"The Sequence" -- Pandora Nash-Karner is Bruce Gibson's Parks Commissioner

Seems like a good time to remind people of this...

Pandora Nash-Karner is Bruce Gibson's current Parks Commissioner.

Right now.

That's true.

You can see it for yourself at this link

... where it says, "Pandora Nash-Karner - Chair, Representing District 2 for Supervisor Bruce Gibson."

I find that absolutely fascinating, for many, many reasons.

One of those reasons, is, what I call, "The Sequence."

Part 1 of The Sequence is this:

As I first reported, former Los Osos CSD vice-president, former "marketing director" for the Solution Group, former "marketing director" for Save the Dream, and long-time, and current SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, immediately after the 2005 recall election that doomed a mid-town "sewer park," that she spent some seven years developing and promoting (heavily), conceived, and then implemented, a "strategy" (her word) to have the entire town of Los Osos, "fined out of existence" (also her words).

You can read-up on the nauseating details of that excellent story, at this link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2006/05/contrast.html

That's Part 1 of The Sequence: In September, 2005, just a couple of hours after the unofficial elections results were announced, Nash-Karner hatched a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence" (a "strategy" that appears to be working, by the way. So far, so good for Nash-Karner's strategy... it would appear.)

Part 2 of The Sequence is this:

As I also first reported, Nash-Karner donated money to the "Bruce Gibson for Supervisor" campaign throughout 2006.

Part 3 of The Sequence is this:

Recognizing what an amazing, and completely untold story it was, I wrote a blog piece (linked above) on the fact that Nash-Karner developed a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence."

Word eventually got back to me, that my story was "the talk of the town."

Part 3 of The Sequence is important, because what it shows is that Nash-Karner's "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," was no longer a secret in 2007, and that is very important to The Sequence.

Now, here's Part 4 (and, in true SewerWatch fashion, this is f-ing great!):

Current 2nd District Supervisor, Bruce Gibson, shortly after his election, in one of his first official actions, in early 2007, appointed Nash-Karner to the SLO County Parks Commission, a position she has held since 1991, when she helped then-2nd District Supervisor, Bud Laurent, win his seat, as his "campaign materials manager," Laurent told me in an e-mail.

On a journalism level, it really doesn't get much more beautiful than that:

Nash-Karner, immediately following a bitter loss at the polls for her precious (for reasons unknown) Tri-W project, develops, and then implements, a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," THEN she donates cash to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign (and publicly endorses him on his web site, by the way), THEN, everyone finds out about her little "strategy" (thank you very much), and THEN newly-elected Supervisor Gibson selects her as his appointment to the Parks Commission, one of only five Commissioners.

Ab-so-lute-ly freak-ing beeea-u-ti-ful. (Stuff like that -- The Sequence -- will never be lost on SewerWatch. )

Gets worse (if you can imagine)...

Because everyone NOW knows that Gibson's appointment to the SLO County Parks Commission, is also the same person that developed a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," the subject continually comes up -- like, all the time -- during public comment at Supervisor meetings, and Gibson just sits there, and listens to how his appointment to the County Parks Commission (AND a financial donor to, and public endorser of, his campaign) developed, and then implemented a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," and he can't do a thing, well, other than limit the amount of public comment on the subject. (That, he can do, and does.)

I also wrote a blog piece, where I (exclusively) reported on how Gibson has also done all of these weird, pro Nash-Karner-position actions as Supervisor, like, in 2007, when he drafted an 11th-hour letter to the California Coastal Commission, that he wanted other Supervisors to sign, that asked the Commission to NOT let the development permit expire for Nash-Karner's doomed mid-town Tri-W "sewer-park."

The problem for Gibson?

Every single staff member involved with the project, from the County of SLO, to the California Coastal Commission, wanted nothing to do with that "bait and switchy" permit, and their recommendation was to just let it expire, and go away.

Not one other Supervisor would sign-on to Gibson's letter, and, out of pure humiliation, he was forced to "withdraw" the letter on the spot, calling it a "mistake," and the Tri-W permit just died on the vine that day.

Gets worse(er)...

Pandora Nash-Karner, as LOCSD vice-president, hired current SLO County Public Works Director, Paavo Ogren, to be her interim general manager of the Los Osos CSD in 1999, where the two would spend the better part of that year pursuing a dead-on-arrival sewer "project" that Nash-Karner, as part of her marketing efforts, labeled as "better, cheaper, faster." As readers of this blog know, that project failed in late 2000 (late 2000, apparently, however, recent documents show that that project may have failed loooong before the LOCSD's official story. More to come on that, later.)

Finally, I want to do something that I rarely do on the main portion of SewerWatch -- comment:

Before he was promoted to head the Public Works Department, Ogren, in 2007, was tapped to manage the county's handling of the Los Osos wastewater project (an assignment for which he received a FAT pay raise), and part of the rationale that Supervisors, including Gibson, used for giving Ogren the gig, was his experience in 1999 as the interim general manager for the LOCSD.

[insert buzzer sound here]

That is not a plus. That's nothing to be proud of.

The fact that Ogren was the interm GM for the LOCSD in 1999, hired by Pandora Nash-Karner, and, while in that position, spent (read: wasted) precious time and money developing an ill-fated "better, cheaper, faster" sewer "project" that official documents everywhere showed was never going to work (yet that project was solely responsible for forming the Los Osos Community Services District in the first place, in 1998), is a GIGANTIC negative.

Furthermore, reports also show that the engineering firm, Montgomery, Watson, Harza, was hired by the LOCSD in 1999.

Just last month, Montgomery, Watson, Harza was selected to the short-list of contractors to build the Los Osos wastewater project, by Ogren's Public Works Department.

At what point does Ogren's involvement in the 1999 LOCSD stop being resumé material, and start being a massive conflict of interests?

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