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Friday, July 27, 2012

Good Riddance, Roger



Yesterday’s Tribune had a glowing paean to retiring Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board executive officer Roger Briggs.  Supervisor Bruce Gibson’s typically smarmy, oleaginous pull quote was featured.  Said Gibson, “I know him [Roger] as an executive officer who is deeply committed to preservation of groundwater quality.  I think he pursued his job with a great deal of integrity.”

Really?  I daresay there’s a great many people here in Los Osos who would beg to disagree.  And anyone who sat through Roger’s Mad Hatter Tea Party and Torquemada’s Auto de Fe Kangaroo Kort of The Los Osos 45 would snort through their noses at such an idea of . . . integrity. 

For those who have forgotten, when the good citizens voted to move their sewer plant to a site out of town (a not unreasonable idea, in a sane world) Roger cooked up his Mad Pumping Scheme and presented it to the full Board.  In a fit of pique and with an astonishing lack of knowledge of how septic tanks actually work, Roger presented for Board approval a plan to have everyone in Los Osos pump their tanks every two months.  The septage would be hauled to Santa Maria for disposal, thereby removing gazillions of gallons of water from an already overdrawn water basin.  This looney scheme made absolutely clear that Roger didn’t have a clue how septic tanks worked.  Neither did the Board itself, which is absolutely astounding in a Board that had life and death power over a community made up entirely of homes on  . . . septic tanks.

During the Mad Pumping Scheme hearing, citizens after citizen rose to tell Roger and the Board what they already should have known:  Too rapid a pumping schedule disrupts the flora and fauna of a properly operating tank and results in worse discharges and hampered leach fields. It’s the worst thing you can do if you want to “preserve groundwater quality.” Only a complete incompetent could have come up with such a hair-brained scheme and only a dangerously uninformed Board would have sat there with their fingers up their noses seriously considering such nonsense.

Finally, into the fray, appeared Dr. Wickham, CEO of Sludgehammer Septic Systems, a guy who does know something about septics.  He cleaned everybody’s clocks and made clear to the world what idiots were in charge of this Board.

Then the head of the regional air quality board wandered up to the podium and put the hammer down:  Gazillions of trips with pumper trucks into and out of Los Osos times 4,500 homes would spew out gazillions of tons of pollutants and that was soooooo not gonna happen on his watch.  Which stopped the whole ridiculous dog and pony show cold.

Now, really, really miffed, Roger, “committed to preservation of groundwater quality,” came up with an even more damaging scheme:  He singled out 45 happless citizens, The Los Osos 45, by a process that to this day remains unexplained, the documents to the selection process conveniently having been destroyed.  Then he slapped CDOs (cease and desist orders) on the 45 and set up the biggest looney-tune Mad Hatter CDO trials the world has ever seen.  Nobody who sat through that mad proceeding could believe their eyes.  It was beyond the looking glass. 

For months and months, 45 citizens were jerked around, their homes threatened, their health damaged, their peace of mind ruined, their lives turned upside down. At least one premature death was, from all reports, a direct result of Roger’s pique and ire. The “case” started lumbering, huge reams of testimony was duly recorded, vast piles of money was expended, tax-payer money, then the attorney for the terrified 45 pointed out a few legalities and the whole thing came to a screeching halt. 

Do over! Do over! yelled the Board, as if you can un-ring a bell.  So the whole shambling show rumbled back to life, now more confusing than ever.  To this day nobody is sure what testimony was in or out, one CDO recipient is still in limbo, and now the whole thing sits on appeal, having cost the State of California at least $500,000, likely closer to a cool million.

And what was the “trial” all about?  Well, Roger told the Board that it was about “water quality.”  But the CDOs put on the homes of The Los Osos 45 disappear when they sell their homes. Since nobody digs up their septic tanks when they move, the tanks remain behind, but with no onerous CDO on them.  Same tank.  Same discharge.  So, no.  The Mad Hatter Trial and the CDO’s had nothing to do with water quality. They were, plain and simple (and made clear from the dais by board Chairman Young) electioneering blackmail to get the community to vote the “right way” on the sewer bond issue. (Something the community was going to do anyway, without threats.)

