Twisted Sister

A long time ago I worked at a place that put people into business for themselves. You'd buy a membership and then got access to a bunch of business plans and a ton of products to sell at below wholesale costs.

Said "Sister" of the heavy metal band in the title above, ran the Coaching and Sales Department for the company where I worked, but in another state. I guess the band thing didn't work out (there were a lot of ex's from that group for some reason).

I know you are thinking, why do I bring up this non-sewer story, THIS is a sewer blog! Well, there is a strange parallel going on in this county right now of a former "band" member going on to another job, only strangely looking just like how they did on the original stage, doing the same stuff but with a twist. And it is very, very sewer related. Please be patient, the twist will unfold.

I guess I should add that this ex-band member of Twisted Sister still looked the heavy metal dude when he'd bop over to California to check in with the mothership where I worked. He still looked like the guy on stage, just older and doing a slightly different job. When you are on stage, you are promoting yourself, in his case it was heavy metal music, and concert and CD sales for Twisted Sister. In Coaching and Sales, he was brandishing his heavy metal chops to rev up the troops to sell, sell, sell, both the business that we all worked for, and of course, more products.

In this parallel and far more gripping sewer story is an ex-Director of the LOCSD, and the spate of her performances in other towns to rev up the troops to sell, sell, sell you on HER ideas of "the facts." Another "twisted sister" as it were, and the facts are screwy. 

You might know to whom I refer. She's be hard to miss as visible at meetings around the County as she is, etc.. She is also a regular contributor at a SLO County online "news" venue.

The latest "twist" she promotes is the alleged removal of records from the offices of the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District (SSLOCSD). And she wants an audit of the Sanitation District's reserves, they have gone missing! Could there have been wrong doing, she asks?! She is upset that District files were kept at a contractor's office, they are property of the District and should have been stored there! Engineers and staff charged $42 to $108 an hour for basically filing! The invoices totaled $15,000!

Unbelievable, especially if you know what happened when she was a director at the LOCSD during its "sewer days." How can these amounts from another District, not her own, matter so much when money evaporated from the LOCSD on her watch? If she lived elsewhere and was looking in at Los Osos would she have noticed it then? Twisty!

Let's start with the idea that $15,000 is an outrageous amount of money. According to the Sun Bulletin in an article dated  I-18-06 by Abraham Hyatt titled, OSOS CSD BILLS PILE UP, WITH MORE TO COME: 

The most expensive invoice came from the law firm Van Blarcom, Leibold, McClendon, and Mann.  

It shows the district owes more than $57,000 for work mostly done by John McClendon, the district's interim legal counsel, from Sept. 30 through Oct. 31. 

Another law firm, Burke, Williams, and Sorensen -- which the district hired Nov. 23 -- charged more than $22,000 for one week's worth of work at the end of that month. 

The district's own financial records show that a third law firm, Shipsey and Seitz, which the district had used before the election, had been paid nearly $37,000 between November and December as well. 

District interim general manager Dan Bleskey and his company Willdan have also submitted a bill for about $58,000 worth of work for an unknown period of time. 

The district's general manager, Bruce Buel, is on paid administrative leave and continues to collect a $94,000-a-year paycheck.

Below is an excerpt from the Tribune published 3-10-06 from an article by Abraham Hyatt titled, LOS OSOS EXPECTS TO SPEND MOST OF STATE LOAN:

For instance, Bleskey testified that the district's three legal firms have billed $110,000, $97,000, and $50,000 respectively for a recent one-month period. It's unclear what month the bills encompassed, or which firms filed which amounts.

Read more here: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=1104AC754F7DCA30&p_docnum=4&s_orderid=NB0114121709421801597&s_dlid=DL0114121709435002785&s_ecproduct=DOC&s_ecprodtype=NORENEW&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=SO&s_referrer=&s_username=sewercrazed&s_accountid=AC0109090823263613430&s_upgradeable=no#storylink=cpy

And on the topic of missing reserves, well, the bankruptcy of the LOCSD proved that there was noting left, but here is a jpg of page 10 out of the 2005-2006 audit (click for larger image). Look at the expenditures vs. the revenues:

Where was her concern when the monies she and her board had control over vanished? Were these numbers just too large to contemplate, so they didn't register?

As for boxes disappearing, boxes of LOCSD documents disappeared into the trunks of cars on or about October 4, 2005 according to eye witnesses (landing in Gail Mc Pherson's living room it was later revealed). How's that for keeping watch over your own District's files?

Because you have done the things that you accuse others of doing, do you feel that lends credibility to your claims? If so, that is really, really twisted.