Today, Adam Hill wrote a viewpoint in The Tribune that discussed his obligation to help he people he serves as a member of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.
Mr. Hill wrote about the “finest pleasure” of “engaging students in larger moral discussions” with his students when he taught literature at Cal Poly. Not once has he publicly engaged in a discussion of similar constructs as a public official. At meetings, even when the issue of homelessness was brought up, his response to the issue was minimal at best.
Mr. Hill left one fact out of his viewpoint. On September 4th, the Homeless Services Coordinating Council (HSCC) revealed that most of the homeless found in San Luis Obispo are homegrown, not transients. In the survey conducted by the HSCC, 38% of the homeless — out of the 3,800 that were counted and surveyed — said they were originally from San Luis Obispo County. As a County representative of the HSCC, Mr. Hill appears dedicated to building a shelter on a 1.1-acre parcel at Prado Road and South Higuera Street, but he hasn’t acknowledged the causes of homegrown homelessness nor has he acted on any preventative measures to keep individuals and families financially afloat during this economic recession.
A little more than 20 years ago, in an editorial written by the St. Petersburg Times (May 15, 1989), it reads, “It is also easier to condemn [the homeless] as economically marginal, although plenty of ‘average’ Americans live just a paycheck or two from eviction, repossession and the street.” Since that editorial was published, things have gotten worse, especially in SLO County.
During a time when California is overspending and over-taxing as a means of solving the abundance of fiscal problems found in the state budget, the Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously and consistently for public works projects that have no cap on the total costs, no relief for middle-class taxpayers who have been playing by the rules, no relief for senior citizens and no way of knowing how much the taxpayer is going to end up paying when the shovel meets the ground. The most notable example is the Los Osos wastewater project, which have total costs estimated at $165 million with the possibility that costs could go even higher. Mr. Hill has voted on all measures to increase spending for the project but he’s never answered the question of how much taxpayers will have to pay.
Mr. Hill wrote in his viewpoint, “In my current job as county supervisor, such timeless philosophical musings are largely limited to my own time. This is not at all a bad thing as I see it. I believe I was elected to enable action more so than contemplation, and after all, most government meetings require very specific and narrowly practical forms of deliberation and debate.”
Maybe that’s the problem. If Mr. Hill spent more time on his philosophical musings while he sat on the board, if he spent as much time contemplating as he’s done enabling, then he would quickly realize that his vote has brought thousands of taxpayers to the brink of homelessness — and building only one shelter for those who already on the street isn’t going to cut it. Mr. Hill, consider building a shelter for the rest of us.
