She is Los Osos, Part II

(SewerWatch note: This is the second part of the post immediately above this one, linked here. The entire story was too large to fit in one posting.)

So, to summarize (and, this, unfortunately for all taxpayers, is a loooooong summary), for those keeping score, the following is a list of Nash-Karner's strategies for Los Osos over the years (for the sewer only, mind you! She also has a bunch of little strategies for other stuff, including pushing her precious pool project through the system, even though LO voters shot down Measure D in 1997 that would have assessed property owners in the community $40 a year to pay for that project. Yep, that multi-million dollar pool project is currently making its way through the system, despite the failure of Measure D -- a Measure that Nash-Karner spearheaded. Oh, and one more thing, she is also a current member of the SLO County Parks Commission, a seat she has held since 1991, and it's the SLO County Parks Commission that is carrying the Los Osos pool project through. I call that project "sewer junior." The parallels are almost identical.):

A strategy in 1997, to get the the local media to embrace her deeply flawed Community Plan, developed by the Solution Group, a citizens group she founded, and, as marketing director, sent out an elaborate press kit to the local media that trumpeted her deeply flawed project. That strategy worked on all media but The Bay Breeze.

A strategy in 1998 to discredit Questa Engineering and the Questa Study that was highly critical of the Community Plan. Her strategy worked, even though the Questa Study would prove to be 100-percent accurate.

A strategy in 1998 to convince the Coastal Commission to allow her to chase her Community Plan, even though the Commission had a ton of evidence in front of it, like the Questa Study, that showed her project was never going to work, and the Commission's own brilliant staff was telling them not to listen to her. The 1998 Coastal Commission ignored their brilliant staff and listened to Nash-Karner, and her strategy worked.

A strategy in 1998 to absolutely saturate the community with Solution Group marketing material, most of it with made-up numbers, to get the voters of Los Osos to form the LOCSD on the back of "Better, Cheaper, Faster" so she could chase her dead-on-arrival Community Plan. That strategy worked.

A strategy from 1999 - 2000 to convince the RWQCB to withhold enforcement actions against the LOCSD while she futilely chased her Community Plan for two years, even though that Board and its staff were sitting on a mountain of credible evidence that showed that project was never going to work. Her strategy worked. (Yep, Briggs was Jedi mind tricked, like many other government officials, by Nash-Karner.)

A strategy to get the State Water Board to agree to extend a crucial loan for her Community Plan, even though there was a ton of excellent evidence that showed that project was never going to work. Her strategy worked. (A great example of that particular strategy can be found at this link, where Coast & Ocean writes: "The State Water Board was reluctant to reassign the $47 million loan commitment it had made to the County to this little novice CSD. Other projects that seemed more likely to succeed could use the money. So "we went to Sacramento and told them we can do the job. I'm surprised they didn't laugh at us. We didn't even have business cards yet." With 15 minutes to present its case, the CSD decided "to show them our project was not about pipes and pumps, it was about keeping people in their homes," (Nash-Karner) said.

All that crap about "doing the job" (which she didn't) and "keeping people in their homes" was pure behavior based marketing in action, and she did it to a State agency, again, and they bought it, again, when they should have known better... Jedi mind tricked.

And because the Water Board bought that crap in 1999, that led to massive delays, because it unnecessarily kept the Community Plan around for almost two years. If all those State agencies, and that includes the RWQCB, had not bought in to Nash-Karner's marketing strategies in 1998 - 2000, her Community Plan would have either never happened, or it would have fallen off the table almost immediately, and the county's ready-to-go plan would have been the obvious replacement.)

A strategy in 2001, as CSD vice-president, to convince the Coastal Commission that there was a "strongly held community value" in Los Osos that any sewer plant in the town must also double as a "centrally located recreational asset," even though there isn't a shred of evidence that shows that, thereby locking in Tri-W for her second project, because her first project, the one that got her elected and the CSD formed in the first place, failed miserably, just like the Questa Study, and others, predicted, but, if she could just quietly weasel her second project in at Tri-W too, via a non-existent "community value," no one would notice, at least no one from her coddled press. That strategy worked, (until I re-entered the picture with my second New Times cover story, Three Blocks Upwind of Downtown, in 2004. [Wow, now that I look at it, that was a long time between the two, wasn't it? Sorry 'bout that, Los Osos, but in my defense, it did take awhile for "bait and switchy" to play out. And would it have killed the Tribune to write ONE story on any of this stuff? For God's sake, I realize Nash-Karner's "tool," Bill Morem, is only the Opinion page editor, but does he call ALL of the editorial shots at the Trib? If so, it sure would explain the complete absence of any story critical of Nash-Karner in that paper, ever!]

