You are aware of the controversy over Dan DeVaul’s Sunny Acres ranch, I am sure. If you are not, let me give you a quick rundown.
Man owns property. Man helps recovering addicts. County encourages man to continue. Man uses ranch as he wishes. City Councilwoman doesn’t like looking at ranch. City Councilwoman pulls all her power to shut him down. County shuts down barn from man. County tells man to clean up ranch. County charges man with violations of codes. County threatens to clean it up and charge man with costs. DA takes case. Two judges recuse themselves in the case. Man may go to jail. Simple enough?
Now for more of an overview to get you on the same page here. The Devaul family has owned a 72 acre parcel on Los Osos Valley Rd. near Foothill Blvd. for several years. In fact, Dan DeVaul was born and raised on this ranch. He left for about 20 years, returning in 1985 and started Sunny Acres after that. This man has been helping recovering alcoholics and addicts in our area for about 9 years. In that much time, there have not been any police incidents out there. In fact, the one time they came out there, it was to pick up someone for something that happened before this person came to Mr. DeVaul. The irony is that they knew where to find this guy because Mr. DeVaul had been keeping him clean and sober.
He calls it a clean and sober recovery center. This is for people who fall through the cracks because they cannot support themselves or don’t meet certain criteria to be helped by other organizations. Of course, as with any program, there is a failure rate, and there are those that stay with the program for several years. They have varying levels of recovery. They pay a little bit for rent, and work the ranch. Of course, the money is spread around to help those that cannot pay their way. That means it is more of a communal pot of money, to which Dan DeVaul adds to the pot to keep things going.
Over the last 9 years, the government has even referred people who need help but SLO County cannot take care of. He started out with about half a dozen people, so he flew under the radar. As County Services got involved, they even brought a trailer out to the property to help him with a particular person they brought to him. To me, this seems like approval for the operation he had going there.
A few years ago, SLO County started after him to move dirt, remove trailers, and clean up the property. He did some of this then got a lawyer. SLO County and Army Corps of Engineers approved what he did. He tried to get a conditional use permit to add on to his home, but it would cost $400,000 including the studies. When he went before the planning commission, he found out that SLO City Councilwoman Christine Mulholland and neighbors were raising hell, and making such a stink that the County didn’t want to deal with him. In fact, that’s when the problems started.
I can’t help but believe that maybe things got worse in the process of building the Temple next door. You will notice that they have hidden their building form the highway. In fact, they recently had our local representatives, Abel Maldonado and Blakeslee, at a ceremony celebrating the Temple. I don’t really think they would start anything with a neighbor or make things worse, but they may have brought County inspectors for their project that may have been prejudiced against Mr. DeVaul. Let’s not dwell on that possibility, though.
You don’t give SLO County money and spend $400,000 to jump through their hoops and they don’t like you any more, I guess. His operation got up to 75 residents, which is a good sized operation. You could run a successful ranch operation and make it a viable business. By February 2008, he had pared it down to 55. The problem is, they want him to get rid of all the housing for these people, and don’t want to let him use the barn for housing. He just wants to be able to run his operation, get permits to make it happen, and move forward. Sure, SLO County only charges $10,000 for the permit, but the studies associated with that permit cost so much that it makes costs about $400k.
Here is a man that grew up here, and is now at odds with the transplants from outside our area that live in homes that were developed in the last few years. What ever happened to being aware of where you are buying your home? If you buy a home near the airport, then you have to accept the noise, right? Nope. If you buy a home near the train tracks, you have to accept the noise and vibration, right? Nope. If you buy a home on a busy street, you have to put up with the traffic, right? Nope.
The city and county governments will listen to the loudest people. If you don’t like airport noise, we will make them cut noise at night. If you don’t like the trains, we will make them cut back on trains coming through. If you live on a busy street, they will put in signs and make the road smaller to slow people down. If you have money and a big mouth, you get whatever you want. Never mind the fact that these are the same conditions they put up with when they lived in OC or wherever they came from. They moved here to get away from that stuff, but didn’t bother paying attention to where they were buying their new home. They got taken by the developers. Make the developers pay for not disclosing these things to you when you bought your home.
What kind of government doesn’t listen to the majority? That brings us to my point about the government official that is using her position, clout, and connections to get this railroaded. You realize that this is being spearheaded by one of your government officials ONLY in her own self interest, right? I wonder how much city resource is used up with her time and other costs to make this happen for herself. I wonder what favors she is going to have to owe after this or has already given.
