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Hill hammers Thoma for homeless questions

December 20, 2012

Bill Thoma

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

A San Luis Obispo County supervisor lashed out Wednesday at a local business owner for posing questions about a proposed homeless facility and seeking more detailed information from the facility’s planners.

In a disparaging email, District Three’s Adam Hill assailed Bill Thoma for distributing what the elected official called a “fear-mongering flyer.”

Thoma said he was simply attempting to inform other local business people about the county’s plans for the homeless shelter’s location and construction inside a business park.

“There could be a better way to do this,” he said, “and I think it warrants an open discussion.”

The bombastic supervisor wrote in the widely-circulated email that “Thoma is determined to defeat this project no matter what… (and) has shown himself to be selfish and dishonest.”

Hill apparently was angered after seeing Thoma’s single-sheet pamphlet raising a number of issues Thoma suggested should be considered before the current plan goes forward. Thoma also contends that business owners who will be impacted by the center’s placement have not been fully informed of county plans and approvals.

Proposed location of the planned 200-bed facility is on a one-acre Higuera Street plot adjacent to the county’s Social Services Department building.

Thoma wants more consideration of a nine-acre parcel on Prado Road, behind a trailer rental outlet, as an alternate location.

“I’m not sure what set him off,” said Thoma of Hill’s outburst. “We’re not asking that much.”

Concerns raised by Thoma and a growing number of fellow local business owners include overnight campers, parking, vandalism, crime, concerns for safety of employees and others, trespassing and littering.

“We need to get more people involved to let our elected officials know this location and its terms are unacceptable,” Thoma wrote in the brochure.

In response, Hill bristled that he has “had enough of Mr. Thoma’s passive-aggressive attitude and actions” and intimated that if the project would fail, “the blame should fall squarely on the hunched shoulders of Bill Thoma.”

Hill’s broadside came after he received a copy of the Thoma brochure from Dee Torres, Homeless Services Director for the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo Co., Inc. She is Hill’s long-time girlfriend.

Several public officials, such as Hill, who have connections to CAPSLO, have repeatedly approved government funds to be spent on the organization while battling for its programs. Both SLO County Supervisor Jim Patterson and SLO City Councilman John Ashbaugh, proponents of the proposed center, sit on the CAPSLO board.

Late Wednesday, Ashbaugh responded to Hill’s objections to Thoma’s flyer by asking that further email discussions that place the proposed homeless center in a negative light not be distributed.

“I would urge all parties included in this email to avoid further email exchanges or the circulation of defamatory materials in the near future” Ashbaugh said in his email. “The circulation of a flyer opposing the approved Homeless Services Center site has caught many of us off-guard and ill-prepared to respond in any manner that is productive.”
Bill Thoma’s brochure


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At first I was furious and appalled at Hill’s personal attack on Mr. Bill Thoma. Then the old phrase “Consider the source” came to mind. All I can say to Adam Hill is your term as supervisor will not last forever and when you come down off your self declared Throne you will be a nobody. Mr. Thoma will still be the well respected, well liked, good and charitable businessman he always has been.


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Mr. Thoma has legitimate complaints & I believe all the business owners in the area agree with his position…Too bad Hill is such an out of control maniac!


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Thoma’s flyer is inflammatory, and it’s entirely self-centered. He has no legitimate beef other than that he doesn’t want the homeless anyplace near his speculative property holdings. He’s self-centered, not community centered. He’s an obstructionist. Doesn’t deserve a thing.


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Clearly, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.


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If you’re old enough you can remember the days when the liberals were the likes of Richard Kresja and Kurt Kupper and the conservatives the likes of Hans Heilman and Howard Mankins. Now it’s Tea Party right and rude adulterers left.


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Which is ruder?


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CAPSLO is involved in many wonderful things in the community, not just the homeless shelter.

One of the most important and least funded is the Adult Day Center located in Templeton (soon moving to Paso Robles).

Its purpose is to give people suffering from Alzheimers and dementia a place where their family can take them during the day.

This is important on so many levels.

It gives the family members a bit a break, a chance to keep working at their jobs, and it gives the person suffering from the disease a chance to interact with others as well as be looked after by a loving and caring staff.

