Four competitors face off for two OCSD board seats in this upcoming election 

Two incumbent Oceano Community Service District (OCSD) board members are running against each other this year, meaning either Charles Varni or Shirley Gibson will still be on the board next year—not both.

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• File Photo By Jayson Mellom
• VOTE MATTERS Oceano residents living in the 1st Division of the Community Services District will vote between Linda Austin and Angela Smith, and 5th Division voters will choose between Charles Varni and Shirley Gibson to sit on the board of directors.

The rivals are vying for the 5th Division seat, while incumbent Linda Austin faces a newcomer in her battle to keep her 1st Division seat.

Varni said he prides himself on being a strong supporter of community education and engagement. He said that he's been involved in several initiatives and positive changes, such as improving community enrichment, including a State Parks Foundation grant he said he wrote to help sponsor Oceano Elementary School student field trips.

"We have again partnered with the Lucia Mar School District and have applied for an extended grant for 2025 in conjunction with the school district and Habitat for Humanity to pursue a public campaign to fund the creation of a new Oceano community track and soccer field on Oceano Elementary School that will be available to the community to use anytime school is not in session," he said.

Wanting to see those projects through, Varni said he has also worked with the county, 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, and the Oceano Elementary School to add safe routes to schools and complete streets with curbs, gutters, and sidewalks.

Varni said that local government agencies committed $980,000 to new sidewalks and safer intersections around Oceano Elementary School, and they are also in the process of applying for a $5 million grant for more complete streets and bike corridors in Oceano.

"Then, our big capital improvement project to repair and upgrade our existing water delivery and sewage systems is critical," he said. "It's all community service."

With a new OCSD general manager, Peter Brown, and enforcing a code of civility, Varni said a lot of positive energy and fair and equitable leadership has come to the district.

"We'll soon be hiring new legal counsel, but we have interim legal counsel now, and I'll tell you honestly, if it was a continuation of 2023, I think I probably would have just sat back and let somebody else stand up for it," he said.

Gibson said she wants to keep the board's focus on district duties and move away from being distracted with other responsibilities that it doesn't have control over.

"That is the delivery of water, sewer, garbage, limited lighting, and a small parks and rec department," she said. "Unfortunately, some people think that we can solve a lot of problems in Oceano, but anything to do with roads, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, potholes, code enforcement, violations, those are all the responsibility of the county."

Gibson said she also wants to focus on eventually bringing back fire services to Oceano by working with the county to get the Oceano Fire Station up and running.

"With the fire station being closed, response times have doubled, and that's not fault of the Fire Authority, it's just the station closed and now it's a lot farther for people to respond to fires and especially medical emergencies," she said. "In the future, I would like to partner with the county somehow and work toward that goal. It's going to take some time, but I think it's important for the community because with a heart attack you want to have assistance as soon as possible."

Oceano residents in the 1st Division will get the chance to vote between Austin, who's running for her third term, and first-time candidate Angela Smith.

Smith didn't respond to New Times' request to comment.

Austin said as a fourth generation, life-long resident of Oceano her main concern is the health and safety of the community.

"I want to continue to work on and safeguard and improve our essential services that the community relies on, which is infrastructure improvements, especially on our water system," she said. "Water being our most valuable asset, I want to make sure I'm committed to ensuring its protection for current and future generations."

Similar to Gibson, Austin said she wants to work on returning fire services to Oceano and eventually move the OCSD building and administration offices off county-owned land to something the OCSD owns.

"I would like to work on trying to get our own building for offices somewhere down the street a little way on property we own," she said. "I think I would like to see us have our new development there on the corner of 13th and Highway 1, with our new offices and have pride in our ownership again."

Austin said her deeply planted roots fuel her dedication to the community.

"I want to enhance our way of life here, and our beautiful little town has many assets, many things to be proud of," she said. "I've been volunteering since I was a kid and I've been deeply involved in all aspects of the community; I just feel like I want to still continue to do that and protect our community for the future." Δ