1. Click on the article you want to comment on.

2. Once you’re at the article, scroll to the bottom of the article. You’ll see “Add New Comment,” followed by a text box.

3. You have two . . . → Read More: How to Post Comments on Razor Online]]> I got a few e-mails, requesting a simple tutorial on how to post a comment on Razor Online. So here it is!

1. Click on the article you want to comment on.

2. Once you’re at the article, scroll to the bottom of the article. You’ll see “Add New Comment,” followed by a text box.

3. You have two choices.

You can login using DISQUS and login or create an account (click on “Don’t have one? Register a new profile”). Once you finish entering your details, you will be able to login using the e-mail address you provided or your username. Enter password, and continue posting your comment. NOTE: Your account information is stored on the DISQUS server, and we have no access to your personal information.

You can also post anonymously without having to login. Simply enter your comment in the text box below, and click on the “Post As…” button. You will see a pop-up window that reads, “Before we post this, who are you?” By default, you should be able to see the Guest tab. There, you can enter any username and any e-mail address. You can also login to comment by connecting to Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo! (if you happen to have a Yahoo! e-mail address).

If you are having trouble, please contact us, and we will resolve the issue. Thank you!

Dave Congalton is a popular radio host on predominantly conservative radio station KVEC 92.0, located in San Luis Obispo. KVEC also features syndicated broadcasts from known right-wing firebrands Glenn . . . → Read More: Congalgate: Dirty Dave Strikes Paydirt]]>

Dave and Bruce

Dave Congalton is a popular radio host on predominantly conservative radio station KVEC 92.0, located in San Luis Obispo. KVEC also features syndicated broadcasts from known right-wing firebrands Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh: both of them have contributed their own slice of crazy to an already tumultuous political climate.

Not to be out-staged by his syndicated comrades, Congalton has adopted an alter-ego as a “journalist” on a Central Coast news site, CalCoastNews, as their Contributing Editor. And what better way to bring more attention to himself than to attack a “obscure, rarely-read blog,” while tossing journalism standards out the window all at once.

That “obscure, rarely-read blog” Congalton chose to attack — quite possibly at the behest of his County bosses — was none other than Razor Online. That was Congalton’s first mistake. True, we’re not “The Dave Congalton Show” yet, riding the coattails of Beck and Limbaugh, but we’d never wish that on anybody. His second mistake was trying to intimidate me because I recently publicly flogged the Board of Supervisors for not responding to the molten core of unanswered questions posed to the Board by the community of Los Osos: questions that come very close to life or death matters, of the cost of the sewer and futures swaying in the balance.

Freedom of the press is something that bloggers and journalists should never take for granted, but Congalton took this freedom and exploited it, and his acts of hypocrisy and toadyism merit the full spotlight treatment by Razor Online.

Without once mentioning the context of my published article, “Get the Facts: Ring Paavo’s Doorbell,” Congalton anonymously published a story on October 15 called, “County demands blogger remove personal information, which contained the County Counsel’s written demand to remove the personal addresses and phone numbers of officials overseeing the Los Osos wastewater project — which I posted at the end of that article, suggesting that Los Osos homeowners ring doorbells to get answers, if that’s what it takes to draw a substantive, accurate response from the mute board.

County officials have acutely demonstrated their refusal to respond to inquiries made by concerned citizens in Los Osos who have exercised all the channels made available to them. I thought, “Let’s make a point. Let’s post their personal information, give people an alternative mode of communication and see how quickly the County responds to that.”

Sure enough, the County responded — and Congalton was there to post their response before even I personally received it.

Congalton’s article on CalCoastNews wrote about  details of the written demand from County Counsel, and I can confirm that those details are, indeed, accurate. However, there are several troubling things surrounding the article.

For one, Congalton’s article — which was published at 1:36 AM Friday morning — is written under the false pretense that I received the demand around press time, and in spite of that, I thumbed my nose at the counsel by keeping the personal information up for several hours. That is false. I received the demand at 8:14 AM Friday morning and I immediately complied with the law without any hesitation.

Second, I consented to the counsel’s written demand partly on the grounds that the demand was supplied by a confidentiality disclaimer, which reads as follows:

“If the person actually receiving this e-mail or any other reader of the e-mail is not a named recipient or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to a named recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of the communication is strictly prohibited.”

As an intentional maneuver to avoid taking personal responsibility for the article, Congalton did not present counsel’s e-mail in its entirety. Congalton did not disclose the confidentiality clause that was clearly present in the e-mail — the very same clause that he violated. If a journalist is going to copy and paste most of the e-mail, he might as well present the e-mail in its entirety.

Contrary to what the article stated, CalCoastNews did not obtain the written demand by Counsel per se.

Responding to a public records request on Monday, County Counsel Warren Jensen showed an e-mail exchange, showing that he wanted to relay a “quick message” to me by contacting Congalton. After seeing that I posted the e-mail exchange I had with Congalton last Thursday, Jensen perhaps assumed that Congalton would have my e-mail address and he could relay the written demand to me. Scoffing at the obligation to forward me the demand, Congalton wrote to Jensen, “I don’t know this guy. I don’t wish to know this guy.” Instead of doing the responsible thing and forwarding me Counsel’s written demand in a timely manner, Congalton wrote the article and took himself out of it as a person of interest (an “agent responsible to deliver it to a named recipient,” according to the confidentiality clause and Jensen’s request).

