To an outsider it could read like a script from a bad movie.
Unfortunately for the people of San Benito County, the
possibility of District Attorney John Sarsfield’s office being
practically shut down because he blew his budget on outside
attorney fees instead of paying the bills for basic services such
as electricity isn’t a movie, it’s real life.
To an outsider it could read like a script from a bad movie.
Unfortunately for the people of San Benito County, the possibility of District Attorney John Sarsfield’s office being practically shut down because he blew his budget on outside attorney fees instead of paying the bills for basic services such as electricity isn’t a movie, it’s real life.
And it’s not those in the District Attorney’s Office who will pay the ultimate price if the lights get turned off. It’s every county resident who becomes involved in a case which doesn’t involve chasing shadows that lands on the ever-growing pile on the DA’s desk and is neglected. Our government officials have let the situation get so out of control that it has made a mockery of the entire political system.
We elected our government officials to make fiscally sound decisions and put the good of the community before their personal agendas. The district attorney and weak-kneed members on the Board of Supervisors have let us down.
Due to massive expenditures to the tune of $115,000 on an out-of-town attorney to prosecute the Los Valientes civil case, Sarsfield has exceeded his budget by $70,000. His only remedies to cover the shortfall are to ask the Board of Supervisors for more money – an astonishing $300,000 or 33 percent more than his original annual budget – or to take funds out of his employee salary budget to pay for basic services. Apparently, Sarsfield does not believe he has to live within a budget like other department heads.
The Free Lance has filled opinion page after opinion page with pleas for Sarsfield to stop wasting taxpayer money on his Quixotic pursuit of the anonymous group Los Valientes, which sued the county and former officials three years ago for alleged governmental corruption. We have also asked the Board of Supervisors to issue a no confidence vote against Sarsfield in hopes of drawing the public’s attention to the sham the District Attorney’s Office has become.
Our pleas have gone unanswered, and the lack of political backbone on the part of board members, coupled with Sarsfield’s fanatical desire to spend every penny he’s allotted – then ask for more – in unmasking the Los Valientes now threatens the entire county justice system.
Wake up, San Benito County. The Board of Supervisors hasn’t been able to restrain an out-of-control district attorney, but you can by going to the polls on June 6 and voting him out of office.
The childish antics more appropriate for a middle school playground have to stop. The money spent on Sarsfield’s seemingly personal vendetta against the Los Valientes and the lawsuits filed because of it could have fixed a host of county roads, funded a number of social services that have to go without, or simply put another criminal behind bars.
The dim bulbs inside the district attorney’s office will have a countywide effect when it comes to crimes and the ability to prosecute those who commit them. While the district attorney and Board of Supervisors are to blame for the current mess, it is clear that it is up to the voters to turn the lights out on John Sarsfield.
