A.G. manager Adams’ job on line again

November 14, 2014

by DANIEL BLACKBURN

A special 6 p.m. meeting of the Arroyo Grande City Council Wednesday will feature the possible dismissal, discipline, or release of embattled City Manager Steve Adams, as well as the unveiling of the results of an independent investigation commissioned by the council.

Chuck Hookstra of Ventura’s Sentra Group will make a public presentation of findings of the probe into a July 3 City Hall incident involving Adams and a subordinate employee, Community Development Director Teresa McClish. The pair was found in a darkened office near midnight by police officers responding to an emergency call from McClish’s husband.

The incident fueled community dissension after Mayor Tony Ferrara was accused of attempting to fashion a cover-up of the incident and of being dismissive of city residents and police officers who expressed dissatisfaction with the official disposition of the affair.

That civil unhappiness led to a vote of no-confidence by the Arroyo Grande Police Officers’ Association in both Ferrara and Adams. Then, a swiftly-organized campaign evolved to support a write-in candidate, Jim Hill, to challenge Ferrara, who was planning on running unopposed after a decade and a half as a city leader.

Ferrara now trails in the vote count to Hill; final results will not be known until early next week. Ferrara is the newly-elected president of the League of California Cities, a position he will lose if Hill prevails.