A rural Alameda County woman is speaking out about allegations of wrongdoing by county officials and the need for tighter state regulations over the Board of Supervisors’ discretionary spending.
Kiersten Skov, who lives in an unincorporated part of the county east of Livermore, walked through her allegation last week that county officials gave residents bad information about garbage services and then tried to conceal the misstep from public view after offering inappropriate and unethical solutions to the problem.
Skov also said she has discussed her accusations with law enforcement officials.
“Our concerns boil down to the general lack of public visibility, rigor when it comes to allocating discretionary funds or grants, which currently require no disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, or any competitive application process which is required for awarding contracts or services,” she said during a news conference Thursday.
Skov’s story of possible malfeasance starts in 2024, when she said county officials pressured her into an unnecessary trash collection contract, acted improperly when trying to correct the problem and then ignored her for months when she sought a proper resolution.
Skov says that in July 2024, a staffer from Supervisor David Haubert’s office sent an email to a number of rural constituents, including her, saying that because of a new state law expanding trash, recycling and compost collection mandates, they were all required to sign up for services from their local hauler, in this case Livermore Sanitation Inc.
“It was very clear in saying no exceptions, everyone is required and if you don’t sign up with LSI there will be enforcement and penalties, so suck it up,” Skov said in a previous interview.
Not wanting to run afoul of the county bureaucracy, Skov signed up for the service, but it turns out that only certain rural households closer to town were required to do so, while others like hers were in an area where such service is optional.
Skov, however, only learned of the mixup in January, when she reached out to LSI and Andrew Schneider, waste program manager for the county’s Community Development Agency, to ask for an exemption.
‘A verbal agreement’
Armed with the correct information, she immediately canceled the trash service and Schneider looped in Haubert’s top aide, Shawn Wilson, to help determine where the mixup had occurred.
Skov said Wilson acknowledged the mistake, apologized for it and told her the staffer responsible for the email had been fired.
“He then made me an offer that any reasonable person would understand to be a bribe,” Skov said. “A verbal agreement between me, his office, and Livermore Sanitation for a charitable donation using discretionary funds conditional on my silence.”
Wilson disputes Skov’s characterization of their interactions, said the staffer wasn’t fired because of the email and that he never offered her a bribe.
“They’re accusations and they’re borderline defamation of character and I’ve already sought counsel, because you can’t just throw people under the bus like that,” Wilson said Friday. “I’ve never bribed anyone. I’ve never taken a bribe.”
Wilson also disputes Skov’s assertion that Haubert’s office wanted to avoid bad publicity over the mistake since another of his staffers — former Dublin mayor and BART Board Director Melissa Hernandez — was running to replace former U.S. congressman Eric Swalwell, who resigned amid accusations of sexual assault.
At a Feb. 2 meeting, Wilson allegedly suggested two options, according to Skov.
One would involve a credit to her Livermore business account from LSI for the amount she unnecessarily paid for home service, which Skov said was almost $1,500.
The other was an alleged $1,500 donation to a nonprofit organization in her name from Haubert’s office, which Skov said raised red flags about possible improper use of taxpayer dollars.
These solutions were allegedly conditional on her agreement to stop talking about the problem with anyone, including her neighbors, and to stop posting about it on Facebook, said Skov, who eventually declined the offers.
Wilson: ‘She wanted more money’
Wilson said in an interview Friday that after Skov turned down the offer to credit her business account, he suggested a donation to a nonprofit but denies mentioning anything about “discretionary funding.”
He also said he did ask her to stop “blasting it on Facebook,” but only as a courtesy to the company.
Once he learned she wanted more money than what was already offered, he said it was out of his hands.
“I can’t write her a personal check to make her whole,” Wilson said. “It was very clear she wanted more money.”
“I want my money back. I want my community to get their money back, and I want to be compensated for working for months just to get them to do what is right.”
Kiersten Skov, property owner
Skov said she does indeed want more than the dollar value of her mistaken garbage service contract.
“I want my money back,” she said. “I want my community to get their money back, and I want to be compensated for working for months just to get them to do what is right.”
Skov and Wilson also agree on what he suggested next — that she should write a letter to interim County Counsel Andrea Weddle in preparation for a possible lawsuit, with the eventual goal of getting the county to offer a settlement of some kind.
“At the end of the day, once I knew she wanted more, I recommended a lawsuit,” Wilson said.
As a result, on March 30, Skov sent a letter detailing her concerns and asking for “a resolution without involving legal action but if this matter remains unresolved that is my next step.”
Referred to police
Skov said she met with state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, on May 6 to ask for help and was referred to law enforcement, including the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
“I had several conversations with different law enforcement agencies and was ensured the matter would be seriously looked into,” she said.
On May 13 — nearly two years after Skov and her neighbors were told to sign up for the service — the county sent a follow-up email explaining the mistake to people who may have received the original, erroneous instructions.
Then, on June 10, the county’s legal department sent Skov an offer to pay $1,150.44 as reimbursement for the fees she paid LSI but denied county liability.
“It also required me to waive any right to future legal action, made no effort to identify or resolve the issue for other residents, and offered me a sum that took no consideration into account for the months of my time that had been wasted holding officials accountable and advocating for my community,” she said.
Skov said she also struggled to get Wilson’s boss, Haubert, involved in the issue and felt largely ignored — although he did eventually agree to sit down with her Thursday prior to her news conference.
She said that meeting was productive and Haubert agreed to look into her allegations and to identify and assist other residents impacted by the trash service problem.
Both Skov and Wahab, whose office helped organize Thursday’s news conference, say Skov’s experience highlights the need for Wahab’s bill, Senate Bill 1193, which would strengthen transparency rules that govern supervisors’ discretionary spending. The bill passed out of the state Senate with a unanimous vote despite supervisors’ vocal opposition and is now in the Assembly.
“Longtime members of the community are well-aware of how business is done and are exhausted with the culture of favors and self-dealing over public interest,” Skov said. “Who knows how many of these payments have gone to settle grievances, silence whistleblowers, or other untoward purposes?”
Wahab is also running against Hernandez, Haubert’s aide, in an Aug. 18 election to replace Swalwell.
