votes required by state law.
Hopefully, the majority of voters that showed support for fire will again show up to vote for good government, and not Varni. Δ
Paavo Ogren retired from being the Oceano Community Services District’s general manager in 2019 and served a short stint as interim general manager earlier this year. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Pet Issue 2024.
Paavo Ogren’s basic thesis, that Republican Austin and Democrat Gibson work well together, belies the fact that being an OCSD Director is a non-partisan position and OCSD is not a venue for party politics. Austin and Gibson have been united on their opposition to OCSD Parks and Recreation (OPARC) with Gibson making it a center-point of her campaign, as has Ogren in his editorial.
Ogren’s assertion that OPARC’s support for a new community track and soccer field at Oceano Elementary School (OES) is for the school district could not be further from the truth. This new piece of infrastructure will serve the entire community with recreational opportunities available to the public during all of the hours school is not in session. The generosity and partnership of the Lucia Mar School District in its willingness to share its land and new facility with the community is a win/win for everyone. Yes, I volunteered my time, wrote and received a grant for $25,000 in seed money to design and engineer the new track. Yes, I located a generous donor who provided $25,000 towards the project with an understanding that OPARC would raise matching funds from the community. Yes, this community based focus is a passion of mine. Working for safer streets and routes to schools; for more urban flood control projects; for more basic recreational opportunities because they result in a healthier community; these are all things I championed way before I joined the OCSD.
With the new OPARC authority, I and Wanda Monson were able to write a grant application to fund multiple educational enrichment field trips to State Parks for every student at Oceano School during 2024. The $16,000 we received wasn’t for the school district, it was for the kids. This program was so successful that the Routes to Parks organization encouraged us to apply again for 2025, this time for $22,000. So, in one year my volunteer grant writing has brought in $88,000 that is funding positive experiences and infrastructure projects in the community. Shirley Gibson consistently opposed, nit picked, delayed, and demeaned these efforts, just as Ogren is doing now. For Ogren to suggest that my motivation for this work was, “…so he can point to the wonderful things he is working on” represents a mindset that only understands doing something for selfish reasons.
Ogren, Gibson, Verdin, and others talk like OPARC is some huge threat to the OCSD budget. In 2023, on a 3/2 vote, the Directors approved a $15,000 operations budget for OPARC, with Gibson and Austin voting against it. Today, $13,000 of that remains and there was no additional operational money allocated for 2024/2025. This represents .003% (3 thousandths) of OCSD’s $3,933,000 reserve budget. The General Fund (the 4% of Oceano property tax money returned to us by the County) which would additionally fund OPARC if desired, currently has a surplus of $128,000.
Regarding Ogren’s list of decisions and operations related to the core OCSD functions of water, sewage, and garbage, he implies that Austin and Gibson stood alone in supporting the efficient and quality provision of these services. Again, Directors are non-partisan and the record shows that the vast majority of votes on these functions were unanimous. As recent as this months’ OCSD meeting, Director Austin and myself led the Board in advocating that we award a $250,000 contract for analysis and engineering for our sewage capitol improvement project to an alternate firm than the one recommended by the General Manager. This passed unanimously.
Finally, with regard to the fire tax, I and hundreds of other Oceano voters opposed it for very good reasons: https://www.newtimesslo.com/opinion/the-tr… Now, while we are waiting for the County to take over emergency medical and fire services (which it handles for most all other unincorporated areas of the County) we are paying Five Cities Fire Authority $1,800,000 a year. The fact is that all six governmental agencies involved in the divestiture agree with the goal of renovating and fully staffing the Oceano fire station when funding is available. Ogren seems to have forgotten that Gibson, at the last minute and after literally 1000’s of hours had gone into creating a divestiture agreement, tried to torpedo the entire effort with a motion to cancel the proposed contract and put a new Oceano fire tax on the November 2024 ballot. I don’t think this is the kind of “leadership” most voters in the OCSD 5th District are looking for.
