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Adam Hill admits to impersonating opponent

January 19, 2012

Adam Hill

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill admitted Wednesday he impersonated his political opponent, and now says it was just a joke.

On Jan. 6, the San Luis Obispo Tribune printed a letter to the editor from Sheila Blake, asking readers to help her convince LAFCO to vote against annexing the proposed Los Robles Del Mar development into the city of Pismo Beach. The issue has divided many in the South County beach community.

On the same morning, Hill left the following message on Blake’s answering machine, calling her names and claiming to be Ed Waage, Hill’s opponent in the District 3 supervisor race.

“Hi Mrs. Blake, I read your letter in the Tribune, are you a communist, or a socialist, or both or maybe a Marxist, this is Ed Waage. Just wanted to let you know what I thought,” the message says.

Listen: Download Mp3

After listening to the message which she claims she did not think sounded like either candidate, she called Waage to tell him about the impersonation. Blake then allowed Waage to make an audio copy of the call, which he provided to CalCoastNews.

“I am disappointed that Adam Hill would make a phone call and pretend the phone call was from me,” Waage said.

On Monday, Hill received the following questions from a reporter and subsequently refused to answer questions about the phone message after being provided a transcript of the Blake call.

“I have a voice message that was left on an answering machine of a Pismo Beach resident who had an opinion letter in the Tribune,” a CalCoastNews reporter wrote in an email to Hill. “And while the call says it is from Ed Waage, several people contend it is you. How do you respond to allegations you made the phone call?”

Hill responded in an email on Monday saying the questions were “malicious, gotcha stuff,” and that he hoped the reporter was “confident that the constant campaign of defamation” against him “could not be proven to show actual malice.”

On Wednesday evening, Blake says Hill, a good friend, called to explain that he had made the call as an “innocent joke.”

“I acted so swiftly to call Ed (Waage), Adam (Hill) never got a chance to call back and tease me about the call,” Blake said even though it had been nine days since she had provided the tape to Waage.

Hill said Wednesday he did not remember making the call when asked about it on Monday.

“I did not even know what the heck you were asking about when you emailed me the night before you ran your story,” Hill wrote in an email on Wednesday.

The Save Price Canyon website has quoted Hill as telling its group that he is against the two large proposed developments that are winding their way through the system. In an interesting twist, planners involved in one of the proposed developments also contend Hill has said he is supporting their project.

When asked in four separate emails if he supports the Save Price Canyon group or those attempting to develop the property, Hill refused to answer, instead asking, “Why the hate?”


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As I stated when I called into the Dave Congalton Show today (1/19/12), I am disappointed that Adam has chosen to not take responsibility for his actions. My comment was that every single public figure, every elected politician should remember the fall out from how Bill Clinton handled his “affair”; instead trying to deny, conceal and/or cover up, just take the responsible course of action and state flat out: “I did a dumb/stupid/whatever thing and I was wrong. I apologize for my actions and ask your forgiveness.” If more public figures who are caught doing stupid things would simply “man-up” and take responsibility, I honestly believe that most cases would be over and done with in a couple of days. It is when someone like Adam did here, they deny the action, they “can’t remember” doing the action, they then try to blame someone else for either outing the incident or a subordinate for the attempted cover up. Come on Adam, man-up, take your medicine like a grown up; apologize for doing a stupid thing, apologize for not coming forth in the beginning, apologize for being upset at Karen Velie for her doing her job and announce that you will not seek reelection, or at least state that you are thinking long and hard about your future plans indicating that you may not seek reelection. Have you got the spine for that?


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Bob, you and I are on different sides of the aisle politically, and I usually disagree with you on most things, but you’re sure right on this one. Both your call to Dave’s show and your comment here are much appreciated. It boggles the mind that politicians lie, obfuscate, and shift blame, when the truth (while perhaps temporarily painful) would set them free from, or at least moderate, the consequences of their mistakes/flaws.


