Column: View From West Davis

This is my weekly column of thoughts and tidbits from the week that has passed. A little bit lighter and more playful than the usual serious and hard-hitting coverage.

Flying at Half-Staff

As much as I complain about City Staff doing a poor job in this community, there are some things that just make me scratch my head and blow my hair back.

Such was the case on Thursday Night at the Davis Human Relations Commission Meeting. Last month, a representative from the ACLU had requested the HRC place an item on the agenda to discuss the possibility of recommending to the city council that they pass a resolution to support SB 1019. SB 1019, as the regulars on this blog know, would enable police oversight commissions to conduct their hearings once again in public and report the results of sustained complaints to the public.

The membership of the HRC apparently agreed to the request by the ACLU and placed the item on the agenda for the June Meeting of the HRC on Thursday.

Well I go to the meeting to watch this, and the city staffer Kelly Stachowicz, acknowledges that she has not prepared a staff report for the meeting. She tells the commission some of the basics of the bill but leaves out key details.

I am only a member of the public, so I am not allowed to speak and have to listen for about 20 minutes as the commission goes back and forth with incorrect and incomplete details. Police Chief Landy Black for instance suggests that he doesn't think that Davis needs another layer of oversight.

Well, no one explains to them that this bill has no impact on Davis. All it does is restore local control on the issue, it does not impose any changes on communities that do not already have civilian oversight boards. So it would not impose another layer of oversight on Davis. All it would do, is if Davis in the future wanted a civilian review board, it would allow Davis to report the findings in public.

The ultimate decision made by the commission was that they needed more information. I cannot blame them for that. So they are bringing it back for their July 26, 2007 meeting--which is fine, but it might be moot by then at least for this legislative term as the Assembly Committee is meeting again on July 3.

There were two major problems with this meeting. First, the staffer failed to do a staff report and of course no one on the commission questioned that. Second, in the past, chairs have allowed members of the public with specific knowledge about the issue to speak more informally, but this chair did not. Commissions by design are supposed to be considerably less rigid in structure precisely for this type of scenario.

Moving Left

Two weeks ago in this space, we told you that Davis City Councilmember Don Saylor was heavily promoting the movie "SiCKO" from *Roger* Moore. Well I get word from the health care rally, that Mr. Saylor once again showed up and tried to get his picture taken with everyone holding up a health care sign--people that are not his allies and people that he has attacked in public and private. Must be election time and in Davis that means you move hard to the left to show that you are indeed a liberal.

People just need to remember his voting record while on council. I'm waiting for him to renounce his support for Target, Covell Village, 3rd and B, the lowering of the Anderson Bank Building Windows, his opposition to the HRC and civilian oversight of the police, his refusal to vote on an anti-war resolution, etc. You cannot run from your voting record.

And of course when everyone else was enthusiastically cheering for the speeches, Mr. Saylor was looking rather stoic. You can't fool us.

Outrage

We were at Farmer's Market on Saturday getting the pulse of the town. The pulse of the town is outrage at the proposed development along I-80. It is outrage at the 3rd and B project. And it is outrage at the prospect of water rates tripling over the next decade.

The water issue is particularly pernicious because most people simply have no idea that their rates are going up. The water supply issue is particularly complicated because the people advising the city on the issue have a financial interest in the city constructing a bypass of Sacramento River water.

There is no such confusion on the Stem Cell Research Facility on I-80--no one we met was in favor of it. This is the classic Tskaopoulos approach, he's giving the carrot in the form of the research facility, but the real proposal is housing and commercial development on a massive scale. Other communities have seen right through the scheme, so Yolo is going to fall for it?

This would be DOA if Davis' representatives on the Board of Supervisors were doing their jobs of representing the needs and desires of Davis. Yolo County Supervisors Matt Rexroad and Duane Chamberlain are opposing this. And yet, we may have to fight this because Davis' two county supervisors Mariko Yamada and Helen Thomson favor it. Davis better look long and hard at the next Supervisor for the 4th District this coming election to insure that they will oppose development on the periphery of Davis. It is that simple.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Police Oversight Legislation Held Up by Assembly Committee

In August 2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, issued a ruling that has effectively shutdown public proceedings for civilian review of police oversight. This ruling has effectively prevented the public from learning about police officers who have been disciplined because of misconduct. Hearings and records that previously were public are now closed. We are not talking about allegations of police misconduct, we are talking about sustained findings that have found officers guilty of actual misconduct.

