Well, you knew THAT title was going to appear here someday, didn't you!?
Defining "straight" in this case refers to being honest, being forthright, being open. "Poop" refers to work product, or in this case, the deflection thereof.
Much has been made over many months from the usual and long-standing sewer detractors about our sewer facilitators NOT being "transparent," and of our sewer project having "NO oversight!" Paavo Ogren, our soon-to-depart Director of Public Works (he is going to work in Oceano and will wear many hats there) has been accused of subterfuge, and our newly re-elected-by-a-landslide District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson has been hammered with accusations of mistruths as well. These are untrue accusations of course, but when you believe something strongly as these people do, you don't let facts get in the way.
I have been inspired by two things to write this column, the word "transparency" (thanks sewer detractors!), AND what Los Osos' new General Manager Kathy Kivley has been doing lately, that is, going through all of the old journal entries in the books and wading into the long misunderstood finances (by the public) to get a true accounting of what the District has, what it owes, and even what it owes to itself. So I have been doing a little financial sleuthing of my own, because as far as transparency goes, a nasty net of sludge covered what was going on with the District's finances starting on September 27, 2005. Nasty enough to get the SLO County Grand Jury involved back in 2006.
In fact, you really should read what was said in the Grand Jury Report about Los Osos. Start on page 77 of the report on Los Osos:
http://slocourts.net/downloads/grand_jury/reports/2005/final-2005-2006.pdf
Basically, the Grand Jury wanted to investigate if public funds, namely LOCSD funds, were used by the post-Recall LOCSD Board members* to pay off a law firm hired by a citizen's group, CCLO (Concerned Citizens of Los Osos) and Al Barrow (CASE - Citizens for an Affordable and Safe Environment) that had sued the LOCSD and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and crafted Measure B (which stopped the sewer—but was later found to be invalid). All five post-Recall sitting directors had been heavily involved with the group suing the LOCSD and the Water Board, and in crafting and defending Measure B. This law firm (Burke, Williams and Sorenson, or BWS) was then hired by the LOCSD after the payoff. The settlement amount of the five cases was $488,617.
The Grand Jury wanted to see detailed time logs and billing records of the law firm and requested these documents through the SLO County Counsel's office—twice. What they got back was nothing the first time and the second time the documents were so heavily redacted it was impossible to determine anything. Billable tasks were left blank. Why? one would ask if you had nothing to hide?
These settlement negotiations were conducted in the Board's closed session meetings. They were handled between an attorney representing the LOCSD and an attorney from BWS.The post-Recall Board was given a single-settlement dollar amount. They were "...not offered,
nor did they request any detailed information on the breakdown as to what activities were billed and included in the settlement amounts." Also, a Board member said to the Grand Jury that they wanted to settle the cases so that they could retain BWS for future work.
The Grand Jury felt that since public funds were used to settle the lawsuits, the public has a right to know just what legal services were rendered when.
Why wouldn't the Board want to see what they were being asked to settle? What public input or oversight was there? Where was the transparency in what they were doing?
Those questions still remain, along with an icky feeling of being had, either by stupidity or just plain dirty dealings. The Citizen's groups, CCLO and CASE could well have gotten nothing. The Grand Jury was stymied and never got us the answers we deserved.
In fact, CASE and BWS were stiffed later. They were among the 20 largest claims in the Bankruptcy and got pennies on the dollar:
So then a question remains.....where did all the money go that the LOCSD borrowed from reserves as GM Kivley has found, and "borrowed" from our tax monies for the CDF Fire tax payment and the Bond payment to Bank of New York?
If you are interested in reading the LOCSD's finely crafted response to the Grand Jury (by BWS's Julie Biggs, no doubt), it is on pages 29-33:
http://slocourts.net/downloads/grand_jury/reports/2005/responses-2005-2006.pdf
* The LOCSD Board was: Lisa Schicker, Julie Tacker, Chuck Cesena, John Fouche, Steve Senet.