And that small inconvenient fact illustrates the truly despicable element of the whole behavior of the Regional Water Quality Control Board and Roger, their CEO:  They believed a false narrative about Los Osos.  They believed that false narrative, fed them by Roger and other certain groups, primarily among them the Pandora Nash-Karner-led “Dreamers,” that anyone who opposed a sewer in the middle of their town was “an anti-sewer obstructionist;” that the whole town was anti-sewer, that we were a community full of Moonbeam McSwines willfully rolling around in our own urine, scofflaws and miscreants who deserved to be punished and  “fined out of existence,” as Pandora so sweetly  put it in an email to her good buddy, Roger. 

That was a lie.  That was a lie that Roger fed the Board repeatedly and it was a lie that the Board didn’t bother to examine for themselves.  Which exposed the Board as a gaggle of incompetents who were not willing to do their due diligence. In a sane world, Roger Briggs should have been fired after Dr. Wickham got done with him and his staff.  And for agreeing to go forward with the whole looney Mad Hatter “trial,” the entire Board should have had brown paper bags popped over their heads and been frog-marched into resignations, to be replaced with a competent Board that put science and facts and common sense pragmatism before pique and lies.

But we don’t live in a sane world.  So we got Board failure, CEO deception, staff and Board incompetence, illegal electioneering, a huge waste of public funds on a nonsense fake “trial,” and  none of it – none of it – had a beneficial effect on so much as a single drop of water. Indeed, Roger’s lunacy and the Board’s failures and incompetence made things worse by delaying progress on the sewer, diverting time and energy and money, and fueling an already frightened, divided community into hostility and unnecessary opposition instead of working for a unified effort focused on moving forward. Not to mention, Roger’s pointless mad schemes hastened the death of at least one person and damaged the health and lives of many more. 

And now Roger’s off on a happy retirement, not a care in the world, Supervisor Gibson’s smarmy words in a bold pull-quote on the front page of the local section of the newspaper, complete with a picture of Roger, smiling. 

Oh, and yes, the Tribune does note, “Briggs described the controversy caused by his agency’s efforts to stop the water pollution in Los Osos as ‘not a happy memory.’”  No, indeed not.

Well, good riddance, Roger.  I hope your replacement as CEO will be someone who has more integrity and common sense than you did and understands that false narratives (lies) and Mad Hatter Trials and Mad Pumping Schemes don’t do a lick of good to keep our waters clean. They just damage the organization you work for and can do untold damage to a whole community.   

 

56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Briggs has earned and deserves the many accolades he is receiving for his good works as he retires from public life.

That you do not like or respect him is immaterial and does not diminish the the honors due Mr. Briggs.

Anonymous said...

Briggs is a POS. He played favorites, never looked for a middle ground. The 30 year failure of Los Osos is on his shoulders. He failed. Now if anyone other than Briggs was at the wheel in 2005, the project that is being proposed by the County at this time, would have started. That is what Briggs fought against and it is the dirty little secret that he takes into retirement. The Central Coast will be better of without that POS.

Alon Perlman said...

That may be so, as Mr. Briggs has done many things in his tenure with the Water Board.
But, Mr. Briggs was the architect of a selective enforcement action in Los Osos as described. The execution of the action did not apply to all, but selectively to a (possibly) randomly selected subgroup. An ominous foreshadowing of that action was intimated according to a response by Mr. Briggs to emails in that period. (ANN?) Not the "we intend to" or words to that affect-paraphrased, but a reference to a "Plan".

That the Waterboard was not intending to prosecute the whole, equally violating, 4500 remaining, offending tank ownerships, is apparent from the proceedings themselves. The transference of responsibility back into thin air with sale of property, was a response and legal opinion, not inherant in the initial order. Intended to lower the state's liability (Regis Emptor?) given that the condition of an enforced CDO was nothing like an NOV.

Remember, it was not about septic tank ownership, it was about discharging said septic tank within "City" limits.

So within reference to accolades by a Supervisor and the rumblings of cannons at a distance.

Both are part of the Briggs "Legacy".

Anonymous said...

Roger Briggs stripped the dignity of 45 homeowners in a very public enforcement proceeding so the board to push through approval of the Nov. 2007 assessment from the entire Prohibition Zone.

He single-handedly turned Los Osos into a circus sideshow. Even if the water board was fully justified in their nitrate studies/data, the enforcement proceedings were overreaching and shameful.

Anonymous said...

The POS was more concerned about his "edicts" that solutions.

Anonymous said...

HA HA, Los Osos out lasted the fat bastard.

Anonymous said...

Briggs had it in for Los Osos for years. POS doesn't begin to describe this over paid swine.

