Sexism in Orange County: "We should get you some implants or a water bra."

"I kept telling the chief [Paul Walters of Santa Ana Police Department] we should get you some implants. Or a water bra."


----Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamonte who denied the comment even though a Los Angeles Times reporter overheard it.




"It's time for Orange County to get away from this good-old-boy syndrome,"


---Deputy Steve Wilkinson, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department





Speculation abounds in the wake of the Democratic Party's Central Committee's decision to censure Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge. Loveridge, a registered Democrat, taped a phone message for Ward Four Councilman Frank Schiavone urging fellow Democrats to support and vote for Schiavone, who's a Republican in the District One supervisor race in Riverside County. Did Loveridge endorse Schiavone and tape the advertisement because he believed that Schiavone was the best candidate? Did he do so because incumbent Bob Buster who was also running didn't ask him as he usually did and Schiavone did?

Some people also wondered if Loveridge adopted a strategy used by some Ward Four voters, which was to vote for Schiavone for city council hoping that if he won the supervisor race, he would no longer be on the city council. Some said that it was a political strategy used by Loveridge to help set him up well for the much anticipated mayoral election next year. There's a lot of theories going around about one paid political advertisement as there often is when the intrigue of election year plays out even at its bottom level of elected government. Just as there is much speculation about who will declare in the mayor's race. Next year's election is already shaping up to possibly be the most thrilling process in years as possible candidates in all the government positions up for grabs contemplate whether or not to throw their hats in the ring. There's still plenty of time to decide until the filing deadline but the politics of the election cycle are always fascinating even before the actual campaigns begin.


Speaking of Election 2009, Ward Two Councilman Andrew Melendrez is allegedly planning for his run for a second term. His name's been tossed particularly in the past two years about for a possible run at the mayor seat but Melendrez has wisely decided to try to increase his experience level on the dais first. Even though Melendrez didn't get the position he desired on the pivotal Governmental Affairs Committee, he has still carved out a fairly positive reputation on the city council.

But some of the other names dropped in the field for mayor so far have been former Ward Three Councilman Art Gage, former Ward Five Councilman Ed Adkison, former mayor and Ward Seven council candidate, Terry Frizzel and former Ward One Councilman Dom Betro. For the most part, all three men and one woman have dropped out of the political arena and are off doing other things. But still, there is still nine months before the filing deadline for Election 2009, which like its 2007 counterpart could take place in two rounds. The larger the mayor's race turns out to be, the more that outcome is likely.

So those who are running might need to prepare and to strategize for the long haul and that includes raising money to buy mailers, paid political announcements and a lot of autodialing.


Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Berstein analyzes the censure of Loveridge by the local Democrats and while doing so reminds everyone of the high stakes of next year's mayoral contest.



(excerpt)



Riverside's MayorLuv hit a speed hump! Via annoying automated calls, he implored "fellow Democrats" to vote for GOPer Frank Schiavone in last week's RivCo supe election.

Councilman Schiavone got creamed anyway, and now county Demos will send the mayor an official letter of censure, warning he might not get endorsed for re-election in 2009.

Sniffed hizzoner: "I have not chosen to be active in the apparatus of the Democratic Party." Except when he hijacks it on behalf of a Republican in a nonpartisan race! Bonehead play for a guy swaggering to his fifth (or is it 50th?) term, which he must win to become prez of the National League of Cities. Until now, it seemed so inevitable. Just like Prez Hillary Clinton.



The presidency is the biggest draw for Loveridge and perhaps the fact that due to the restructuring of the election process in Riverside, the next term for mayor is an abbreviated one. The prize for everyone else is a salary a bit higher than that received by council members and the perks that come with being a mayor in a city council/city manager political system. That and you get to have a fancy smancy luncheon sponsored annually in your honor where you get to make a big speech about the upcoming year.



Berstein also writes about the election of two local prosecutors to fill judge positions in Riverside County Superior Court. Of course, it greatly helped the outcome for one of them that he ran unopposed.


In related news, the judicial task force has left the building! Not yet, but the remaining six judges sent down by the highest state court to address the serious backlog of criminal cases will be leaving soon. In addition, seven judges which were promised to Riverside County were pulled due to budget cuts.

So the county is left to its own devices again and it remains to be seen what will happen next. But it will be difficult to forget the reality of the visiting judges shaking their heads in dismay and wonder at Riverside's broken system and being equal opportunity critics which means rebuking both prosecutors and defense attorneys alike.

So what lies ahead, is the question.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"We're hoping there will be judges appointed in the near future," Assistant District Attorney Chuck Hughes said. In the meantime, "it's a logistical challenge, but a key will be whether the Riverside County bench sticks with it after the strike force leaves."





Grant Elementary School closes its doors. There's a lot of reasons given for why the school has closed but the popular one is that the land it sits on is wanted by the Riverside Board of Education administrative offices across the street.






