Los Osos CSD candidates debate water, finances, infighting

Five candidates running for two seats on the Los Osos Community Services District’s Board of Directors debated how best to ensure financial security, water sustainability and civil discourse on a board with a history of contentious meetings.

Former Los Osos CSD director Julie Tacker separated herself from the other candidates by pushing for a communitywide discussion on whether the district should be dissolved. Tacker said she favors examining whether it would be more cost effective to ratepayers for the county to assume management of water and emergency services in Los Osos.

“We need to have a community conversation on whether or not we need a CSD,” Tacker said. “We only provide a few services anymore and we need to analyze how long the district can last with the revenues and resources that we have before rates will be raised.”

Candidates Tim Staggers, Steve Best, Vicki Milledge and incumbent Marshall Ochylski supported maintaining the district to keep local control of water, fire and street lighting services.

“We can’t dissolve the district,” Best said. “We have to maintain it.”

Tacker cited the district’s high turnover of general managers, including Kathy Kivley, who left in January under a confidential separation agreement. An audit of the 2013-2014 books cited Kivley’s changes to the district’s ledger among the discrepancies in accounting that clouded the district’s financials.

“When I find errors, I’m going to point them out,” Tacker said.

Best, a retired owner of Best Water & Air, encouraged keeping water use down and maintaining a transparent CSD to ensure public trust while working to keep the community safe through an enhanced neighborhood watch program, among other goals.

Ochylski, the only incumbent and an attorney, cited his background of negotiating a bankruptcy agreement for the district when it plunged into debt after abandoning the original site proposed for a sewage treatment plant in the center of town. The plant has since been built east of town on Los Osos Valley Road. The resolution of the bankruptcy helped to maintain district assets and operational viability.

Ochylski also played a hand in guiding the district through litigation involving Golden State Water District, the county, and S&T Water Co. that resulted in the formation of a groundwater basin management committee, represented by the four agencies, that’s working to ensure water sustainability in the aquifers that provide the community with its only source of water.

“I’m very proud of that work,” Ochylski said. “We need to make sure to retain a sustainable basin and our water supply.”

Each candidate identified financial stability as a key concern facing the district that could see higher costs if new wells or nitrate removal facilities need to be installed.

Milledge cited past experience working for seven years at Apple under Steve Jobs and 30 years of experience in human resources. She advocated for an outside accounting firm to monitor the district’s finances to restore credibility.

“We need to make sure we have a competent person following the money when it’s coming in and when it’s going out,” Milledge said.

Milledge said she would even lead efforts to start a gofundme.com account to raise money for the district if necessary. She placed stable overall management, along with water management and financial management, at the top of her priorities.

Staggers, a grocery store employee, said he’s alarmed at the rate of saltwater intrusion threatening the district’s aquifers — 200 to 250 feet per year, according to a report at a recent basin management committee meeting. He called for drastic measures to address the issue, which he calls “an emergency.”

Staggers said soliciting funding from the state is needed to pay for new infrastructure, such as more wells, desalination, a gray water system or nitrate removal equipment.

“We need to get the state to do its job,” Staggers said.

At the same time, Staggers said it’s important to keep costs down for ratepayers. Ochylski said the district’s rates are still well below rates charged by Golden State, which also serves areas of Los Osos. He said the difference was an indication of “better management.”

The candidates acknowledged a past history of sewer-related squabbles that has divided the community, as well as disagreements over district management decisions in recent years.

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Los Osos CSD candidates debate water, finances, infighting."