Citizens to Elect Our Public Defender    

Generally, why should the Public Defender be elected/ Why this initiative?

The One sentence (quick) Answer: 
            So that Santa Clara County, California can be an extraordinary place in which to live.

The annual budget of the Public Defender is over $25 million dollars. The Public Defender's Office, the county's second largest law office, will soon surpass the District Attorney's Office and become the county's largest law office as the Alternative Public Defender's Office (under the oversight of the Public Defender) continues to grow.  

Independence and Responsibility:

This initiative expands the role of the Public Defender from its current, very narrow, and limited function of representing indigent criminal defendants and mental health clientele.

• It makes the Public Defender and his deputies a part of our community. It makes the Public Defender an active contributor to and requires his active involvement in our community.

• It gives the Public Defender the independence to speak out on critical issues.

• No appointed Public Defenders have decried  the peril of the "USA Patriot Act of 2001" despite its effective elimination of our personal and financial privacy.  [Only 1 U.S. Senator voted against it.]   Where is there a Public Defender counterbalancing voice in this new wilderness of personal freedom?
  

• Has there been a Public Defender who has warned us that the laws Congress has passed to enable the "War on Terrorism" may well become  1. A war on ourselves (as has been the War on Drugs, McCarthyism) and 2. Bears a remarkable resemblance to a law which "enabled" a previous war on terrorism?  
  

• When is the last time you heard the Public Defender condemn the refusal of the government to honor, even thwart, citizen passed initiatives such as 215, the medical marijuana initiative, and limit Proposition 36, the drug initiative, or speak out on behalf of our constitutional rights?
  
  

• When is the last time you heard any public defender speak out on behalf of the 2^nd Amendment, or any of our Bill of Rights?
  

• When is the last time your heard the Public Defender speak out about the injustices of the current three strikes law?  What about any of our laws as they now exist?
  
  

• As initiative after initiative granting police and prosecutors greater powers are presented to the voters, who is warning us about our hurried march into a police state? Who is acting as a counterbalancing voice to those who seek to limit our freedom and privacy rights in the name of safety? Why is there not even a peep from our "appointed" Public Defenders?
  
  

• When is the last time your heard the public defender take a public position which was controversial or in contradiction to the official position of the Board of Supervisors?
  
  

• It enables the Public Defender to engage in the most effective crime prevention available, i.e., going to our schools on a consistent and organized basis, educating our youth and giving them the "what's so" about the legal system.  They then don't have to wait to do something wrong or stupid to find out.  Education has worked for Aids Prevention.  It will work in crime prevention as well.

• It releases the leash and cuts off the muzzle the Board of Supervisors has on the Public Defender

• It makes the Public Defender a "Public Defender" and not a politically indebted appointee

• It makes the Public Defender equal to the District Attorney

Accountability:

The second action in this initiative is to review the general operations and structure of the Public Defender in order to make it more efficient, more effective, and more responsive to the citizens of the community which it is called upon to serve, particularly in light of the mandates of this initiative. The Public Defender's Office operates on a model created in the 1960's and has never undergone a thorough examination for efficiency and effectiveness and concerning delivery of services to the community. The audit and/or resource evaluation called upon in the initiative is designed to move the  office structure out of the 60's and into the 21^st century.

• The Public Defender must keep time accounting records for services performed (as is done in private industry).

• The first audit of the Public Defender's Office must be completed 180 days before the election of the first Public Defender. 

• There will be an audit of the Public Defender's Office every four years. 

Someone for You:

• Should there be someone you can turn to when City Hall, or government generally picks on you, the citizen, even if it is not a criminal matter?

• The government uses your tax dollars to persecute you.  Why shouldn't you be entitled to use your tax dollars to fight back? 

• Why should only poor criminal defendants get the benefits but you, the citizen who pays the bill, be entitled to nothing?

• Shouldn't there be someone who has the courage to take action when constitutional and other significant freedoms are being violated?
  
  

• It takes only ONE government civil or criminal prosecution for you to lose everything.  Everything.  Your possessions.  Your friends.  Your life as you know it now.  Even your family.  And this can happen so easily now with the new Anti-terrorist laws. You buy insurance to protect your home and valuables.  Doesn't it make sense to have insurance to protect the hard-earned fruits of your life's labors, and relationships?    

• The Public Defender family income ceiling is @$25,000. Yet, a family whose income in Silicon Valley is a hundred thousand per year or less realistically cannot afford an attorney. 
  

• Should there be an elected official who acts as a champion for our freedom, who tells you the other side of the story?

• Should there be someone who will take action when the state (and behemoth corporations) perpetrates injustice against its citizens? 

• Should the District Attorney and governmental agencies generally be held accountable for meritless prosecutions?

• Should there be someone who is an advocate for jurors and the historical and current importance of our jury system?  

• Should juries which sit on three strike cases be able to recommend the appropriate sentence if a defendant has been found guilty?

• Should there be someone who will educate you about the law and about your constitutional rights and freedoms?  Someone who will make the Constitution come to life for you?

45,000 Signatures:

We are requesting your help in gathering signatures for an initiative requiring that the Public Defender of Santa Clara County be an elected position.

I want to emphasize that your support of this initiative is critical. Without your help, this endeavor will fail. We are specifically turning to individuals such as you for support.

If you have any doubt as to the inherent merit of this proposal, please read former Public Defender Sheldon Portman's letter.

In order to get the initiative on the ballot, 45,000 signatures will be required. In reality this means 60,000 signatures, to insure against invalid signatures. There is a six month period in which to gather these signatures. The signature gathering clock began to run on [date to be determined]. The time for gathering signatures will expire in the beginning of [date to be determined].

Each of the persons who sign the petition must currently be a registered voter in the County of Santa Clara, otherwise, the signatures will be invalid. Additionally, any person who circulates the petition must also be a registered voter in the County of Santa Clara. The circulator must also complete the circulator's affidavit at the bottom of the petition. If the affidavit is not completed, the signatures will be rejected by the Registrar of Voters. The most effective means will be to gather signatures from family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

Your efforts, along with the efforts of others, will be the only means of assuring success in this undertaking. Unlike solicitations you may receive from Washington or Sacramento, YOU CAN & WILL MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE, in your local home county.

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