MLK PARADE - Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County

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DSA DATES Office & Store Closure February 21 & April 1 The DSA office and store are closed on Feb. 21 for President’s Day and April 1 for Cesar Chaves Day. If you have an emergency, the after hours answering message will direct your call. Please plan accordingly, especially when purchasing discount tickets for use over holiday weekends. Retiree Luncheon March 10 The spring luncheon for retired members will be held on Thursday, March 10 at the El Cajon Elk’s Lodge. All DSA members, retired or not, are invited. Please RSVP b y calling (858) 486-9009 x 100 before Feb 25. DSA Dinner Dance March 12 Save the Date! On March 12, join the DSA at the Holiday Inn on the Bay for the annual member dinner dance. There will be dinner, dancing, and amazing door prizes, including $1,500 cash. Just $30 per couple for DSA members. Non- Members and Affiliate Members are $60 each. Buy your tickets online at www.dsasd.org/dance or by visiting or calling the DSA Office before March 4. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT Matt Clay The DSA has started off the New Year with our annual board of directors’ installation luncheon. We had a great turnout with a good showing of DSA members, city council members, and county officials, including the board of supervisors. Assemblyman and U.S. Marine combat veteran Nathan Fletcher gave a great and gracious speech. You should know that while Mr. Fletcher is a respected member of the Republican Party in the state legislature, he does not shy away from advocating for the current benefits earned by the men and women in law enforcement. He urged others to recognize that no other public service job includes the carrying of a badge and weapon, or the donning of a bullet proof vest in order to do their job. In this day and age, it takes a bold public official to repeatedly, publicly recognize that truth. We have been continually updating the membership of the contract bargaining process in the Silver Star, on the website, and at our meetings. Please see the article on page 20 in this issue for even more information. In 2010, there were 162 in the line of duty deaths in the United States, including 11 peace officers killed in the line of duty in California alone. If you have never been to either the state or national peace officers memorials, I strongly YOUR MORTGAGE MONITOR encourage you to attend one of them this year. Many of our members will be making one or both of the trips this year, as we place Ken Collier’s name onto each of those memorials. The state memorial is held in Sacramento on May 1 and 2 and is a short trip, just overnight. A candlelight vigil is held the first evening, followed by the ceremony the next morning. Come be a part of our department’s representation at the event. The national memorial in D.C. is a series of events starting May 13 with a candlelight vigil and ending on May 21. It is a sight not to be missed, and one you will not soon forget. Peace officers from around the country and the globe descend upon our nation’s capital to honor fallen peace officers from 2010 and from years past who have not been added yet. Again, many of our members will be attending the events and ceremonies. Book your flights now before rates increase, and I suggest looking into hotels in Arlington, Virginia, to avoid the very high D.C. rates. We will share some time with Ken’s family there and pay our respects in great numbers. Of course, our local memorial will be held in May as well, honoring San Diego’s fallen heroes. The event is held on the West lawn of the County Administration Building and is organized by the San Diego Peace Officer’s Memorial Foundation. I hope to see you at one or all of these great memorial ceremonies. Alpine Lending Group YOUR MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL FOR LIFE DSF Scholarships Due April 1 Applications for DSF scholarships awarded to members and their dependents are now available at the DSA office and on the DSA website. Applications must be received on or before April 1. DSA (858) 486-9009 4 Silver Star February 2011 • Purchase or refinance •no cost Lines of credit • We can heLP if You have derogatorY credit, forecLosure or BankruPtcY Rates have dropped dramatically!!! Now in the 4% range!!! The market is very volatile. Take action now! • fha,va, conventionaL & Private financing avaiLaBLe (800) 676-9112 ♦ (619) 445-7478 www.AlpineLendingGroup.com Ron L. Lipscomb President Securing Financing for Law Enforcement and DSA Members since 1986
How the Proposed State Budget will affect us Message from Sheriff Bill Gore When newly elected Governor Brown announced his state budget the second week of January, there was a collective intake of breath statewide. With a $12.5 billion reduction in expenditures and a plan to increase revenues by $12 billion, the proposal looks squarely at California’s finances and does not shrink from the hard, ugly realities. His budget plan touches on every aspect of government—the education of children and the care of the elderly, highways and transportation, welfare and jobs, and of course law enforcement and crime. In making his public announcement, he also provided private briefings to law enforcement—and for good reason. The budget proposal contains a plan that, if implemented, will result in historic changes in criminal justice in California. In a conference call, Secretary of CDCR Matt Cate outlined key changes contained in the governor’s plan: Realignment. Under the plan, low-level felons, currently sent to State Prison, would serve their time in county jails. These criminal defendants—convicted of non-serious, nonviolent, non-sexual crimes—serve (with good time credits) an average of 11 to 12 months in State Prison. I asked Secretary Cate how many of those offenders there were, and he estimated that there are on any given day roughly 30,000 such inmates in prison. Generally, San Diego County’s share of the prison population is approximately 7.5 percent. We would, therefore, under this plan, add as many as 2,200 inmates to our average daily jail population. Parole Supervision. As you know, CDCR implemented a major parole reform this past year. For the first time felons were released without any supervision (called “non-revocable parole”) and caseloads were modified to focus on the most serious offenders. Under the Governor’s plan, State parole would eventually disappear altogether, and the responsibility would become that of local jurisdictions—the County’s Probation Department working with the sheriff and local police. In connection with that change, any parolee whose parole was revoked would serve his time for the revocation in County jail. Those sentences average about three to four months. This would again add inmates to our local jails. 