Improper appointment costs Oceano big bucks 

The Oceano Community Services District suffered yet another financial setback when a San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge tentatively awarded a former board member $74,441 in legal fees stemming from a 2010 lawsuit.

The former board member, Pamela Dean, sued the district after she claimed Lori Angelo was illegally appointed to the board in February 2010, when Angelo was chosen without a majority vote of board members. Two board members voted for Angelo, one abstained, and one voted against. State law requires a majority vote for an appointment. Angelo would have required three votes.

Judge Charles Crandall ruled the appointment was illegal in March, but at the time Angelo had been legally elected in the November 2010 election.

For Oceano residents, it’s no shock the district would get dinged for governmental improprieties. Historically, the board of directors has either ignored or shown complete ignorance of laws regulating legislative procedure. This comes at a particularly bad time for Oceano. The district is on the brink of financial doom from years of financial mismanagement, and a new temporary general manager, Tom Geaslen, the former campaign manager for county Supervisor Paul Teixeira, has been on the job for only a week.