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Recall: Appropriate and Very Much Needed
Published Saturday, October 11, 1997

In Washington these days, it seems no one can recall anything.  In Nevada County, it’s different.  We can recall elected officials.  Recall is an essential mechanism of good government and the current evidence is that it needs to be applied right now.
 
In case you missed it, people supporting a recall of four elected county officials filed petitions this week with Bruce Bolinger, County Clerk.  They are seeking the removal of Sheriff Troy Arbaugh, District Attorney Mike Ferguson, Judge John Darlington, and Judge Ersel Edwards.
 
The petitions contain between nine and ten thousand signatures for each official.  If enough of them are valid, the county will hold a special recall election.
 
Recall increases accountability.  If there were no provision for recall, the public would have to wait for officials to stand for re-election before measuring their performance.  Usually, that’s OK with us, although, amazingly, while your Congressional Representative faces you every two years, you have to tolerate four years of nose-thumbing from your County Supervisor.  Local control of government, indeed!
 
But I digress.  If voters perceive dereliction, malfeasance, or incompetence, they are free to act on their feelings through the recall process.  They can gather signatures, and if others disagree, those others can publicly lobby against it.  They can certainly refuse to sign petitions and most petition drives fail either through opposition or apathy.  Ultimately, they can vote against recall.
 
Recall drives are based on dissatisfaction with elected officials, but they don’t have to be based strictly on fact.  That’s a rich irony for the officials, since these days they often campaign more on promises of satisfaction than on facts.  As long as there’s a big gap between election promises and performance, there’ll be room for recalls.
 
Whether you view a recall as a form of the election process or as part of the people’s right to petition the government for redress of grievances, it’s a needed check on government and always in order.
 
But what about this recall?  Is it appropriate?  Why do 9000 people think it is?
 
It’s highly unusual to see four recall petitions active at once, all of them in the arena of the justice system.  Explanations going around are: 1) the public has been manipulated; 2) the public isn’t in possession of the facts; 3) the public has gone mad; or 4) these officials have finally irritated and dismayed the public beyond all bearing.  I favor the last.
 
The attempt to recall the District Attorney and the judges centers around the possible mishandling of the Sam Strange case.  Sam Strange’s family obviously feels very strongly about this.  The DA and judges have come up grievously short on candor and appropriate dialogue, and are now in a corner where they can’t admit to errors.  The guilt or innocence of Sam Strange is now secondary in importance.  It’s the fairness of the process.  Did he get a fair trial?  Now the public wonders.  And a recall election will certainly provide the broadest forum for getting an answer.
 
The attempt to recall Sheriff Arbaugh is more public, as we’re more likely to have contact with a Sheriff’s Deputy than a D.A. or a judge.
 
Either Troy Arbaugh is the worst Sheriff ever (which I very much doubt) or he has the worst luck of any elected official in history.  He has experience, friends attest to his character, and the deputies are good.  However, his department looks bad, and Arbaugh is ultimately responsible for procedures, training and communicating rules of conduct.  So here’s what happened on his watch:
 
1) negligence in the Saunders search; 2) failure to arrest in the Minnick/Joyce shooting; 3) death in the county jail due medical neglect; 4) death in juvenile hall due to lack of supervision; 5) alleged sexual misconduct at the Truckee jail; 6) theft or incompetence in handling Strange’s property.
 
The first four have death involved.  The last is the final, petty insult to a condemned man.
 
More bad luck.  The recent shooting of a woman by a Grass Valley police officer has nothing to do with the Sheriff’s Office, but the public may be thinking about it during a recall election.
 
As of this writing, I believe there are enough valid signatures for a recall election.  That’s good.  I hope the four officials will be candid with the public, and that the public will fair to them.
 
Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and a ten-year resident of Nevada County. You can write to him at barry@wvswrite.com. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union.
 

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