MWH: Defending the County’s Cash Cow

By Aaron, on March 20th, 2010%

TYPO CLARIFICATION (6:00 PM PST): Fixed an obvious typo on the first paragraph (changed Los Osos to New Orleans)

Around the time the New Orleans Inspector General’s report was posted on local news sites, San Luis Obispo County government supporters and MWH Americas, Inc. sympathizers littered blogs and message boards with character attacks against those who supported the report’s findings. Unwilling to read the report and dissect the details, which show that MWH overbilled the city of New Orleans for their work — after Hurricane Katrina hit the region in late 2005 — by billing 118% percent of the actual value of their work.

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Pitiful Criticism of Schicker in New Times

By Aaron, on October 29th, 2009%

One week after former LOCSD president Lisa Schicker had her viewpoint published in the New Times (Oct. 21), there were comments that surfaced from local readers who had a few things to say about it.

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Schicker Alleges “Distrust” in Tribune Letter to Editor

By Aaron, on September 1st, 2009%

Former CSD president Lisa Schicker posted a letter to the editor in The Tribune today:

Distrust

In a July editorial, this paper praised county supervisors for firing David Edge and Gail Wilcox, saying their conduct “raises the specter of favoritism and gives the public another reason to distrust county government.”

Here’s another reason to distrust: the dismissal of a 1,000-plus page referenced complaint against Paavo Ogren, public works director.

Contrary to County Counsel Warren Jensen’s assertions (Tribune, Aug. 19), I believe the complaint contained evidence suggesting Ogren’s involvement in self-dealing, bid-rigging, conflict of interest, violation of design-build law and improper contract procurement processing.

Evidence describes Ogren’s history of recommending no-bid public contracts and approving expensive change orders to the same firms over and over — firms he worked for as a private consultant.

The Board of Supervisors just ended a similar no-bid contract with attorney Clay Hall’s firm, going out to competitive bid for the first time in years.

According to Jensen, most of the evidence in the Ogren complaint remains unread and uninvestigated. Some of the evidence requires further internal investigations.

Supervisors say they won’t tolerate unprofessional behavior and serious allegations remain. Supervisors, please demand a full, independent inquiry into Ogren’s involvement with the Los Osos Wastewater Project and its links to the Los Osos Community Services District’s 2001 sewer contracts and the Lopez Dam retrofit contracts; county taxpayers deserve nothing less.

Lisa Schicker Former president and board member, Los Osos Community Services District

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County to Continue Analysis of Schicker Complaint

By Aaron, on August 29th, 2009%

During his office hours in Los Osos on Thursday, SLO County Board of Supervisors chairman Bruce Gibson confirmed that the board will proceed with the analysis of former LOCSD president Lisa Schicker’s conflict-of-interest complaint.

Also appearing at the office hours was Paavo Ogren, the subject of Schicker’s complaint. He appeared shaken as he, for the first time, addressed the allegations.

“I think it’s absurd, it really is,” said Ogren, who lowered his head in exasperation. “I never worked with Montgomery Watson-Harza. [The allegations] are just ridiculous.”

After LOCAC board member Linde Owen got in a series of heated exchanges with Ogren, Gibson stated, “[The complaint] is a textbook case of a series of assertions. I’ve read most of the complaint and I don’t see any indications of conflict of interest — none at all.”

In his defense, Ogren later stated that he never worked with Montgomery Watson-Harza. In fact, he worked on a team that competed against MWH — around the time the LOCSD started to work with MWH — but he never mentioned the team he was working with at the time.

Ironically, Gibson declined to comment on pending personnel investigations involving Wilcox/Edge and Ghezzi/Keller.

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