2018 January PASO Magazine #201

COUNTY PERSPECTIVE
ROUND TOWN
By Bruce
Curtis
Gun Bust Dropped: This
month’s column comes with a bit
of legal flavoring, starting with
the admission I enjoy going to
see my grandchildren partly for
the chance to go plinking at the
firing range with my son-in-law.
I’m a lousy shot, but like most
guys, I love the sound, the explosive
report. There’s no muzzle
flash; they only do that in the
movies.
And though I’m not much personally
into guns, that doesn’t
stop me from being a strong
constitutional originalist; I support
the 2nd Amendment, I see
our founding document as a
fragile but vital bulwark against
tyranny, so we focus on a recent
gun arrest in the South County.
The “perpetrator”, firearms
dealer Dylan Todd, was taken
away, along with his wife, to be
charged by the California Department
of Justice on a technicality,
failing to disable a gun
feature before a state deadline.
Here’s where it gets scary;
San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s
officials had given Todd two
AR 15 rifles on consignment, as
required by a court order. The
judge directed Todd, a federally
licensed firearms dealer, to dispose
of confiscated weapons for
the department, as he had done
many times before.
It was a farce of official incompetence;
a court ordering Todd
to do one thing, while another
government agency arrested
him for possessing the very guns
he’d been ordered to sell. Apparently
one hand was moving
game pieces without the other
hand’s knowledge, except that
in this game there was no getout-of-jail-free
card. This draconian
drama hadn’t played out in
North Korea or even San Francisco,
but rather closer to home.
The couple was released without
charge, but not before they
had suffered through their own
gun trauma, the cocked barrels
of state government aimed
squarely at their freedom—not
for illegal activity, but merely
for following a different government
mandate.
Community members have
stepped up to support the
Todds, raising money to help
them with legal expenses, but
the apparent trampling of their
civil rights is indelible. If it was
me, I‘d find the meanest junkyard
dog civil rights lawyer available
and go after the state. And
I wouldn’t quit until I’d received
a cash settlement big enough to
buy a nice lake front retirement
home at Tahoe and nice fast Embraer
Phenom jet to commute
in. But that’s just me.
Mental Moves: Mindful of a
similarly expensive recent civil
payout, county board members
were all ears when Sheriff Ian Parkinson
rolled out a list of changes
to handle mental health issues
at county jail. A lack of mental
health facilities and training have
been blamed for several deaths
of county inmates, the most expensive,
a $5 million wrongful
death settlement.
Claims that mentally ill inmates
aren’t handled properly came
at the same time mental health
advocates are pushing for alternatives
to the criminal justice system.
The idea being that criminal
courts and jails are a poor substitute
for competent treatment.
A broad coalition of agencies
was formed to work out some
solutions; groups including county
behavioral health, the district
attorney, the public defender’s
office, as well as private mental
health services like Transitions
and El Camino Homeless Organization
came up with recommendations
heard by supervisors
on December 5th, including:
Converting former jail health
facilities for mental health offices
and treatment rooms, better
medication oversight and control,
medication-assisted addiction
treatment and better staff
training. Increases in mental
health staffing are also planned.
Pace Pester: Think you’ve
had it with those irritating, flashing
speed signs that remind
you you’re going three miles
per hour over the limit? Sorry to
be the bearer of bad news, but
you’re soon going to encounter
more of them.
Every seven years county engineering
folks evaluate these mostly-rural areas,
reviewing speed limits.
The signs, technically known as
dynamic speed warning signs,
display your speed as you go by,
using Doppler radar similar to
systems used for traffic enforcement
by the California Highway
Patrol. The signs will go in
countywide, after bids open in
early January. And no, the signs
aren’t capable of giving you a
ticket; they’re just to advise you.
Of course, I can’t speak for what
might happen if a cop happens
to see one of the signs light
up with “58 mph”, as you blitz
through a 45 zone.
County officials haven’t said
whether they’re installing the
new signs to remind motorists
that county officials just changed
speed limits along roads in unincorporated
areas.
You didn’t know? Naturally,
the lack of publicity of speed
limit changes does nothing to
help us avoid tickets; for that we
just need situational awareness.
I know, what a concept.
Actually this is a regular deal.
Every seven years county engineering
folks evaluate these
mostly-rural areas, reviewing
speed limits. They have the authority
— lawful responsibility,
actually — to even raise speed
limits where the majority of drivers
exceed current limits. But
you’ll rarely see that happen, the
reasons being growth and traffic.
Rural areas are safer to drive
at higher speeds, but in stretches
such as downtown Templeton,
growth in traffic and housing
has seen the posted limit of
45 mph drop to 40 mph.
Other areas where speed
limits have changed: Cemetery
Road in San Miguel and Monterey
Road in Paso Robles which
had no posted limit—the basic
speed law applied—now both
areas are posted 50 mph.
One exception: the 35 mph limit
along California Valley’s Soda
Lake Road. Naturally, traffic
surveys showed nobody obeying
that limit out in the middle
of nowhere, so county officials
raised the maximum speed to a
more realistic 50 mph.
Pot Grandfathered: Finally, if
you didn’t register to grow pot
in 2017, you can’t even apply
this year; county supervisors decided
141 farms is enough, no
new licenses. You can still grow
up to six plants, indoors only, for
yourself. And you’ll likely draw
less attention from state prosecutors
who evidently prefer blazing
blunts to blazing guns.
40 PASO Magazine, January 2018