Adam Hill, it’s time to go.


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Bull! Adam, you need to not only man up and apologize, you need to resign and ask our forgiveness for being so mean spirited, thoughtless, rude, crude, selfish……I could go on and I will spare the readers the rest of the negativity that you have so ungraciously bestowed upon all of us in the county let alone district 3. Resign and go do a mind, body and spirit detox…..straighten out your life….it looks to be a mess!


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“Manning-up” as BobfromSL calls it requires one thing in particular….a Man!


It’s interesting to me that the majority of the high drama and mayhem that this putz has spread over this county has been during his past year as Board chair. Coincidental perhaps, but maybe not.


Perhaps a better slogan for Hill’s reelection campaign might be “Hubris Über Alles” or something similar.


Looks to me like Ed Waage can just save his money, sit back and watch A. Hill consume himself.


A shame as the fine people of District 3 deserved much better.


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Hill is a lot like Julie Adams (CUSD issue) in that, no matter how much he screws up, he always tries to shift the blame to someone else…usually the messenger (the one who just reported it or talked about it).


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Anybody out there besides me that may think this would be a crime, it is against the law to impersonate and officer of the law, the Law will say it’s a civil matter, sue the crap out of that child making prank phone calls, I would if it were me, it only costs like $150,000 just to defend a lawsuit, get the B*stard now!


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Actually, there are California regulations about impersonating anyone, if you profit from it, in some way.


See my earlier post, http://calcoastnews.com/2012/01/adam-hill-admits-to-impersonating-opponent-2/comment-page-1/#comment-44948


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There are many that post here as people, but are impersonating people when they post.


YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE !


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The general consensus is that Adam Hill is not the kind of guy you’d invite to a party with an open bar. He’s done a lot of things that are unbecoming of his role in public office, and the mainstream media has not investigated his ethics issues. For example, did you know that Hill worked with The Tribune to sabotage a handful of Los Osos sewer critics? That actually happened. The most recognized media outlet on the Central Coast collaborates with Hill — and that’s why you weren’t see Mrs. Velie’s work being reported by The Tribune.


It’s time to stand up against Mr. Hill, and make it count.


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Hill? Who cares? But MRS. Velie??? She said she wasn’t married…


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I was listening to Dave today, and he read a email response from Adam Hill in which Hill tried to blame Karen Velie and Ed Waage for this whole brouhaha. Adam Hill has clearly cut all ties to reality. At this point it would actually be cruel to reelect Hill. I would take no joy in seeing this man have a complete psychic breakdown on the public stage, and I hope the voters in his district will do the right thing by letting him return to private life with whatever shreds of dignity and self-respect he has left.


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“and all it takes is a feather to nudge him spouting the Fascist agitprop.”


“Agitprop” definition– agitation and propaganda, especially for the cause of communism


Is it really possible to spout the fascist communist propaganda? Aren’t fascism and communism two different things?


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What a strange little man.


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It actually seems very possible.


The guy, Hill, is friends with Blake. Hill calls his buddy Blake and rat f*cks him a little about his letter. Blake, not too bright I’m guessing and maybe a little too excitable, falls for it and “outs” Waage – only to find out that he actually scr*wed his friend! Unintentional reverse rat f*ck.


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You smell like the RAT!


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A RAT smells his own hole first !


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He who smelt it dealt it. What are we, third graders?


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Adam Hill’s response to the CCN’s request for confirmation of the call triggered responses from Hill that are ….very….odd….


And the whole thing about Mrs. Blake not recognizing his voice, but then days later claiming he was a good friend? This is a weird story.


All quotes are taken from the CCN article:


TIMELINE: On Friday, 1/6/2012, Mrs. Blake received a phone call by someone who identified himself as Mr. Waage. . Hill’s initial phone call to Blake: ““Hi Mrs. Blake, I read your letter in the Tribune, are you a communist, or a socialist, or both or maybe a Marxist, this is Ed Waage. Just wanted to let you know what I thought.”


