Demand transparent, qualifications-based process to avoid conflicts of interest, secret deals
A press release issued on Friday, states “a community coalition of organizations and individual voters from Contra Costa County called on all candidates for the interim District Attorney position to complete a public questionnaire about where they stand on a variety of issues that matter to the organizations, ranging from bail practices and criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, worker and consumer protection to police accountability and the environment. The coalition issued the questionnaire after the Board of Supervisors failed to adopt a fully transparent and community-first process at their August 1 meeting. This coalition is also working with local organizations and volunteers to host a candidate forum on Saturday, August 12, in Concord.”
Of the twelve applicants, the Supervisors narrowed the field to five. (See related article, here).
The responses to the questionnaire will be made public before the forum.
View the questionnaire, here: CoCo Interim DA Community Questionnaire_FINAL
WHAT: Contra Costa Interim District Attorney Candidate Forum
WHEN: Saturday, August 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
WHERE: Church of the Nazarene at 1650 Ashbury Dr., Concord, CA
WHO: The forum is co-hosted by the ACLU of Northern California; Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE); Contra Costa AFL-CIO Central Labor Council; Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition (CCCRJC); Courage Campaign; #cut50; Democratic Party of Contra Costa County; East County NAACP; Safe Return Project; and Smart Justice California
According to their website, the ACCE “is a grassroots, member-led, statewide community organization working with more than 10,000 members across California…dedicated to raising the voices of everyday Californians, neighborhood by neighborhood, to fight for the policies and programs we need to improve our communities and create a brighter future” such as raising taxes on businesses and individuals to increase funding for education, working to preserve and expand affordable housing, and “raise the floor on wages and benefits.”
On the CCCRJC website it states that the organization is opposed to the expansion of the West County Detention Center.
The Courage Campaign states on their website that it “fights for a more progressive California and country” by focusing on three priorities of economic justice, human rights, and corporate and political accountability.
The mission of #cut50 is to “making communities safer while reducing the number of people in our prisons and jails.”
The press release also states that, “at a public hearing on August 1, the coalition pleaded with the County Board of Supervisors to adopt an open and transparent selection process for choosing the interim District Attorney that includes a community selection committee. The coalition urged the Board to avoid conflicts of interest by revealing whether they have ever received an endorsement or monetary support from any of the candidates, and pressed the supervisors to develop a system for ranking the candidates based on their qualifications and alignment with local values, over a consensus-based decision-making model that could be swayed by backroom deals. The coalition had previously sent a letter requesting similar action to the Board on July 6th, which was never acknowledged.”
A spokesperson for the coalition, Director of Contra Costa County Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) David Sharples, said, “We want a district attorney who reflects the values of Contra Costa voters. The selection process should focus on whether each candidate is qualified for the job, aligns with local values, has the highest level of ethical standards, and is ready to take on the challenges faced by our community, not the candidate who is the most well-connected. If the board won’t be transparent about this process, then we will go straight to the candidates so they have every opportunity to explain where they stand on the issues and why they are the best candidate.”
The coalition’s press release concluded with the following: “Contra Costa voters have bucked the position of their District Attorney and repeatedly voted for meaningful criminal justice reform over the last several elections. In 2012, 72 percent of county residents voted in favor of Proposition 36, which reformed California’s Three Strikes Law; in 2014, 66 percent of voters supported Proposition 47, which substantially reduced the penalties for several crimes; in 2016, 69 percent voted in favor of Proposition 57, which significantly expanded early parole opportunities for people serving time in California prisons; and 61 percent voted in favor of Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana and retroactively invalidated several types of prior marijuana-related criminal convictions.”
I’d like to see a women appointed to this job. You have two terrific women applicants – Becton and Douglass -, both Superior Court judges. The elected DA has been a man only job for generations, dating back 100 years. 60% of law school grads are women, you have all these great women deputy DA’s now, Judges too, so we are long overdue to have a women run the DA’s office. In our county we have never had a women hold the job of elected assessor, elected tax collector, elected county clerk, or elected sheriff. It’s been a white guy only thing for these jobs generations! I myself am a white guy, but I got daughters. I also believe diversity is critical in public hiring, as do most Contra Costan’s. Time for the county to get into the 21st century – it’s not 1950. Appointing either Becton or Douglass to the job would accomplish that, we would be seeing some diversity with these elected county jobs, for a change