Sexism rears its ugly head in Orange County (also known as the place Riverside inspires to be) as critics rant about the appointment of new Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, according to the Los Angeles Times. Men in Orange County and in other places are calling her appointment the culmination of a plot against a male candidate because two of the elected officials who voted for her on the board of supervisors were women and she was strongly backed by the ominous California Women's Leadership Association, an organization that works hard to increase the representation of women in elected positions. What was interesting is that Hutchens' appointment was blamed on bleeding heart, knee-jerk liberals but the CWLA is a group of Republican women.

Now this is very funny because for years, men who have held high-ranking positions in law enforcement and in politics were often backed by male members casting votes in their favor and greatly assisted by organizations of men who put their efforts, money and time into promoting candidates who were men reflecting their core values. And often one of those core values was to keep these positions for men only or failing that, as close to that as they could get. These opportunities for up and coming police officers or politicians which enabled them to network with power players who could help them rise up in the ranks or up the political ladder were seen by those inside them as a matter of course.

To outsiders, including men of color and women they were seen as the "good old boy" network (as pointed out by Deputy Wilkinson in the above quote) or the "good old White men's" network. They were seen as places that they could never go, never join in and most importantly never benefit from while in professions that were heavily dependent on such networks. All they were allowed to do is watch from afar, outside the iron-clad gates that surrounded the cities of gold.


But suddenly, as more and more men of color and women gain economic and political power inch by inch, their use of the same network system leads to cries of foul from the men who enjoyed the considerable advantage these systems provided to them and their kind for years. Even though it was taken for granted that "good old boys" always stressed merit and experience over race, class and gender, there were cries of reverse sexism against Hutchens and the women who backed her. And these attitudes are erupting much faster than the progress made by the outsiders into an inner circle that is still largely closed to them.

Because the rule book makes it clear about this double standard. If men back male candidates because they are men, it's called networking. If men and women of color do it, it's reverse racism and/or sexism. If White women do it, it's reverse sexism. And so on.


What's clear too is that there's probably a "good old boy" network in Santa Ana. Why is that? Because of the quote on the top of this posting, the derisive one made about Hutchens, implants and water bras. The one between a male politician and a male police chief that involves a sexist joke at the expense of one woman and essentially other women.

Let's take a look at it.

An elected official is telling a conservative blogger that he keeps telling the chief...wait a minute here, keeps telling the chief that he needs implants and a water bra to help him. How many times would Walters, the chief mentioned, need to hear this sexist piece of crap comment before telling Bustamante in a polite but resolute manner that he doesn't agree with the comment and doesn't want to hear it? Having been Santa Ana's so-called "miracle" chief for two decades should give him some solid ground to stand upon to not accept a sexist comment. Santa Ana's not about to throw him out the door if he speaks up against what an elected official said to him.

What's not known is whether Walters was told the comment over and over again because he agreed with it perhaps laughed with Bustamante and agreed with him or because he lacked the fortitude to object to it perhaps because he doesn't consider sexism including sexist banter to be a big deal. If that's the case, then it's a serious problem.

If he laughed along with Bustamante or remained silent, then this quote provides the single most compelling reason why Walters shouldn't be picked to head a large county law enforcment agency which employees men and women. The Santa Ana Police Department like others also employs men and women and the women work as hard and face as much danger as their male counterparts do. If Bustamante had made such a sexist comment to Walters once, Walters should have said it offended him and hopefully that would have been the end of it. That's the kind of action that a leader who's worthy of leading an organization of men and women would take in a situation like this one.

There's always the possibility that Bustamonte only repeatedly made the comment to Walters inside his own head. If that's the case, then Walters needs to put himself in the necessary if awkward position of setting the record straight. Because if he participated in this sexist banter with Bustamante in any way, then it's a slap on the face to the women and men who work in his police department.



The Orange County Register Editorial Board then grumbled and called Hutchens' appointment, "an affirmative action hire".


(excerpt)



The board certainly has the right to make its choice for whatever reason it deems appropriate. Most disappointing, Supervisor John Moorlach did not offer an explanation for his decision before he cast his vote for Ms. Hutchens. He doesn't have to explain his rationale, of course, but the public is best served with open debate – especially when a vote comes out of left field. Supervisor Janet Nguyen, another Hutchens supporter, made a motion to cast the vote secretly, in apparent violation of the letter and spirit of the state's open-meetings law. She and Supervisor Pat Bates, the final Hutchens vote, called for an initial straw vote as a way to try to get a unanimous vote in favor of their chosen candidate.

Fortunately, Supervisors Bill Campbell and Chris Norby would have none of the charade. As Mr. Campbell explained, he has on past occasions voted against someone and then gone on to work closely with that person. There was no need to gin up a fake unanimous vote as a sign of support for the new appointee.

