Sewer Politics Redux

Sewer politics has been with this town ever since the idea of a sewer was floated back in the 1970s. Battles were fought for and against. Our sewer is now built thanks to the County, and we are hooking up, but a whiff of sulphur still lingers locally, this time in the candidacy of someone for the Los Osos Community Services District board. This time the political football is not the sewer, but the very existence of the LOCSD. The LOCSD was created to have local control of the sewer; we lost that, but now its existence is challenged, which means having any control over our water supply is now challenged..

An opponent to any sewer at all, later revised to "just not THAT sewer," whose latest bid for destruction is the dissolution of the LOCSD under the ruse of "just letting the people decide" is a bad choice for Los Osos. Giving that person a platform for disseminating her message, beyond the three minute limit at public comment, is toxic. I believe her position on the board before, gave her a platform to lead the community into accepting the illegal Measure B. Her name is Julie Tacker.

More recently, Facebook has been her present tool in the current election. Not only are her opinions going out in pixel-world, but paid ads for her have been appearing on timelines. One crossed mine this afternoon that was paid for at CalCoastNews. It was "liked" by someone I am friends with, so it then appeared in my feed. I was now able to comment on said post and lo-and-behold, it appeared on the "Julie Tacker for Los Osos Community Services District" Facebook page! We shall see how long it lasts there before it is blocked. Ms. Tacker has blocked me from viewing her personal page, but I'm sure she will block me from this one too after this.

My comment:

Thank you Mr. X for "liking" this article so it wound up in my feed. I am banned from posting on CalCoastNews because I have opposing ideas from Ms. Tacker and they don't allow free speech over there, even if politely written. So now I have a chance to say something.

Sorry, but have an entirely different opinion from you on her. She wanted to move the sewer out of town, but did so in such a boneheaded way, poking a stick in the eye of the Water Board, that the LOCSD board she was on LOST the low interest loan, lost the sewer project, plunged the town into bankruptcy - which we have FINALLY climbed out of - and now wants to be back on the board - to dissolve it! Yes, DISSOLVE it. No thanks.

Our sewer is now $29 million more out of town, the only local control we have now over our water basin, the big important thing we have left—is by having a seat on the board that controls the water basin— the Basin Management Committee. Dissolve, and all control goes to the County and the two remaining water purveyors one of which, Golden State, would probably jump on owning it. Bad idea.

Please DO NOT vote for Julie Tacker. I do NOT trust her to have anything but her own interests at heart. Electing her to the Board would give her a powerful platform to push her idea of dissolution, which is a bad idea for this town. She has promoted many ideas to help her developer boyfriend in the past, you have to ask - what is her motive to push away our local control?

Sewer Politics Alive And Well In 2016

It is a sad comment that despite the fact the sewer is up and running, and that we all will be hooked up to in the coming year, sewage is again entering the race for a director's seat on the LOCSD. A candidate leftover from the Recall Board appears to be running on her past failure. (Click on the image for a larger size.) See these examples off of the candidate's own Facebook pages.

"Moved the sewer?" Yes, we all know, the sewer is out of town - but the COUNTY had to build it because the CSD went bankrupt from stopping the old project! The current sewer is $29 MILLION more expensive. PLUS, all the years to wait for a project caused the groundwater situation to worsen exponentially. If that is something to be proud of—you must have no idea of the hardship this has caused to lower income residents, never mind the stress of the CDOs—remember those?—a direct result of the Recall Board stopping the project the way that it did.

Maybe we should ponder the decision-making from said candidate; consider these quotes:

Julie Tacker asserts:

Roger Briggs said that the Water Board could assess fines to the community of up to $44 million, or $10,000 per day per individual home. Here is what he said:

Negotiate prices? Of what exactly? Some negotiation "success" looking at Briggs' comment! 

The State did not think that the LOCSD's "stop work order" could be done without first asking permission. So they cut off the SRF funding. Not surprisingly, stopping the work illegally was considered a delay, but they had a remedy - which was ignored (see Attachment A).

Tacker thought that the District could just "abandon their current arrangement and get back in line for another loan."* HAH! That is the epitome of uninformed and/or delusional thinking. Voters, you be the clear-thinking judge in November.

* Bay News, October 5-11, 2005.