Former Cayucos Sanitary District General Manager Rick Koon, pictured in 2020 during a tour of the Cayucos Water Resource Recovery Facility then under construction, has been given a consulting contract to continue work on two specific tasks. Photo by Neil Farrell
The mini drama surrounding the Cayucos Sanitary District’s long-time general manager appears to have been resolved, but the district board will still have to decide how to go about finding a permanent replacement.
Rick Koon, who has been the CSD’s GM for many years, moved out of state sometime in 2024 and was essentially working remotely, returning to town when needed.
But his contract ran out and instead of approving an extension at its February meeting, a split board decided not to rehire him.
Instead, Koon was offered what looked more like a consulting contract than a job offer.
Initially in March Koon was offered three “special projects” to work on under a limited time contract.
That contract would have been to:
• Prepare a 5-year Capital Improvement Project Plan;
• Prepare an Operations and Maintenance Plan for the Water Resource Recovery Facility; and,
• Prepare a Use and Disposition Plan for District assets in Morro Bay.
And while it appeared that would go through, it didn’t and the consulting contract was further amended at a second meeting in March, dropping the plan for the CSD’s assets in Morro Bay. He was then asked to give estimates on what he would charge for the two remaining tasks.
In a proposal that the CSD Board heard April 4, Koon pegged the estimated cost for task No. 1 (5-year Capital Improvement Project Plan) at $66,500; and put a November 2025 target date for delivery.
He also said he would charge $46,800 for task No. 2 (Operations and Maintenance Plan for the new treatment plant). He estimated completion for this task in December 2025.
And he set $8,300 as the estimate for “reimbursables,” things like travel expenses and others. Under the contract approved April 4 he would be paid up to $121,600, assuming no cost overruns.
The CSD Board named Administrative Finance Manager, Gayle Good its acting general manager and has not yet decided how to proceed with finding a new full time GM.
Meanwhile, the Board itself is looking for someone to fill a recently vacated seat.
Director Hannah Miller notified the Board in February that she was moving to another home and would no longer be living inside her Dist. 3 boundaries. She left the board March 21, and the board is actively seeking someone to appoint to serve out the remainder of her term, which expires in December 2026.
The CSD has long had difficulty finding Cayucos voters to run for office and after the CSD changed to district-based balloting, giving up the citywide balloting it used to employ, things have gotten even harder.
Administrative Services Manager, Amy Lessi, told EBN, “We would appreciate you bringing awareness to the vacancy,” she said. “Historically, few candidates have applied to serve on our Board when there is a vacancy. Being forced to transition to district-based elections back in 2022 has made securing directors even more challenging as it drastically reduced the number of potential candidates who can serve on the Board when there is a vacancy.”
It’s the rub of a movement that sought to force all cities and special districts to switch to district-based balloting. This was pushed under the auspices of the California Voting Rights Act, which the proponents interpret as requiring districts for voting in order to prevent suppression of voting by certain protected people, i.e. minorities, gays and others.
The idea was to keep such peoples together in a voting block and theoretically giving them more weight for their votes.
However, locally, in both Cayucos and Los Osos, which has a community services district, each agency has had difficulty getting people to run for office.
Indeed, Los Osos has now had to appoint at least two directors when no one signed up to run in the election.
Dist. 3 is essentially the southern Cayucos neighborhood east of Hwy 1. If readers live in that area and are interested in applying to serve, they need to go to the District website and access an “Application for Appointment to a Vacancy on the Board of Directors.”
If you don’t know whether you live in Dist. 3, the CSD has an interactive map on the website, or call the office at 805-995-3290 and they will confirm based on your address. See: www.cayucossd.org/files/81c9f7039/2025+Board+Vacancy+Application.pdf to download an application. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, May 7 and applications can be mailed in or emailed. The CSD Office is at 200 Ash Ave., across the street from the fire station.
