Sunday, August 28, 2011

Warren Jensen, please "investigate" your own clients, and lemme know if you find any wrongdoing

I love SLO County government. It's funny. One of the funnier things they do is "investigate" alleged wrong-doings against their own employees and clients.

It's hilarious.

Take chief County Counsel, Warren Jensen, for example.

A few years back, former Los Osos CSD Director, Lisa Schicker, asked for a SLO County government investigation into a possible conflict of interest between the County's Public Works Director, Paavo Ogren, and an internationally known construction company, MWH, that Ogren worked closely with when he was interim General Manager of the Los Osos CSD in 1999, as well as other professional arenas.

So, Warren Jensen, Ogren's own attorney, takes Schicker's complaint, and thumbs through it for a few weeks, and then pops out a report that says that Ogren -- Jensen's own client -- surprise, sur-friggin'-prise, did absolutely nothing wrong, and then Jensen uses the report to publicly bash Schicker for even bringing her complaint in the first place.

Hi.. lar... i... ous!

Well, thanks for that "investigation," Warren, and good to hear you were able to clear all of that up... by telling us that you didn't find any wrong-doing with your own client.

Which gets me to today's hilarity.

Apparently, according to SLO County Supervisor, Bruce Gibson, county government is, again, conducting some sort of "investigation," involving Paavo Ogren, and whether a personal relationship that he is allegedly having with recently-resigned, Los Osos CSD Director, Maria Kelly, involves any conflict of interests.

Dear reader? Whadaya think the results of that "investigation" will be... an "investigation" that is being handled by Chief County Administrator, Jim Grant, and, yep, you guessed it!: Warren Jensen's client.

Welp, being the smart-ass reproter that I am, I thought I'd pile on the hilarity, by asking Jim Grant (Jensen's client) to conduct one more conflict of interest case involving Paavo Ogren (Jensen's client), only, this complaint is mine, so unlike the two previous complaints, this one kicks some serious ass!

My complaint shows -- shows, using nothing but primary source documents -- that there was a scam in the works even BEFORE Bruce Gibson was elected Supervisor in late 2006, involving former Los Osos CSD Director, and current SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, MWH, Ogren, and Gibson, to manipulate the Los Osos sewer project to whatever creepy agenda they have (and that agenda really looks like it's, surprise, money).

My kick-ass complaint shows that Nash-Karner, beginning in 2006, laundered money from MWH into the "Supervisor for Gibson" campaign, then used that money to get him elected, where he turned right around and (re)appointed Nash-Karner to the SLO County Parks Commission -- ALSO making her a client of Warren Jensen's, of course -- and then voted to promote Ogren to Public Works Director, where Ogren immediately turned around and short-listed MWH to build the $150 million-plus Los Osos sewer project.

Additionally, considering that Nash-Karner is highly-documentably connected to recalled (in 2005) Los Osos CSD Director, Gordon Hensley, and Hensley was heavily involved in insuring the passage of AB 2701 -- the State law that handed control of the Los Osos sewer project over to SLO County officials in 2007 -- by using BOTH of his one-man organizations to "support" AB 2701, as I show at this hilarious link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-want-to-be-like-gordon-hensley-in.html

... it REEEELY begins to look like AB 2701 was just another part of Nash-Karner's/MWH's scam, because the ONLY motivation for their launder-money-to-Supervisor Gibson scam woud be if the County had control over the project... because there was NO WAY the 2006 Los Osos CSD Board, the agency that WAS controlling the project before AB 2701 -- was going to ever hire MWH for anything.

Which means, it's REEEEELY beginning to look like the foundation of the county's entire past-five-years/$8 million-and-counting Los Osos sewer development process, itself -- AB 2701 -- was nothing more than a scam to get the project back into the hands of the same people that were cashing in on it when the PRE-RECALL Los Osos CSD had control of the project: MWH, Ogren's numerous consultant friends, and, of course, Nash-Karner.

Now THAT's a complaint, folks.

But, here's where it gets funny again.

I've already taken this complaint, in one form or another, to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the SLO County Grand Jury, the SLO County Sheriff's Department, then-Assemblyman Blakelee's office (who authored AB 2701), and the California State Attorney General's office, and NOT ONE of them will investigate it, and the reasons they give for not investigating, they just make up. (And, it's important to point out here, that all of those angencies are NOT saying that my complaint isn't valid, they all just make up reasons not to investigate. BIG difference.)

