It’s about time.
San Benito County Supervisors took a bold and decisive stand
against our out-of-control district attorney Tuesday voting 4-1 to
declare they had
”
no confidence
”
in the job he has done. They also will ask the State Attorney
General to investigate the DA’s office.
It’s about time.
San Benito County Supervisors took a bold and decisive stand against our out-of-control district attorney Tuesday voting 4-1 to declare they had “no confidence”in the job he has done. They also will ask the State Attorney General to investigate the DA’s office.
Though the no confidence vote was a symbolic one, it carried a clear message we hope will resonate in the June 6 primary: Enough of DA’s political gamesmanship. Enough of the thinly-veiled attempts to smear political opponents. Enough of the grandstanding backed up by little or no action. Enough wasting of taxpayers’ dollars on chasing shadows in the Los Valientes case. Enough of the on-going drama that has enveloped the District Attorney Office for years.
Perhaps resident Fernando Gonzales said it best when he told supervisors, “The district attorney has had a chilling effect on public speech. It seems everyone who disagrees with him is a Los Valiente.”
The issue that prompted the declaration of no confidence is that Sarsfield, due to spending $115,000 on an out-of-town attorney to prosecute the Los Valientes civil case, exceeded his budget by $92,000. As a result, Sarsfield’s ability to pay for basic expenses such as keeping the electricity on in his office was thrown into doubt. Rather than taking any blame for blowing his budget, he ran to media outlets claiming the county has shut him down.
Now, he is asking the Board of Supervisors for more money – an astonishing $300,000 or 33 percent more than his original annual budget – to continue his pursuit of Los Valientes among other things.
Remember, it’s not those in the District Attorney’s Office who will pay the price for Sarsfield wasting his money while chasing shadows. The money spent on Sarsfield’s quixotic pursuit of the Los Valientes could have fixed potholes, funded social services or simply put another criminal behind bars.
Putting aside the convoluted details of the Los Valientes that has embroiled the relatively-small group of people in power in this community since 2003, ask yourself this question: Is our District Attorney’s Office better off under John Sarsfield’s stewardship than it was four years ago? The answer, unequivocally, is no.
His tenure as DA has been a trainwreck marred by political infighting, controversy, turmoil and serious questions about his ability to prosecute criminals – the very job he was elected to do by the people of this county. The supervisors were slow to react to the problems that have been apparent for a long time. But, to their credit, on Tuesday they did just that.
The message is clear: On June 6, voters should let it be known that they too have no confidence in the incumbent and vote Sarsfield out of office. The turmoil and poisonous political atmosphere that has enveloped our local government must come to an end.