Anonymous said...

Roger Briggs has done more for clean water than any group or organization in LO. ... "stripped of dignity" give me break. Have you ever spoken to the people who actually followed the instructions and dealt with it and moved on? They are just fine and the reality is, there were just a few people who jumped on that bandwagon of the circus. Have you ever talked to a few of the people who were on that crazy trip and asked to get off and how they were bullied by their leader? Have you ever found out how much money they dumped into the case? Ever the LOCSD's money? Money that in my opinion, was a gift of public funds and was over $80,000 and never, ever approved of by the public.

Good job Roger Briggs, it's not your fault that Los Osos has home owners who have no idea how a septic tank works and who cares if the flora and fauna of the tank is out of whack when the result of that tank is toxic regardless. Better to pump than pollute the groundwater.

Anonymous said...

Get a grip and try to understand the difference between the Administrative process and then the Court process.

You trying to justify your participation in the case is disingenuous at best. How much have you paid, Ann, to the attorney? We deserve transparency. You want to talk about schemes and discredit Roger, fess up. He deserves our sympathy for all the discharge you and yours truly put him through.

There was middle ground and some people actually walked it. Just because you chose not to says more about you than him.

Anonymous said...

I need to know how Bruce Gibson defines integrity . Does it mean to terrorize 5 thousand homes with threats of mammoth fines and have these people appear before a board that is judge ,jury and executioner all in one?

Anonymous said...

Roger Briggs conducted the Los Osos equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials -- and people are actually thanking him for it? Wow. Classy.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who gives this guy credit in Los Osos is FOS. He accomplished nothing, NOTHING! He had a chance to move the project along in 2005, he had the community behind a Project that is EXACTLY what the county is doing now. Out of town with a central pump station using the pipes that were part of the pre-recall project. He is the perfect example of a failed government bureaucrat who used the power of the state to go with the wrong plan. He is and always will be a POS and should burn in hell.

Anonymous said...

What a bunch of whinners!

You lost the war, you bankrupted the CSD all for YOUR personal choices which only amounted to turning the majority of the community against the MTS movement!

You accomplished nothing! You have cost the property owners a needless financial burden!

Roger did what he and the Water Board were required by law to do. The only mistake, if he could be charged with one, was not issueing CDO's to EVERY property owner in all of Los Osos!

God bless you Mr. Briggs, you were always the patient gentleman and brought the waste water issue to a head! Enjoy your well earned respect and now retirement from the real community of Los Osos.

Anonymous said...

I believe the correct spelling is "whining," which is something that's not happening here.

The problem is that Roger Briggs caused homeowners a lot of grief by exposing them (private citizens) and their families to rigorous public scrutiny over a problem that homeowners, themselves, could not personally resolve EXCEPT with a 218 assessment vote. That was the whole point.

As a result, people really did suffer physically, mentally and emotionally. One of the homeowners died from esophageal cancer, and he dedicated a lot of money to fighting the CDOs instead of cancer treatment. Another recipient, an elderly man, had a heart attack as a result of the stress that he and his wife endured. Another recipient went through a very bitter divorce as a result of the enforcement proceedings.

You can say, "You lost the war" etc. but to look at everything and see Los Osos in a pro-sewer v. anti-sewer light is not only disingenuous. It is also a morally bereft presumption that hurts the community more than it helps. The facts are clear: people suffered directly as a result of Roger Briggs. And what's worse, people continue to cheer him for it -- and they continue to do so with irrational hatred toward the "obstructionists."

If those people stepped forward in the court of public opinion, these people would be shunned by the community as a whole. It does not matter what side of the fence you're on politically. The way Briggs dealt with Los Osos has tarnished the community, turned people inside out, and turned neighbors against neighbors. No God (if there is any God at all) would "bless" such toxicity.

Anonymous said...

NO!

The way a few Los Osos "activists" treated the community has been the dirty shame!

Los Osos became a joke to the rest of the County because of the Julie Edwards, Jeff Tacker, Joey, Chuckie, Lisa, Margetson, Ann and the rest of the parade of fools who have cost the rest of us much, much more that was ever neccessary.

Enjoy the sewer, you won!

Anonymous said...

Do comments like 4:27 PM have to appear every time "Los Osos" is mentioned anywhere? Puleeeeze!

Anonymous said...

Yup!

As long as Ann wants to throw her personal feelings out for the general public to read, there will other points of view also posted.

