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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Quick Reminders



1. Los Osos CSD meeting tonight, 7:30 at the Community Center. Board will discuss how or whether they'll vote on the 218 issue for properties they "own."



2. "Property owners wishing to preserve the opportunity to file a lawsuit challenging the assessment, if levied, are requirede by the 1913 Act to file a written protest and to state therein the specific grounds of protest. Any grounds of protest not stated in a written protest filed prior to the close of the public hearing of protests are deemed waived in any subsequent lawsuit and may not be raised in such lawsuit."



So, if you think something's screwy with your assessment ballot, it's wrong, or invalid, or whatever issues you think are valid to your property, I suggest you contact Ms. Shelby of the SLO County Clerk's office to make sure you've got the proper proceedures to make a proper protest in writing before 5 p.m. Oct 23 , the date of protest hearing. (Which, by the way, will be held starting at 2 pm. in the BOS chambers on that day.) After that date and time, you'll have to forever hold your peace.



You can email questions to vshelby@co.slo.ca.us .



3. Orenco representatives & design team will be in Los Osos for a Q&A presentation at the Community Center, Wednesday, October 10th, at 7:30 p.m. Community members interested in their proposed project should plan to attend so they can get first-hand information and ask questions as well.

4. The Tribune reports that the CSD may vote to approve a contract for a new general manager tonight. Mr. John B. Schempf may come aboard. The Tribune reports "For the past two years, Schempf served as manager of the town of Rockingham and Village Bellows Falls in Vermont. He also worked as a project manager in Saudia Arabia for Booz Allen Hamilton and was a senior officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, acording to his resume."

Hmmm, Saudia Arabia. Now, if that had said Mr. Schempf had served as a project manager under heavy fired by armed partisan civil war jihadis of all stripes while in Baghdad, I'd be tempted to say, Ah, well then, Mr. Schempf will know what to expect here in our Beloved Bangladesh By The Bay. Or should I make it, Baghdad By The Bay? In either event, Welcome to Los Osos, Mr. Schempf.
Posted by Churadogs at 6:33 AM

2 comments:

Ron said...

My favorite part of the whole black smoke/white smoke ritual at the Vatican a couple of years back, was that the smoke that was supposed to be white was always grey, so the people gathered didn't know whether to cheer or not... great stuff.

Ann wrote:

"... electioneering would involve spending public money to promote, campaign, print ads and flyers, etc. advocating for or against some position or other.

You mean, just like the LOCSD did with that Public Opinion "Survey" in 2001, when they spent more than $13,000 contacting hundreds of property owners just before the first 218 vote in an effort to get them to pass that vote. I wrote about that here.

That's an interesting piece.

From the 2001 Survey:

"This measure includes funds to build a large park for the citizens of Los Osos. The park would include ballfields, a picnic area, gardens, walking paths, an amphitheater, and even constructed wetlands."

2 things.

1) That measure DID NOT "include funds to build a large park," so, the hundreds and hundreds of property owners that participated in that survey were flat-out lied to.

and;

2) "... even constructed wetlands."

"Obviously biased."

And now that I look through that piece these days, I see it was "Singleton" that got paid to develop that election material... yep, that same "Singleton" that I wrote about here, when I wrote.

---

"That fat (public relations) contract was eventually awarded to someone named Maria Singleton, to the tune of almost $520,000.

According to a Tribune report at the time, "the contract also calls for her writers and other assistants to be paid at separate rates ranging from $30 an hour to $80 an hour."

Here's the problem I'm having, I can't seem to track down Maria Singleton to ask her if Pandora Nash-Karner was ever one of those "writers" and/or "other assistants."

Call it a journalistic hunch, but I've got $100 bucks that says she was.

I looked Singleton up in the phone book, and although there's a Maria Singleton listed, when I called the number, I got a message machine, and the name left on that machine is not Maria Singleton's. Furthermore, according to the Trib, her company's name is Singleton & Associates, out of San Luis Obispo. Not only is there no listing for that company in the phone book's Yellow Pages (that I could find) or business section, but even a Google search for -- "Singleton & Associates" obispo -- doesn't return any information on her company at all, other than the same link I supply above -- that great case-environmental.org link.

Poof. Gone. Three short years ago she was pulling in over a half of a million dollars from the Los Osos Community Services District for popping out a few "spiffy quarterly publications," and all of a sudden both Singleton and her company seem to be awfully hard to find."

---

Soooo... let's recap. Not only did the mysterious and elusive Maria Singleton pocket over a half mil of Los Osos taxpayers money for behavior-based-marketing Los Osos voters from 2002 - 2004, but she also pocketed a nice sum in 2001 for creating campaign material disguised as a Public Opinion Survey.

I have a question: Has anyone in Los Osos ever seen Maria Singleton and Pandora Nash-Karner in the same room, at the same time?

Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if the current board were to throw $20,000 at a "survey" where they called a thousand LO property owners just before the 218 vote and asked them questions like this:

"The upcoming Prop 218 election could lock in a $500/month sewer payment and force you out of your house. Will you still be voting for it?"

In this season of Prop 218 votes, I thought I'd relate that precious little memory.

Boy, those Tri-W folks are SNEEEEEAK-EEEEEE... and creepy... and kind of gross... gotta go shower.

9:14 AM, October 05, 2007
Ron said...

Damn, that link to my survey-was-campaign-material story didn't work. Here's the link:

http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2006/04/language-in-2001-public-opinion-survey.html

c-ya

9:24 AM, October 05, 2007

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