Press sues City of Sacramento! Outcome could effect all California citizen activists

Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Police Officers Assoc and Community Watch analysis ^ | Saturday/Sunday December 14th & 15th | Tony Bizjak -- Bee Staff Writer and follow-up by R.E. Graswich

[comwatch]

A plea to our

[BeAllYouCanBe]

I am at your service.

With all of my strenght and the energy of my mind I will follow.

[comwatch]

Ping for starters... forward as you deem appropriate.

[comwatch]

Thank you... a simple email will help. CC me if you can.

How often do we read "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke 1729-1797 - two minutes to urge the Bee to prosecute this case on the PUBLIC's behalf seems so little to do.

[OReilly]

I am generally pro-disposed toward this, but the write up is so busy and intense... a several sentence summary would bring in more supporters and make me feel like I better understand what I am getting in to.

[Gophack]

Bump for later reading

[comwatch]

Sorry - Maybe this will help... it's just hard to condence lengthy court docs and ten years of fighting for the public's right to know. Newspaper critters are supposed to tell the story in the first papragraph... right?

Bee sues city over disclosure.

It wants to see the terms of Chief Venegas' retirement deal; officials say the records are confidential.

The Bee sued the city of Sacramento on Friday, arguing the city is violating state law by refusing to make public the retirement package officials negotiated with Police Chief Arturo Venegas Jr. last month.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, cites the California Public Records Act in requesting the city be forced to disclose the terms -- especially financial payments -- of the deal made by City Manager Bob Thomas.

[shadowman99]

OK, for those of us in flyover country, please tell us why a retirement package has inspired ten years of passionate fighting and court battles. Yes, a public officials' employment records should be public record, and in this case appears not to be, but what is the big picture? Certainly you wouldn't fight this hard to see the dog catcher's payroll history.

[farmfriend]

This is Sacramento California, home of Willie Brown and Gray Out Davis. The Cheif is probably getting a sweet deal but we won't know until we see the papers. This man is a racist etc who never should have been chief.

[crazy canuck]

Sir,

Congratulations!!!!!!

Once again, you have dug beneath the stinky undergrowth and of Sacramento politics and uncovered an issue for us to sink our teeth into and raise our fists in disgust and frustration.

Chief Artie has hidden behind the skirts of City Council and the City Manager Bob Thomas. But, this time the Sacramento Bee has see through the skirt and decided that it does not look pretty in there.

I look foreward to seeing Artie's badge as an E-Bay auction next to Gray-Out Davis's farewell Speech. Maybe we will see a copy of Al Gore's 2004 concession speech as well.

[comwatch]

Shadowman...

You wrote: "a public officials' employment records should be public record, and in this case appears not to be, but what is the big picture?"

These two statement conflict and THAT'S the issue we have fought for years. For appointed and elected officials to thumb their collective noses at the law IS the issue. If it's a public record, how can one accept "in this case appears not to be" based on a City Manager (not a lawyer), the mayor and council. It's not this latest subversion of the Public Records Act (Freedom of Information Act at the federal level) but the collective impact over the year. The right of any citizen to ask what our tax dollars pay for and what we're getting for it.

The quest began with $60 million in Clinton COPS grants (bribes) to our capitol city for what Clinton's hacks claimed was hundreds of new officers on the streets of Sacramento. The facts: 1992 341 police officers assigned to patrol this city. 2002, fewer than 200. This has been reported on extensively outside the Sac Bee who continued to lie for the city about police staffing. See: http://crimewatch.us/cops01.htm

The city said we had 700 cops this summer. They lied! I asked for their names, date of hire and badge numbers. Twice now, they have refused that simple request saying it too is a personnel matter and exempt.

Should we just go quietly into the night and allow the law to be violated because we don't have the power and the bank account the Bee has? I was raised to believe the paower WAS in the people's hands. Perhaps Edmund Burke and people like me are wrong. Perhaps digging deep on a public issue, more than the media has been willing to do, is tilting at windmills. But I'm man enough to applaud an enemy for doing something right for a change.

[MattAMiller]

Wow, the Bee is actually doing something worthwhile for once. More stuff like this and I may start getting that rag again.

[jimtorr]

I asked for their names, date of hire and badge numbers. Twice now, they have refused that simple request saying it too is a personnel matter and exempt.

I agree, its not a personnel matter to want to know who's on the public payroll. It may be a safety matter, though, to want to publish the names of the entire police force. Anonymity when off duty can be important for the safety of police and their families.

Of course, in Sacramento, the real reason they refuse to provide even badge numbers of active officers is the code of silence of public officials. Once they start responding to even simple requests they might accidentely give out information that will put them in jail.

[NormsRevenge]

BUMP

[Darksheare]

Here in New York, for county business to be conducted in secret and without the public's knowledge is treated as a right and a tradition.

[comwatch]

Jim, thank God our state legislature has seen fit to safeguard our men and women of law enforcement from prying criminal's eyes. DMV records for cops are off limits as are other public records that might be used to find out where an officer or family members reside. That said, I don't see a safety issue for obtaining such a roster and the concept of a "Secret Police Force" is troubling to me. Like the Bee's Public Records request, the city is lacking the statutory authority for it's refusal, and like the Bee case, thumbing their collective noses at the law.

Police officers in our city have been fired and/or demoted for sharing such "off limits" information as crime patterns and staffing levels. Such is the case with one we still consider as one of Sacramento's TOP COPS even in forced retirement.

TOP COP HONORS to a VERY SPECIAL FRIEND

Lt. Pat Dowden - OUR TOP COP! (Always a Watch Commander to SCCW) Since September 1975, Pat Dowden has served the citizens of Sacramento with distinction and professionalism. One of Sacramento's most decorated officers, for bravery and duty above the call, Pat will be missed in our neighborhood more than words alone can say. Pat never shrank from his belief that informed community activists could be the best asset of Community Policing!  Pat earned our support and appreciation for all he's done for Sacramento over the years!

Insiders at the Sacramento Bee tell me the paper will likely drop the suit. I did learn what the retiring chief is worth as a consultant to the city. He will be allowed to bill the city $300 per hour for his time.  Unlike former Deputy Chief Jerry Ledbedder who Chief Venegas wanted gone under his new rein, there appears to be not up front retainer from the city. Ledbedder was reportedly paid $50,000 for consulting services he was never called upon to deliver.  Will Venegas get such a deal in the near future or after the current flap ends?  Who will know.

What we will know is that our capitol city will be strapped with the legacy of Bill Clinton and Art Venegas (pictured to the right behind Clinton) for years to come. The $60 million in Clinton COPS bribes will never be fully accounted for here or in dozens of other cities around the country.  We the taxpayers pay the price. When we do not resist or fight for our rights under the law, we lose those rights forever. That's really what this issue is all about and has been for years.

[crazy canuck]

Keep the fire burnin' and the bunker lights on!!!!!

[Kenny Bunk]

Chief Venegas is member of a Federally Protected Minority species. It is thus forbidden by law for you to call him a "Racist."

Anyone who reaches high office with a boost from Affirmative Action, is ipso facto, not a "Racist." Don't let this happen again, or I shall sic P.C. Moose, Ph.D on your case.

BTW, is his sweet retirement deal legal, or illegal? Some outrageously sweet deals given incompetent AAA police chiefs to get rid of them before they do more damage, are almost completely legal.

Venegas chief claim to fame, and indeed only known law-enforcement talent is he can say,"You in a heap 'o' trouble, Boy," in Spanish!