Bribery, fraud and threats mar Hill’s financial plans

August 2, 2024

Adam Hill speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for a PB Companies project in 2015.

Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-part series regarding the history of former San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill based largely on statements and interviews released as part of a federal criminal trial regarding corruption, bribery, and fraud. Read part-one: “Adam Hill’s tortuous journey to San Luis Obispo County.” Read part-two: “Adam Hill’s widow recounts his hunger for money, women.”

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill and Dee Torres-Hill’s honeymoon was short-lived. Torres-Hill left her job at CAPSLO shortly after she was demoted, leading the couple to seek new sources of income.

Hill came home one day in 2014 and told his new wife that he wanted to be a consultant. He planned to work for local developers Ryan Wright (also known as Ryan Petetit) and attorney John Belsher, Torres-Hill told an investigator. After learning he was a target in a criminal investigation, Wright hired investigator Heidi Alonzo to interview Torres-Hill and produce a report.

Hill asked San Luis Obispo attorney Don Ernst, who introduced Hill to Belsher, to help him find a lawyer to navigate the process.

Hill paid attorney “Diane Fishburn $5,000 in 2014 for advice on a consulting contract,” according to Torres-Hill’s 2022 interview. Fishburn allegedly told Hill not to do consulting work for projects in SLO County because of issues with conflicts of interest, advice he appears to have dismissed.

For years, residents had voiced concerns over alleged bribery and special favors tied to Hill and others. In March 2020, FBI agents raided Hill’s Shell Beach home and his office in the county government center as part of a widespread corruption investigation.

Torres-Hill knew Ernst before she met her husband, she said. Ernst agreed to sponsor a childcare coordinator position at the nonprofit Torres worked. He then donated “about $30,000 the first time and funded the position for a while.”

At that time, Ernst became Torres-Hill’s confidant because she thought he cared about the homeless, she said.

Before CAPSLO demoted Torres-Hill in 2015, she had already created a new nonprofit and had begun soliciting donations from wealthy developers who had dealings with Hill. Hill, in turn, lobbied on behalf of developers donating or pledging to support Torres-Hill’s fledgling nonprofit, the SLO Housing Connection.

While Hill promoted PB Companies’ development projects, Belsher and Wright made multiple commitments to local nonprofits, many of which they did not honor. While Torres-Hill wanted to work with Belsher and Wright, her board did not agree.

“Later, Belsher and Wright offered to help build a homeless shelter, but that never materialized,” according to Alonzo’s 2022 interview with Torres-Hill. “Torres-Hill tried to get the board of Torres-Hill’s’ new homeless non-profit, SLO Housing Connection, to meet with Belsher, but they refused because they said he was shady. Torres did not take that to heart, because everyone in the community said everyone else was shady.”

Even though Hill was warned not to promote projects in SLO County, multiple text messages between Hill and Wright show the supervisor sought money for securing votes in San Luis Obispo.

During a 2023 interview, former San Luis Obispo City Manager Derek Johnson told U.S. Attorney Thomas Rybarczyk that Hill appeared to be representing PB Companies by advocating for their projects in SLO.

SLO City Manager Derek Johnson

From 2014 through 2017, Hill set meetings or called Johnson 10 to 20 times to promote Belsher and Petetit’s projects in SLO, according to the interview. Hill also invited Johnson to attend local events and private soirees.

At Hill’s invitation, Johnson attended a party at Hill’s home along with U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal, Belsher and Wright. During the party, Hill spoke glowingly of Belsher and Wright and their investment in downtown SLO.

Johnson also attended an AMGEN race where he met Hill and Wright in a private viewing tent where Hill relentlessly pushed PB projects and homelessness issues, according to Johnson’s interview.

In his meetings with Johnson, Hill also promoted funding for a new homeless shelter tied to CAPSLO, Torres-Hill’s employer. However, Hill’s support for CAPSLO ended after his wife’s demotion.

“Until he got mad and then decided to – I think at some point he fell out of favor with (indiscernible) largely because his girlfriend and then wife was employed and then was no longer employed there,” according to Johnson’s interview.

Read part-four, “The beginning of the end for SLO County Supervisor Adam Hill.”

 


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And what is the FBI doing about this situation?


They threw petitit in jail, got an CPA firm to close and a coward to kill himself. That’s likely all they do.