Since then, a number of bills have moved through the California State Legislature in an attempt to restore the public's right to know about officers who have been found guilty of police misconduct. SB 1019, sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, passed the State Senate earlier this month with strong support in a 22-11 vote.

Yesterday the Assembly Public Safety Committee Chaired by Democrat Jose Solorio, vice-chaired by Republican Greg Aghazarian (who is going to run for the 5th Senate Seat held currently by Mike Machado) took up the bill for review. The other Democrats on this committee include Fiona Ma, Hector De La Torre, and Anthony Portantino.

Senator Romero came before this committee and delivered a brilliant speech in support of police oversight and open government.

This bill is about the public's right to know. It is about the kind of democracy do we want to live in. It is about the public being able to hold our government accountable as public servants. Let's stipulate right away that most peace officers do a great job, by providing public safety. But we do know that peace officer misconduct also exists. I live in a city that has burned twice because of poor police-community relations. We also know that the police and community must have a trusting relationship in order to provide public safety. Police rely on the public to solve crimes and to step forward as witnesses. And policing is done to protect and serve the public and it is best done and trusted when there is nothing to hide. If the community feels that they can truly trust what they see. Police officers work in public, they interact with the public, are given public funds and occasionally receive complaints from the public. And when complaints are filed and found to be true, then the public should have the right to know as there is for most other members of the public. If a lawyer commits misconduct you can look that up. If a doctor commits misconduct, you can find that out. If you are arrested, not convicted, just arrested, we can all find out what happened. But if that same police officer that arrested you commits misconduct and it is sustained, not just alleged but sustained, without this bill, you will never know. It will be held secret.

Moreover, her chief contention was that the Copley decision goes too far in protecting the privacy of police officers who have had sustained complaints against them.

Post-Copley the pendulum has swung so far that it has completely toppled the balance of privacy and the public's right to know. And to be clear I would say that there is no privacy interest in sustained misconduct by a public employee including police officers.

As we mentioned last week, various police officer associations have strongly come out against this bill, to the point where they have made threats against the legislation that if the legislature ends up passing this bill, they will work to defeat the Term Limits reform initiative that will be on the February ballot. Romero addressed these threats and the charge that this bill is anti-law enforcement.

Peace officers are not just private citizens doing private things, they are public servants, using public authority to potentially use lethal force on the public to enforce the public's law, our law. This bill is looking to restore a balance between privacy and a public's right to know passed the Senate with bipartisan support despite the intense lobbying against it mainly by police organizations. And it passed even despite a political threat. But this bill is not anti-law enforcement. This bill is supported by law enforcement. The national black police officers association, the Los Angeles, Oakland, and East Palo Alto and Newark Police Chiefs. And the San Francisco Sheriff as well. It is supported by elected officials throughout California, who understand that we never should be afraid of sunshine in government.

There was also testimony from the Newark Police Chief, who is strongly in favor of civilian review and has suggested that police should have nothing to fear from public scrutiny. In fact, this bill would restore public trust with the police that will make their job easier rather than more difficult.

The most compelling testimony came from two individuals who had suffered personally from police misconduct. First, Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers who told of her personal experience of being beaten in San Francisco with a baton to the point where it ruptured her spleen in 1988. The officer was the brother of the police chief and there were not police oversight laws in place. The other woman spoke in tears of a recent tragedy where her daughter lost her life as the police violated a number of procedures during the course of a chase.

The ACLU had organized many citizens coming to this meeting, and perhaps 50 or more showed up in support of the bill, however, this effort was overshadowed by the overwhelming showing of the various peace officers groups from across the state. The police officers argued that this bill would imperil their safety and their family's safety.

In the end, the chair Jose Solorio, expressed his support in the concept of this legislation, but his concerns about some of the specifics of this bill. He asked Senator Romero if she wanted a vote, and she said that she did and implored the committee to act on this legislation. In a committee of four Democrats and two Republicans, not one Democrat stood up to make a motion for this legislation that had already passed the State Senate by a 22-11 margin. Not one.

A very angry Senate Majority Leader left the room stating: "Did someone turn out the lights in this room?"

Mark Schlossberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU-NC, who had helped to craft this legislation stated afterwards:

“By not even allowing a vote on this important bill, the Assembly Public Safety Committee has given the police unions exactly what they want: a cloak of secrecy over police misconduct and a lack of public accountability... By remaining silent our elected officials favored police secrecy over the public interest.”

