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Vol. 81,
',i .,i i LI5 i l't : i;,CE i
and all of the Indian Valley Area
No. 15 • Feather Publishing Co., Inc. • 530-284-7800 ° Wednesaay, March 2, 2011
5O¢
Bring
Greenville resident
Bob Murray plows to clear
the way for mail delivery
Friday, Feb. 25, after more
than 16 inches of snow fell
overnight. Rural route
carriers sure appreciate
such efforts.
Photo by Terry Villines
Up-to-the-minute
forecast and road conditions at
plumasnews.com
i( }i/il iii ,I x iii#i ?I. ;i i:i , :
District attorney makes his case with supes
Joshua Sebold
Staff Writer
jsebold @plumasnews.com
District Attorney (DA)
David Hollister told the
Plumas County Board of
Supervisors his budget for
the current fiscal year was
$163,724 lighter compared to
the previous year, with the
county's General Fund con-
tribution and grant funding
both shrinking.
The DA explainea this led
to the elimination of vehicles
and on-call pay for his inves-
tigators, while more changes
would be necessary in the
next fiscal year.
Hollister added that the
office couldn't cut prosecu-
tors because he and Deputy
District Attorney Gary
McGowan were already han-
dling nearly 800 cases a year
-- each.
He explained that number
would drop to 519 cases per
prosecutor with the hiring
of new Deputy DA Joel Mc-
Comb from Alameda County,
the office Hollister worked for
before arriving in Plumas.
McComb will fill Hollister's
old job, meaning the office
General
Year Grants Total
Fund
2009-10
2010-11
Funding Lost
$910,g10 $102,921 $1,013,831
$826,610 $23,497 $850,107
$84,300 $79,424 $163,724
will have the same number of
attorneys as before.
Essentially Hollister was
arguing that he would be
taking more of the court-
room workload'than his
predecessor.
Even sharing the workload
in this way, he added, the pros-
ecutors in his office would be
handling over 2-1/2 times the
cases that an attorney in
Sacramento would take on.
"If we take the state
staffing recommendations,
our office should have 13
prosecutors and 10 support
staff. Again, I'm not going to
ask you for that but really
that's the number of cases
that we're working."
The DA clarified that this
wasn't a direct comparison
because when he worked in
Oakland every case he tried
involved the possibility of a
life sentence, meaning he had
fewer cases, but the crimes
ihvolved were much more
serious compared to the rate
of about one murder trial per
year in Plumas.
On the flip side, he argued
that people in Plumas County
care more about small crimes
like burglaries.
"Our cases are every bit as
important to our citizens as
down in Sacramento."
Indian Valley Supervisor
Robert Meacher responded
that another way to look
at Holliter's case numbers,
included in a sidebar to this
Fair board looks for ways to
continue, without state funds
Mona Hill
Staff Writer
mhill@plumasnews.com
With no state funds expect.
ed for the Plumas-Sierra
County Fair, directors and
fair manager John Steffanic
discussed possible solutions at
a meeting Wednesday, Feb. 23.
As the meeting began,
Supervisor J.P. Kennedy in-
troduced his District 5
appointment, Tom Joyce of
Graeagle. Joyce is a 30-plus
year county resident with
many family members also in
Plumas County.
In his manager's report,
Steffanic said he'd received a
letter from the Western Fairs
I1!1 !lilll I11! 111111 qll! !! !1]
8 U88nS: 93e ;;
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Association (WFA) saying it
endorsed Gov. Jerry Brown's
plan to eliminate state fund-
ing to fairs.
Steffanic and 20 other fair
managers testified before
legislators in Sacramento last
week. He said while the law-
makers were individually
supportive of county fairs,
they were not receptive
to funding them when other
state programs took priority.
Board president Howard
Hughes, County Administra-
tive Officer (CAO) Jack
Ingstad, Steffanic and the
county's budget committee
had planned to meet to
discuss the fair's future, but
the meeting was cancelled
due to weather. Steffanic
said the meeting would be
rescheduled.
The group will try to
determine minimum funding
for the fair, as well as
possible reorganization to
make fair operations more
cost effective.
Steffanic said closing
operations at the fairgrounds
would not eliminate all
spending. He estimated
insurance, power and water
totaled about $100,000.
The annual county fair
generates slightly more than
$140,000 in revenue and
the High Sierra Music Festi-
val takes in about $145,000.
The ultimate goal is to
build the fairgrounds as a
revenue-producing center
and that requires an operable
and attractive facility.
Steffanic has several rev-
enue building and expense
reduction suggestions to put
forward to the CAO and
budget committee, including
a possible change in his
position to part time and
consolidation with the
county's facilities depart-
ment -- all of which are still
at the idea stage.
Steffanic said everyone is
committed to finding a way
forward.
See Fair photos, page 7A
Sacramento Plumas
County County
Population 1,424,415 20,824
Cases Charged 36,671 1,559
Cases per 100,000 people 2,574 7,795
Cases per Prosecutor 198 780
article, was that Plumas had
three times as many cases
per citizen as Sacramento.
Meacher said budgeting
for law enforcement was
a delicate balance and
statistics could be viewed in
different ways.
He argued having more
police officers led to more
arrests "because there's more
people in the business doing
it."
"The more you prosecute
the more you need to in-
cai'cerate. The more you
incarcerate the more you
need to probate."
He contended that someone
could then look at the result-
ing high crime statistics and
conclude, "We need more
cops." This "starts the whole
conveyor loading up again.
So when have you protected
yourself enough?"
Hollister agreed that
Meacher had a point but
argued that the Plumas
County Sheriff's Office
wasn't currently overstaffed.
"We've got four detectives
and one supervisor. I want
them out there working."
"If people are slinging
meth down by Quincy High
School where my kid goes to
school I want that guy off the
street and that's something
that I think I'm happy to pay
for, I think you're happy to
pay for. That's a priority.
Where we get into the nickel
and dime stuff, quite frankly
we've got no interest in that.
I've got plenty of work. I am
not going to bend over back-
wards to charge everything
that I see."
Hollister said the case
numbers were also skewed
by "some miscreants in this
county who will pick up four,
five and six cases a year."
"They won't be the cases of
the century but they will con-
tinually do it. They're dri-
ving under the influence,
they're under the influence of
methamphetamine."
Meacher asked if the Cali-
fornia Highway Patrol was
overburdening the DA's of-
fice with overzealous enforce-
ment on people driving under
the influence of prescription
medications.
Hollister played devil's ad-
vocate, "I just charged a
fourth-time DUI going down
the canyon, she's going about
70, cutting corners, she ends
up hitting theembankment,
ending up in one of the little
reservoirs down there.
"If I'm coming up with my
family, we're dead. So that
DUI, you know what? Go get
her, go arrest her, get her off
the roads."
Greener pastures ,,
Watershed improvement work by local ranchers is often overlooked. See inside the Regional
section for the third and final segment of the upper Feather River watershed coverage. Photo
by Heather Kingdon