In their blind rush to post “exclusives,” tip-based news organizations that rely on “leaked” information to write up news will be quick to dismiss legal confidentiality clauses without reviewing the information on a case-by-case basis. Obtaining information cloaked in confidentiality is their lifeblood. In this case, there are special circumstances that apply that cannot be ignored.

County Counsel prescribed a duty to Congalton (“agent”) to deliver a message, and he didn’t. Why? Instead, he wrote an article about the message that I was supposed to receive in a timely manner, thereby breaching his duty found within the very same confidentiality clause that clearly prohibits the distribution of said message. Congalton’s conduct set a force in motion that created the article bias of my non-compliance — which never happened.

When a “journalist” becomes part of the story, it’s recommended that the same journalist doesn’t cover the same story because, chances are, the journalist will write the story in a favorable light to him. The story had no byline.

Meet me at camera 3, Mr. Congalton.

Dave, what are you trying to achieve here? At a given time, you act like the only radio host that cares enough about the plight of homeowners in Los Osos to feature a few on your radio show, while at other times you don your anonymous mask and post an article on your own “leaked tip” that casts dissent in an unfavorable light without context. How do you reconcile these two personas? Congalton the Compassionate or Congalton the Clown? Which one is it? I think I know.

I’ve listened to your show and listened to your segments about Los Osos. After reviewing your podcasts, I notice you preface every segment about the Los Osos wastewater project with remarks like, “I know many listeners out there have heard about the Los Osos project — and they’re tired of it — but I keep getting e-mails from people who want to be on the show.” And you giving your Los Osos guests very monotonous, tepid introductions. You come across as uninformed at times, asking the same questions of your guests without doing much research prior to going on the air. You devalue the seriousness of the problem with eye-rolling repetitiveness that feeds into the nauseating cynicism of people outside of Los Osos who think we should be outright ignored.

It appears that people only tune into your show to listen to the guests, not you. You’ve personally done very little to raise awareness about a project that has divided the community of Los Osos. In fact, you’ve contributed to the divisiveness by not doing your due diligence as a “journalist.” But then again you can’t be what you never were.

CalCoastNews proclaims itself as, “We are San Luis Obispo County’s on-line independent news source producing in-depth investigative news in the public interest.” That’s a mouthful. Where’s the investigative part? Journalism takes a little more than a copy-paste job. Journalism exercises some degree of care to getting not only the facts, but the circumstances surrounding the facts, including balance. To create balance, one must address the context. If a journalist doesn’t address the context, they’re not a journalist.

In short: Keep your day job, Dave. It’s all you’ve got. Be grateful that you don’t have to live up to the standards of real journalism.

Let’s have a happy — or a slightly less depressing — new year!

Here’s a gift that will either make you laugh or cry.

Gift courtesy of ElfYourself (JibJab . . . → Read More: Merry Christmas from The ROCK & The Razor]]> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Let’s have a happy — or a slightly less depressing — new year!

Here’s a gift that will either make you laugh or cry.

Gift courtesy of ElfYourself (JibJab and OfficeMax)

As Los Osos residents, let’s be thankful for keeping the beauty of our town’s coastal environment unspoiled. The peaceful, cloudy Los Osos bay and the windy, scenic drive around the cliffs on Montana De Oro remind us that . . . → Read More: Thanks for Not Giving Up]]> This Thanksgiving, let’s take a break from the mud-slinging and give thanks to those who deserve it this year.

As Los Osos residents, let’s be thankful for keeping the beauty of our town’s coastal environment unspoiled. The peaceful, cloudy Los Osos bay and the windy, scenic drive around the cliffs on Montana De Oro remind us that nature can remain unphased by politics and the heartlessness of those who who don’t understand the meaning of giving; who do not understand the meaning of community and understanding. Take away the heartbreak of living in the Prohibition Zone and it could be a town full of life and purpose.

We are grateful that we wake up every morning and there is a new day, a new beginning — new opportunities to correct our mistakes, retrace our footsteps and improve ourselves. Every day, we need to look into our hearts and find gratitude for those who have made our lives more meaningful and complete. We must be thankful for the wisdom and experience that has made us stronger. We’ve been fighting the tyranny of cynicism and impulsiveness of the Los Osos sewer wars for so long, we often underestimate the positive impacts that we’ve brought to the community.

I am thankful that we live in the United States of America, a country that proudly allows us to speak our minds when many don’t want us to. I am grateful for delivering The ROCK to the community since March 2006, providing homeowners with information that readily provided a cornucopia of insight and knowledge that was not available before. I am grateful for my family who stood proudly behind The ROCK and kept it moving forward despite the political obstacles created by people who never once stated why they disagreed with The ROCK — only that The ROCK posed a clear threat to their point of view. I am also grateful to those individuals who tried in vain to silence us. Their antagonistic dissent has made us only stronger.

