Congratulations Supervisor Ochylski

"In this race, however, we do not believe (Marshall Ochylski) has come out with a strong platform that differentiates him from Gibson."
-- The Tribune, from a 4/18/10 editorial supporting incumbent, Bruce Gibson, in the race for 2nd District SLO County Supervisor

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Ah, the Tribune. So wrong, so often.

Had the Trib actually contacted Ochylski, like I did, and asked him some questions, like I did, they would have discovered (like I did) that Ochylski actually does have a VERY strong platform that "differentiates him from Gibson."

In my previous "at least weekly" post, I asked Ochylski, if elected, would he appoint current (and long time) 2nd District Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, to the SLO County Parks Commission.

"I have not made any decisions on appointments but the fact that Pandora is supporting Bruce should answer your question," Ochylski wrote in an e-mail to SewerWatch.

Congratulations Supervisor Ochylski.

Allow me to play campaign manager: If he sticks to that platform, and, throughout the campaign, repeatedly states that Nash-Karner will not be his Parks Commissioner, he will win... easily.

Here's why.

Due, largely, to my reporting over the past six years, these days, the girl's wildly unpopular in Los Osos, and Los Osos is the largest voting bloc (by far) in the 2nd District, and she's wildly unpopular for many good reasons.

I'm going to focus on three... for now.

1) As I first exposed at this link:

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

...Nash-Karner, immediately following the 2005 Los Osos CSD recall election that doomed the Tri-W embarrassment/sewer "project," developed and then implemented a "strategy" (her word) to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence" (her words), by "phoning" the executive officer at the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Roger Briggs, and informing him that her... um... followers would soon be inundating him with demands to fine the town out of existence... which they did... and he did.

Gets worse... if you can imagine.

She developed that "strategy" because the town's voters told her, through the recall election, that they did not want to build a horribly designed sewer plant smack-dab in the middle of their beautiful coastal town.

THAT's why she developed and then implemented her "strategy" to have the entire town of Los Osos "fined out of existence," because they didn't want an industrial sewer plant in the middle of their beautiful coastal town. Think about that.

One year AFTER Nash-Karner developed and then implemented her "strategy," Bruce Gibson, in one of his first official acts in office, (re)appointed her to the SLO County Parks Commission.

I first wrote about that unbelievably interesting sequence of events at this link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2009/04/sequence-pandora-nash-karner-is-bruce.html

By the way, her "strategy" appears to be working (present tense).

According to correspondence that has crossed the SewerWatch desk since Nash-Karner deployed her "strategy," the stress associated with her resulting enforcement actions, that were eventually issued by the RWQCB against the Los Osos CSD and 46 individual property owners, has sent many Los Osos seniors to the hospital, and worse.

Uh... yeah... I first exposed that stomach-turning story, at this link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-slo-county-governments-laziness.html

That's reason #1 (one!) why Ochylski will be the next 2nd District Supervisor.

Reason #2 is also great.

In 1998, the county of SLO, after some six years of planning, had a sewer project "ready to go" for Los Osos, at an estimated "$71/month." However, Nash-Karner, along with her husband, Gary Karner, made-up a "better, cheaper, faster" sewer project (out of their home), and then heavily marketed that sewer project to the town's voters, and told them that if they voted to form a CSD, and elected Nash-Karner to the initial Board of Directors, they would have the authority to kill the county's "ready to go" project, and implement their "better, cheaper, faster."

Throughout 1998, every agency involved with the project told the Karners that their project wasn't going to work, but the Karners "just sat on" that mountain of information, and continued to over-the-top market their "better, cheaper, faster" project to the town's voters.

It worked.

In November 1998, the town voted to form the LOCSD, based solely on "better, cheaper, faster," and made Nash-Karner the #1 vote-getter on the newly formed District's board.

In 2000, I authored a New Times cover story, Problems with the Solution, that first showed how the Karners' "better, cheaper, faster" project, after nearly two years of study, was on the verge of failing. One month after Problems with the Solution was published, "better, cheaper, faster" failed, just like all of the agencies predicted, months before the November 1998 election.

Even Richard LeGros, one of the District's directors recalled in 2005, wrote in 2009, "Yes, the (Karners') plan deep-sixed the County's Plan (in 1999)."

Get worse... if you can imagine.

Almost immediately after Nash-Karner took office -- an office that the Karners were solely responsible for creating in the first place -- official LOCSD documents associated with their "better, cheaper, faster" project began containing the words, "SWA Group."

According to his bio, Gary Karner has been a "Managing Principal" at the SWA Group -- a landscaping firm -- for more than "27 years," and is "currently retained" by the SWA Group.

Uh... yeah... I first exposed that intensely interesting story at this link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/exclusive-sewerwatch-investigation-how.html

Then, there's good ol' reason #3 why Marshall Ochylski will be the next 2nd District Supervisor.

From 1999 - 2005, Nash-Karner was the mother of the disastrous mid-town Tri-W sewer plant, a "project" that the past four years and $7 million worth of SLO county analysis has now shown to be a complete embarrassment, just like I first reported in my 2004 New Times cover story, Three Blocks Upwind of Downtown.

As part of their analysis, SLO County officials conducted a community survey that concluded, "Only (9-percent) of (Prohibition Zone) respondents chose the mid-town (Tri-W) location..."

[The campaign manager for Candidate Ochylski might wanna listen-up here: To be clear, over 90-percent of the largest voting bloc [by far] in the 2nd District, didn't want Nash-Karner's sewer plant in the middle of their beautiful town to begin with... a "project" that the Karners' CSD had spent five years, and some $25 million of those same people's money developing!]

In the same e-mails where Nash-Karner reveals her "strategy" to fine Los Osos "out of existence," she also writes, "We MUST save this (Tri-W) project!"

So, to recap why Ochylski will win on June 8:

His Parks Commissioner WON'T be the mother of "fine out of existence," the mother of "better, cheaper, faster," and the mother of the wildly unpopular, $25 million Tri-W disaster, and, most important, his official web site doesn't read, "Supporters: Pandora & Company Graphic Design," unlike Supervisor Gibson's official web site.

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[16 weeks down... 36 to go.]