Friday, 1/6/2012: Mrs. Blake didn’t think the voice sounded like Mr. Waage, so forwarded it to Waage’s office. Waage reviewed it, ID’d it as being Adam Hill’s voice, and stated, “I am disappointed that Adam Hill would make a phone call and pretend the phone call was from me,” Waage said.”


Monday, 1/9/2011: A CCN reporter emailed to Mr. Hill: “I have a voice message that was left on an answering machine of a Pismo Beach resident who had an opinion letter in the Tribune, and while the call says it is from Ed Waage, several people contend it is you. How do you respond to allegations you made the phone call?</”


Monday, 1/9/2011: Mr. Hill "…subsequently refused to answer questions about the phone message after being provided a transcript of the Blake call.”


Monday, 1/9/2011: “Hill responded in an email on Monday saying the questions were “malicious, gotcha stuff,” and that he hoped the reporter was “confident that the constant campaign of defamation” against him “could not be proven to show actual malice.”


Monday, 1/9/2011: Mr. Hill attempts to shift blame for his own stupidity by refusing to answer the questions, and then implying attempting to shift blame to unnamed others for some kind of “constant campaign of defamation”: ” were ‘malicious, gotcha stuff,’ and that he hoped the reporter was ‘confident that the constant campaign of defamation’ against him ‘could not be proven to show actual malice.’ “


Wednesday evening, 1/11/2012, Mrs. Blake calls in: “..Blake says Hill, a good friend, called to explain that he had made the call as an ‘innocent joke.’ “ ”


DISCUSSION: Adams FAILED in his attempted coverup of the call. He never did address the CCN reporter’s question directly. Instead, he blamed the reporter for asking a very simple question: did he make the phone call to Mrs. Blake? Either he did or he didn’t. Hill’s rant about a ‘constant campaign of defamation” targeting him makes him look paranoid and unstable.


Also…EXCUSE ME. If someone is a “good friend,” you can recognize their voice on the phone. In addition, good friends don’t throw each other under the bus. Clearly Mrs. Blake’s “friendship” is being used by Hill to get her to take the heat for his weird behavior.


Her shift from being clueless about who was called on a Friday to the following Wednesday saying her “good friend,” Hill, was just playing a joke…it makes her look like she is either worse at cover-ups than HIll is, or that she is addle-brained, or she is happily allowing Hill to throw her under the bus.


In addition, Hill’s bigotry about people who don’t walk in lock-step unison with his own ideas of the best government for America is creepy. Also, he looks foolish slinging around the attack jingoism the fringe right now uses as attacks–jingoisms that were heard in the 1950s, for heaven’s sake.. “Communist”? Really, that’s about as believable as “duck and cover.”


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Fascism : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control [Webster online]


Slower, your hate/threat sounds a lot like fascism. It’s very unacceptable. Stop it and post your opinions, not personal attacks.


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I would say the only thing he’s guilty of is behaving like a 13 year old mean girl. I wouldn’t call it illegal,

but it sure doesn’t get my vote around election time.


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He sounds like he has some pretty wide mood swings. To try to blame his own idiotic phone call on a “constant campaign of defamation”—not so good coming from a supervisor o a county board. It makes him sound paranoid.


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It’s embarassing to be in 3rd district and be registered as a democrat! slocal, you must be a neighbor as well. Doesn’t get your vote? This man needs to be recalled at best and prosecuted at worst. How many times can you make us all look like complete hicks by having him represent us. I want him gone yesterday!


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Honestly, I’m not sure who right now I would recall first. Our entire system from Katie Lichtig down

to Paul “I left my loaded guns in my center console and it just so happened someone decided to

ransack my car” Brown is making us look like a corrupt little backwoods town.


But Adam’s ehem indiscretion is just downright embarrassing and sitcom-like.


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