ER - Gallegos responds to county grand jury's criticism of his office regarding CAST

Gallegos responds to county grand jury's criticism of his office regarding CAST
by Diane M. Batley, The Eureka Reporter 7/1/2005

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos says the view of his handling of the DA’s Office in the grand jury report needs to be put in perspective.

In the grand jury report, “A Review of the Humboldt County Child Abuse Team,” Gallegos said he disagrees with the assessment that he has diminished CAST by failing to attend governing board meetings.

People from the DA’s Office do attend those governing board meetings but traditionally no DA has ever attended those meetings, he said.

“Contrary to past performance, I actually do attend those,” he said. “I don’t attend all of them, but guess what, that’s not the only thing on my plate.”

In its report, the grand jury acknowledged that child abuse complaints have decreased 40 percent from 2002 to 2004.

The grand jury recommends that two deputy district attorneys be assigned to CAST.

One attorney has been removed from CAST assignments.

“They still want us to have two attorneys to do something that has gone down significantly when we have a whole county full of responsibilities,” Gallegos said. “We have to apply resources as is necessary to get the job done, not to fit someone’s particular agenda.”

Deputy District Attorney Maggie Fleming is working on the CAST cases, he said.

“If we need two attorneys over there, we’ll do that,” Gallegos said. “We know what we need. …Our goal is to be effective in the prosecution of those cases. If I’m not effective, guess what — I’m going to be criticized. I’m criticized even when I am effective. So why am I going to inappropriately staff something that is so politically volatile? It’s just ridiculous.”

The grand jury also recommended that a leadership position be created to make decisions about CAST with recommendations from the executive, governing and advisory boards.

There has been planning for the creation of a leadership or directorship position for CAST, Gallegos said.

“Certain people in CAST don’t want a director,” he said. “They want it to remain inefficient and ineffective. We are going to have the directorship position.”

Gallegos said the position has already been agreed to by Department of Health and Human Resources Director Phil Crandell, Arcata Chief of Police Randy Mendosa and himself, as executive directors of CAST.

Mendosa was given authority from the law-enforcement chiefs’ association, which is technically a member of that executive board, Gallegos said.

“To authorize that, I went to the law-enforcement chiefs and got them to agree to that,” he said. “We’re working on changing the bylaws so that I can be the director which means I will head that and make that place tuned and buffed, unlike it is now.”

It is going to be a more effective program soon, Gallegos said.

The grand jury also recommends a senior legal office assistant be assigned or hired.

Gallegos said that position is now vacant because of salary issues.

“Our secretary is out,” he said. “She was a legal office assistant. Frankly, our position is we’ve been paying too much to fill that position. We’re going to have that position audited. (Crandell) has been helping us staff that in the interim.”

Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.