Both Supervisors Norby and Campbell made impassioned cases for Mr. Walters. In Mr. Norby's view, the credentials of the two candidates were not even close. Mr. Walters has long been interested in the Sheriff's Department, having run in 1998 against Mr. Carona. Whereas Ms. Hutchens' supporters boasted about how impressed they have been with her over the past couple ofweeks, Mr. Norby retorted that the county has gotten to know Mr. Walters over a period of 20 years. Mr. Campbell argued that the department needs a turnaround and that Mr. Walters had that specific experience. By contrast, Supervisors Nguyen and Bates kept insisting that Hutchens is as qualified as Mr. Walters. They wouldn't say what pushed her over the top.

The best explanation we've heard is a disturbing one. The California Women's Leadership Association, a group of Republican women devoted to having more women in office, engaged in heavy-duty lobbying for Ms. Hutchens. The board appears to have made, in essence, an affirmative-action hire. Also, supporters of sheriff's candidate Bill Hunt have pushed Ms. Hutchens. They believe her to be a more vulnerable candidate politically for re-election in 2010, and Ms. Hutchens reportedly has talked about bringing Mr. Hunt back into the department.

So, politics trumps experience. What else is new?



Again, the editorial board (and it would be interesting to see what its racial and gender breakdown is) cries foul because the sinister women's group has picked up the rules manual on how to play the political game that had been solely the domain of men especially White men.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompanied the moment one glass ceiling was finally broken in the state's second largest Sheriff's Department. Hutchens was employed by the nation's largest law enforcement agency, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and brought that experience to her interviews with the supervisors. During her tenure, she oversaw the largest jail system in the country and the job hunt for former Sheriff Mike Carona's replacement focused a lot on addressing the corruption and other problems involving the Orange County Sheriff's Department jail facilities.


The Liberal O.C. blog takes Bustamante to task for his sexist comment. And Orange Juice Blog asks is Carlos Bustamante a sexist after praising the supervisors who voted for Hutchens.


As does Navel Gazing, which chides politicians not to say stupid things to Los Angeles Times reporters.


Another discussion about Hutchens' appointment here.



The heads of the two largest law enforcement agencies in California are increasingly at odds in the subject of race and gang violence.





The San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters' Association is heading to court to stop the reopening of its labor contract which it has stated could lead to personnel cuts.









On July 1, anabolic steroid testing will be done on officers in the Dallas Police Department. A dealer who sold steroids was busted some time back and told investigators that some of his customers were police officers.
















POSITION TITLE: Deputy Director

SALARY RANGE: $92,700 - $120,000 with benefits. Salary is based on education and experience.

POSTED: June 9, 2008

CLOSING DATE: Open until filled.

INTRODUCTION: The Office of Police Complaints (OPC) is an independent District of Columbia agency that receives, investigates, and resolves police misconduct complaint filed by the public against Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and D.C. Housing Authority Police Department (DCHAPD) officers.

OPC is headed by an executive director, and overseen by the Police Complaints Board (PCB), a five-member board appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by District of Columbia Council. The agency currently has 21 full-time employees. The agency is seeking a deputy director to manage the day-to-day operations of the agency. The deputy director plays a key role in all aspects of OPC's work including supervision over the investigation,mediation, and adjudication of citizen complaints, developing recommendations for police reform, conducting community outreach, and administration of the office.

DUTIES:

Duties include:

* Supervising the work of agency's investigative unit and reviewing and approving investigative reports.

* Overseeing OPC's mediation and adjudication programs.

* Preparing agency annual reports.

* Supervising and preparing recommendations for police reform for Mayor, District Council, and police department.

* Serving as a liaison to MPD, other District Government agencies, and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

* Overseeing finance, budget, personnel, contracting, and facilities work for the agency.

* Supervising and participating in community outreach and public affairs work.

* Advising the executive director.




QUALIFICATIONS:



The qualifications sought from applicants are:

* Licensed to practice law for at least five years.

* Membership in, or eligibility to waive into, the District of Columbia Bar.

* District of Columbia residency within 180 days of accepting the position.

* Prior management experience.

* Strong writing ability and excellent interpersonal skills.

* Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects.

* Familiarity with law enforcement procedures and/or the criminal justice system.

* A background in civil rights or other experience evidencing genuine commitment to the public interest.




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APPLICATIONS: Please fax a cover letter and resume to (202) 727-7638 or mail to:Deputy Director Vacancy Office of Police Complaints 1400 I Street, NW, Suite 700Washington, DC 20005

OPC seeks to complete the hiring process as promptly as possible. OPC will contact candidates who have been selected for an interview and further consideration by the agency. The District of Columbia Government is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status,personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibilities,matriculation, physical handicap, or political affiliation.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: For more information about OPC, please visit the agency's website: www.policecomplaint s.dc.gov