Why I don’t Trust Richard Hildreth – a history of deception.

My friend Jeanne Fancher is having a problem with an e-mail from Rich Hildreth, mayor of the City of Pacific. The mayor is claiming that a prosecutor has cleared him of any wrongdoing for use of a city credit card for personal travel. What Jeanne has turned up in her research is that the statement Hildreth attributes to a prosecutor was actually written by his subordinate and public safety director, John Calkins, whose department was supposed to investigate the mayor’s use of the card. The investigation also makes it look like the "fix is in". It appears that the right questions weren't asked. So perhaps the mayor hasn’t been cleared after all. The more Jeanne finds out about this, the more she’s feeling a little flim-flammed. This is typical Richard Hildreth, and it’s just one more example of why I don’t trust the guy. 

The first time I met Richard Hildreth was at Pacific days many years ago. I think it was after his first run as a legislative candidate. He boasted that he was a recovered alcoholic. I thought that sounded a little goofy.  

The next memory I have of him  is his visit to my home when we were hosting a coffee hour about an Auburn School District tax levy. Mr. Hildreth crashed the party so he could insert himself into the conversation to tell us all about himself. That was a lot of cheek. And definitely goofy.

While he was a candidate, he sent me a postcard. It had a photo of one of those saguaro cactuses similar to the one pictured below. 

But Mr Hildreth’s saguaro looked a little different. Its branches looked an awful lot like a hand giving you the finger. The message on the

postcard said “Greetings from Arizona!” Mr. Hildreth  wanted me to know that his opponent had missed some meetings and had a second home in Arizona. He left out any information about his qualifications for being a legislator. By giving us the finger he had graduated from goofy to tasteless.

When I told him what I thought of his postcard, he gave me a real peek into his character. Mr. Hildreth  explained that the people who fund his campaign made that decisions and he just had to go along with them. He was not personally responsible.  

 "I'm George Bush, and..."

Some candidates take responsibility for their campaigns. For example, George Bush closed his ads by saying he approved the message. Mr. Bush is the man who lied to Congress about Iraqi weapons in order to get permission to cause a regime change, kill 100,000 Iraqis, and leave their water supply and electrical grid in a shambles. We’re still paying for it in overseas bases and broken American lives. Destabilizing the country led to further killings between religious factions Mr. Bush should qualify as a war criminal. But to his credit he didn’t say that someone else made him do it. 

"But it gets votes!"

When Mr. Hildreth served on the Proposition One committee to have Pacific run by a city manager he wanted the slogan: “Working for Working Families.” That bothered me, because we were promoting a government, not a candidate who might claim to be “working” for us.  I told Mr. Hildreth this slogan was used over and over again. His response: “Yes, because it works.” Not that it was true. He wanted it for the votes.

"I was violating a different law!"
As a city councilman, Mr. Hildreth falsely claimed that he didn’t violate the law by voting to confirm a treasurer whose position was not advertised because the council had approved an  emergency measure to do that. (it had not).

When I pointed out to him the meeting minutes didn’t mention an emergency measure, he claimed that this was approved in an executive session. (It was not – councils cannot take action in executive session.) Mr. Hildreth was essentially arguing that he didn’t violate one law because he was busy violating another. Goofier and goofier. If anyone doubts this story, I still have the e-mails. 
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!
 When Mr. Hildreth became mayor-elect, he told the council it would be illegal for the city to tell the public his council position would soon be vacant and the public could apply for that seat. This was beyond goofy. He was up to something.

I learned later that he was trying to make it possible for another individual to get that seat– a gentleman who had just been thoroughly booted out of office. In a display of their disrespect for voter sentiment, several council members were privately discussing appointing this individual to Mr. Hildreth’s soon-to-be vacant seat. Although Mr. Hildreth didn’t want the public to know about the vacancy, the mayor at the time, Howard Erickson, announced it in the city’s utility bill. But the following month, when Mr. Hildreth had become mayor, that utility bill carried no mention of the opening. 

"I want a cookie too!"
Here’s another little glimpse at Mr. Hildreth’s methods: In his runup for his mayoral race, he circulated a message that included a statement, “Robert, I know you want to be mayor.” He knew this wasn’t true.

While it was written to look like a message to me, it was never sent to me, because that wasn’t the intent. The intent was to excuse his power grab by claiming that someone else was just as greedy. This is the “I’ll say Johnny wants a cookie, so I can get away with reaching into the jar” argument.

      

These events speak directly to the dishonesty of the person who is now running the City of Pacific and keeping people busy double-checking the false claims he makes.

Truth, lies, and B.S.

There are truth tellers, there are liars, and there are bullshitters. Truth tellers respect the truth and share it; liars respect the truth and hide it; bullshitters don’t concern themelves with truth. They will say anything to get what they want. I don’t like the word, bullshit.” I have a better word:”flob-nos-ti-cate.” Flobnostication is not vulgar, and it conveys the same feeling. If you want to know whether Mr. Hildreth is flobnosticating, look at his lips. If they are moving, he is flobnosticating. He does this to confuse and distract until he gets his way.

Lying to the council

For example, A few years ago, When the council considered holding an executive session to review his nominee for the planning commission, Mr. Hildreth interrupted the council’s workshop to flobnosticate. He claimed that such executive sessions are illegal I  researched the issue twice and came to the next meeting to report the session would be legal. Mr. Hildreth baldly stated that he didn’t care, he just didn’t want the council to review the nominee, and if it did, he would boycott the meeting. The only thing more astounding than his admission that he didn't want the council to perform its duty was that the council didn’t mind. They gave up their prerogative to hold the session and confirmed the appointee. 

A few weeks earlier, the city’s planning director had provided the council a letter admonishing this candidate for the violations of city policies regarding her development on Tacoma Boulevard. One of the council members was the business associate of the nominee and had graded the property so poorly that it flooded the street.By accommodating and rewarding Mr. Hildreth’s deception, the city’s legislative branch subordinated itself to an individual who invents his facts to suit his mood.  They approved a candidate supremely unsuitable for her position.

The reason I resigned after that was the same reason Karen McIver, the council president, resigned  a year or so before me: The elected officials of the City of Pacific constituted a nut house.

Flobnosticating the media

Since then, Mr. Hildreth has been caught on camera telling tall tales. In 2009, KOMO TV reported he had claimed that the State Patrol had investigated Public Safety Director John Calkins and cleared him of complaints. KOMO’s Tracy Vedder contacted the State Patrol and found out they hadn’t conducted any investigation. see: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/45543172.html#fin_main

By this time it should be obvious  that to engage in a conversation with Richard Hildreth is to attempt to make sense out of nonsense. If there is anyone on the council who disagrees with me, I’m betting they are the ones who have approved his credit card expenditures. And that's the important thing to remember: Richard Hildreth gets away with his deceptions because the people he interacts with foster his success. He is a product of the Pacific political culture.

In the next blog of Speed Trap City, I’m going to tell you about porn, forgery and the public safety division.