This is all after the way she treated the County with disrespect. I was at the SLO City Council meeting where she totally dissed the SLO County over a board they were convening for city input on something. Ms. Mulholland also went to a meeting the county had and caused a big ruckus. She seems to me to have a big mouth and not know how to contain herself. I watched her one time during a city council meeting almost jumping up and down, raising her voice, ranting like a child because other council members didn’t agree with her. It was such a childish display that I was embarrassed for the youth that were there watching this meeting. It was worse than junior high school (they call it “middle school” now, so the kids won’t feel inferior, I guess).
Let’s get back to the numbers and how Christine Mulholland mixes in here. Christine happens to live where she has a view of Sunny Acres. Of course, she has the city throw all sorts of money to the ECOSLO Maxine Lewis Shelter every year, thousands of dollars, in fact. Of course, Christine lives in a nice expensive home in a nice expensive neighborhood. “I have and you don’t, so go someplace else” attitudes are sickening. That is exactly what seems to be happening with Christine Mulholland. Oh, she is a good liberal, though. She supports the environment and people. Right.
Let’s take a look at Christine’s past. She has been in charge of ECOSLO. That organization takes money from the city, and she votes for it every time. Is it coincidence? But is she fair with other causes and needs?
When it comes to Maxine Lewis shelter, she votes more and more money. When the SLO PD came with a binding arbitration for fair pay, she said, ”It’s not a fair increase. It’s far beyond any increases that other groups have gotten from the city negotiations.” Well, Ms. Mulholland, maybe it was because you did not give fair increases before all of this. You were too busy throwing money to your friends at ECOSLO.
Talk about an eyesore, have you ever gone by that place around 5:00 p.m.? When they start letting people in for their meals, you see them walking down the sidewalk smoking like chimneys, coming out of the creeks (almost getting run over crossing Orcutt Rd.), parking their motorhomes/campers/live-in cars on the street and around the corner, dirty rags, smoking, filthy, and representing the neighborhood. Oh, maybe we should put one of those where Christine lives, and see how much money she throws at it. Oh wait, Mr. DeVaul has a cleaner operation and she doesn’t even like that. I guess “Not In My Back Yard” explains it all. NIMBY Mulholland.
Remember when KSBY first got the peacock mascot costume and had a contest to name the mascot? They came up with “KiSBY” for it. As I recall, it was a contest for kids, but I seem to remember an adult winning. Maybe my memory is wrong, but that is just a side note anyway. What adult competes with kids? Selfish ones like maybe Ms. Mulholland might be? I think we should come up with a mascot for Councilwoman Mulholland. Let’s make it a wrinkled up pumpkin with a scowl on it’s face and call it NIMMBY for “Not In Ms. Mullholland’s Back Yard.” That works for me. Of course, you can submit your own entries by comments on this blog. Maybe we should send the results to NIMMBY Mulholland. Let’s just call her NIMMBY for short.
Back to the massive amounts of money NIMMBY sends to her friends at ECOSLO. Who were her original supporters for her office? You know she is a member of the Green Party, right? Dr. Richard Kresja is a former SLO County Supervisor, Cal Poly professor, and noted greeny. This means he puts the flora and fauna above all needs of humans. She was also supported by Kurt Kupper, another former SLO County Supervisor (for the district that Greeny Adam Hill won – I can see more money for ECOSLO coming!), and Director of ECOSLO. He also owns the Establishment, a student housing unit near Gus’s Grocery. He goes before the city regularly for more money and the use of city property for ECOSLO. In fact, he typically gets a 5 year agreement for city property on Prado Rd. Then he has the nerve to complain that it is windy. He has also worked steady to end growth in SLO County.
Do you see a pattern emerging? Maybe when Mr. DeVaul operates his center, ECOSLO is afraid they will lose money and people. After all, if you put all those people out on the street, then ECOSLO will count them in their pleas for money, and get more cash. Look, it is one thing to be competitive when you have a business, but shouldn’t ALL organizations help the homeless and needy? It shouldn’t be about ECOSLO getting more money for their programs. If they become self sufficient through Mr. DeVaul, then ECOSLO doesn’t get the numbers they would otherwise have. Can you imagine how much more money ECOSLO would get if they had those 55 people in their system? That is a lot of money. THAT is what this is all about. I think we just broke the case.
NIMMBY was also supported by the Santa Lucia Chapter of Sierra Club and has been pretty consistent in her opposition to growth. She has been against raising the height of buildings downtown because we will lose our views from the sidewalk and around the city, she opposes other projects almost consistently, but not effectively. In fact, it is almost as if she pays lip service to her supporters to look good, but doesn’t really do anything about it… unless it is in her back yard. How can I say that when she has opposed so many projects?
