”
After watching a video replay of the Board of Supervisors
meeting, in which Terry May verbally attacked Mr. Sarsfield, and
reading the responses from Citizens Voice, I marvel about a few
things.
“After watching a video replay of the Board of Supervisors meeting, in which Terry May verbally attacked Mr. Sarsfield, and reading the responses from Citizens Voice, I marvel about a few things. First, what was Mr. May’s motivation for being disrespectful, unprofessional and bad-mannered in public, especially in directing his Cossack behavior to an elected official, who was voted into office by the vast majority of San Benito County voters? In my opinion, Mr. May’s showboating disrespects the general populous, and it definitely calls into question his credibility. The Board of Supervisors, who are elected leaders of the community, should be embarrassed as a result of the CAO’s childlike behavior. Some people forget that the Supervisors meeting is a place of respect and civility; it is where San Benito County takes care of its business. It is not to be sullied by irresponsible behavior. Supervisors, unless your intellectual and professional landscape is barren, you owe the public an apology.
When the idea surfaced about the county contracting the public defender’s budget to another county for the purposes of saving money, I thought it was a superb idea and still do. Every taxpayer should support this; of course, unless this measure affects you negatively in the pocketbook, then you oppose it. What troubles me is Mr. May’s failure to support this money-saving proposal. Is it not both the CAO’s responsibility, as well as the Supervisors’, to serve the county in its financial interests, especially in light of the budget cuts throughout the state? What are they thinking? Or perhaps they’re not. Perhaps Mr. May has a few old friends’ financial interests at heart?
One of the letters published in the Citizens Voice claims Mr. Sarsfield is costing this county money with a ‘phoney-baloney investigation’ and wants a recall, which, of course, voters will never approve of. If the ‘author’ was truly sincere, then he or she would support an out-of-county public defender contract, which is less costly, and probably better qualified. This ‘author’ wants to have his cake and eat it, too, and was clearly writing only to attack Mr. Sarsfield. People, read between the lines. The mother of all ‘authors’ is hiding behind a curtain just like the great Wizard of Oz.
Taxpayers! You need to reach out to the Board, who might as well be asleep at the wheel, and tell them in no uncertain terms that the county’s financial interest is paramount. Don’t accept the premise that an out-of-county public defender contract program won’t work. It does, and it will. Out-of-county attorneys have always practiced here and always will. So, don’t be fooled by a few special interest individuals who are on a full-time letter writing campaign. The only ‘campaign’ they know they can’t lose.”
“The DA’s campaign pledge we never heard, ‘I promise if elected, I will have Monterey County be our public defender, the Santa Cruz DA do this county’s work, some guy from Redwood City who does contracts for electronic chips take over prosecuting cases, call the Attorney General every time I have a legal question and ask the Board to double the DA’s budget. Further, I promise to take the couch that’s used for victims and children of victims of serious crimes and put it in my office, never ever prosecute a single case in open court and of course anger the entire legal community, not to mention the DA’s entire staff (well, almost), and finally have a whopping 30 percent conviction rate for jury trials.'”
“My dear Mary Vierra, you said in the other paper even your friends are bashing the DA, and we should just let him do his job. Well, in case you haven’t heard, in case you have been on the dark side of the moon for the last year, that’s exactly the point, the DA has never done his job. Get it.”
