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Police, public ream Arroyo Grande council and manager

September 24, 2014

arroyo grandeThe Arroyo Grande City Council and its embattled city manager received a barrage of criticism Tuesday night from both members of the public and city police officers.

About 75 people attended Tuesday’s council meeting, many of whom wore black in support of the Arroyo Grande Police Officer’s Association and spoke during public comment. All of the speakers spoke in opposition to the council’s handling of an apparent affair between City Manager Steve Adams and Community Development Director Teresa McClish, whom officers discovered together in a darkened City Hall office late at night on July 3.

On Tuesday, officers who spoke during public comment focused their criticism on the alleged coverup of the July 3 incident. They maintained that city management and council members have misrepresented their statements about Adams and McClish, have lied about apparent violations of city policy and have impeded a proper investigation of the matter.

One former officer said during public comment that Adams broke the law by lying to a police officer, and that he should be terminated. Other public speakers also called for the termination of Adams, as well as the resignation of council members.

Adams was frequently shaking his head in disagreement with the officer comments Tuesday night.

Not one speaker supported him.

Over the weekend, the council caved and agreed to allow an independent investigation of the July 3 incident. A task force including council members Tim Brown and Jim Guthrie will choose the investigator.

Mayor Tony Ferrara invited the police union to participate in the selection of the investigator, but the police officers association rejected the offer Tuesday. Officers said that it is not their duty to investigate personnel matters and city policy violations by city leaders and questioned why officials involved in the alleged cover-up would have any say in the investigation.

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Ferrara is a far bigger cancer on the credibility and operation of the City of AG than Adams. Both (plus McClish) need to go.


I’ve really had my fill of arrogant POSs like Ferrara. He’s going to do everything in his power to stick around and for what reason? His own bloated ego. His continued presence will cast a toxic pall over the City of Arroyo Grande. He WILL have a deleterious effect on the city if he sticks around.


It’s remarkable (although altogether too common) that someone like him will do everything they can to continue, KNOWING their presence negatively impacts the very city they have promised to serve.


Please move along, Ferrara. If you do, it’ll no doubt have a positive impact on AG. It will save the city money on legal fees and payouts. It might also spread the word that people like you shouldn’t be voted for in the future.


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+1 for the use of “toxic pall” – nice!


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Noticed Mayor Ferrara has added a Re-elect Costello sign next his Elect Caren Ray and Re-elect Katcho sign in his front yard. In case someone needed more reasons not to vote for Mr. Costello, no Re-elect Brown sign, so that is actually a plus for Mr. Brown.


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Also big signs for Ray and Costello on a development of Nick Tompkins, no surprise there. Strike Two at least.


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Sounds like a good reason not to vote for ANY of them.

If the sign is in Tony’s yard—DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM!


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It’s pretty obvious what’s about to happen, a la Paso’s own Chittygate:


1) Steve Adams will admit no wrongdoing whatsoever. He doesn’t really need to. He has enough support from city councilmen (just like Lisa did) to keep coasting for a while.


2) The city council will spend thousands of taxpayer bucks for some consulting firm (cities just LOVE “consulting firms”) to stage a so-called “independent investigation.” That may take a while but they’ll try to speed it up before election time.


3) The results of the investigation will be confidential. Ahhhh–gotta love those confidential personnel rules.


4) Mr. Adams will then “retire early” (more Chittygate memories) OR resign then undoubtedly move on to another city manager job out of the area–probably even out of state. But before he retires, he’ll probably take a PAID two week “personal leave” just like Lisa did.


5) Then–the best part–Steve Adams will receive a LOT of golden parachute $$$$. Maybe not a quarter of a million bucks like Lisa Solomon Chitty did but Mr. Adams will be just fine financially. Thanks, taxpayers!!


Just like in Paso–AG’s roads aren’t great, city services have been cut…BUT there will be plenty of $$$ in the general fund for a big payout in the not-so-distant future.


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Someone is bound to get you coming or going, it’s a no-win situation. Pay Adams on the way out, or the other employees for the stressful environment created by him staying.


This is absolutely the reason why personnel regulations allow for termination with no severance pay when policies are violated.


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If that city manager is fired for cause it will be a first and a real model for other towns to follow in dealing with situation like this. What an enormous amount of pressure it takes to get this mayor and city council to follow the law!


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However many city administrators still have generous payout clauses in their contracts.

Paso’s awful city manager Jim App has a sweet deal where he can be fired and STILL getover $200K in bye-bye money.


No doubt, Steve Adams’ days are numbered in AG but chances are he will STILL walk away with a nice amount of taxpayer cash. :( Not fair, is it…


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Fire them for cause and then take the golden parachutes to court. At least the city would regain some credibility.