While the die-hards re-weave the tapestry of the history behind the Los Osos wastewater project in a desperate attempt to appeal to their flawed political ideologies, we are given many opportunities to be thankful for people who don’t go down that path. We are thankful for those who choose the path of reason in a town that faces unreasonable circumstances.

– Aaron Ochs

(UPDATE: At the August 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, Counsel Jensen again refused to respond to the public’s request for his promised written response to the . . . → Read More: UPDATE: County Counsel That Can’t Count to 100 Should Be Fired]]> It’s been over 100 days since County Counsel Warren Jensen stated he would respond in two weeks to former LOCSD board president Lisa Schicker’s well-documented complaint against MWH and Paavo Ogren.

(UPDATE: At the August 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, Counsel Jensen again refused to respond to the public’s request for his promised written response to the full complaint.)

Former LOCSD board director and president Lisa Schicker originally filed her well-documented complaint with the Board of Supervisors against Montgomery Watson Harza (MWH) and Public Works Director Paavo Ogren on April 7. At that time County Counsel Warren Jensen publicly stated he would issue a written response to Schicker’s 100-plus pages of allegations in about two weeks.

On May 12 the David Edge/Gail Wilcox fiasco exploded, and one episode of County corruption overshadowed another, relegating Schicker’s allegations to the distant back burner of County business. Depending on one’s point of view, how convenient. Meanwhile, some other hot spots of County corruption or selective prosecution flared up—in Public Works Road Maintenance Operations, Dan De Vaul’s Sunny Acres and the Roandoak property in Morro Bay.

On June 21, the first day of summer, Bob Cuddy, the County’s mouthpiece at the Trib, wrote: “County Counsel Warren Jensen may complete a formal response this week to complaints from a former Los Osos official [Lisa Schicker] that the man directing that community’s sewer project has a conflict of interest.”

But “this week” never came. Wrote Cuddy on June 21: “Jensen has twice postponed his report because his office is busy with budget hearings as well as turmoil in the county administrative office.”

Apparently, even though all the players had their own attorney, Counsel Jensen must have been as tied up in the Edge/Wilcox scandal as Wilcox was in the backseat of a car with Deputy Sheriff’s Association negotiator Tony Perry, because Jensen couldn’t find the time to address a scandal profoundly more important and more costly than the sexcapades of County employees screwing the taxpayers of San Luis Obispo, who foot the bill for public waste.

Schicker’s detailed allegations of sole-sourcing, bid-rigging and cronyism demand nothing less than dropping MWH from both of the County’s tainted short lists of favored contractors for the Los Osos wastewater project, and the removal of Ogren from the project, if not his termination, for conflict of interest. (Ogren has denied any wrongdoing but hasn’t addressed or refuted the allegations.)

Supervisor Gibson, the Machiavellian BOS Chairman who opportunistically used Wilcox’s stupidity to fire nemesis Edge, commandeer a weak board and seize control of the County, has repeatedly characterized Schicker’s voluminous, detailed allegations as unsubstantiated assertions (his favorite word) and hearsay. This is hardly surprising, since it has long been obvious that Gibson is the tip of the spear driving the “riff-raff” out of Los Osos, the ramrod for the County megasewer, and the enemy of social and environmental justice for Los Osos. His agenda requires that Schicker’s complaint be suppressed or dismissed without a fair hearing, or any hearing, and that MWH and Ogren play their parts in decimating Los Osos. By his constant harassment of protesting homeowners, Gibson has made it quite clear he will stop at nothing to carry out his mission to spread economic pain and social desolation in Los Osos.

Despite the enormity of the charges and the millions of taxpayer dollars at stake, Jensen has chosen to fiddle away while Los Osos burns to the tune of $7 million wasted on a purposefully flawed project. Tragically, after two speakers at BOS public comment on July 21 asked to his face when the MWH/Ogren report was coming, Jensen just sat there in silence like a beached whale in a summer suit, refusing to even respond to the public’s questions about when he would respond—the very height of arrogance of a closed government working against the people.

While cleaning house at the Government Center, getting rid of the termites in the Chamber woodwork, they should also fumigate Counsel Jensen, who, along with the corrupt BOS, continues to stonewall Schicker’s extremely serious charges. Each day they are feared and tactically ignored by the County, they gain in credibility and scream for justice. They will not disappear on their own. Or because Gibson demands it.

At the risk of there being no one uncorrupted left to run the County, Jensen should be fired too—unless he was the one who came up with the ingenious stunt to break the Edge/Wilcox scandal to bury the MWH/Ogren scandal.

If that was Jensen’s idea, then, by abysmal County legal and ethical standards, he deserves a big raise … followed by a federal investigation.

—Ed Ochs

In order to view the site properly, you should have the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.

The site has been tested using the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE8) and Opera Web Browser (9.64).

If you are still having trouble viewing the site, please post a comment that . . . → Read More: Browser Trouble? Let Us Know!]]> A few people have been reporting trouble viewing the site.

In order to view the site properly, you should have the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.

The site has been tested using the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE8) and Opera Web Browser (9.64).

If you are still having trouble viewing the site, please post a comment that includes your Operating System and web browser.