So, here we go... again. It's funny. My final hope for an "investigation," goes something like this:

    Yo Warren,

    Can you do me a favor and look into how your own client laundered money from a construction firm, and then used that money to get another client of your's elected, and then how that led to a promotion of another client of your's, who's worked closely with that construction company?

    'ppreciate it, brah.

Yep, last week, I filed my complaint with the County Administrator's office. I figure, hey, as long they are "investigating" the Ogren/Kelly "relationship," might as well toss in my tiny, quick, hugely-explosive "investigation" in there, as well.

I'm confident my complaint will get the robust, unbiased "investigation" it deserves... NOT!

Here's the e-mail I sent to County Administrator (and Jensen's client), Jim Grant:
- - -
Hello Mr. Grant,

I'll try to make this as quick as possible.

Apparently, according to Supervisor, Bruce Gibson, your office is currently conducting an "investigation" into whether there's some sort of conflict-of-interest in the Paavo Ogren/Maria Kelly alleged relationship, and I just wanted to quickly request that, while your office is conducting that "investigation," if you wouldn't mind adding one more Paavo Ogren-related "relationship" to that "investigation," where it looks like there's another, very important, conflict-of-interest involving the County's Los Osos Wastewater Project development process:

It's this relationship:

When Paavo Ogren was interim GM for the Los Osos CSD in 1999, and when "Montgomery Watson Harza (MWH) was retained by the district for wastewater project management in early September 1999," current SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, was an elected member of the initial Los Osos CSD Board of Directors.

Here's the link:

http://www.smartvoter.org/1998nov/ca/slo/race/109/

... where she, as an elected official, originally hired Ogren and MWH to manage her two, now-failed sewer "projects" -- her "better, cheaper, faster," "drop dead gorgeous," ponding project, that failed sometime in 1999/2000, and her middle-of-town, sewer plant/"picnic area" Tri-W project, that officially failed on June 11, 2010, after it was appealed all the way to the Coastal Commission, where the Commission, on June 11, 2010, did not select it... of course.

Then, immediately following the successful 2005 recall election -- an election that "stopped" Nash-Karner's and MWH's middle-of-town, sewer plant/"picnic area" Tri-W "project" -- Commissioner Nash-Karner formed, and "Chaired" a Political Action Committee called "Save the Dream."

And, according to a 2006, "Save the Dream" campaign statement, that I've made available for public download, at this link:

http://www.slocreek.com/std_contributions.pdf

.... Tri-W "project" contractor MWH, along with another Tri-W "project" contractor, Barnard Construction, donated $10,000 a piece to Commissioner Nash-Karner's "Save the Dream" PAC... after the Sept. 27 2005 recall election.



Then, shortly after receiving those two $10,000 donations (after the recall election) to her "Save the Dream" PAC, SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, then (on at least one occasion) used her own PAC to hire and pay her own marketing business, "Pandora & Co." "3869.04," according to that Save the Dream campaign statement.

Then, shortly after receiving a $10,000 donation from MWH (after the election) to her PAC, and then using her own PAC to hire and pay her own business (on at least one occasion), SLO County Parks Commissioner, Nash-Karner, then shortly began donating to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign in "$99" increments, when on the "Gibson for Supervisor" site, it reads:

"For donations of $100 or more, providing your occupation and employer is required by law."

and;

"Sorry, we can not accept cash for contributions of $100 or more."

[First exposed by SewerWatch at this link.]

Then, after receiving a $10,000 donation from MWH (after the election) to her PAC, and then using her own PAC to hire and pay her own business, and then, shortly after paying her own business, using funds from a $10,000 MWH donation to her PAC to donate untraceable amounts of "$99" donations to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign -- that went to help Supervisor Gibson get elected in the first place -- Supervisor Gibson, not only (re)appointed Pandora Nash-Karner to the SLO County Parks Commission, but also voted to promote Paavo Ogren -- former LOCSD GM, hired by former LOCSD Director, Nash-Karner -- to SLO County Public Works Director, where his office would go on to short-list MWH to design/build the County's Los Osos wastewater project, even though MWH was directly responsible for Nash-Karner's two previous sewer project failures in Los Osos -- her failed "better, cheaper, faster" ponding system, and her failed Tri-W sewer plant/"picnic area."

So, why is MWH even close to getting a third chance to miserably fail in Los Osos?

