Last week the Vanguard broke the news that a Yolo County District Attorney Investigator Randy Skaggs has filed a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, DA Jeff Reisig and Chief District Attorney Investigator Pete Martin for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.
The key charge was a breach of privacy related to a personnel investigation and the allegation that the DA’s office had initiated this investigation in retaliation for Mr. Skaggs’ involvement in whistle-blowing in a case where he believed the DA’s office had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.
A new newspaper entity is needed in Woodland for the sake of upholding the honor of journalism. If this opinion piece is even printed in the Daily Democrat, the first new service to which I would have submitted this piece, it can be said that our lone Woodland newspaper still upholds some of the sacred duties that come with the territory.
It is very clear that local politicians can easily become interconnected with other politicians for the sake of re-elections. This process becomes rather vulgar when convictions and ideals are ignored for the sake of political endorsements and alliances. This is already evident in Woodland. Political parties are blurred, almost indistinguishable-only one political party really exists, the party of the opportunist. It is no surprise that this sacred covenant has attracted much attention. Recently, the Yolo District Attorney was sued for obstruction of justice; a multi-layer allegation. What this means is that corruption, if at the highest point of Yolo County authority, is most likely also in small areas within the subordinate ranks. Sheriff Ed Prieto is no rookie to allegations of mismanagement, just recently he fired a sheriffs deputy for killing a dog.
Call For Federal Investigation into April 30 Killing of Luis Gutierrez –
What was billed as a mass demonstration on Saturday evening starting at Freeman Park and culminating at the County Court house, spilled into a general protest against District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s abuse of power.
At least 200 people and as many as 300 showed up on a Saturday night in Woodland with the County Fair in full swing. They boisterously but peacefully exercised their First Amendment rights to protest against their government.
It seems like not long ago, I was sitting down and handicapping the races for 2010 and the general conclusion was that District Attorney Jeff Reisig would probably escape without serious challenge. It seemed he built up enough protection and that no one would be particularly eager to challenge him. The sense is at this point however that Mr. Reisig is much more vulnerable than one might think and a credible challenger could emerge with a good shot of knocking him off.
In 2006, Jeff Reisig earned the support of the outgoing District Attorney David Henderson and along with him nearly the entire DA’s office, the entire law enforcement establishment, and most of the political establishment. Indeed, if you looked at the list of endorsements alone, you would assume that Reisig would win in a landslide. And yet, it was a hard and at times bitterly fought race against fellow Deputy DA Pat Lenzi. It was a race marked by outright lies and distortions of Ms. Lenzi’s record. But it was a race that came down to a very narrow victory for Mr. Reisig.
Yolo County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Randy Skaggs has filed a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, DA Jeff Reisig and Chief District Attorney Investigator Pete Martin for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.
In September of 2008, Mr. Skaggs, a ten year veteran DA Investigator was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an administrative inquiry into allegations of misconduct. Details of the discipline case were then disclosed to Dave Markss, Chief DA Investigator for Colusa County’s DA’s Office who sent the details of the conversation to no less than thirteen other Chief District Attorney Investigators.
One of the victims of the budget cuts was the suspension of the Williamson Act which was created in 1965 as a means to preserve farmland and open space from speculative buying and development. The loss in revenue from the counties has historically been made up by the state. However, in the budget crunch, the state has for some reason chosen to take the 28 million dollars that go to counties and place it towards balancing the budget.
While it has led to an outcry from rural counties and agricultural circles, in the scheme of things $28 million is relatively little money both from the standpoint of balancing the budget and a standpoint of popular outcry.
The Vanguard began in July of 2006, a little over a month after District Attorney Jeff Reisig was elected in a tightly battled and hotly contested race with fellow Deputy DA Pat Lenzi. He took office in January of 2007. Both before and since that time rarely a week or month does not go by without hearing a complaint about Yolo County justice and the legal system. And yet, clearly that sentiment does not go very deep because of right now the smart money is that Mr. Reisig will not face a serious challenger in 2010.
A lot can change between now and the end of the year when someone would have to file to run against him. Indeed there are some surprise bombshells that are being held just beneath the surface at this point, that if they saw the light of day could change entire calculations. But that will depend on many factors outside of anyone’s control and it’s not even clear that anyone is waiting in the wings to take advantage, should such an opportunity arise.
A crowd nearing 100 people, mainly family and friends of Ajay Dev, a Davis man who was sentenced to 378 years last week for the rape and sexual assault of his adopted teenage daughter.
Superior Court Judge Timothy L. Fall sentenced Ajay Kumar Dev, 42, for his multiple count conviction of the serial molest and rape of his adopted daughter, which allegedly occurred between January 1999 and December 2004.
Family Claims Miscarriage of Justice and Vows to Fight On
By Royston Sim –
A former Davis resident was sentenced to 378 years and 4 months in state prison Friday at the Yolo County Superior Court. It is one of the longest sentences in Yolo County history.
Superior Court Judge Timothy L. Fall sentenced Ajay Kumar Dev, 42, for his multiple count conviction of the serial molest and rape of his adopted daughter, which allegedly occurred between January 1999 and December 2004.
In one of the least kept secrets locally, soon-to-be Mayor Don Saylor has announced his candidacy for Yolo County Supervisor last night at Central Park. He will be running in District 2, where current Supervisor Helen Thomson will be stepping down after two terms following her exit from Sacramento as a three-term Assemblymember.