[Note: I always have to interject something at this juncture: Considering she spearheaded two ballot Measures in 1997 that both dealt with public recreation in Los Osos, and they both failed, yet just three years later, as an elected official and a County Parks Commissioner, she's telling the Coastal Commission, in an apparent attempt to cover-up the failure of her first plan, that there's a "strongly held community value" in Los Osos that any sewer plant must also double as a "centrally located recreational asset" even though there isn't a shred of evidence that supports that extraordinary claim, and the only "centrally located" sewer-park site is Tri-W, and considering that scenario fits every definition of fraud in California that I can find, I don't see how that is not a slam-dunk case of fraud... massive, very expensive fraud.]

A strategy in 2000 to flood New Times with letters and an op-ed piece the week after my first New Times cover story, Problems with the Solution was published in July of that year. In that story, I showed how her Community Plan was going down the drain. In the very next issue of New Times, there was a "serious letter writing campaign" and an editorial from Nash-Karner herself, as CSD vice-president, attempting to discredit me and my story. Shortly after that issue, I learned that her Community Plan was officially, and quietly, down the drain... just like I predicted in my story. Her strategy did not work there, unless, and this is extremely interesting, her strategy's only goal was to obfuscate the Community Plan's failure, and make it as quiet as possible. If that was her goal, then her strategy worked perfectly.

Which is why it is so critical that a firm date be established for the demise of the Community Plan. Shockingly, as it exists today, today, there is not one person that I know of that can name that date. And I'm very interested in that date, because if that date is before July, 6, 2000, and I know it's REALLY close to it, then that means Nash-Karner was lying in Problems with the Solution when she said: "We're confident that this is the most appropriate and most environmentally friendly plan. And we will be able to build it faster (than the county could have)."

She told a reporter that the Community Plan was still on the table when, almost certainly, it wasn't, and at best it was just a few weeks away from complete failure. Just a flat-out, bold face lie, to a journalist. And that means the only reason she would have told that lie was to muffle the sound, and muddy the waters of the Community Plan's collapse, that had likely ALREADY HAPPENED when she did that interview. And that means there's only one reason she would have muffled that hideous sound, so she could, as quietly as behavior-basedly possible, buy some time to sneak project #2 in to the Tri-W site for no legitimate reason whatsoever, and then hope to hell no one noticed the difference, at least no one from her media "tool" box.

So, considering Problems with the Solution was published on July 6, 2000, what date did the Community Plan fail!?

[SewerWatch note: I need to do a "full disclosure" thing here, and it's an interesting one. Although I wrote 95-percent of Problems with the Solution and the by-line for that story is mine, I did not conduct the interview with Nash-Karner found in that story. The editors at New Times added it after I submitted my original copy. I deliberately did not interview Nash-Karner for that story because, at the time, I was really starting to see the impacts she was having on Los Osos with her marketing, and I was also noticing -- how do I put this? -- the less-than-truthful ways she goes about her marketing business, and that combination -- someone that practices less-than-truthful saturation marketing, is over-the-top when it comes to all things "parks" (even if it means cramming them in to a sewer plant to get one built, and then have that park dictate an expensive, mid-town location), not ashamed at all to employ "behavior based marketing" tactics and "compelling language" all over the place... on her neighbors, on government agencies... it doesn't matter, uses the media as "tools," and is pristine Teflon when it comes to any sort of accountability (just wipes it off. In her mind, nothing sticks to her.) -- that combination has no business being around a reporter, or an elected seat, or an appointed seat, ever.

However, in fairness, I did interview her husband, and fellow Solution Group founder, Gary Karner, for that story, along with then-District general manager, Bruce Buel, and everyone else, but there was no way I was going to hand Nash-Karner a megaphone. Not then. Not there.

But the NT editors did, without my knowledge. I first became aware of that interview when I read my story after it was printed in New Times. At the time, I was kind of mad, but these days I'm glad they interviewed her, because now we have this great, time-stamped quote: "We’re confident that this is the most appropriate and most environmentally friendly plan. And we will be able to build it faster (than the county could have)."

At the time she gave that interview for a story that focused solely on the Oswald ponding system technology found in her Community Plan, the "appropriate" plan she was so "confident" in, the plan that got her elected and the LOCSD formed in the first place, was either already in the garbage bin, or damn close to it.

Let me put it this way, I'll do the math: Problems with the Solution, chronicling the imminent demise of the first project at Tri-W, Nash-Karner's Community Plan, was published in July, 2000. The draft version of the Environmental Impact Report for the second Tri-W project was published in November, 2000. That leaves less than five months to fire your existing engineering firm, the one whose plan got you elected in the first place (Oswald Engineering -- and then sue them, which they did), hire another engineering firm (Montgomery, Watson), have them completely redesign everything -- collection system, treatment facility (from Oswald's 50 - 70 acre ponding system, to MW's 5 - 7 acre conventional sewer plant), and then knock out a complex draft EIR. All of that in less than five months? I DON'T THINK SO. Which means that at the time I was researching Problems with the Solution, the Community Plan, the project that was the sole focus of that entire story, had likely been off the table for months, and Nash-Karner was lying through her teeth, as vice-president of the Los Osos Community Services District, when she told editors at New Times, "We're confident that this is the most appropriate and most environmentally friendly plan. And we will be able to build it faster (than the county could have)."