5 Silver Star February 2011 Juvenile Justice. Back in 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation that made sweeping changes to the juvenile justice system. Under the Realignment of the California Juvenile Corrections System, the California Youth Authority was buried and replaced by CDCR’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Juvenile Realignment transferred legal authority over most of California’s juvenile felons from the State of California to the counties, specifically to county probation departments. That left a residual of about 1,250 juvenile inmates in state facilities; these were the most dangerous juvenile offenders. The Governor’s plan would make the shift of responsibility complete with all juvenile offenders being housed locally with responsibility for them falling, presumably, to county probation departments. Obviously, these are major changes. If implemented, they would dramatically reshape criminal justice in California. They will without question change how our business is done. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The current price tag for housing inmates at the State level has grown to unacceptable levels. For those 1,250 juveniles in DJJ facilities, the cost per ward is now well over $200,000 per year. And while the cost of housing adults in State Prison is not nearly that high, the cost for them to come into the system for short periods of time—either for their commitment offense or a parole violation—remains disproportionately expensive. There’s no question that it would be an overall savings to the “system” and to taxpayers to house these offenders locally. There’s also no question that there are some things we could do better from our detention facilities. Right now our offering of educational opportunities and drug treatment is limited because of the duration of the stay of most offenders in our jails. Longer commitments—say for a year or more—for felons who would remain in our jails under the Governor’s plan provide an opportunity to devote greater attention to rehabilitative and educational programs. In addition, this population of longer-term, low-level offender could possibly serve as a resource for brush clearing and fire-break services, as well as trash removal from roadways and parks and even graffiti removal. The changes could be viewed as real opportunities. Here’s the catch. Unless resources accompany the policy changes, the realignment of responsibilities will fail. In our conversations, Secretary Cate is quick to state that the Governor realizes that the plan, however meritorious, cannot work unless there are funds to make it work. That’s good to hear. My view is that realignment policy and resource needs are inseparable. In that connection, the Governor has proposed asking Californians to approve an extension of revenues scheduled to expire in June of this year— namely a 1 percent sales tax and a temporary .15 percent vehicle registration fee. What will happen if the voters don’t approve the extension of those revenue sources Is there a backup plan to balance the budget There is, according to Secretary Cate, no “Plan B.” So, what do we take from this at this time I see four things. First, nothing is going to happen right away. State lawmakers must first approve the governor’s approach; there will be public debate and, you can be sure, some political posturing. We must wait and see how the legislature responds. Second, the pure historic weight of the proposals and the high stakes of the financial drama playing out in Sacramento, will make for an amazingly interesting year. We will, as they say on TV, stay tuned. Third, we need to take a studied approach and provide our best guidance to the Governor and elected representatives—locally and in Sacramento—on the merits of the proposals as they affect law enforcement. I’ve had, among others, the Undersheriff, Commanders Miller and Ingrassia from our Detentions Services Bureau, and our Chief Financial Officer Jill Serrano sit in on conference call briefings, and they are at work studying the impact of the governor’s proposals. Our aim is to be careful and reflective in our response to the proposals. I don’t believe a knee-jerk or emotional response contributes to this very important discussion. Finally, whatever changes come our way, I am confident that we will handle them in the way we have learned works best. We will be transparent; giving the public the straight talk they deserve. We will operate as a team within our department and with our partners in law enforcement. We are at our best when we work together in common purpose. I’ll keep you advised. Meanwhile, do well and stay safe.
Page 1 and 2: Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of S
Page 3 and 4: Silver Star VOL. 27 NO. 2 February
Page 5: CONTACT THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Pres
Page 9 and 10: d) Dinner Dance will be held on Mar
Page 11 and 12: (clockwise, from top left) DSA Pres
Page 13 and 14: DEPT. MEMORIAL Donate today Recentl
Page 15 and 16: CONTEST: STAR RIDE Doug Downes took
Page 17 and 18: 2011 Scholarships Applications avai
Page 19 and 20: Flex Credit Flex credit paid to eac
Page 21 and 22: SWAT Boots Lightweight, sturdy, goo
Page 23 and 24: Talking Versus Cuffing The Great De
Page 25 and 26: said they didn’t have money then
Page 27 and 28: a retired SDPD officer and they now
Page 29 and 30: 5150 Town Santee Station by Tiffany
Page 31 and 32: station reports Who Are Those Guys
Page 33 and 34: station reports wooded and brushy a
Page 35 and 36: Congratulations! Congratulations to
Page 37 and 38: VACATION RENTALS Big Bear City Vaca
Page 39 and 40: SAN DIEGO HONOR RIDE MARCH 25, 2011

MLK PARADE - Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County

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