If Ann doesn't want counter points of view, then she could always stop her posting her views or close down accepting these posts. As long as she keeps an open comments section, others, including me will exercise OUR freedom of speech rights. Sounds like you only want your one sided view to be heard. Too Bad! So Sad!

We also have rights and we finally have a sewer under construction inspite of the negativitism expressed freely by Ms.Calhoun!

Anonymous said...

Actually, I don't see your (6:27 PM) "point of view" as being a "point" or something truly worth taking seriously. Nothing personal.

The discussion is (or was) about Roger Briggs retiring and the "legacy" he left behind. What he left behind was a town divided, and you (6:27 PM) are a perfect example of it.

What Roger Briggs did was that he forced people to choose sides. You were either (a) a "move the sewer" advocate that pushed for a successful recall that appeared to be defiant of public health and safety for everyone else or (b) a person who took everything at face value and feels that some members of the community are less than human.

Your "point of view" is the constant browbeating of people who you feel wronged you and Los Osos. To this day, you, the "anonymous" you, have not specifically stated why you air your "points of view." You can and you have, but most of it amounts to noise. Based on years and years of posts, blogs, comments from the same people, the same voices in the crowd, all of it amounts of nothing. So congratulations! You wasted a lot of your time.

My time hasn't been wasted reading what you write because I know what the truth is, so I don't have to project it so blindly and so foolishly like you do. CDOs divided Los Osos, no question about it. And you continue to widen that divide. Everyone can see that. And if you feel the need to be divisive in every response you have about Los Osos, then you should, you know, find another hobby.

Parasailing is fun. You should give it a try.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

"CDOs divided Los Osos, no question about it." Anon 7:09PM

Huh? Did you somehow forget Measure B? The heavy politicking to pass that is what divided the town - and gave us an out-of-town sewer at $189 million. Pat yourself on the back for a further degraded water supply and a bankruptcy too.

Anonymous said...

To continue publishing these articles will not help heal the rift.

Perhaps this is Calhoun's final way of justifying her personal actions while keeping her eyes closed to those which she extremely disagees.

Perhaps Briggs was correct and Calhoun incorrectly just made up and closed her mind. Could Calhoun have only been venting her personal feelings all these years through these articles. Could Calhoun have been incorect all these years!

Anonymous said...

There were ways to resolve a CDO prior to the 218. The 218 passed not because of the threat of CDO's but because the PROPERTY OWNERS wanted a sewer-period. This was the voice of the community and for several years after, you still have the malcontents berating the BOS, community members and anyone who will listen to them about the unfair process. It was democratic so move on or move out. We put our money where our mouth was so we didn't have to show up in public with the ensuing insanity. Seriously, a puppet made out of a plunger....juvenile beyond reproach and zero credibility. You are not activists, you are inconsolable creatures of habit.

Anonymous said...

There are many things that divided the town. There are so many things to list. To list them all here would simply be regurgitating what has been said on this blog for the past seven years.

Anyone who goes out there to actually praise Roger Briggs for what he's done is malicious, or there's a possibility that people will say anything to get the "obstructionists" upset. None of the taunting matters in the real world.

Roger Briggs is an example of government overstepping their boundaries: by punishing people who could not possibly remedy the issues by their own hand. CDO recipients couldn't install onsite systems because Resolution 83-13 mandated a "community sewer," and a community sewer can only be achieved by widespread community support; that came in the form of the 218 vote.

That is entrapment. 45 people were used as pawns to get the assessment passed. The passing of that assessment has been used as a talking point by County supporters as a means of pushing through a $189+ million project that, according to the low MHI percentage in Los Osos, people cannot afford.

Ludicrous.

Anonymous said...

How ironic 9:58 that you forget to mention that the rational behind getting the CSD to pay for the CDO lawsuits was because "they were all in it together" meaning the CSD had actual fines hanging over them. That's not entrapment. How do you now separate out the 15 or so who actually are on the lawsuit and that the CSD helped pay for and the CSD's CDO's. What about Von's? What about other businesses that were cited. There were others in that 45 who did resolve it, wanted a sewer, knew that the CDO was temporary and didn't get all worked up about it. Everyone manages their stress and circumstances in their own way. To blame the woes of the community on the RWQCB is absurd.