Compare the way she handles her personal pet problem with the way she handles the things she pays lip service to. If she was truly opposed to these things, she would go about it with as much vigor and gusto as she does for her own NIMMBY project. Yep, that’s right. When it involves her, she turns up the heat. When it doesn’t, she just wants to look good. Her voting record may appease her supporters, but her actions should show that she doesn’t truly believe in her own votes. She would be much more proactive and effective if she did. PROOF that she is a fraud when it comes to appeasing her supporters? It appears so to me.
Speaking of why she is so adamant and pushing so hard for this to be done right away, we are coming up on a deadline for her. She will no longer be able to bring the forces of the city upon Mr. DeVaul and the county after this year. Why not? She is up against term limits. THAT is perhaps why this is stepped up so much. She has one last hoorah to make herself look good before moving on in politics, or retiring sadly to her home life (I doubt this is the end of NIMMBY, let’s watch ECOSLO and what they pay her). In fact, to possibly hedge her bets to keep this going, just this year she made cash donations to Adam Hill and Jim Patterson. Might as well invest nearly $500 to get her way. That is pretty cheap these days. By the way, those are the same candidates Dr. Kresja supported with donations.
So, here we have a rancher that has junk on his property. He intends to help people, and make this a good facility for them. The County goes after him for compliance. Let’s take a look at what this means.
- By September 1, DeVaul must remove all people living in mobile homes and RV’s on his property.
- He must close his roadside stand, unless he sells at least 50% grown or produced on the property.
- By October 1, DeVaul has to remove commercial vehicles, mobile homes, and reduce outdoor storage.
- He must keep the number of cars down to two (just like the Cal Poly students renting homes on the other side of the hill from him).
- By December 1, DeVaul must either demolish the barn, or get permits to make it inhabitable.
Can you believe that they are actually taking this man to court and want him to spend time in jail for those things? That’s right, they are trying to prosecute him. The problem is, they keep losing judges. The DA took this case to prosecute, because they have nothing more important to do, like investigating fraud in the CPS and Foster Care services in this county. The most pressing issue for them is to put Mr. DeVaul in jail. I think they should put NIMMBY in jail for misuse and abuse of her powers and position as a politician. I think that is much more criminal than Mr. DeVaul’s actions.
They can’t even get a judge to hear the case. First Judge Dodie Harman recused herself and said she didn’t believe Mr. DeVaul had violated any laws. Then Judge Jac Crawford recused himself citing conflict of interest. The new judge has set things another month away. That gives him a month to find an excuse to drop out also. I don’t think any of the judges really want to do this to the man. I think they see what is going on here and are having their own version of a “blue flu” epidemic. Too bad they don’t do that on other cases that make no sense.
Last of all, you need to look at the way this is being handled. Can you tell me that there are no other ranches in this county that have the same circumstances other than a neighbor named Christine Mulholland and a recovery center? How many ranches have extra trailers and mobile homes? How many ranches have junk on their property? How many ranches have farm equipment and vehicles on their property? How many ranches have excess dirt and debris on their property? How many ranches have even more conditions on their property that should be taken care of? I am warning you. If you are one of those ranches, all it takes is to have a Christine Mulholland move into your neighborhood, then YOU will be in trouble too.
Oh wait, I wonder what she has done to her neighbors. If she hasn’t done anything yet, they better watch out. If she gets more time at home, she may find something there to complain about, too. They better take this time to spiff up their own yards.
Be a smart voter. Go to http://www.smartvoter.org/ and input your zip code to get your ballot. As you can see, you get what you vote for, and you deserve what you get. If you fail to vote, you fail to contribute to your future. You need to take a stand. Support common sense, support the right politicians, and support Dan DeVaul. Let Christine Mulholland know how you feel about her opposition to this fine project. Email her and let her know you support Mr. DeVaul and resent her use and abuse of power and position for personal benefit and that of ECOSLO, as well as the trust of voters and constituents. Christine Mulholland (805) 781-7598 or Email her at cmulholland@slocity.org
If you don’t do something, then you don’t deserve fair representation. If you let another Greeny in there, it will be business as usual. Because you get rid of Christine Mulholland due to term limits, you have a clean slate and a chance to make a better future for the residents of the City of San Luis Obispo.
As far as Dan DeVaul, I have this to say. Mr. DeVaul, I know you removed some eucalyptus already, but I think you need to line the highway with eucalyptus trees. Once you do that, they won’t have such a clear view of your property. Unfortunately, it may also obscure their views of the lake and foothill, but I do believe you have that right with your property. Start a eucalyptus farm and sell the leaves on eBay. People will buy it to line their dog’s beds for fleas. Maybe Christine could use a few around her bed. I hear dirty dogs have more fleas.
So I ask you, should Dan DeVaul go to jail for keeping a messy ranch, or should Christine Mulholland go to jail for misuse and abuse of power? You make the call.
The Opinionator