Mr. Saylor who will become Mayor in June would make things interesting if he wins the seat. The election for Supervisor is in June of 2010. Should he gain 50 percent of the vote at that time, he would be declared the winner without the race having to go to a run off in November. However, like Supervisor Jim Provenza, he would not actually become Supervisor until January 2011. So for six months he would be the Mayor of Davis while he is Supervisor-in-waiting.
The people of Davis and surrounds dodged a bullet recently when proponents of a transmission line through Yolo County withered against vocal opposition. Some opponents were probably surprised by the proposed transmission line, but some were probably more surprised by the quick collapse of the proposed project. What caused the collapse? The financial environment? Uncertainty over the regulatory environment? The utilities’ respect for public concern?
I don’t know why the Transmission Agency of Northern California’s (TANC) project collapsed, but I do suspect scrutiny of the project, had it continued, would have surprised folks even more than the project’s arrival or its demise. The project’s goal was to bring renewable energy to our region from northeastern California – sounds good, so far – but TANC didn’t say much about the renewable energy they’d be delivering, or the likely project impacts or alternatives.
On July 15, the Transmission Agency of California (TANC) shelved a proposed 1.5 billion dollar project to build more than 600 miles of high-voltage power lines that would provide renewable energy from Lassen County to the Bay Area and Central Valley.
TANC, which is composed of 15 municipal utilities, halted planning for its transmission program after three of the five utilities involved pulled out of funding the program. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which was supposed to fund 35 percent or 525 million dollars of the program, announced its decision to pull out on July 1. The Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, which together accounted for another 35 percent, pulled out on July 14. A loss of 70 percent in funding meant the TANC project simply could not continue.
On Tuesday the County Board of Supervisors approved a change to the land use designation of Covell Village for County purposes to an agricultural use/ project specific definition. While this stopped somewhat short of the outright agricultural use designation that County Supervisor Jim Provenza sought on Monday, he told the Vanguard that he believes it accomplishes nearly the same thing.
The main thing it accomplishes is that it would prevent the site from being sold to a new owner from immediately being able to place an industrial use on the site. It would also require basically a new general plan discussion in order for there to be a change of the land use.
It all began on June 6, 2009, Davis Enterprise Columnist Bob Dunning pulled on a small item about a program in Yolo County that targets teen smoking. His complaint was that the county was spending resources trying to crack down on vendors selling youths cigarettes.
After Mr. Dunning has decided to write on this particular topic a number of times and has seen that most people are not sympathetic to his arguments, perhaps he sees the writing on the wall. For my part, I figured it was time to weigh in on this issue. I actually have mixed feelings on it, but think if the program works, it’s probably well-worth the money. The question is whether the program works and like most things, I do not think we are testing it.
Opponents of the West Sacramento Gang injunction gathered this morning in front of the Yolo County Courthouse ahead of yet another hearing as defendants seek to overturn the gang injunction which was originally filed in 2005, thrown out by the courts, and then the District Attorney’s office sought to have it reinstated last year.
Opponents of the gang injunction argue that while there is crime in West Sacramento and a small number of gang members, neither the level of violence nor the number of gang members justify an injunction.
On Thursday it was announced that 93 county employees in Yolo accepted a so-called Golden Handshake or early retirement. This included the number 2 person in the District Attorney’s Office, Ann Hurd and the County’s Public Defender Barry Melton.
Both are 62, only a few years before their normal retirement. The county has a huge problem–probably bigger than any other local jurisdiction. They face a deficit upwards of 24 million dollars which is greater than one-third of the county’s general fund budget.
Last week the County put off a decision on cutting off indigent health services to undocumented residents. However, the county will have to act on it and it is likely given the fiscal conditions of the county, they will act to cut off these services.
It is greatly ironic that one of the Republicans on the Board of Supervisors, Matt Rexroad seems to get the fact that while it would seem the fiscally prudent thing to do, cutting off health services to indigent patients probably costs more in the long run.
The group Save Rural Yolo County has been fighting hard to prevent a proposed re-entry facility in Madison. It appears that the economy has won out on the issue. On Tuesday, they won a major victory when the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to revoke the county’s agreement to build the facility.
Mike McGowan, who is the current chair of the Board of Supervisors denies that Save Rural Yolo County’s political pressure and lawsuit was a major factor in the board’s decision.
On Tuesday, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors will discuss cutting an already-underfunded YCHIP program budget by 36 percent. There is no doubt these are tough times for local government and of all governments counties are suffering the most and yet also relied upon the most for vital services. Yolo County is no exception. They are being forced to cut one-third of their general fund budget.
Two weeks ago Sheriff Ed Prieto made a vigorous defense of his department arguing that law enforcement would be hamstrung by the proposed cuts.
On Tuesday May 5, at 10 AM the Yolo County Board of supervisors will discuss whether to reduce public health services provided by the County to people who have no medical insurance at all. The Yolo County Board of Supervisors will also be voting on whether to eliminate all medical services for people who do not have proof of documentation.
The cuts will be broader than just services to undocumented workers, it will be roughly 1.5 million dollars in savings by reducing and modifying eligibility for patients. YCHIP (Yolo County Healthcare for Indigents Program) currently servces about 2,500 Yolo County residents, they estimate about half of those are undocumented.