At one of Supervisor Bruce Gibson’s office hours last year, I saw Christopher Allebe take a seat in the back of the room. He leaned his chair back against the wall while Richard Margetson chided Gibson on his rebuke of Los Osos public comment. After Margetson finished speaking, Allebe took a long sigh, looked in Gibson’s eyes and said to him tersely, “You know, I don’t appreciate our rights being taken away, Mr. Gibson. You don’t want to listen to us, do ya? That’s not right.” When Allebe said that to Gibson, I thought about John Wayne when he said, “A man ought to do what he thinks is right” (Hondo, 1953). Like Wayne, Allebe had a unique, “no-holds-barred” western swagger that left his political adversaries shaken -- but those who knew him best recognized him for his gentle soul and his unwavering sense of justice.
In response to Allebe, Gibson looked around sheepishly before rolling his eyes. Gibson grimaced and uttered, “I’m not going to comment on that.” And Gibson backed down.
Before and after that exchange, every Tuesday afternoon, Chris Allebe would stand at the podium at every Board of Supervisors meeting as “CDO #1019″ even though the supervisors showed no intention of listening to his plight nor the plight of many homeowners in the Prohibition Zone who have come and gone — and will have to go because of the expense of the sewer.
After Dr. Thomas Ruehr passed away, Allebe took the responsibility of delivering Ruehr’s EIR comments to the board.
Both Ruehr and Allebe — who remained defiant against common foes until the very end — recognized that a great injustice was being forced onto the community of Los Osos. Though both men were labeled as “no-sewer advocates” by gravity collection aficionados, they were committed to the design and construction of a wastewater treatment system for their community, but they did not support systems that were inherently, fatally flawed.
Given the fact that the County dismissed STEP/STEG as a feasible alternative for consideration in April 2009, Allebe was not pleased with the uncertainty of the wastewater project in its current incarnation. At BOS public comment, he told the Supervisors, “We can’t say what’s going to happen until we spend $200 million on a project. The County doesn’t seem to have an answer to that except, ‘Well, we’ll find out after we build the project whether it’s successful or not’… You don’t spend $200 million on a maybe. Eventually, unless we grow fins and tails, we’ll be getting our water down at Trader Joe’s and taking sponge baths for the rest of our lives.”
Allebe was one of 45 homeowners targeted by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CCRWQCB). Allebe knew he wasn’t a “Discharger.” He also knew that his friends, neighbors and the other CDO recipients were being unfairly intimidated and prosecuted without proof. On March 7, 2007, Allebe told the New Times, “The state really hates this community [...] They just can’t believe this little podunk town would stand up to them.” And they did.
On the October 4, 2006 Deposition of Roger Briggs, Allebe challenged Briggs and the water board’s stance on affordability.
Said Allebe: “I haven’t heard affordability ever discussed [by the water board] concerning the project [...] That’s been the problem, as you call it, for the last 22 years is basically affordability. And the citizens have been filing lawsuits to keep themselves from paying these horrendous costs.”
Briggs responded that the issue of affordability was discussed in a variety of ways at several public meetings and forums, but he would not elaborate any further.
Allebe revisited the topic a year later when I spoke to him at a Los Osos Community Services District (LOCSD meeting).
I remember him saying to me, “I’m not going to let them ram an expensive sludge factory down our throats and I’m not going to let them tax me out of my home. I won’t let them lay a hand on me.” Allebe’s tone of strong resilience was similar to that of John Wayne when he said, “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people and I expect the same from them” (The Shootist, 1976).
We need to acknowledge the sacrifices that Christopher Allebe has made for the community that he loved and deeply cared about. Not only will he always be in our hearts and minds — he will exist in everything that we do for the betterment of Los Osos. Chris has inspired us with his courage. He taught us to dedicate our lives to defying darkness with unrelenting, heartfelt altruism. He showed that it can all be done with a smile, a pat on the shoulder and a great sense of humor.
And just for the record, Chris. You were right about everything. You always were … and always will be.
– Aaron Ochs
