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A.G. won’t pursue investigation of Adams

September 10, 2014

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

Two top Arroyo Grande officials escaped further sanctions late Tuesday after council members veered from promises to probe deeper into the pair’s late-night rendezvous in City Hall.

The July 3 incident involving City Manager Steve Adams and subordinate Teresa McClish, community development director, was kept submerged from public view following a brief inquiry into the matter by the city attorney’s office. Deputy City Attorney Michael McMahon elected to believe Adams and McClish’s accounts over police officer official reports.

The council went into closed session Tuesday at the end of their regular meeting to discuss Adam’s job performance. After an hour, they emerged to report they had taken no action, meaning the matter is now officially closed.

City Manager Steve Adams and Teresa McClish

City Manager Steve Adams and Teresa McClish/Photo by Daniel Blackburn

Police responding to an emergency call from McClish’s husband led them to a darkened City Hall, where they discovered the pair in a back office with clothing askew.

According to Adams, the pair had been “drinking tea” to sober up after attending a restaurant opening.

Grainy video provided by the city shows Adams running across the street toward City Hall to join McClish in the parking lot following the event. He then turns and runs after several people leave Roberts Restaurant and returns several minutes later after McClish flashes her car lights.

Tuesday’s meeting drew a slightly smaller crowd than two weeks ago, when three members of the council expressed their desire to schedule a discussion of the matter on the regular meeting agenda. Instead, the item was placed at the very end of the agenda and conducted in secret as required by law, according to City Attorney Timothy Carmel.

Resident Otis Page told the council, “You lied to us. You promised an agenda item to discuss this openly yet you did not agendize it. This issue has legs and it is not going away. Dishonesty has costs.” Vanessa Andrews said she is “one of those people who is upset. If you support Adams and McClish in this you are creating a hostile work environment. Do the right thing for once.”

Heather Jensen said she was “disappointed” by the lack of an agenda discussion.

“We citizens need to know what happened,” she said. “We need a Grand Jury probe.”

Connie Avila noted police department personnel were “gagged” by city officials, and Beatrice Spencer said city officials were accepting Adams’ version of events over the interpretation of four police officers.

Bob Hatch, who said he is a 40-year resident of the city, asked the council to stop the investigation.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t want this to go on,” he said.

Adams and McClish sat together for a brief period while McClish outlined a city program for the council.


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I talked to a merchant today who stated Bob Lund sent out a letter singing the praises of Steve and Teresa since the last council meeting, and basically saying that they need to stand behind these two, The letter I was told was initiated by Tony Ferrara, and Bob was just the foot soldier.


This council is not going to become any more transparent than they are right now with Tony as our mayor.


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Mayor Ferrara also initiated the Mary Verdin, water-saving Facebook extraordinaire, meet ‘n greet with the council, which resulted in a 1-yr $70K job for our city.

She apparently has Nick Tompkins to thank for making the call to Tony.


It’s no wonder they don’t seem to take issue with Steve’s lies.

Maybe when compared to Ed Arnold, and Caren Ray, Adams is a peach.


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For $20k we could get a granny squad to campaign door-to-door and evaluate every home. Go inside and place a couple of sand filled water bottles in toilet tanks, check for sprinkler leaks, report any house holds with lush green yards. All we need are the trailer park rules committees from the local mobile home parks. This city would be canvassed in 30 days and water usage cut in half.


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We could use the granny squad to campaign door-to-door for a write in candidate.

Inevitably it would save AG lots of $$$$


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Good ‘ol Bob, nice man. Carries Tony’s water like it’s his job…still.

We used to refer to his store as Tony’s DL campaign headquarters.


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MIKE BYRD YOU NEED TO RUN AS A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE FOR AG MAYOR!


You probably already have signs that could be used with slight modification, you have recently run a campaign courting a much larger voter base and you have name recognition!


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Mike I don’t know you but I know Tony, he needs to go.


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Sure sounds like these well-paid City employees were acting like drunken teenagers with keys to the house while the parents are away. Ridiculous waste of money. Give them a warning that if anything happens again like this that they will be immediately fired. They’ve both shown Lack of maturity, integrity, respect for the public’s money, respect for law enforcement, respect for themselves and their spouses. The City Manager could be fired for sexual harassment.


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Um and why was the City Manager in his office late at night behind his door with her clothes partially off? Come on. Get real. This is high-school misbehavior on the tax payers money. Knock it off.


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Um and why was the City Manager in his office late at night behind his door with her clothes partially off? Come on. Get real. This is sexual misbehavior on the tax payers money. Knock it off.


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I guess I am being unreasonable to expect more from two highly paid “adult” public servants than the behavior of drunken teenagers. For a teenager a warning may be reasonable but not for “our”( the citizens of A.G.) employees. Any other employer would have fired them.


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Another side effect of increased government power. Government officials are no longer accountable even at the local level. At the state and federal level we have lost all accountability.


Keep voting for big government California.


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Yes, I think competent journalists would probe this juicy affair in order to protect the family jewels… I mean city’s finances.


I think maintenance staff might also sue for possible exposure to hazardous waste.


Has Mr. Adams coerced or plied any other city employees with alcohol? Will they (the horny teenagers) pay for the cost of police response? Will Teresa McClish’s husband sue the city if he divorces his wife for playing footsies on the public’s dime?


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I think if the Police Department is that sloppy in its reporting of accounts of what happened its time to go through all cases that have been initatied through the department and have convictions overturned due to inaccurate reporting by police. If our Mayor and City Officals dont have any faith in the Police Department imagine the many other cases that were trumped up, false, “made mistakes”

And to think…….These Officials work for us.


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For city officials to insinuate the police are to blame for this situation is ridiculous.

No doubt pressure was put upon those officers to word their statements VERY CAREFULY, considering who was involved in the incident.

We all know that any other employees would not have received the kid glove treatment.


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This could have easily been cleared up with a character reference faxed in from Pedro Garcia. It worked for the other Adams when he was in hot water.


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Rest assured AG residents, our council has it all under control.

They have reprimanded Mr Adams(for what, we do not know).


Did they:

A. Tell him he is no longer to attend functions where alcohol is served.

B. Give him an unlimited cab pass–see future expense account statements

C. Take away his keys to the office

D. Move him to an office with a smaller, or no window

E. Prohibit him from appearing on KSBY until further notice

F. All of the above

G. None of the above


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I don’t give a rat’s hole as to what went on. What I care about is that this was covered up and the police were maligned, with AG officials making claims that the police were willing to lie about the incident for the sake of budget negotiations. Please. And if you, the AG representatives, are willing to sweep this under the rug, I now know you’re capable of worse. F*ck You.


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I care and hope that the cleaning crew sanitized the building – next time in city hall it will be difficult to touch anything.


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