Supervisor Gibson? Do We Have a Deal?

[Note: Below's my open e-mail to SLO County Supervisor, Bruce Gibson. About two weeks ago, I sent new County CAO, Jim Grant, an e-mail asking him what's the earliest the public will know when each Supervisor's appointment will be for Parks Commissioner in 2010. Of course, he never replied, resulting in the following e-mail. Incidentally, when David Edge was the County's CAO, he always returned my e-mails promptly, and with excellent responses.]

Hello Bruce,

I hope your holiday season is going well.

I just wanted to quickly contact you because I think I might have found a way to easily save both of us -- me and you -- some time and headaches (me: ones of minutes of time, and you: A LOT of headaches) next year -- and all you have to do is one simple thing: appoint a new 2nd District Parks Commissioner for 2010.

Here's what I'm getting at: I have a text file that I keep on my computer desktop, and it contains nothing but a huge collection of excellent Los Osos sewer related quotes that I've compiled over the years. So, now, when I'm researching a story, and I need to use one of those amazing quotes, I just pop that file open, and almost instantly find the quote I'm looking for through a quick keyword search, and then I just copy and paste the quotes into my stories. Works great! (Awesome journalism tip, too.)

The entire process takes just a few seconds.

Here, I'll show you a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.

The following quotes come from that file... that I just went and quickly copied-and-pasted:

"More delays mean the LOCSD may be fined out of existence. We’d lose local control."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, from Save the Dream Newsletter #4, March 25, 2005

"I hope the CSD gets fined out of existence..."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Sept. 28, 2005

Done.

That took six seconds, 'cause all I had to do was copy-and-paste from my huge file-O-quotes. I didn't have to retype any of that, including the html code for the links.

See how that works?

Here's another example:

"Pandora Nash-Karner - Chair, Representing District 2 for Supervisor Bruce Gibson."
-- SLO County Parks Commission web site, Current

Ouch! [by the way, that took two seconds]

And because I have all of those great quotes (about 10 years worth) all ready to go, what I can now do is go, and in just a few seconds, assemble some amazing takes.

For example, here's a choice sequence:

"(This CDO prosecution) is there when we help our children with their homework and when we play with our pets. It is there when we talk to our grandchildren on the phone. It is there when we spend time with friends, attend church, or work in our gardens."
-- Unnamed recipient of RWQCB enforcement actions

Followed immediately with this...

"I hope the CSD gets fined out of existence..."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Sept. 28, 2005

and, this...

- - -
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005
Subject: Re: Enforcement action on Oct. agenda?
From: "Pandora Nash-Karner"
To: "Roger Briggs"

I'd like to talk to you about potential strategy from the property owners to stop a new board from stopping the project. I'll call you Thursday morning.

-- Pandora
- - -

and, this...

"Gary and I are supporting Bruce Gibson for Supervisor."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, gibsonforsupervisor.org

And, then, all of that, of course, immediately followed-up with this...

"Pandora Nash-Karner - Chair, Representing District 2 for Supervisor Bruce Gibson."
-- SLO County Parks Commission web site, Current

[21 seconds]

See how that works, Bruce?

I can do stuff like that easily, and then post it all on my popular blog, SewerWatch, over, and over, and over again... all the way up to your November 2010, when you're going to need a couple of votes from Los Osos.

But (and here's the point of this e-mail), I won't have to do any of that, if you were to just simply appoint a different Parks Commissioner in 2010, and since I'm kind of lazy, I'm really hoping that you choose the latter... or else I'm going to be forced, out of human decency, to do things like this for a year:

"More delays mean the LOCSD may be fined out of existence. We’d lose local control (of the sewer project)."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, from Save the Dream Newsletter #4, March 25, 2005 (six months before the recall election)

"... could the LOCSD transfer the sewer project to the county BEFORE the current CSD-3 leave office?"
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, September 28, 2005 (one day after the recall election)

"I hope the CSD gets fined out of existence..."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Sept. 28, 2005 (one day after the recall election)

"To: Roger Briggs

I'd like to talk to you about potential strategy from the property owners to stop a new board from stopping the project. I'll call you Thursday morning."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Wed, 28 Sep 2005

"To: Ben Campbell [Note: Barnard Construction was one of the contractors on the Los Osos CSD project.]

