Hill tries to divert spotlight away from his fiancée

March 3, 2013

By CALCOASTNEWS STAFF

An Arroyo Grande marketing company that worked on the successful re-election bid of San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill has launched a new website attacking those who question Hill and his fiancée’s actions.

“Some friends have begun a new website and a political action committee to push back against the fact-free toxicity coursing through our community from the likes of the Tea Party, COLAB, Congalton, and CalCoastNews,” Hill wrote in a mass email sent out Saturday, introducing the debut issue of SLOSense. “I am interested to see what they do and whether it provides the necessary counterweight to the hateful nonsense being spewed.”

The new site, which uses the same IP address as AdamHill.us, does not identify the names of its writers. The domain is registered to Paul Hughes, who is the owner of PoliARC and a paid political consultant of Hill.

SLOSense fired an opening salvo on its Facebook page against CalCoastNews, calling it “voyeurism” to post the salaries of CAPSLO managers in a recent news story.

“Publishing the salaries of government workers, whether they’re part of a fixed narrative or not, is neither fair nor honorable,” the SLOSense Facebook page says. A sentiment not held by the state legislature, which in light of the city of Bell scandal, has touted the importance of transparency and requires government agencies to disclose salaries.

Hill threatened to destroy CalCoastNews last summer if reporters continued to investigate allegations concerning the treatment of the homeless in San Luis Obispo. He recently became engaged to Dee Torres, Director of Homeless Services for CAPSLO, one of the subjects of an on going CalCoastNews investigation.

More than a dozen current and ex-employees of CAPSLO have voiced their concerns about mistreatment of the homeless under Torres’ management, four of whom were quoted in a recent CalCoastNews story. Hill has countered claiming reporters and sources have an “axe to grind.”

“This is not journalism, this is axe grinding and score settling by four disgruntled ex-employees who were fired,” Hill said on a Facebook post. “Now that they’ve come forward with fallacious allegations, I believe CAPSLO will be able to share their personnel histories. You can’t lie about your ex-employer so as to smear the work they do.”