The Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) earmarked almost $20,000 from its general fund reserve to create a Parks and Recreation Committee.
In a contentious 3-2 vote on July 26, with board members Linda Austin and Shirley Gibson dissenting, the OCSD approved the budget for the committee.
Board member Charles Varni told New Times on Aug. 9 that such a committee would make the community services district eligible to apply for state and federal grants. Grant money, in turn, could help the unincorporated town improve its long-failing infrastructure.
“It will help build out 350 feet of missing sidewalk on Highway 1,” Varni said. “It would give Oceano, for the first time in its history, a complete sidewalk to the beach.”
According to the staff report, the proposed Parks and Rec Committee can also plan “activity management and community ownership” of the new Oceano Plaza that’s slated for construction this summer. The project—part of the Caltrans Clean California program—is estimated to be an area that triangulates between Highway 1, Beach Street, and 17th Street.
But the approval was overcast with criticism about allocating the $19,500 for the committee. The main concern voiced by board members Austin and Gibson, and some community members during the public comment period, was that the expense detracts from the OCSD’s ability to pay for its emergency fire and medical services contract that’s valued at $1.15 million.
Austin expressed her disapproval at the June 28 preliminary budget approval meeting.
“Shirley and I were at the LAFCO [Local Agency Formation Commission] meeting, and they said, ‘Why are you funding parks and recreation when you’re still trying to fund your fire service?'” Austin said at the June 28 meeting. “I don’t think any funding out of our savings will make us look good with LAFCO, and I think the community really needs to speak up.”
She maintained her stance at the July 26 meeting, too. Varni told New Times that the OCSD has already paid for the first installment of the fire services contract.
“There’s absolutely no link between the $19,500 allocation to parks and rec, and fire services in Oceano,” he said. “It’s a big lie being promoted by certain directors [board members] and staff of the OCSD.”
The OCSD received a letter from local business owner Adam Verdin who questioned the need to use OCSD funds for the Parks and Rec Committee.
“Allowing the use of OCSD funds and resources for such quixotic adventurism would be unconscionable without adequate due diligence,” Verdin wrote in his letter.
He added that $19,500 makes up a quarter of the available “financial reserves of the district.” Varni confirmed the proportion with a caveat: The budget allocation makes up a fourth of the general fund reserve alone.
“What Adam Verdin left out is there’s $1.25 million in reserve money in the water budget; $900,000 in the garbage budget reserves; and hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserves in the sewage budget,” Varni said.
In his letter, Verdin requested a “dollar by dollar” line-item budget breakdown of the proposed $19,500. Varni told New Times that the OCSD doesn’t plan on providing that document.
“Any expenditure of the $19,500 budget has to be brought back to the board and be approved,” Varni said.
Verdin also took issue with the Oceano Plaza being located at the end of Pier Avenue. He believes construction of the proposed plaza would block access to the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA). But OCSD President Allene Villa told New Times on Aug. 8 that the Oceano Plaza will contribute to the quality of the local beachfront, which Oceano is sorely lacking.
“This is environmental justice, equity, and access issue,” she said. “Closing that off and making that a nice beach street will make us more of a traditional beach community just like every other community in California. Why do we have to sacrifice to the ODSVRA?” Δ
This article appears in Education Today 2023.