Open wounds 

Oceano is dramatic!

For such a small place along such a beautiful stretch of beach, the town is full of people who like to create chaos.

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The unincorporated community started the year dealing with the remnants of 2022's advisory council duel—OAC (Oceano Advisory Council) vs. VACO (Vitality Advisory Council of Oceano). OAC members like Charles Varni were still licking their wounds, attempting to recover from outgoing SLO County 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton's diatribe against them and how dysfunctional the whole scene was before she led the vote that decertified the OAC.

With the OAC out, VACO reigns supreme!

Thanks to Oceano's advisory council heavyweight match, SLO County decided to revamp its advisory council handbook. That took all year, and the county Board of Supervisors approved the changes on Dec. 5—but not before former OAC member April Dury took a whack at the county.

She must still be butthurt about it more than a year later, because she showed up at the Dec. 5 Board of Supervisors meeting to accuse the county of having no "teeth" when it came to enforcement of improper advisory council behavior.

I guess she forgot that the county decertified the body she used to serve on, which is no longer able to give the county advice on land use issues in Oceano.

"A glaring omission is who's eligible to be on an advisory council," she said. "There is not one whit of information as to what that is."

Maybe she's mad that Adam Verdin—who owns a business in Oceano but doesn't live there—serves on VACO. A valid concern, for sure.

There isn't one whit of Dury on VACO, much to the enjoyment of everyone else who serves on that council. She likes to throw the shit at the fan, stir the pot, and speak loudly so everyone can hear her opinions—even you whispering nags in the back! Then, she likes to post about all of it ad nauseum on her social media feeds and claim that she uses decorum when she disagrees with others.

That's civility if I've ever heard it!

Dury should be ecstatic that at least one OAC board member made it into a position of authority: Varni was elected to serve on the Oceano Community Services District board in 2021 and started his term in 2022, much to the chagrin of what feels like half the population of Oceano.

It was an at-large election, people. Everyone who wanted to vote in the OCSD election voted and now you're all stuck with the decision.

The OCSD meetings have devolved into what amounts to a yelling match between the board members and the audience. At one point, Varni called 911 in the middle of a board meeting because a board member's husband threatened him from the public comment microphone. WTF, Oceano? It's embarrassing.

Varni's accused the district of malfeasance for "hiding" embezzlement (I'm not sure that's what happened, but that's what Varni thinks happened), has publicly fought with both the district legal counsel and the general manager, spars with public commenters during meetings, and will readily respond to any of his detractors with long diatribes about how he puts the community first and is being persecuted because of it.

In October, the district's legal counsel and its general manager announced that they were out. Many residents are blaming Varni. Outgoing GM Will Clemens alluded to board dysfunction and its "new" direction in his resignation speech.

Varni is appalled at the behavior being perpetrated against him. He is, after all, Oceano's saving grace—if you ask him, he'll tell you. Promise.

And now, he's the president of Oceano! Oops, the president of the OCSD board. He can set the board's agenda, throw troublemakers out of meetings, and is ready to get this district back on track with the help of a brand new, yet-to-be hired legal counsel and the seemingly ever-present Paavo Ogren, who just can't get enough of that CSD drama since his 2019 "retirement" from public service.

Ogren is temporarily coming back to Oceano as its interim general manager—a role he's been playing at embattled CSDs across the county since he left the OCSD. He's worked in Cambria, San Simeon, San Miguel, and even at the county's Integrated Waste Management Authority during the height of its messiness—right after the SLO County District Attorney's Office filed embezzlement charges against one of its employees and SLO County pulled out.

The county, by the way, is about to be back in, again! Why? Turns out, running a waste management agency is expensive, takes employees, and is hard! But also, the new liberal majority on the Board of Supervisors has eagerly been undoing all that the previous conservative majority did, including pulling out of the IWMA. Such efficient governing!

Varni is ready to be the civility enforcer! I'm not sure this is the guy I would want counseling the OCSD board and Oceano residents about behavior.

But if he really wants to be that person, he should stop complaining about all the flak he gets for challenging the people he disagrees with in a very public manner—on Nextdoor, in meetings, and in the New Times opinion section.

Dealing with opposition is part of the job. Brush it off, and get to work. Δ

The Shredder thinks Varni needs to take a chill pill. Find them through [email protected].