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Take the mayor and city council to court if they payout undue severance or vacation . Class action lawsuit, citizens against city, let them pay out of their pockets.


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The large payouts are negotiated into their contracts. In Morro Bay, the previous council had an illegal meeting to raise the severance pay of both the city manager and city attorney. This was done shortly before the new council was sworn in, a Brown Act violation. When the city attorney and city manager were let go they scored a bundle.


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We cannot wait for TONY to spend a month finding an investigation, then wait for the Council to convene. ADAMS has to get OUT of CITY HALL!


Citizens must go to the planning commission, the architectural review board. the traffic commission also. These commissioners are appointed by each of the Council members.


TO KEEP IT IN THE NEWS WE MUST BE PRESENT at the Harvest Festival.


THE length of TIME will make this thing go away.

We must demand a special open meeting. The employees of the City cannot take it any more.


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From the County Clerk Recorder Candidates Manual:

Write-In Candidates – EC § 8600 – 8605

There is no filing fee to be a write-in candidate. Write-in candidates are only allowed for Non- partisan contests. There is no provision for write-in candidates for Voter-Nominated offices in the General Election.


Non-Partisan contests – File between the dates of September 8 and October 21, 2014


To be a write-in candidate for a non-partisan contest that will be on the ballot, a person must file a Statement of Write-In Candidacy and Nomination Papers, if applicable, with the requisite number of signatures as required for the office. If the contest is not on the ballot due to insufficient nominees (EC § 10515) the write-in period does not apply.


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To agag1: I understand and agree we are already in the land of cronyism and ineffective government. Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill are either grateful to have the attention shift from them to someone/somewhere else, or, are jealous of the attention in a way that would only make sense to a narcissist.


By putting up a fight, we all hope that AG has not slipped into a similar grip of power, fear and corruption as in Paso, where the culture for that city government and that town is so high, only County government arguably rivals it.


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You are so right, and we residents bear a great deal of the responsibility for the situation we are in. Shame on us.


Initially we were too trusting, hoping and expecting our elected officials to do right by us.

As time went by, we were either too busy, too whatever, to take much notice.


Many of us have had our own private (or not so private) issues with our city government, but as is the case with a onesy-twosey issue, not much attention is given, and results go unnoticed by most.


Now that Caren Ray is gone, moving on the greener pastures of Hill & Gibson (but hopefully not for long) a lot of us have woken up to realize the damage this terrible trio can inflict if we don’t do SOMETHING.


Personally, I’ve realized it’s time to clean up our own back yard. We love Arroyo Grande, but despise what those in power have done to our once fine City. Sure, things look great on the outside, what’s not to love about the village, etc,? We have so much to offer…


But once you’ve been subject to a run-in with the city it is something you NEVER forget. That’s when you learn what’s really going on behind the scenes. The very people you assume are there to support you will turn on you in a hot-minute if it means they can collect higher fees, or whatever, by doing exactly what it is they attempted to do in order to keep Adams as manager.


They withhold the truth, twist the facts, play stupid if need be, and on the other hand profess to know it all…surely YOU are the one with the incorrect facts, our people are professional!


This is not to say that there aren’t a lot of good, decent folks who work for our city. I’m sure there are, I don’t personally know ONE city employee, yet I’d be willing to bet there are some just about ready to tear their hair out in frustration over what they see on a daily basis at our beloved City Hall. They keep hinting, “if only you knew…”


It makes me hopeful that if we can bring change, a lot of the BS will come to a screeching halt. At any rate, we have to start somewhere, and if not here, where? If not now, when? If not us, who?

Time to get busy, good people of AG. There’s lots to be done…


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Any ideas on what the eventual pay-outs will be?Will they eclipse those paid by Paso Robles? Hmmmm…..


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If you terminate with cause- there should be NO PAY OUT!

This is why the Council must reconvene NOW and do their job.


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Right on!

Step up, put your big boy pants, (or big girl panties) on and DEAL WITH IT!


No employer EVER like to dismiss an employee,

but you can’t throw Adams a life raft

and tell everyone else who works for you to swim to shore.


Waaaaaay uncool!


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I fear, that will never be disclosed…thus the inevitability of a big pay out as hush money.

Reflect on Chiity Chitty Bang Bang’s dismissal and it become clear. Hopefully AG won’t allow that to happen.


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Listen to KVEC’s Dave Congalton’s podcast of Monday 09/22 to hear extensive detail and fervent viewpoints regarding all aspects of this issue.


http://920kvec.com/podcasts/congalton/09-22-14.mp3


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