Pro-Arroyo Grande mayor group slams police

October 27, 2014

OPINION By OTIS PAGE

The new internet site “Free the AG Council”  says the Arroyo Grande Police Officers Association has “issued a unanimous vote of no-confidence in Mayor Ferrara and City Manager Steve Adams and has focused relentlessly on a fiction perpetuated by a stridently vocal group over the last few weeks.”

A fiction? This statement directly pertains to each of the five police officers who were called on the evening of July 3 to find City Manager Steve Adams and Teresa McClish, director of community development, at City Hall.

The police officers documented their visits as directed. They have stood as one body through its organization, the AGPOA, saying, in a spirit of political discretion, all was not told.

The new site alleges the police report of the incident is a fiction, a story that is untrue, a malicious yarn spun “by a stridently vocal group” concerned about the Adams/McClish matter.

While asserting the fiction, the site also claims the AGPOA uses “any means available to attempt to intimidate and humiliate the mayor and members of the council,” and that they are intimidated by this fiction, a fiction authored by the AGPOA.

The site then contradicts itself and admits “genuinely appreciating the service of uniformed police officers,” those intimidating the mayor and council by their fiction.

There is no fiction here. The matter of the “fiction” is now subject to a controversial reexamination by a retired police officer of the Sintra Group.

But there are no sworn depositions and no list of deponents that should include other city management and the council as insisted on by citizens testifying in public comment and in writings to the council.

The site appears to represent a cadre of citizens who wish to dismiss the reality of the present scandal, a congregation ignoring the witness and evidence provided by the five courageous police officers. They seem to want to believe the police officers lied.

Now, this is not fiction: It is a fact that in an attempt to keep the matter closed from the public scrutiny, a cover up, was administered from the time of the incident on July 3 until a disclosure by CalCoastNews on Aug. 19 — a period approximating one month and a half.

Pivotal in this matter may be the testimony of at least one person who was allegedly pressured to keep the matter quiet. There hangs in the arena of political and legal probability a profound matter of denying the truth by intimidation to sustain the cover up.

Again, the site in characterizing the matter insists it is “a fiction perpetuated by a stridently vocal group.” This disparages those citizens who were told on Aug. 26 that a “process” and “transparency” would prevail to reveal the facts.

Process and transparency? The whole matter has been secretly managed in the confines of “closed meetings,” suggesting political issues were not considered — it was only a personnel matter. Talk about fiction.

The site obviously intends to offend the many citizens who are rightfully concerned about this matter and its obvious cover up. In doing so it ignores the truth here: For the police officers have not lied.

The site has disparaged the witness of the honored members of AGPOA who dedicate their lives to protect the citizens.