Charles,
You are always saying “I wrote” or “I did” when it comes to the OPARC grants. What I never see is you publicly acknowledging all the background work and hours that staff has put into the grants as well. Or all the emails or meetings that are attended for these grants.
It is always LOOK AT ME! LOOK WHAT I DID. Start giving credit where credit is due. Yes, you have helped write the grants, but it was not just solely you that did this.
I believe back when OPARC was funded, they voted no because it was at the start of divesture, LAFCO and even Jimmy Paulding said funding OPARC at that time was a very back look. We can afford to keep fire, but we are funding another area. Does not make sense. I also thought that back when OPARC was funded from the General fund, that previous GM Clemens said that typically funds borrowed from general fund for other funds have to be replaced. When does oparc plan on repaying those funds?
Also Mr. Ogren is not wrong, we as a community have funded OPARC, but there is absolutely no recreational programs in place in almost two years since OPARC creation. Oceano does not own its park, so we have no park power. OPARC has no source of revenue outside of the grants that benefit the school of Oceano.
Also you are wrong about Shirley trying to torpedo the fire agreement, all she did was simply ask a question about if there was to be a new tax proposal in the future if it was allowed.
Also while we are at it, when are you going to formally apologize to Shirley for the fabricated lies about taking “Dark Money” for her campaign? Her financial docs filed with the county say otherwise.
Might as well throw in an apology to Mr. Verdin as well for your letter basically slandering him to multiple people and his connection to Save Oceano Committee. Had you done an ounce of research like I did, before throwing accusations, again you would find outside of a donation being made, here is nothing suggesting he is apart of that group. Hope all those accusations don’t land you in hot water legally.
I want to thank Mr. Ogren for penning this editorial. And I want people to recognize the significance of having a former General Manager making a public endorsement of a candidate from a district they recently served — this coming after Charles Varni vilified and defamed the previous GM and legal counsel. After promising a “fresh start” for the district, Varni continues to disparage his current and former staff.
I no longer read his lengthy, self-serving diatribes because Varni simply doesn’t understand how government works and how the district operates. We all know this to be the case. He’s too busy having public meltdowns on Nextdoor to calmly grasp the district’s roles and responsibilities, which are essential but limited.
And I think it was a valid suggestion for him to run for a seat on the Lucia Mar Unified School District board instead because that’s where his advocacy makes the most sense. The district’s essential services do not include fundraising for Oceano Elementary School and using district funds to achieve that purpose, as wholesome as that purpose may be.
Here’s the elephant in the room: Charles Varni is mentally and fundamentally unfit for leadership in government.
We have a textbook narcissist who lashes out at perceived or alleged political adversaries, and gives himself pats on the back for progress he’s not solely responsible for, and has openly waged war against local business leaders and community members. Despite overwhelming evidence of his misconduct appearing in the public eye, Varni has continued to double down with his vicious and potentially slanderous attacks.
And District 4 Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, his only known backer, has remained silent; that silent speaks volumes.
A year ago this week Will Clemens demanded I read this document into the public record, my performance evaluation of him. I describes in some detail, his many Brown Act and By law violations but also his aggressive, bullying, and manipulative behaviors. This document is a public record.