Absolutely disgusting.

So, why did she lie? Don't need to be Jim Rockford to figure that one out.

1) To cover her ass from the highly embarrassing, and possibly highly litigatable, failure of her Community Plan, and a boat-load of other behavior based, documentable lies stemming from her 1997 - 98 LOCSD/Solution Group campaign.

and;

2) To buy her some time to figure out a way to jam another sewer plant in to her Tri-W site, which she ultimately did with her "strongly held community value" fraud-lie to the California Coastal Commission in 2001, and then obfuscate like hell so no one notices.

No wonder she's trying so hard to get a project, ANY project, built at Tri-W. Her relentless, over-the-top zeal to put a sewer plant at the unpopular, expensive, fatally flawed, mid-town Tri-W site is finally beginning to make a heck of a lot of sense to me, along with quotes like these to Roger Briggs one day after the 2005 recall election:

"Please... is there any way to salvage the project?"

and;

"We MUST save this project!"

And let the record reflect, that is exactly why I chose not to interview her for that story. I was worried she was going to lie to me, and I hate it when a source lies to me. However, look what happened, she lied to the New Times editors, and those lies ended up in my story anyway. Those editors f-d up and trusted Nash-Karner. I know better. But what pisses me off is that their f-up allowed behavior based marketing to leak in to my otherwise super-tight story, especially since I took such care to keep it out!]

A strategy in 2001 where Nash-Karner, as a CSD vice-president, used public funds to commission a "public opinion study" shortly before a crucial assessment vote. That study had pollsters phone hundreds of Los Osos property owners, in a vote that included only property owners, and tell them wildly inaccurate, yet favorable, information about Nash-Karner's second Tri-W project. A public opinion expert would later tell me she was astonished by some of the highly questionable wording in that study. State law prohibits the use of public funds for campaign material. That strategy worked, and, along with a hefty dose of fear, another key component in any good behavior based marketing strategy (You're going to lose your home unless you vote for this!), the 218 vote was successful, and that kept Nash-Karner's second Tri-W project chugging on down the poorly-laid track. The train wreck was just a matter of time at that point.

A strategy in 2002 to keep her fingers on the strings of Los Osos voters, using their money, by placing a $700,000 bid for public relations services to the LOCSD shortly after leaving office, serving just one term as a CSD Director, during which time she burned through three sewer projects (the county's viable project, her non-viable Community Plan, and her second Tri-W project, that was also never going to work, by the way.) Although her bid was accepted by the District, she did not get the contract.

However, her strategy may still have worked there, because, apparently, that's not where the expensive public relations contract story ends.

I recently did a little research on that contract because it deals specifically with the subject at hand -- Pandora Nash-Karner, and the marketing of the Los Osos sewer project -- and, well wha-da-ya know? Something stinks about that contract.

That fat contract was eventually awarded to someone named Maria Singleton, to the tune of almost $520,000.

According to a Tribune report at the time, "the contract also calls for her writers and other assistants to be paid at separate rates ranging from $30 an hour to $80 an hour."

Here's the problem I'm having, I can't seem to track down Maria Singleton to ask her if Pandora Nash-Karner was ever one of those "writers" and/or "other assistants."

Call it a journalistic hunch, but I've got $100 bucks that says she was.

I looked Singleton up in the phone book, and although there's a Maria Singleton listed, when I called the number, I got a message machine, and the name left on that machine is not Maria Singleton's. Furthermore, according to the Trib, her company's name is Singleton & Associates, out of San Luis Obispo. Not only is there no listing for that company in the phone book's Yellow Pages (that I could find) or business section, but even a Google search for -- "Singleton & Associates" obispo -- doesn't return any information on her company at all, other than the same link I supply above -- that great case-environmental.org link.

Poof. Gone. Three short years ago she was pulling in over a half of a million dollars from the Los Osos Community Services District for popping out a few "spiffy quarterly publications," and all of a sudden both Singleton and her company seem to be awfully hard to find.

From a December, 2003, Tribune opinion piece:

"What kind of bang for its buck has the community been getting from the district's public relations firm? Spiffy quarterly publications called Bear Pride on heavy stock paper filled with graphics and color. Unfortunately, all the whistles and bells haven't served their desired purpose: A growing segment of the community seems to have ever more questions about the changing nature of the sewer. The question arises: Have relations between the district and public been served? Apparently not."

