The Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) has a new interim general manager with a stellar career of public organization management in the county and community services district. He is developing excellent relationships with all the directors through an inclusive process of transparency and involvement. Our first meeting of the new year was distinguished by a spirit of civility and cooperation. Linda Austin and I have agreed to both serve on the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District board and help lead a more thorough assessment of the long-term water quality and quantity resources in Oceano.
Our new interim attorney is also a very experienced professional with decades of city government and community services district service. Past problems are being addressed and resolved as well as the directors and public being properly informed regarding district business as required by state law.
Our new Parks and Recreation Committee is implementing a $16,000 grant it wrote (at no cost to the district) to provide multiple field trips to state parks for all children at Oceano Elementary School during 2024.
Also, our new Parks and Recreation committee is promoting a project to add 900 feet of guardrail to Highway 1 just north of the train overpass so pedestrians finally have a safe route to the beach. Currently when pedestrians exit the overpass sidewalk, they are guided directly onto the state highway with no protection. When this project is complete, inland Oceano residents will have a safe route to the beach for the first time in history.
The Oceano Plaza at 17th and Beach streets, originally conceived in the 2013 Oceano Revitalization Plan, and fully supported by OCSD directors, will break ground early this spring with $1.8 million in funding from Caltrans and the SLO County Council of Governments.
SLO County and the Council of Governments agreed to seek a $3.5 million grant from Caltrans to complete sidewalks on three major streets in Oceano, improve dangerous intersections, and create two bike corridors. Many Oceano residents, two OCSD directors, Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, and local agency staff have worked together for more than two years to make this happen.
A new $3 million capital improvement project to replace old water lines and infrastructure will begin this year. This project, initiated by OCSD directors, was supported and funded by U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara). District directors helped mobilize community support for this effort, and our congressman listened, as he has many times in the past.
Last week, the Shredder opened its column with this statement: “I don’t know why anyone gets into politics. Not only is it a thankless job, it’s a precarious one. You’re always one decision away from a recall attempt. Are politicians simply masochists who like being whipped by John and Jane Q. Citizen?”
My reputation, over decades of leadership work in the private and public sphere, has been one of collegiality, mutual respect, fairness, and objectivity. It has also often been public volunteer work that challenges the status quo and powerful economic and political interests.
Have they ever been pissed off at me? Oh yeah.
In 2018, Exxon and Chevron spent $8 million to defeat grassroots citizens’ Measure G, which I led and sought to ban new oil development in SLO County. I mobilized citizens against the Phillips 66 plan to ship tar sand oil though our county to its Nipomo refinery on dangerous mile-long oil trains.
As an elected director, I argued against the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District filing a lawsuit over groundwater rights. I have been a proponent of a vehicle-free beach for Oceano and a redeveloped airport property. At times, I have become a lightning rod for some of the opposition who specialize in character assassination. But contrary to the Shredder’s theory, I am neither a masochist nor a victim. I am a working-class kid who got educated in the ’60s and chose a retired life of volunteer work on behalf of environmental, social, and economic justice—focused on the county and the community of Oceano. Grateful to be of service. Δ
Charles Varni is the board president of the Oceano Community Services District. Respond with a letter to the editor by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 18-28, 2024.
How many op-eds has Charles Varni written in the past three months defending his abysmal behavior? How many comments has he left on local websites and on Nextdoor, disparaging perceived political adversaries and the general public? Three months worth of particularly unhinged diatribes does not demonstrate a reputation for “collegiality, mutual respect, fairness, and objectivity.”
If the Oceano Community Services District is truly ushering in a new era of civility and cooperation, Charles Varni should take a break from defending himself and exaggerating his self-worth , let the district’s actions speak for themselves as opposed to putting himself in the middle of everything.
According to current and former OCSD officials, SLO County Planning & Building and SLOCOG officials, Charles Varni played no vital role in the accomplishments he claims he was a part of. Many of these initiatives, including Oceano Plaza at 17th and Beach, took place long before he was elected into office. In fact, one county official I spoke to described Varni as “falsely equating excessive e-mail complaining with actual work” and “demonstrating a child-like understanding of how government actually functions.” Charles Varni can’t even hold a potluck legally.
In 2018, I was supportive of Measure G and knew several of the people involved in that effort. Varni is inappropriately taking credit for all the hard work that volunteers provided for the effort. While volunteers were phone banking and canvassing neighborhoods throughout the county, Charles Varni was physically accosting SLO County residents when they didn’t answer his questions on whether or not they support fracking.
Charles Varni is no lightning rod or force for change. He is no John Lewis, as he recently compared himself to. Varni is someone who is clearly desperate to be praised for doing so little in his life except alienate everyone around him and break the law. A life wasted.
Varni won’t stop until he feels everyone is seeing him the way he sees himself. An impossible feat that will ultimately be his downfall.
It’s refreshing to see Mr Varni’s recent change of position on vehicle access at Oceano Dunes. After years of his vocal opposition and demeaning statements towards our families at Oceano Dunes, seeing him driving the beach recently is a breathe of fresh air.
I’ve never been a Subaru guy, but after seeing how well Mr Varni’s Subaru performs on the beach, I am now considering a purchase.
I do have major concerns with the recent videos of Mr Varni driving through the Mean High Tide Line. The sensitivity of the returning Pismo clams is something to be taken seriously. Mr Varni being new to our sport, may need a dunes safety course to learn the rules and conduct of our Park.
We should all be educated on conservation and the responsible off-road recreation needed to protect our crown jewel Oceano Dunes SVRA.