Paul Gallegos to speak to code task force

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos will attend the Code Enforcement Task Force meeting today in order to answer questions posed by task force members.

Humboldt County Community Development Director Kirk Girald will also attend today’s meeting....

According to past testimony from both Interim County Counsel Wendy Chaitin and Deputy County Counsel Richard Hendry, the District Attorney’s Office is supposed to have authority over code enforcement officers in the field, as they were deputized by his office.

Gallegos said in a previous interview with The Eureka Reporter that he didn’t want the “life and death” responsibility if someone was shot by a code enforcement officer when he has no oversight or authority over them.

He rescinded code enforcement officer’s police powers back in April, but Chaitin, who wasn’t sure if Gallegos could rescind that authority, voluntarily disarmed the officers.

The question of who has authority over code enforcement officers at any given time has been a topic of interest by the task force.

Both Girald and Gallegos are members of an oversight committee, not open to the public, which reviews procedures within the unit, as well as ongoing investigations.
ER D.A. to speak to code task force
TS DA may answer task force questions

Missing in action, AGAIN

From the day he took office, Gallegos has missed important meetings, and doesn't attend meetings he is supposed to be an key player in. The kinds of things that would get any ordinary person fired. When the Code Enforcement Task Force was set up, Gallegos was supposed to be an integral part of it. How many meetings has he attended, if any? Has he sent a representative?

It is the District Attorney's job to attend these kinds of meetings. One reason why most DAs try very few cases, if any.

He was available to go to the meeting in Garberville in the beginning and make some noise about his "concerns" that officers were armed.

Now the DA is an integral part of this since his office cross- deputizes the inspectors and is supposed to be overseeing all of this. People are missing what his role is in this, and its importance.

But he wasn't at Friday's meeting, nor the previous Friday's meeting. Now the Task Force has had to vote to extend its time limit in hopes of getting the DA to attend - this article tells the story:

The Humboldt County Code Enforcement Task Force has taken the first steps toward compiling a report to the board of supervisors, but it may not be done until late September.

The members voted unanimously Friday to ask the board to extend of the task force and the moratorium on inspection warrants until Sept. 26.

The extension will allow more time to arrange a session with Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos. Gallegos, as part of the Code Enforcement Unit Oversight Committee, had been invited to appear before the task force at Friday's meeting, but was not present.

Second District Supervisor Johanna Rodoni suggested -- and the balance of the task force agreed -- that a second, strong invitation be issued to the district attorney.

”I think we need to emphasize they're a critical piece of this,” she said.

Part of that urgency deals with which county department will house the code enforcement unit and the district attorney's concerns over granting police powers to Code Enforcement Unit officers.

The task force scheduled its next meeting for the afternoon of July 9 from 1:30 to 4 p.m. to better accommodate Gallegos' schedule....

◼ Some interesting points there - In Friday's meeting, County Counsel Wendy Chaitin noted that Gallegos had come to her in January expressing his "concerns. (laughable as it might be in light of his recent attempts to acquire semi-automatic AR-15 rifles, and set up his own armed asset forfeiture team, but, not to digress...).

Josh Hedlund also spoke at Friday's meeting about the January 3rd raid on his Vilica Properties.

January - coincidences? Schectman, Paul, Vilica, Hedlund, code raids, concerns. Maybe. Dots?

DA a NO SHOW at the Code Enforcement Meeting

Developing.