In addition, yes it is interesting to throw out our support for Roger Briggs, the County staff, the supervisors and see some community members get so worked up. There should be no mistake about the motives, agendas and intentions of those that froth at the mouth and spew lies about insidious behaviors and Federal investigations and malign anyone who speaks in opposition. There have been more mistakes and misstatements by the regular BOS speakers about sea water intrusion and cost analysis and meandering rantings than have ever been made by the county. To have JT get up and scold regarding contracts when she herself as a CSD director and a member of the public has made egregious errors in her personal understanding of CA contract law and agencies. She herself said that the community would never have to pay a dime for the bankruptcy. How much has it cost the LOCSD so far? Money that has been used for attorneys fees that would have been better spent on infrastructure or repaying other loans. It doesn't matter that the SRF money was getting used, it is still costing the community and it's not over.

Anonymous said...

Everyone played their part. To isolate a few people and ignore others who were responsible is dishonest at best.

Anonymous said...

There are still a few stirring the pot. To them, the rest of the community would love to say "Good Riddance"

Anonymous said...

Nobody speaks for the community. If I were a betting man, I'd place a solid wager on the fact that people are simply tired of the sewer drama, regardless of the politics.

Anonymous said...

Briggs is still a POS. May he rot in hell. He had over 30 years to get a sewer in. Hell it took less than ten years to get to the moon. A civil servant should NEVER take political sides, he did it as a matter of policy. He is gone and the state will be better for him being gone.

Anonymous said...

Another LO loser heard from at 4:33PM.

Guess you didn't get your way.

ROFLMAO This is so much fun to laugh at the tin-hatted LO sewer activists still fighting a long lost battle. Enjoy your sewer LO!

Anonymous said...

How old are you, 4:43 PM? I know you're a frequent poster here. Was just curious. Your posts indicate you're 16.

Anonymous said...

Los Osos is hardly the first community in the U.S. to fall beneath the wheel of corruption and see paid-off politicians profit from unnecessary, over-priced construction projects that only benefit developers. It happens all the time. And just because it happens all the time doesn't make it right.

The lineage of corruption extending from Roger Briggs to Pandora to Paavo and Gibson is what this sewer will be known for -- more than for the silent majority who will pay with their homes for one of the worst scandals to undermine SLO County government in our lifetime. And that Briggs is seen as a man of integrity (by Gibson no less) is a shame within a sham.

Briggs can retire but Gibson's not going anywhere. We still have his ugly mug, the bills, the fraud and the lies to remind us. And we always will.

Anonymous said...

don't forget the pointy tin-foil hats

You seem to make a conspiracy out of everything and everyone beyond your comprehension.

Not everyone is as corrupt as JT & JE.

and not everyone is as hysterical as those who find that the sewer being constructed is not being per their individual wishes.

Anonymous said...

How did Julie Tacker end up in this conversation? Talk about making a conspiracy out of everything and everyone beyond our comprehension.

You never did say how old you were, 8:24 PM. The only people who spam blogs with "LOL" and "ROTFLMAO" are 16-year-old girls and Richard LeGros.

Anonymous said...

If this conversation is about the real as opposed to perceived corruption and out-right lies, then it revolves around McPherson, Tacker, Edwards, Calhoun, Barrow, Owen,Schecker and their personal attorneys. That is what has become what sewer will be known for!

Anonymous said...

Many cheers for Gibson, Ogren, Briggs and all the others who helped THIS sewer get started and likely built, or rather ensuring that the sewer get built and moving forward. Thank you to all the legislatures in Sac who voted unanimously on AB2701-that was for the people! Thanks CCC for noticing that this last round of requests was ridiculous. Thank you to everyone on committees, the TAC, the BOS, the supporters within the community - a HUGE THANK YOU to your persistence and for LO actually having a future, phew. Maybe we will be able to maintain control over our basin.

Hang in their neighbors and friends.

Anonymous said...

a HUGE THANK YOU to your persistence and for LO actually having a future, phew.

A future without you or anyone else you know in it.

A HUGE THANK YOU for being stupid enough to kick yourself out of LO.

Anonymous said...

When I read the anonymous "thank yous" for the sewer, I think they're the same type of people who would say "Thank you for 9/11."

Anonymous said...

Huh?

Anonymous said...

The pilots for our 9/11 were Captains Nash-Karner and Briggs, co-pilots LeGros, Gustafson and Hensley, and navigators Gibson and Ogren.

Their weapons: rigged votes and lie after lie.

For the thousands of lives they've destroyed without conscience they should face the same fate as Bin Laden.