Curious to know if Derek Johnson’s departure as San Luis Obispo’s City Manager has anything to do with this scandal that is now coming to light? His timing seems suspicious!


Such a tangled web that we weave when we practice to deceive.


So Derek Johnson knew Hill was “in conflict” (committing a crime) with his relationship with PBCompanies but chose to remain silent. Another crime?


This whole affair is covered in tragedy. It was SO obvious for so long. And the pattern of behavior was not unique. There are still perpetrators in public office today, protected by those who benefit from their alliances. Just look at the moths who swirl around the flames of corrupt power. The FBI needs to move far more quickly. Marijuana, what a joke of an “industry”.


“Man who sleeps with dogs, wakes with fleas”. -Chinese Proverb


This whole sordid affair regarding Adam Hill and his ‘friends’ needs to be completely vetted, and the political types who have taken public tax dollars owe the rest of us that full accounting. We need to hear from the following:

-Derek Johnson

-John Shoals

-Miriam Shah

-Dawn Addis

-Heidi Harmon

-John Ashbaugh

-Andy Pease

-Caren Ray Rossum

-Bruce Gibson

-Carolyn Christianson

-Jan Marx

-Jamie Irons


Let’s grow this list so “those” watching can more connect dots:


-Dan Buckshi –who abruptly left his CAO position in 2017

-Art Trinidad –head of county code enforcement who allegedly left to consult for a cannabis company in the bay

-Harley Voss –SLO cannabis code enforcement officer who left to work for CalCannabis, overseeing state cannabis code enforcement on the central coast

-Cory Black –consultant for multiple projects, including cannabis

-Jamie Kirk Jones/Kirk Consulting –recommended by planning department staff “if you want to get a project through the county, she’s the one to use”

-Nick Andre


Not to mention the shuffling of planning/building department staff from one county department to another

And the exodus of county planning/building department staff

-who went to work for Kirk Consulting

-who went to work for SWCA


I think Dawn Ortiz-Legg is just as bad as her predecessor.


When Dawn was originally handed the job of Supervisor she stated that she was stepping away from her job at PG&E because she could not have any conflict of interest. She simultaneously announced the end to her marriage to Dan Blandford. Obviously if her job at PG&E is a conflict of interest, her husband’s job at PG&E would be too. Greed for power trumps a pesky marriage so why not divorce legally, but remain friends with benefits. Then, use your position of power to help your ex-husband but still very much friend to get a house at the new development in town at a bargain price.


Phase 1 release at San Luis Ranch development consisted of 19 lots on Citrus Ct. Back in 2021, the homes were advertised to “start” in the lower to mid $700k and some were supposed to be for affordable housing. Based on the supplemental tax bills which will show both date of ownership change and purchase price (by means of new assessed value) only 1 of those 19 houses went to the “affordable house” project. Of the other 18 houses sold, somehow Dawn’s ex-husband but forever dear friend, managed to not only purchase a 1,639 sq ft house for $668k (7 houses down from Marx’s $707k 1,339 sq ft house), but it was also the very first house completed and signed off on on 9/28/2021. It is worth noting he only held and owned the house for exactly 2 years and 1 day, selling it for $949k on 9/29/2023 possibly being able to avoid any federal and state income taxes on the gain if he considered it his principal residence.


I guess it’s not considered a kickback if it’s in the name of your ex-husband with whom you still have a marriage-like relationship with.


Hill & Torres also solicited funds from the Grover Beach City Council for housing the homeless. They were provided with over $100,000, which apparently went to fund Dee’s salary. There was never any accounting of how the funds were spent or of whom, if anyone, they actually housed.


Derek Johnson was the community development director until 2016, then switched places with Michael Codron and became assistant city manager until Katie Lichtig left her job as the city manager in 2017. How was Derek influenced when he was switching roles within the city? I just don’t see that.


I’m curious about Katie Lichtig’s role in all of this, too. In 2016, Adam texted me through Facebook, not knowing me but said he didn’t like my support of a certain council person, so Adam said he unfriended me, which was fine with me because I didn’t even know the guy. By the end of the conversation, he said that he thought Katie Lichtig was manipulative, so possibly that’s why he relied on Derek.


There’s likely a bigger story involving some of the former city council members with connections to Hill and Belsher, like John Ashbaugh, and Carlyn Christianson.


It’s such a tangled mess and hope all the details come out!