All that is asked of the family is that they contribute what they can, they do not even ask for a sliding scale!

So please, when you read some of the things on here, remember that there are areas of CAPSLO not getting so much in BOS handouts and could use more community support.


thank you for listening


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That is because Dee Torres, Adam’s girlfriend, runs the homeless program for CAPSLOs. That is why the homeless program gets all the special attention, De Vaul got jailed, and Bill Thoma gets put down by Adam Hill. When are people going to wise up to this imbalanced person. Truly he is a threat to innocent concerned citizens.


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What has Thoma ever done for anybody but Thoma? To lump him in with the others seems odd. He’s against helping the homeless, not for it. Logic, bird.


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Any effort or funds used to help ***MOST*** of the homeless is a waste. All that does is attract more transients and encourage homelessness. I stand next to Thoma, not a self-serving government official.


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For the person that put the dislike on my letter, i’m just wondering, what possible reason could you have?

All I did was point out a different unit of CAPSLO that receives little funding and can’t even ask the family members that rely on the program to pay on a sliding scale.

How shallow are you?


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So who IS this loose cannon Adam Hill anyhow? I don’t get to follow much of the SLO local politics but it seems as if he’s got a mouth on him that nobody seems willing to reign in. I would hope that Mr. Thoma would take personal offense to his little tyrade and legally take him to task!


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Lovely, a skunk suing a skunk. What would that smell like?


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Once again lets remind the people that we elect to these positions that they are public servents, they work for the voters, not for their own little agenda.


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Oh, I know it is hard to take either Gibson or Patterson too seriously. Men who -allegedly — have a hard time keeping Mr. Winkie in the pants can often be too easily compromised.


What is more disturbing is the effort of our elected officials to crush dissenting comments. If their ideas has merit then they should be able to stand the criticism. John Ashbaugh should know better. It has been rumored that John has a plan to build an elevated wooden walkway over Laguna Lake for the homeless to connect the park with a residential area near Los Osos Valley Road. Anyone hear of this?


In any event, our elected officials do not have to be role models… but at least they should be transparent. That’s the least we can ask.


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Rog, you being a nimby? Why not welcome the homeless in your neighborhood? It could be a shortcut to Sunny Acres.


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CAPSLO is self-described as a non-profit however all of their funding is from government. CAPSLO’s status insulates them from any oversight or public disclosure and allows the squandering of public resources. It is, in fact, a massive self-serving bureaucracy. Hill/Torres are an embarrassment to public service. Hill got re-elected because the voters of the 3rd District wanted a Democrat in the BOS chess game. Fine, but find another Democrat, not Hill. In retrospect, given Arnold’s victory and a Republican majority I would have preferred Waage as a moderating conservative voice within that majority. Gibson needs to go as well, there are plenty of good, honest liberals to represent the 2nd.


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“Late Wednesday, Ashbaugh responded to Hill’s objections to Thoma’s flyer by asking that further email discussions that place the proposed homeless center in a negative light not be distributed.


“I would urge all parties included in this email to avoid further email exchanges or the circulation of defamatory materials in the near future” Ashbaugh said in his email. “The circulation of a flyer opposing the approved Homeless Services Center site has caught many of us off-guard and ill-prepared to respond in any manner that is productive.'”


to me, this is the most disturbing part of the whole situation. As if a person that thinks the homeless hotel is in the wrong place must get permission to debate the issue? Do we need to submit our grievances not to those on high before taking a position? Maybe, they need more time to come up with BS in order to counter the valid points raised?


Thanks to the clowns and others who voted in Hill for personal gain, (DSA), we have a loose cannon that knows no respect for anyone worth respecting.


Lastly, is it just me or is it a perk to be on the BOS in have taxpayer funded sexual partners on the side? Just sayin’ Hill hands his payments to his “girlfriend” and Gibson gets a honey a great job in the clerk recorders office making twice as much as the other women because she sleeps with the Gibber. Not fair. Made me laugh when I heard the normally honest Rodewald say that Gibber’s squeeze did not talk anyone’s job…..?


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AAAHH. Siri is not good sometimes. Sorry for the errors.


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