Mad As Hell, And They're Not Going to Take it Anymore: Los Osos Sewer Protest, Tuesday, October 5, from Noon - 1:00, SLO County Government Center

I'm not sure if this makes sense, but, I have some bad news for the foxes watching the hen house. I think the chickens are about to come home to roost.

E-mails from Los Osos residents are starting to fly around announcing, "a 25-? person protest in front of the BOS from noon until 1," this Tuesday, October 5.

The protest coincides with a Los Osos Sewer Project Update, scheduled for a Board of Supervisors meeting that morning.

And, I've got a bad (read: good, journalistically speaking) feeling about what might happen at that protest.

Here's why:

The way I see it, all AB 2701 -- the State law that handed control of the Los Osos sewer project to the SLO County Board of Supervisors in 2007 -- did, was give the project back to the exact same people that were responsible for creating the Los Osos sewer disaster to begin with, starting in 1998-99.

I mean, think about it.

As I've been reporting forever, in 1998-99, the people directly responsible for killing the county's 1998 "ready to go" project, and, thus, launching a decade-long (and counting) environmental, social, and economical disaster in Los Osos, were then-Los Osos CSD vice-president, Pandora Nash-Karner, and the person she hired in 1999 to be her LOCSD interim general manager, Paavo Ogren.

When it comes to the list of people who are responsible for the Los Osos disaster, without question, at the very top of that list are Ogren and Nash-Karner, for killing the county's "ready to go" project in 1999, obviously.

Another important similarity I want to point out between 1999, and today is what I term, "Pandora's Puppets." Those are the past three 2nd District Supervisors, that Nash-Karner all helped, both professionally and financially, get elected.

Former Supervisor Bud Laurent, former Supervisor Shirley Bianchi, and current Supervisor, Bruce Gibson: "Pandora's Puppets."

And they ALL do/did whatever she tells them to do, including appointing her to Parks Commissioner, which they all did/do.

She's been on the SLO County Parks Commission since 1991, after working as Laurent's "campaign materials manager" throughout 1990.

Now, with all of that in mind, fast-forward to today, and look at this situation. It's crazy-great:

Ogren is now the Director of the SLO County Public Works Department, and in charge of the county's Los Osos sewer development process, and Nash-Karner is still a SLO County Parks Commissioner, appointed by her Puppet, Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

So, look at what AB 2701 did:

Los Osos voters were FINALLY able to wrestle control of the project away from the Nash-Karners of the town -- who wanted to build a disastrous, wildly unpopular (for obvious reasons), industrial sewer plant smack-dab in the middle of town (and wasted some $25 million and six years trying) -- when they recalled three of Nash-Karner's followers from the LOCSD Board in 2005.

That election killed the mid-town "Tri-W" disaster, and finally, for the first time since Nash-Karner formed the LOCSD in 1998, someone other than Nash-Karner was calling the sewer shots in town.

However, thanks to Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, and his AB 2701, that arrangement lasted about one year.

In January 2007, AB 2701 -- legislation that was heavily supported by Nash-Karner's followers -- handed control of the project right back into the hands of Ogren, Nash-Karner, and her Puppet.

And, now, after four years and some $8 million of SLO County study later, the situation is almost identical to the way it was in Los Osos from 1999 - 2005, when Nash-Karner and her friends (including Ogren and her Puppets) were calling the shots in Los Osos: An expensive-as-possible sewer system (when there are numerous alternatives that are MUCH more environmentally sensitive), pushed along by taxpayer-funded propaganda disguised as "public surveys," a long list of consultant/friends -- consultant/friends that ALL played a role in creating the Los Osos sewer disaster in 1999 (and then were able to cash fat checks for years to come, because they created the disaster) -- STILL cashing fat checks from their friend, Paavo Ogren, and a governing Board that refuses to listen to public input... because the District's Supervisor is Nash-Karner's Puppet, and her LOCSD Boards did the exact same thing... for six years... until they were all finally either driven from office, or recalled.

The only difference between Nash-Karner's 1999, and 2010, is that her sewer plant won't be built in the middle of town. Other than that? It's the EXACT same thing -- Ogren, Nash-Karner, and their consulting friends cashing checks FAT taxpayer-funded checks... and, oh yeah, her Puppet, of course.

Here's where my "bad feeling" about that protest comes in.

I think it's all about to bubble over. I think that the AB 2701 reality of handing the project back to the exact same people that are responsible for creating the Los Osos disaster in the first place, is about to come home to roost (again, if that makes any sense.).

People are getting pissed, understandably.

In one of those e-mails flying around, it reads, "My e-mail list is bigger... and I think your message (of the Tuesday protest) needs to go out to all of them and then everyone needs to fill their cars w/ friends, neighbors etc. I can fill up my 7 passenger van w/ pissed off neighbor's."

Which means those e-mails, from "pissed off" Los Ososans are going out on more than one e-mail list.

So, with the current Nash-Karner/Ogren/Consultant-friends/Puppet fueled powder-keg environment, it'll be interesting to see what happens this Tuesday, October 5, from Noon - 1:00.

Finally, you know who else should join that protest? ALL SLO County residents.

From the staff report: "Approve a budget adjustment, by 4/5 vote in the amount of $750,000 from the Roads Fund to the Los Osos Sewer Project"

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