I have just gotten off the phone with Roger Briggs.
We MUST save this project!"
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Thu, 29, Sep 2005

"Only (9-percent) of (Prohibition Zone) respondents chose the mid-town (Tri-W) location..."
-- Los Osos Wastewater Project Community Advisory Survey, March 27, 2009

"Joyce Albright found out today that the Tribune will be allowing a section, once per week, on the sewer issue. Please do NOT copy the concepts in your letter, otherwise, the media will recognize our efforts as a group effort and we lose our credibility."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, August 9, 2005

"Pandora Nash-Karner - Chair, Representing District 2 for Supervisor Bruce Gibson."
-- SLO County Parks Commission web site, Current

Boom. Done. 39-seconds. (But only because I was laughing so hard... I gotta admit, the mixing and matching of my quote collection can be kind of fun.)

Imagine, Bruce, a steady diet of that for an entire year... while you're campaigning.

And every word of it will be posted on SewerWatch, for ALL (read: Cambria, Morro Bay, Cayucos) to see, just like this e-mail. (Cool huh? Kinda like magic.)

Now, if my excellent idea comes across as a little ultimatum-ish, that's because it is, but, hey, what can I say? Enough's enough (I mean, good lord, c'mon!), so that's my final offer: You appoint a new Parks Commissioner for 2010 (one with absolutely ZERO ties to your current Parks Commissioner [I recommend Lisa Schicker, if she's up for it]), and I won't do things like this:

"A recall will not move or stop the sewer... The County or State would take over our (Tri-W) Project, assume the permit and build the same Project in the same location."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, from Save the Dream Newsletter #4, March 25, 2005

"The (SLO County Los Osos wastewater) Project team, given the clear social infeasibility issue associated with Mid Town (Tri-W) and the infeasible status of the LOCSD disposal plan, believes that if either of those options are deemed by decision-makers to be the best solution for Los Osos, then serious consideration should be given by the Board to adopt a due diligence resolution and not pursue Project implementation."
SLO County Project team, June 29, 2009

"Don’t listen to gossip — learn the facts for yourself."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, from Save the Dream Newsletter #4, March 25, 2005

"We are much stronger as a united community."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, from Save the Dream Newsletter #4, March 25, 2005

"I hope the CSD gets fined out of existence..."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Wed, Sept. 28, 2005

"To: Roger Briggs
I'd like to talk to you about potential strategy from the property owners to stop a new board from stopping the project. I'll call you Thursday morning."
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Wed, 28, Sep 2005

"I have just gotten off the phone with Roger Briggs.
We MUST save this (Tri-W) project!"
-- Pandora Nash-Karner, Thu, 29, Sep 2005

"(This prosecution) is there when we help our children with their homework and when we play with our pets. It is there when we talk to our grandchildren on the phone. It is there when we spend time with friends, attend church, or work in our gardens."
-- Anonymous recipient of RWQCB enforcement actions

"Pandora Nash-Karner - Chair, Representing District 2 for Supervisor Bruce Gibson."
-- SLO County Parks Commission web site, Current

[27 seconds]

... over and over and over again... for an entire year... while you're campaigning.

Deal?

As always, thank you for your time,
Ron

P.S. Just curious, did you ever get a chance to read my piece titled, Contrast?

It's at this link:

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

That's where I first broke the story that your Parks Commissioner developed, and then implemented, a "strategy" (her word) to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," (also her words) and then, seven months LATER -- AFTER I exposed the fact that your Parks Commissioner developed, and then implemented, a "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," you (re)appointed her to the Parks Commission.

I wrote about that at this ink:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/district-2-parks-commissioner-pandora.html

And, just to be clear, I WILL continue to report on that over and over again throughout 2010, regardless of what you do with your Parks Commission appointment.

Finally, I just Googled: los osos sewer

... and out of over 15,000 results, SewerWatch was #2, just behind the County's official site.

Happy holidays.

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