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever, unless there's some sort of conflict-of-interest in this relationship:

How, in 1999, then-LOCSD Director, Pandora Nash-Karner, hired Paavo Ogren as interim GM for the Los Osos CSD, and how the two went on to also hire MWH in 1999, to develop the now-failed ponding "project" AND the now-failed Tri-W "project," and, how SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, started a PAC in 2004(3?), "Save the Dream," to "defeat the recall," and how MWH donated "$10,000" to Nash-Karner's PAC after the successful recall election, in 2005 -- an election that "stopped" Nash-Karner's and MWH's project -- and then how she used her own PAC to pay her own business, and then, shortly after using her own PAC (with that $10,000 MWH donation) to pay her own business, then-and-current-SLO County Parks Commissioner, Nash-Karner, began donating to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign in "$99" increments, when the "Gibson for Supervisor" web site reads:

"Sorry, we can not accept cash for contributions of $100 or more."

... and then how Supervisor Gibson was eventually elected, in part, by Nash-Karner's financial contributions, where he then (re)appointed Nash-Karner to the SLO County Parks Commission, and, later, voted to promote Paavo Ogren to the SLO County Public Works Director, where Ogren went on to "short-list" MWH to design/build the SLO County's Los Osos Wastewater Project, even though MWH was directly responsible for developing the two previous, disastrous, miserable, sewer project failures in Los Osos, starting in 1999 (when Ogren was managing the Los Osos CSD)?

So, that's why I'd like to see a quick "investigation" into this allegation of conflict of interest. I figured that, as long as your office is "investigating" the Ogren/Kelly "relationship," that I might as well toss this Ogren-related-relationship in there as well, considering that there'a a lot of overlap in the subject matter between the two "investigations."

And, the reason I say "quick" "investigation," is because this "investigation," unlike the Ogren/Kelly "investigation" -- should go (relatively) quickly, because I already have all of the primary source documents you'll need, ready to go.

For example, as I show above, the main document that you'll need for this investigation, I've already made available for public download years ago, at this link:

http://www.slocreek.com/std_contributions.pdf

That's the Save the Dream campaign statement that shows the two $10,000 contributions from MWH and Barnard to Save the Dream (Page 6), that came in after the election, and page 12 shows how SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner used her own PAC to pay her own business, "3,869.04"

For the document that you'll need to show how -- after receiving a $10,000 donation (after the election) to her PAC, and then using her own PAC to hire and pay her own business -- SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, then shortly began donating to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign in "$99" increments, when the "Gibson for Supervisor" web site reads:

"Sorry, we can not accept cash for contributions of $100 or more."

... you might to have to do what I did: Physically go into the Clerk-Recorder's office, and look at the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign statements, where you'll find (at least) one listing for Nash-Karner's "$100" contribution, and then in the corner of that listing, it reads, "Total contributions this quarter: $199," which means that, not only did SLO County Parks Commissioner, Pandora Nash-Karner, after using her own PAC (with a $10,000 MWH donation) to pay her own business, begin donating to the "Gibson for Supervisor" campaign in "$99" increments, but that she was ALSO keenly aware of this:

"Sorry, we can not accept cash for contributions of $100 or more."

(AND, "For donations of $100 or more, providing your occupation and employer is required by law.")

... while she was doing it.

So, please add the above-outlined allegation of conflict of interest to your Ogren/Kelly "investigation."

If you have any questions, please just ask.

Thank you,
Ron


- - -

And, yes, I'll take mad props for first exposing how Nash-Karner donated to Gibson's campaign in those sneaky, untraceable "$99" increments.

I'm tellin' ya, EVERY time the Karners fuck-up, I'm right there to pounce, like the time I showed how they actually, and unwittingly, confessed to starting the entire Los Osos sewer disaster in 1998, just so they could make money.

And just look at how beautiful of a fuck-up that I, alone (as usual), caught Pandora on: She initially donated her $100 bucks (which is fine, by the way... hey, just supporting her team), but what she failed to realize is that in a tiny corner of the campaign statements, it reads, "Total contributions this quarter," where it reads: "$199"... and that some smart-ass reporter was going to one-day spot.

Ooooooops!!!!

What that HUGE fuck-up shows, undeniably, is that Pandora worked the "Sorry, we can not accept cash for contributions of $100 or more" scam... hard, shortly after using her own PAC to pay her own business, using MWH money.

She knew about the untraceable $99 scam, and worked it, hard.

Awesome!

And, I'm sure Warren Jensen will find it equally as awesome... NOT!

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Monday, August 01, 2011

Shirley Bianchi's Been Demoted

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"

-- The Animals

Boy, if you ever want to get on the bad side of a former elected official, just ask them about some later-proven-to-be-horrible decisions they made while they were in office.