Anonymous said...

You are such a sweet soul.

Keep your tin-foil hat on tight, they might be right behind you.

Anonymous said...

It is truly amazing that Pandora is always the most important and powerful individual in Los Osos.

Anonymous said...

It is truly amazing that Julie Tacker is always the person most responsible for community dissolution.

Anonymous said...

You are sure correct there!

Anonymous said...

Again with Julie Tacker? How about a restraining order? I heard she already has one for Judith Reilly.

Anonymous said...

Sure would like a retraining order against Tacker for her mouth and pure stupidity!

Anonymous said...

Without Julie Tacker, foaming Judy Reilly and the cracked Tornatskys wouldn't know what to do with themselves all day! They should admit Julie has filled up their empty lives and thank her!

A HUGE THANK YOU, too, goes out to Nash-Karner, Briggs, Hensley, LeGros, Gustafson, Gibson and the new Mrs. Paavo Kelly for draining the savings of Reilly and Tornatskys!

Enjoy your gold-plated sewer LO!

Anonymous said...

Yes, thanks to Julie for showing what marriage is all about! A real paragon of morality. What a leader for the tin-hat crazies to look up to!

We do expect she will now move on to save some other community. Maybe Nipomo?

Anonymous said...

Here comes the insults again. I wonder if this article will get more than 100 comments like the other one...

Anonymous said...

Hardly an insult.

Tacker/Edwards/or whoever her name could be, has done more to divide this community than any other person on either side of the issues.

Anonymous said...

The same people who get worked up over Ron's obsession over Pandora are obsessed with Julie Tacker. That says a lot about their personal integrity.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your article about "Roger"...very well written.
But I have to add that I loved the
hissy fits that so many of the commenters put forth!
I always enjoy your blogs...but it is the first time I have read all of the reactions..many excellent but so many more just delightfully
hysterical.

Anonymous said...

You know what's even more delightfully hysterical? The fact that the same people appear on the blogs and freak out over the "obstructionists" and "whiners."

They're like a broken, Vicodin-powered Victrola.

Churadogs said...

Anoymous 3:19 sez:"But I have to add that I loved the
hissy fits that so many of the commenters put forth!
I always enjoy your blogs...but it is the first time I have read all of the reactions..many excellent but so many more just delightfully
hysterical."

Ah, yes, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Quite fascinating.

Anonymous said...

Roger Briggs is a POS who put people like Bev and Bill Moylan under the knife. Tragic..... http://rockofthecoast.com/archives/JulyAugust06.pdf

Anonymous said...

Your post is pathetic.

The Moylans, as well as everyone else in Los Osos makes their own personal choices.

Choosing to stress your self out to an extreme over a damn sewer is your choice, not anyone elses!

Everyone's life in Los Osos has been affected by the sewer, but most don't create extreme stress over the issues. To blame someone else for the Moylan's medical conditions is very inappropriate. Where we have a sewer or not, we all are going to die. Choosing to let something like a sewer or even a uninforced CDO is everyones personal choice, but certainly is not a cause of death.

We got it that you don't like the course that the State Water Board took, but don't try to lay blame for a medical condition. It must be said that these inflamitory articles that Ann writes blaming everyone she does not agreed with does not help anyone.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say the post above is "pathetic," but it's definitely nonsensical.

The way you frame your argument is ridiculous. You cherry-pick the facts that are convenient to you and omit other relevant facts. Here's one that you missed.

The CDO recipients did not choose to have a proposed CDO on them. The CDO recipients did not choose to be publicly flogged by an overbearing government agency that presumed every targeted homeowner was guilty of something that they had no way of resolving by their own hands.

Did some people stress out over this a little too much? Sure, but it was Roger Briggs who first threw the apple of discord into the room, not the 45 homeowners. That's a fact.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Roger Briggs is a POS who put people like Bev and Bill Moylan under the knife. Tragic..... http://rockofthecoast.com/archives/JulyAugust06.pdf
10:55 PM, July 31, 2012


This is fascinating. Looks to me like the CDOs were used as punishment -- like drawing straws for flogging -- to let the community know what would befall them if they didn't vote yes on the 218 assessment vote -- and it worked. Threats of fines. CDOs. Vacant lot assessment burden. Rates and charges... If people knew now what they should have known then, I doubt Osos would be where it is today, looking down the barrel of a $200 million gun, but then again the town never could agree on anything to save its own life. So who knows, right?