First District Supervisor and board Chairman Rex Bohn said the district attorney's office's General Fund allocation has increased by 67 percent since the 2004-2005 budget year.
"He's got about 20 percent more funding in the last 10 years than the public defender's office," Bohn said. "When you're talking discretionary funding, Paul gets between 5 to 6 percent of our discretionary money that is available. To say we don't care about public safety, it's disingenuous at the best and pretty false in the long run."
The Board of Supervisors recently voted to place a sales tax measure on the November ballot that would primarily be used to fund public safety services, such as the sheriff's office and district attorney's office.
With the 2014-2015 county budget already set, Bohn said Gallegos claims come too late.
"After the barn door has been shut, he's complaining about the horses getting loose," Bohn said. "The best thing that comes out of this is, with a new DA coming in, maybe they will be more financially sophisticated to work with the monies that are provided as we work out of these tough times that we've had."
NOTE - "humboldtturtle" commented on the Times-Standard's article, a typical knee-jerk-defend-Gallegos-at-all-cost approach: Do I get this right? Rex is saying his sophisticated answer to the county's financial problems is to raise taxes. Gallegos says allocate your funds more wisely instead, and is called a liar for it? I wish t'was bohn were gohn...
The response: Oh, c'mon, humboldtturtle, you know FULL WELL that Gallegos has mismanaged that office. A Grand Jury pointed out YEARS ago that ""Weak leadership and poor managerial practices" have undermined the office... Implicit in all evidence gathered by the Grand Jury - including interviews with the D.A. - is the unfortunate truth that the D.A. exhibits a limited understanding of how things are done in the department" Gallegos "lacks the global perspective needed to keep the department operating efficiently," and quotes an unnamed staff member as saying, "The D.A. does not fully understand the functionality of many of the things we do here" - Years later, in his own words: "I’m not an administrator, they didn’t elect me to be an administrator, they elected me to make sure this office runs..."
It wasn't even in dispute during the last election, EVERY SINGLE CANDIDATE POINTED TO THE UTTER DETERIORATION. Gallegos lost, fired, or drove away all of the County's top prosecutors and has been utterly unable to replace them.
Gallegos has lost the grants that are critical to funding the office. You know this, and so should the author of this article.
Yet now, Gallegos accuses everyone else of not having their priorities in order.
That's just sick.
And, btw, Will Houston STILL, apparently, has not done his homework.
WHY did Gallegos not fill the positions as they became open, Will? The money did not evaporate.
The T/S has for years ignored the elephant in the room, the staggering staff turnover under Gallegos. All the departed were easily located, and could have been interviewed- that was never ever done. There was, and is, a sizable body of professionals- ex dda's, current dda's, court staff, law enforcement, defense attorneys- who could have been approached by a professional reporter with integrity who could have gotten a reasonable sample to "tell it like it is" . Such a reporter could even have asked PVG why he could not hold on to people. But no. And now the final scene, with PVG stamping his little foot, throwing tantrums, and blaming everyone but himself for the mess he personally created, and the T/S just types it up and publishes it. Absurd, pathetic. PVG is the lamest duck ever. As someone once said, "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."
ReplyDeleteTS is Gags bitch. Kimberly Wear should be fired for her pro Gags agenda.
DeleteSalzman and Gags must be doing her some favors.
It's normal for a rural DA's office to have turnover among new hires. Folks get out of law school, get a job in a rural office for lousy pay, stay a year or two, learn what they need to do, and move on to a better paying job elsewhere. What's unusual in Humboldt is that virtually every senior DDA present when PVG took office has left or been fired - and as far as I can tell they were pretty much all snapped up by other DAs. As far as the ratio of PDs to DDAs, the DA prosecutes every case, while the PD doesn't defend every case because there is a vibrant private defense bar in Humboldt. So the DA should have more DDAs then the PD has DPDs. If you have a concern, as a department head, about funding or staffing levels, the appropriate time to bring that up is during the budget negotiations process, not after the budget has been voted upon and is locked in place. What is not clear from the article is whether the DA's office has open positions, for which money has been allocated, which are unfilled because no one has applied; or, are all budgeted positions filled?
ReplyDeleteRose, are you volunteering at the Humboldt Republican Women booth at Reggae on the River?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hrwf-ca.org
http://www.reggaeontheriver.com
Didn't Gallegos prosecute Bohns son? Why was Maggie Fleming not consulted on the Budget. She'll be the one holding the bag on this one. Word on the street is that she has disappeared back into her cocoon since after the election instead of planning her transition. The Bosrd would have been very interested in what she had to say, but it apparently it was nothing. Not a good sign.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if Ms. Fleming had talked to the BOS about the budget, you'd be criticizing her for that because the budget process happened prior to the primary election when she was one of four candidates.
DeleteMs. Fleming opened the door when she agreed with Paul that budget was the issue in another TS article. Not leadership, not retention.
Delete10:53 there was nothing to prosecute Bohn's son for. Charged does not mean guilty. And dufus, BOS does not consult the DA elect.
Gags never shows up at the meetings. Never presents a budget. Gags needs to stop sucking 13,000 + a month for doing nothing and leave.
Ms. Fleming can then take over and either improve the office or not.
I agree, PVG has had turnover on turnover. Is there any DDA with more than maybe 3-4 years as an attorney? Is there a single DDA who was an attorney in 2003 when he too office (besides Eads)?
ReplyDelete1053 you are a lying troll.
ReplyDelete"word on the street" ?! Holy Cow, 10:53, you are such a bag of wind
ReplyDelete