It was a sad and demoralizing experience yesterday. This was a committee made up of Democrats and not one of them had the courage to act. I have gained a large measure of respect for the work of Gloria Romero who was brilliant in her presentation and dynamic as a speaker as she fought for social justice against what turned out to be indifferent colleagues in the other house of the California legislature. It was obvious that the members of this committee caved in to the intimidation tactics of the police associations.

This lack of action by the California State Assembly puts this legislation in doubt at least for 2008. This means that it will not be at least for another year before the legislature can correct the Copley decision, that weakened severely already very weak oversight laws in California.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Assembly Committee to Hear Police Oversight Legislation on Tuesday

For those who watched the Davis City Council debate on Tuesday regarding the Human Relations Commission and the proposed changes to the anti-discrimination ordinance, one of the huge subtexts was the extent to which the HRC could conduct actual investigations whereby they subpoena records. The debate turned because some on the council apparently received the "new information" that the Davis Human Relations Commission in fact, never had such powers and never attempted to exercise such powers.

Belying that debate was the entire legality regarding the ability of a public body to obtain records from police officers and conduct hearings of allegations of police misconduct. Since the August 2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, California law has prevented the public from learning about police officers who have been disciplined because of misconduct. Hearings and records that previously were public are now closed.

According to the ACLU:

"Unlike similar records on all other public employees, doctors, and lawyers, records on serious police misconduct and any resulting disciplinary action are now classified as confidential—that is, not public. This decision hides not only the extent to which problems may exist within a police department, but also the ways in which management addresses misconduct when it occurs."

State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero said:

"Members, if your attorney is disciplined, you can find that out. It's public information. If your doctor loses his or her license, you can find that out. It's public information. If anyone of us in this room is arrested, not convicted, just arrested, or any one of our friends, our staff or family, we can find that out. It's public information. If the same peace officer who arrested you is disciplined or even terminated for serious misconduct, it, now after the Copley case, is completely secret."

Davis City Attorney Harriet Steiner went through a similar song and dance to what she did last year when the issue of a police oversight commission was first raised, explaining that state law prevents the airing of such hearings in public.

What she failed to mention on Tuesday, was that there is legislation moving through the California State Senate and Assembly, that would restore the legality of civilian review, effectively leaving the law as it was prior to the Copley Press decision where local jurisdiction would have the ability to create complaint review processes that are open to the public.

We discussed this legislation back in May as it was about to be heard on the Senate Floor. Since then, on June 4, 2007, the California Senate approved SB 1019. Our local State Senator Mike Machado voted for the bill as did Sacramento State Senator Darrell Steinberg and Contra Costa County State Senator Tom Torlakson.

Having passed the California State Senate, the bill is moving on to the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Next Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 9 a.m. the committee will have a hearing on the legislation.

The Vanguard will be there to cover this important issue and organizers would like as many supporters as possible to attend the hearing.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee is a six member committee chaired by Jose Solorio from Southern California. The Vice Chair is Greg Aghazarian, who represents San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. He will be the likely Republican Nominee for the open 5th Senate Seat. Assemblywoman Lois Wolk who represents the 8th AD and Yolo County will be seeking the Democratic Nomination as may John Garamendi, Jr.

It is unclear if Governor Schwarzenegger would sign such legislation, but there is a renewed pushed in the wake of the police incident that occurred in Los Angeles during the May Day protests. There was also a well publicized incident on the UCLA campus where a UC Police Officer used a taser multiple times on a student in the library that was caught on video. Such incidents have led to both Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton to endorse the measure.

On June 7, 2007, the Sacramento Bee joined 13 other California Papers including the Fresno Bee, Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Orange County Register, San Diego Union Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle in supporting this legislation.

The Bee writes:

"One of the most important elements for maintaining the public's trust in law enforcement is how police departments and police boards handle investigations of members of their own forces.

Keeping those records secret, in the end, doesn't serve the police departments or the public, but for those officers who have been disciplined it's obviously in their interest to keep matters under wraps."

Predictably the Professional Peace Officers Association is strongly opposed to such legislation. What is interesting is that in an email, John Stites, the President of PPOA threatened to retaliate against legislators.

However, he did so by threatening to oppose legislation that would reform term limits:

“As I have said all along, PPOA and SCALE adamantly oppose this legislation to the point that if it is passed we will move quickly to oppose any term limit reform legislation publicly. There is no compromise on this. Ensure that it be understood that this will only be the beginning. I do not know how I can be more clear on this issue. Jim Vogts has been informed of our position.”

Tuesday's hearing should prove insightful, but it may also be moot if the Governor ends up opposing such legislation aimed to re-open the process of police oversight to the public.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting