County residents have mixed feelings regarding the latest recall
to drive out District Attorney John Sarsfield. While some community
members are ready for the DA’s departure, others are disappointed
with this new effort and believe enough is enough.
Hollister – County residents have mixed feelings regarding the latest recall to drive out District Attorney John Sarsfield. While some community members are ready for the DA’s departure, others are disappointed with this new effort and believe enough is enough.
Restaurateur Ignacio Velazquez served the prosecutor with a notice of intent to initiate a recall signed by 20 county residents Tuesday. Velazquez is one of Sarsfield’s most vocal opponents and a campaign manager for Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who is being arraigned on felony election forgery counts at the San Benito County Superior Court today. This is the second attempt to recall Sarsfield since the summer.
Velazquez and his supporters want to recall Sarsfield because they say he has mistreated crime victims, continually lied to the public and violated residents’ civil rights by launching investigations into people because he personally dislikes them.
While this effort is being spearheaded by Velazquez, who wasn’t involved in the first attempt to oust Sarsfield, Supervisor Pat Loe said she believes many of the same people are involved and make up a small portion of the community who want the District Attorney gone.
Loe said she was hoping the county could move beyond many of the issues it was plagued by in 2004, and work together toward compromises and solutions to its problems.
“I think it’s very counterproductive,” she said. “I don’t think any recall is positive. I don’t believe in a recall unless somebody has done something to break the trust of the community.”
While breaching their trust is exactly what recall supporters claim Sarsfield has done, Loe believes the prosecutor should have the chance to do his job for the full four years and doesn’t buy into proponents’ claims.
But lawyer John O’Brien, who was the District Attorney between 1958 and 1966 and served as the Hollister city attorney for 23 years after that, doesn’t share Loe’s sentiment. He would like to see someone else in Sarsfield’s position as soon as possible.
“I have no qualms with Mr. Sarsfield personally. I think he’s incompetent as the DA,” O’Brien said. “The office of the DA has always been a bright spot, now it’s become a blight on the community.”
O’Brien said he supports a recall effort against Sarsfield because he believes the prosecutor is abusing the Grand Jury by having its members investigate lawsuits against the county, and is attempting to be judge and jury of the county. The constant controversy that swells around the prosecutor’s office doesn’t help the situation, either, O’Brien said.
“I think it would have been more appropriate for Mr. Sarsfield to resign when charges against him for harassment were brought,” he said. “However, he chooses not to. So be it.”
Sarsfield has been embroiled in a harassment lawsuit with two women in the DA’s Victim Witness Department who claim an affair Sarsfield allegedly had with his office manager led to a hostile work environment.
However, 20-year San Benito County resident Barbara Nicoara said she has read the countless newspaper articles detailing the DA’s plight and followed the last recall attempt as it unfolded. But she believes once was enough.
“Let’s have San Benito County get on with the business of being the county,” she said. “I think it’s embarrassing that we have to spend all our time and our headlines on this kind of thing.”
Nicoara said a recall isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she doesn’t believe the proponents’ reasons call for a full-blown recall, which could cost the county upwards of $100,000 in a special election.
“A lot of people are not even reading it anymore because there’s a general feeling of being tired of all this stuff,” she said. “Enough is enough.”
Sarsfield has said the recall attempts don’t phase him anymore, and believes this effort is retaliatory for him charging De La Cruz with election forgery charges. Velazquez was the campaign adviser for De La Cruz in the District 5 supervisor race in March of last year and has denied launching the endeavor as pay back for the charges.
For Velazquez and his group of about 30 volunteers to get a recall on a special ballot, they must gather 5,150 signatures in the next 120 days.
Bob Wilson, spokesman for the first recall attempt, wished Velazquez luck in his campaign and said he will assist him in any way he can. However, he won’t be directly involved in this effort. Although Wilson faced a lack of community support for the recall, largely from the business and political communities, he said he believed what he was doing was right.
“I understand the disruption to the community and the amount of money it costs to do that,” he said. “But I do believe there is a better man out there to do what John is supposed to be doing. I was unable to get the job done.”
While Wilson has a list of about 1,000 names of people who signed petitions for the first recall, Velazquez said the names are confidential and he won’t use the list or even ask to see it.
“We’re better off starting new,” he said. “We want people to know, if they sign a recall petition it’s strictly confidential and there’s no way anyone else will have access to it.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