General Manager Clemens performance evaluation Oct 22, 2023 Pattern of manipulation and lack of transparency to limit Director participation in policy, project, and financial decisions a. On Friday Feb 17,2023 the Directors received the agenda for the Feb 22 OCSD meeting. Under new business there was a budget adjustment and $33,000 contract for a grant writing consultant to prepare an application to the Clean California grant program. In the GM’s written report he said: “Staff envisions utilizing the grant funding to replace the 12 concrete light poles along Highway One, increase the number of dual trash receptacles in the downtown area, and complete landscape improvements on District properties and the mural at the Old Firehouse.” He omitted another element of the grant which was to demolish and replace the entire (functional) sidewalk in front of the Oceano Depot and also include tile inlays. This item was omitted because it could be controversial and favored Director Austin who is also the Director of the Oceano Depot Association Some Directors suggested a sidewalk infill project which, for the first time in Oceano history, would create a complete sidewalk to the beach, park, and school in the Coastal Zone portion of Oceano. The grant writing agency conducted an elective on line survey to assess local preferences for the grant money. The survey did not include any option of the sidewalk infill project. A Director spoke directly to the Senior Grant Writer to determine why it was not included. The answer was that the GM had told the grant writer that its inclusion would be inappropriate since the OCSD has no jurisdiction over sidewalks. When asked by the Director how then could removing and replacing the sidewalks in front of the depot be appropriate the grant writer had no answer except to say that it, too, should probably not be included. Finally, some Directors had no knowledge of the proposed grant application and no opportunity to help shape its content. It is clear that at least one Director had prior knowledge since her organization’s project was included. When challenged on why PCH sidewalk infill was not included he stated it would cost “millions of dollars” which was not true. When the grant writer was consulted on this question he estimated the coast to be around $300K. The GM argued against disclosing information about the grant application content to Directors and OCSD Counsel had to direct him to do so.b.GM has consistently argued that the OCSD cannot take any “advocacy” positions on community issues because it is illegal and violates “government code.” A Director did independent research and was told by LAFCO that OCSD Directors had “freedom of speech” similar to any other elected body. OCSD legal counsel was directed to research the GM’s opinion and learned that, in fact, the Directors can engage in “public advocacy” with certain constraints. He clearly aligned himself with Gibson and Austin on this issue.
b. Beginning July 22, 2022, with the cooperation of OCSD legal counsel, he suppressed the facts of employee fraud and embezzlement from the Directors for almost four months until November 9, 2023. At least this is the story line. Both Director Gibson and ex-Director White have said they knew about the criminal behavior. Most probably Linda Austin knew also. This would make each of them co-conspirators to the cover up. Following is a time line of the cover up.
July 22, 2022
Auditor discovers manipulation of vacation and sick leave data by employee and reports it to GM.
Sept 10, 2022
Almost two months later employee terminated.
Sept 16, 2022
OCSD Business Manager discovers thefts of cash money payments for water bills by terminated employee.
Nov 9, 2022
In a closed session of the final meeting of the 2021/2022 group of OCSD Directors they are reportedly notified of fraud and embezzlement crimes, reportedly, for first time almost four months after it was first discovered. During that period only the General Manger, Business Manager, and Attorney Minnery were aware of the crimes. The hiring of a forensic auditor was recommended and approved in order to discover the extent of loss of OCSD customer payments. At this meeting Clemens reported the criminal behavior as relatively minor, the person responsible had been fired and changes made in the book keeping so it could not happen again, He was given a positive performance review by the Directors. He was awarded a $25,000 raise. He told the Directors he feared that the newly elected Directors (Varni/Suneson) did not like him and might fire him. The Directors gave him a $195,000 severance package if he was fired without cause before Dec. 31, 2023. Nothing was reported to law enforcement or the District Attorney.
June 28, 2023
The annual mandated OCSD financial audit report is placed on the consent agenda of regularly scheduled meeting. The report contains a finding of fraud and embezzlement made possible by poor bookkeeping practices which do not meet best management practices as recognized by professional auditors and book keepers. No Directors have been provided the audit report prior to the meeting and there is no report available for the public to review in a hard or digital format. Neither the OCSD legal counsel, Business Manager, or General Manager, each of which know it contains explosive revelations, make any reference to the information contained in the audit and the consent agenda is approved by all Directors present without discussion (Director Varni was absent).
August 19, 2023
Directors Varni and Suneson, the newest Directors who began service in December 2022, are contacted by an Oceano resident and referred to the auditor’s report which is now posted on the OCSD website and in the public domain. After serving as Directors for nine months, Suneson and Varni discovered they had been excluded by OCSD legal counsel, the General Manager, and other Directors from knowledge of the crimes and investigation. These facts had been suppressed for more than a year and had still not been reported to law enforcement.
August 20, 2023
Directors Varni and Suneson each sent emails to the SLO County District Attorney reporting the crimes and providing a link to the auditors report.
August 23, 2023
In closed session, OCSD Directors, Business Manager, General Manager and Legal Counsel discuss the situation. Attorney Martin tells Directors Suneson and Varni they should have come to him first and not gone to the District Attorney because it could jeopardize the investigation.
September 1, 2023
Directors Suneson and Varni have separate meetings with an Assistant SLO County District Attorney and two investigators. In Director Suneson’s meeting the DA investigator recommends to her that something needs to be done with the GM.
GM has consistently argued that the OCSD cannot take any “advocacy” positions on community issues because it is illegal and violates “government code.” A Director did independent research and was told by LAFCO that OCSD Directors had “freedom of speech” similar to any other elected body. OCSD legal counsel was directed to research the GM’s opinion and learned that, in fact, the Directors can engage in “public advocacy” with certain constraints. He clearly aligned himself with Gibson and Austin on this issue.
2. Pattern of favoritism towards Directors who rubber stamped his proposals and resistance or passive aggression towards those who did not.
A majority of the Directors voted to change a by-law to allow two Directors to place an item on the agenda. The GM delayed for a month providing a revised set of by-laws for ratification by the Directors. During this time he made many contacts with the Board President in which he cajoled and pressured her to change her vote and nullify the change that had been made, clearly aligning himself with Austin and Gibson.
At the December 11, 2022 meeting the GM sought to manipulate officer elections and elect Linda Austin as President by not arranging for remote participation by absent, and informally designated President to be, current Vice President Allene Villa. The GM also confused the process by introducing a non-agendized topic of Board rotation of Presidency which was then combined with the President and Vice-president election. OCSD Counsel Jeff Minnery supported this even though Brown Act questions were raised. Director Suneson was confused and clearly thought she was voting for the rotation part and not for officers. The GM resisted re-visiting this vote, stating emphatically that the election was valid and no Brown Act violations occurred and a majority of the Directors forced a closed session and voted to re-do the election. He also adamantly argued that the only way Linda Austin could be the OCSD representative to the Sanitation District was to serve as President of the Directors. A Director researched this with the Sanitation District CAO and found that the GM’s assertion was not true.
3. Frequent lying or exaggeration about actual matters to support his goals and negate projects he did not support.
At the April 26 OCSD meeting the GM presented his report on the merger with a biased and exaggerated report stating information would cost more that $100,000 and the OCSD had no money to spend on it due to large fire service debt. When audience members cheered and clapped after his presentation he smiled and laughed with the crowd—thus setting the tone for a disastrous meeting and verbal attacks on our County Supervisor. He clearly aligned himself with Gibson and Austin on this issue.
July 3 tells President she cannot share conversation they had with any other Director as it would violate the Brown Act. Not true according to OCSD attorney.
In June OCSD meeting argues against OPARC funding because needed for emergency like roof of Sheriff station falling in. Aligns himself with Austin and Gibson.
4. Poor and manipulative time management to achieve his goals.
a. Failed to execute a contract for the sale of surplus water to Arroyo Grande, thus removing an option to protect Oceano rate payers from further increased rates for water and infrastructure maintenance.
b. Delayed application for fire service divestiture to LAFCO for a period of approximately seven months between July 2022 and March 2023, thus delaying the process and potentially exposing the District ratepayers to significant additional costs. Once it was approved by OCSD Directors it was not transmitted to LAFCO for almost a month.
c. Of concern to some Directors is the fact that we receive very large agenda packets on the Friday before the Wednesday meeting. These packets can be over 200 pages long, and typically include topics which we have no background or previous briefing on and are expected to make a decision on in 3 business days. This puts us in a position of having to rely on the GM’s recommendation rather than having time to completely digest the proposal. It is also typical that there is a short timeline for a formal response. One possible solution is to require 1st and 2nd readings on all major actions.
5. Lack of research or study of projects which then cost the District money.
a.Contracted with a private provider for median income analysis of OCSD households in order to establish disadvantaged community criteria for use in grant applications and project funding. The analysis had significant flaws within the Appendices data when presented to the Directors. The document had not been sufficiently proofed by the contract nor the OCSD Manger or Administrative Officer. In addition, the information provided is not accepted by a major granting agency which funds transportation projects in Oceano. The GM was not aware of this.
b. Without Director knowledge the GM initiated a EV charging station consultant contract which promised 16 EV charging stations on District property. The consultant also owns an EV construction business and promised up to 90% of all costs would be covered by State and Federal grants (actually rebates). The GM invested upwards of $25,000 of District money with our Board knowledge or approval only to discover one government program had run out of money and the District will need to contribute $72,000 from the General Fund to move forward with the original project.
6. Physical threats, verbal intimidation, and ignoring of Directors requests for information.
In September 2022 the GM confronted Director Suneson as she was leaving the OCSD office by stepping in front of her and physically blocking her forward movement. He then started interrogating and challenging her regarding a Sheriffs call to he house two nights earlier. His tone was derogatory and shaming. The incident was a private family matter and had absolutely no relevance to her role and an OCSD Director It is still a mystery how he became aware of the incident. She again attempted to leave and he again physically blocked her by moving his large body in from of her. He then began accusing her of having illegal sewer and water hookups to a travel trailer parked in her driveway and that the County was coming after her. Ultimately the minor, unintended infraction, was resolved with a “fix-it” order and the County closed the case.
On many occasions the GM privately pressured, cajoled, and threatened Director/President Villa into changing her mind or taking a specific position on some issue he was interested in. He was especially earnest about a vote she had made in support of making it easier for Directors to put an item on the agenda. This new by-law reduced his ability to control and manipulate the agenda and provided Directors with more power—something he did not want.
On numerous occasions he ignored requests or direction to place items on the agenda which were submitted by Directors Varni, Suneson, or Villa, thus delaying decisions. A classic example was when Director Varni requested a copy of the GM’s list of preferred projects to be included in a grant proposal to the Clean California program of CalTrans. First he ignored the request and then he refused to provide it. I had to involve our legal counsel who directed him to provide it to an elected Director. This should not have been an issue and examples his hyper controlling and manipulative management style.
On October 11, 2023, when the fraud and embezzlement topic came up in closed session he erupted in a screaming rage directed at me, jumped up with his fists balled up in an attack stance. Fear full my own and others safety I stood up, out open hands in front of my chest, ordered him to back up, sit down, and shut up—which he did. This was witnessed by all present—Business manager, legal counsel, and all Directors. Some were terror stricken and experienced PTSD reactions.
I attest to all of these facts and observations are true to best of my knowledge and perception.
Charles Varni, Director
Oceano CSD
In reference to the question of where does Jimmy Paulding stand ? Simply read his perspective in his two page statement. 100’s of people in the OCSD 5th District have. They are all over the place.
Charles, I see you signed one of your last comments with “Director, Oceano csd” does that mean that the Oceano csd shares the same view point as you? I thought directors could not use this titles in media or public comments unless it was the stance of the board and district….
President Varni,
Mr Clemens did NOT demand that you read your document.
I, as a board member, suggested that you read aloud your “document”, at 1 hr 08 min per the video of OCSD public meeting on October 25, 2023. Available on SLO-Span.
Then you voluntarily chose to read your “document” aloud and said that you would provide Ms. Casciola with a written copy. At 1 hr 33 min. On SLO-Span.
If people choose to view that meeting, they can watch your violations of the Brown Act with legal counsel admonishing you to stop, and your inability to control your anger during public meetings.
And your “documented “ list of complaints are specious. Some are false, many are personal complaints, and some violate the Brown Act.
President Varni,
In case you have forgotten, three different attorneys stated that you violated the Brown Act on several occasions.
You are the single person saying that you did not violate the Brown Act.
Should the Oceano community believe you, or three attorneys?
Legal counsel there to protect the DISTRICT from potential legal action, all the while you continued to violate the Brown Act.
Director Gibson clearly does not understand what is taking place in this meeting. General Manager Clemens chose to have his performance review take place in public. Why? I have no idea.
