Shame on you!?! 

Have liberals gone bonkers? Maybe the Liar in Chief Donald “Birther-Crowd Size-Wire Tapp” Trump has set some, toxic tone that makes liberals engage in politics to try and match Orange Mussolini’s mendacious rhetoric. 

I’ll tell you one thing, as of the March 7 SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, 3rd District Supervisor Adam Hill has completed his transformation from bombastic but bighearted liberal to a thoroughly infantile Trumpian gasbag more interested in straw man attacks on his opponents than a reasoned discussion.

Both Hill and fellow liberal 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson were less than enamored by the way conservative 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton got her discussion of proposed Nipomo-area parks on the agenda, but Hill went apoplectic, accusing Compton of lying and agitating the public with said lies, leading to a gaggle of Nipomoites showing up at the meeting to decry the lack of spending for public amenities. 

“I think when you make accusations that are deliberately meant to inflame the members of a community, this is dangerous,” Hill shot at Compton.

Their “discussion” eventually devolved into Hill saying, “Shame on you for your lies!” and Compton responding, “Shame on you!” 

Oh, grow up!

Look, let’s be real. Nipomo has been less than engaged in securing funding and lobbying for itself, so one reason it doesn’t have enough recreational facilities is due to its own inaction, but Compton is on the case now, and she has a pretty startling statistic to show that Nipomo hasn’t been getting its fair share of funds. 

A staff report shows that in the past 12 years, the South County generated $10.88 million in certain development fees but only received $2.02 million of those fees to spend. Meanwhile, the Coastal Zone generated $2.23 million in fees but received $8.2 million in expenditures, and SLO Town generated $1.7 million in fees but received $9.65 million in expenditures. Gibson and Hill’s districts are largely represented in those two well-funded areas. 

Does that mean the two liberal supes are misappropriating funds? Nope. They followed the rules, according to Rita Neal, who serves as county counsel. 

“I realize you can do that,” Compton asserted. “I just think it’s not fair.”

It sure doesn’t seem fair, and maybe Compton’s approach to furthering her agenda has been unorthodox, but you have to admire her tenacity in lobbying for her constituents.

Or maybe all that funding for the Coastal Zone and SLO Town means Gibson and Hill are kickass supes who know how to bring home the bacon to their districts!

Yeah, maybe, but we’re all citizens of SLO County, and I do leave SLO Town occasionally and would love to drive down to the Jim O. Miller Memorial Park or the Jack Ready Imagination Park or an expanded Dana Adobe or a new skate park in Nipomo … except they aren’t there and neither was even the hint of needed money to develop and build them … until now! Now there’s a hint.

Hill and Gibson can bitch and moan that they didn’t like the way Compton has gone about politics, but guess what? She got ’er done! Sometimes strong-arming works out. 

Sometimes it makes you look like an unprofessional jerk.

Case in point: Charles Tenborg’s defamation case against CalCoastNews, which started March 8. Tenborg claims the online blog libeled him in a Nov. 14, 2012, story that said he had illegally transported hazardous waste and encouraged local agencies to ignore state law. Tenborg’s not the unprofessional jerk, by the way. Read on.

The fun actually started on March 6 when lawyers from both camps argued pre-trial motions before SLO Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera, who probably felt like Judge Judy trying to sort out “The Case of the Angry Roommates.”

First, attorney James Wagstaffe, representing Tenborg, claimed one of CalCoastNews’ lawyers, Jim Duenow, said harassing stuff to him. 

“I did say he was an effing disgrace to the bar,” Duenow admitted.

Unprofessional? Yes. Harassing? Maybe. Childish? Definitely!

Duenow also claimed one of his witnesses had been threatened with a lawsuit over the phone and he suspected Wagstaffe’s firm was behind it, though he proffered zero evidence during the hearing.

When LaBarbera called a recess in the proceedings, Duenow walked up behind Wagstaffe and poked him in the back.

Oh! Cute! Like a Facebook poke? Um, no. Like an eff-you poke.

Attorney Ivo Labar, a Wagstaffe law partner, told Duenow poking was a no-no, and as Duenow left the courtroom, he could be heard muttering, “How about if I punch him?”

Did you actually go to law school and pass the bar, Jimbo? Because I don’t think you know how this whole lawyering thing is supposed to go. There’s no poking, no accusations without evidence, and absolutely no punching. 

Is it any wonder people don’t trust lawyers? 

All I know for sure is that between Adam Hill’s baby-man outbursts and Jim Duenow’s schoolyard bully antics, we could really use Charles Tenborg’s hazardous waste removal services for all the crap coming out of their mouths. 

The Shredder doesn’t mince words; it shreds them. Send ideas and comments to [email protected].