Supervisor Adam Hill
OPINION by STEW JENKINS
On Feb. 10, the Tribune ran San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill’s letter touting depression as his excuse for misbehavior.
Depression and deception both start with the letter “D,” Mr. Hill, but depressed people are not compelled to deceive. On the other hand, it should depress you that your chronic deception is, predictably, recognized by more and more of the public.
The Tribune should have recognized your blemished character when you impersonated your election opponent in a phone message left for Sheila Blake, accusing her of being a Communist, a Socialist or maybe a Marxist, after she’s published a letter opposing Pismo’s Los Robles Del Mar development. That should have been the tip-off.
An honest elected representative does not threaten to withhold county grants to entities helping the poor, after finding out individuals helping those non-profits serve the poor have endorsed an opponent. These were not one-offs.
Too many of your apologies and promises to change have come and gone, all unfulfilled Mr. Hill. Stop being depressed. Stop trying to fool friends, competitors, the press and the public. Stop fooling yourself. You are not the great and indispensable Supervisor. Resign. Be happy. Resign to make your constituents happy.
Open the way for Governor Jerry Brown to swiftly fill your seat with an honest temporary representative of Third District voters until the 2020 election.
Stew Jenkins is a San Luis Obispo public interest lawyer who handles municipal law, estate planning and family law. In 2012, he successfully obtained an injunction against the City of San Luis Obispo to stop it criminalizing poor people (with Adam Hill support of the city’s program) as a means of driving them out of town. Jenkins supports rights to equal justice, to organize unions, to project labor agreements, to health care and to equal dignity.
It is insensitive and irresponsible for Hill to characterize people who suffer from depression as mean-spirited vindictive individuals who lack the insight or ability to control their evil outbursts due to their condition.
Given Hill’s consistent track record for dissembling, I suspect that his failure to show up to work has more to do with an ulterior motive or “cunning” plan to either avoid or commit an unpleasant act, than it is to any self-diagnosed malady.
All good points Mr. Jenkins with one exception…do you honestly expect that Governor Brown would appoint someone honest? He just appointed Matt Guerrero as a judge for pete’s sake!