At 1:37 Attorney Daniel Cheung reminds the entire Board of what the Brown Act requires in such a situation. Here are his exact words” (1:37:20) To the extent that you want to raise allegations or complaints that will be deliberated by the Board at closed session, pursuant to which disciplinary action is taken, that is what needs to happen at this time…If any adverse action is taken against Mr. Clemens based on specific complaints or charges that were NOT HEARD AT THIS TIME IN OPEN SESSION then any disciplinary action taken by the legislative body taken against the employee in closed session will be null and void.”
In other words, I need to vocalize my allegations and complaints in open session, as Mr Clemens chose to have, or they could not be used in any following disciplinary action. I was directed by the attorney to read my performance review and proceeded. Nothing I did here violated the Brown Act, in fact, I was following the letter of the law. These are FACTS confirmed by the video, a”picture” much different than what Shirley Gibson presents in her post.
Finally, this was one of the most contentious and out of control meetings I have ever participated in with the audience and Directors talking over each other, talking out of turn, and generally behaving poorly. I count myself in that group and apologize to all for not having better control of my emotions. It was a very challenging moment, in a very challenging year, as was documented by me in Mr. Clemens’ performance review.
We say, yo get our fire truck and bro varni thought we said, yo, get us a walking track. Then bro Aaron says Varni is mental and then poof Varni goes mental!!!! Open the freakin fire station!!!!!! NOW!!!! Then go get our buidlings, and stop givving our stufff away!!!!!!!
Seriously, varni like my crazy uncle that loses his job goes to vegas and then loses his truck then comes back and yells at everyone at thanksgiving.
Charles Varni,
First Will Clemens made you do it.
Now the attorney made you do it.
You are responsible for your own actions.
Charles Varni,
You need to remove, Oceano CSD, from your comment from above. You are NOT representing the OCSD!!!
Any comments made by me in a forum such as this represent my personal perspective and not the Oceano Community Services District. The Performance Evaluation posted above had my name and title embedded within it because it was my document used in official OCSD business. I cannot delete it at this time.
I want people to take a good look at Mr. Varni’s comments here. This is the behavior exhibited by someone who currently serves in office. This unstable individual just put the district in serious legal jeopardy by stating his personal opinions about a former general manager are representative of the district — right underneath an op-ed penned by the interim GM who endorsed his opponent!
Can hardly imagine why he would do that.
Charles Varni is unstable and does not belong in government.
It should be clear that if Mr Ochs had read my comments he would not be making the inaccurate allegations in his post since I offered positive proof that posting the public record of my performance review of Mr Clemens is 100%, stone cold legal. As can be seen in this thread, so frequently the truth is irrelevant to some.
Charles Varni wants to debate me on the legalities of his egregious misconduct, but that debate ended long ago when he ignored his legal counsel’s advice and publicly disparaged them.
There is an unhealthy amount of staff turnover in the district because of Varni.
And one day, a former staffer will file a claim and sue the district.
And when, not if, a staffer sues the district, they will file a subpoena for records. Those records will show Mr. Varni was warned MULTIPLE times not to engage in the same misconduct he’s exhibiting now.
But he keeps doing it. He can’t help himself. He’s mentally unfit, and everyone in Oceano is keenly aware of that.
Maybe if Charles Varni spent less time swapping staff like he did with his ex-wife, the district would be in better shape.
Charles, I really think you need to get some help. You just wrote a very long piece about stuff from 2022 about a general manager that is no longer there and hasn’t been there for a while and has nothing to do with what Mr. Ogren wrote. Maybe you feel guilty about how you treated him and that is where this is coming from. But what we need is our fire department back, our fire trucks. You are very good friends with Paulding cant you ask him for us? This is serious and it just feels like are not up for the job or trying to avoid the subject. Honestly, we have a miles long beach that I walk on. I know you like driving there, but maybe try walking too? I drive my car there and I park it, and I go for walks but really we need our fire station back. Don’t you see that? Doesn’t Paulding see that?