One more episode of the wacky sitcom, Me and Shirley, and this'll be the series finale.

When we left our story last episode, I was discussing how former SLO County Supervisor, Shirley Bianchi, started a blog, and then how I went onto her blog and posted some interesting, polite questions, asking her how she feels, these days, about a disastrous vote she made back in 2003, when she, as a SLO County Supervisor, voted to approve the now-failed Tri-W sewer disaster in Los Osos, and how she feels today, now that the SLO County Public Works department just spent the past five years and some $8 million showing the Tri-W disaster to be the exact "infeasible" disaster that I first exposed it to be in my 2004 New Times cover story, Three Blocks Upwind of Downtown.

Then, also in our previous episode, I show how Shirley, for no apparent reason, went on to delete my three super-polite comments on her blog, and how that act earned her immediate induction into the SewerWatch List of Shame Hall of Fame.

Well, turns out there WAS a reason why she deleted all of my super-nice, and polite comments.

She got confused... again.

In a recent blog post, Shirley writes, "Ron (me) does not bother me at all, but thank you for your thoughtfulness. His last post said something like, 'Now we are going to play hardball,' and my thought was, that is OK, but not in my court. So I deleted all of his comments."

Let the hilarity begin... again.

I didn't write that "hardball" crack, that she mentions there.

So, understanding how she thought that a nasty comment from another blog commenter could be mistaken as a comment from me (because, up until that point, I was pretty much the only person leaving comments on her blog), I logged back onto her blog and left this super-polite (as usual) comment:

- - -
    Now I know how Larry David feels in Curb your Enthusiasm, with all of the misunderstandings.

    Shirley, that post wasn't from me.

    I'd never write something like, "Now we are going to play hardball"

    I'm far too polite and kind to write something like that.

    My comments always have the name "Ron" at the (bottom), like this one, and have lots of "Thank you"s, and "Please"s, and "Great Blog, Shirley!"

    No hard feelings, though.

    Shirley writes:

    "So I deleted all of his comments, and if he continues, I'll simply put him in SPAM."

    Now that I've cleared up how I didn't write that "hardball" comment, does that take still stand?

    (I guess I'll find out, huh? If this innocent, nice, polite comment also gets deleted)


Well, guess what?

THAT nice, polite comment was also deleted by Shirl, even AFTER I responded how it wasn't me that left that nasty "hardball" comment, that got all of my original comments deleted to begin with.

So, look what happened there. It's hilarious.

Not only did Shirley delete my excellent (and polite) questions to her on why she approved a colossal disaster in Los Osos, but she deleted them because she, apparently, simply got confused on who was leaving the comment, and when I politely corrected her, she went on to also delete the nice comment I posted that showed it wasn't me that left that "hardball" comment... that, according to Shirley, was the only reason why she deleted my comments to begin with.

But, it actually gets worse for Shirley in this episode of Shirley and Me.

Again, not only did she delete my comment from her blog, where I said it wasn't me that left the nasty "hardball" comment, but she actually kept the original post where she got confused, and said it was me that left the comment on her blog.

Here's the link:

http://rockybutte.blogspot.com/2011/07/response-to-anonymous.html

... it's still there.

So damn weird.

She deletes my comments that say, "Uh, Shirl? It wasn't me," yet, she keeps her post where she falsely accuses me of being nasty.

Weird.

And THAT's coming from a former SLO County Supervisor...that was, you know, elected, and then went on to approve a colossal public works disaster that led to years and years of added pollution to SLO County, and wasted millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars.

And for that reason -- that Shirley said the reason she deleted all of my super-polite comments that showed how she approved a disaster in Los Osos, and then just making up a reason to delete my excellent comments for apparently no other reason than that they were highly embarrassing to her (because those comments discussed her disastrous Tri-W vote), WHILE retaining her post where she still (knowingly) falsely says that she deleted my comments because I left a nasty comment on her blog (that I didn't write) -- Shirley's not only earned a special place in the SewerWatch List of Shame Hall of Fame, but she's also been demoted in the SewerWatch "SLO County Links" list, permanently posted on the right side of this blog.

I did have her blog, Shirley, You Jest, in the sweet second slot, just below Ann Calhoun's excellent blog (at #1, of course), but now, since Shirley's decided to just make up reasons to delete my super-polite comments from her blog just because they call her out on a disastrous decision she made in 2003, Shirley, You Jest has now been demoted in SewerWatch, to below CalCoastNews.com... and that's really sayin' something.

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