Apparently not! Because those "ever more questions" about the "changing nature of the sewer" were never, and I mean EVER, answered with that half million bucks.

Instead, Los Osos got this...

From a December, 2003, Tribune report regarding the Singleton contract:

"An effort to clear up confusion and misinformation surrounding the Los Osos sewer project may have backfired. Some Los Osos residents and business people are upset by a contract approved in November by the district Board of Directors to pay $318,595 for seven months of public relations work." (Note: The contract was an extension of a 13-month, $200,000 contract that was previously secured by Singleton.)

Tribune reporter, David Sneed, got that wrong.

That was never, "An effort to clear up confusion and misinformation surrounding the Los Osos sewer..."

Oh, no, no, no.

Let's be crystal clear on what that "effort" was: That was an effort to create "confusion and misinformation surrounding the Los Osos sewer," and it was paid for by the same people it was targeted at. (Give me a sec... I'll be right back... I need go to take some nausea "medicine.")

THAT's why none of those "ever more questions" were answered. They were never intended to be answered, just obfuscated.

The Tribune finishes off their opinion piece with this great blast:

"Perhaps the first whittling from the Singleton contract could be the $6,000 budgeted for "media relations." Why? When Singleton was contacted about her contract by The Tribune, she said she couldn't comment and referred questions about it to district officials.

Now that's bang for your buck."

That is quality smack. (Why don't they write more editorials like that?)

Sooooooo.......... ummmmmm.......... that seemed like $518,000 well spent, huh? It ensured that voters in Los Osos would stay completely confused on why they originally voted for a $38.75/month ponding system in 1998, but were now getting a $much-much-much-more-than-that/month industrial sewer plant in the middle of their town. Plus, there was the added bonus of the Tribune getting stonewalled by Singleton (and, by the way, major props to the Trib, at least they were able to track her down... that's more than I can say) even though she pocketed $6,000 to talk to them, and these days, just three years later, Singleton & Associates seems to be nowhere in sight... gonzo, with over a half million dollars of Los Osos taxpayer money for less than two years worth of "work" -- "work" that would prove to be nothing more than a publicly financed, behavior based marketing mindfuck, just like Nash-Karner's public opinion study two years earlier.

A strategy in 2005 to stave off a looming recall effort following the election of rivals Lisa Schicker and Julie Tacker to the LOCSD Board, when Nash-Karner formed yet another one of her citizens groups, "Save the Dream." As marketing director, she would, among other questionable marketing efforts (remember the port-a-pottie story?), publish a series of glossy newsletters and, of course, immediately saturate Los Osos with them. I e-mailed one of those newsletters to a State official. He said he was "galled" by the blatant falsehoods contained in it. Despite those falsehoods, her strategy did not work there.

A strategy in 2005 to defeat the recall by using the Los Osos Community Services District's recently hired Public Information Officer to do her behavior based marketing dirty work. (I say that because, shortly after the District hired Mike Drake as their PIO, I called him to get some questions answered that I wasn't getting answers to before they hired him (at around $100,000/year, a damn steal when compared to Singleton), and after fumbling around with some non-answers, Drake finally told me to e-mail my questions to him, which I reluctantly did. (I prefer phone interviews, especially when it comes to media matters and the Los Osos CSD) When I got that e-mail back later that day, Nash-Karner's easy-to-spot behavior based fingerprints were all over it, and the terrible responses to my questions had nothing to do with what Drake was telling me over the phone, just a few hours earlier. Yet, when I phoned him back to ask him, straight-up, "Are these answers your answers," he said, "Yes." I even gave him a second chance, and repeated, "These are your original answers," and, again, he said, "Yes." [Mike, nothing against you, buddy. You were simply hung out to dry, just another in a long line of people that f-d up and trusted Nash-Karner.]) Her strategy did not work there.

Another strategy in 2005, the one I report on above, where she coordinates a smear campaign against then-minority CSD members, Lisa Schicker and Julie Tacker. That strategy did not work.

Another strategy in 2005, one day after the recall election, to have the people on her e-mail list contact Roger Briggs of the RWQCB and demand that the agency immediately begin fining the District and the property owners of Los Osos -- many elderly and on fixed incomes -- in order to "fine the CSD out of existence" and get the fate of her Tri-W project in the hands of the County. Although the project is in now under the county's control (I'm sure, due in large part to Nash-Karner's meddling), the LOCSD has yet to be fined out of existence. That strategy has not worked, yet.

And if you think for a moment, after reading about all of her silly little strategies over the years, that she's not behind the scenes, right now, desperately pulling whatever strings necessary to make sure that a sewer plant is built at Tri-W, then you don't know Pandora Nash-Karner.

She is Los Osos.

Please excuse me now, I need to go shower.

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