In 1989, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office became the first office in California to successfully introduce D.N.A. "genetic fingerprinting" evidence in a criminal case.


 

Fiscal Year 2006/07 Budget

Ventura County Board of Supervisors

 

June 12, 2006

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Madame Chair, members of the Board, Mr. Johnston, good afternoon. I am District Attorney Greg Totten. As always, I want to thank Mr. Johnston and his staff for their assistance in this year's budget preparation process. In particular, I appreciate the CEO's support for funding above the Formula Based Entitlement and allowing us to retain two allocations to form a public integrity unit. Our study session materials and budget information in the budget book begins at page AJ-1.

 

This is the fifth time I have appeared before your Board as a part the annual budget study session. However, today is my first opportunity to make a budget presentation when Ventura County 's revenue figures and budget forecast actually looks more encouraging than discouraging. While I am mindful that the CEO is not recommending our policy items, I am also grateful for the changed budgetary outlook. For this reason, I am going to ask for your patience today because my remarks are longer than past budget presentations.

 

Recognizing your role as stewards of the county budget and my responsibility to request necessary public safety resources, this afternoon I want to provide you with an overview of last year's highlights and next year's challenges with the hope that you will seriously consider granting our policy items.

 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS FY 2005/2006

Overall Mission:

Effective prosecution of core criminal cases certainly stands as our most significant accomplishment last year. Despite significant resource challenges, we prosecuted nearly 25,000 adult criminal cases and still maintained an overall conviction rate of 91 percent. This success is a testament to the extraordinary dedication and ability of the men and women who serve in the District Attorney's Office. Virtually every employee, from the clerk opening files to deputy district attorneys prosecuting the cases you read about in the paper, carried a larger workload last year. But as I will discuss later, this is a trend that cannot continue.

 

Gang Injunction:

On June 1, 2005, the Superior Court made our civil gang injunction against the Colonia Chiques permanent. During 2005, we prosecuted 85 violations of the injunction by known gang members. Since the initial filing of the injunction, we continue to experience an 80 percent decline in gang-related assaults and a 33 percent reduction in Part One FBI crime (e.g., rape, robbery, and murder) within the 6.6 square mile safety zone. In fact, there have been no gang-related murders in the safety zone during the two years the injunction has been in place.

 

Real Estate Fraud Unit:

With your support, last October we established a specialized Real Estate Fraud Unit to investigate and prosecute the growing problem of Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud.

 

As of June 1, we already have more work than the assigned investigator and attorney can handle. We currently have 53 pending cases including 14 under investigation and 4 filed cases. Just this morning, we arrested two suspects on a fifth case that involves more than 30 separate fraudulent real estate transactions and losses in excess of $3 million.

 

Victim Services:

Last year our victim advocates provided services to 6,771 individual victims. This represented a 20 percent increase over the 5,650 victims served in 2004. Of the individuals served, 3,623 or fully 53 percent were victims of domestic violence.

 

In 2003, we established the Family Violence Prevention Center to address domestic violence in a more comprehensive way. This program provides a wide range of services to domestic violence victims in a classroom program conducted twice each week that includes everything from restraining order assistance, to counseling and education on the cycle of violence.

 

Because of the classroom approach to serving victim's needs, we experience economies of scale. Last year, 2,048 domestic violence victims attended this program.

Safe Harbor:

With regard to Safe Harbor , I want to thank Supervisor Mikels for being a true champion of this wonderful program for child and adult sexual assault victims. We also appreciate your help in bringing victim services to the east county and will miss you. We now have Safe Harbor facilities in both Simi Valley and Ventura .

 

Relocation of Safe Harbor West:

Relocation of Safe Harbor West is one cost-savings measure I wanted to bring to your attention. With the support of Community Memorial Hospital, the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Ventura , we expect to move this program from an expensive office building location to a house located here in Ventura . The move will save us $6,000 per month and give us a more child-friendly facility with easy access for both crime victims and our partners in this program.

 

DNA Technology:

Last October, we finally received the federal Cold Case grant funds I mentioned at last year's budget hearing. With these monies, the Sheriff's Department and my office have put together a team of retired investigators and detectives to actively work on solving old murder cases using DNA technology. So far, 30 cases have been referred, 13 are actively under review, and one DNA profile has already been placed into the state database.

 

Our DNA federal legislation is now in the Senate where it has been amended into the "Child Protection Act" legislation carried by Wisconsin Congressman James Sensenbrenner. Congressman Elton Gallegly continues to push approval of this important funding scheme and we remain optimistic that it will be approved.

 

High Tech Task Force:

Computers continue to touch virtually every area of crime and last year our Regional High Tech Task Force was vital in addressing the trend of growing computer crime and the need for computer forensic analysis. The task force includes investigators from the District Attorney's Office, Sheriff's Department, local police departments, and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Last year the task force averaged more than 50 investigations a month and analyzed nearly 100 gigabytes of computer data. To put the latter figure in context, it equates to a stack of paper 2,860 feet high.

 

Thankfully, we receive state funding for facilities, training, and equipment. Local agencies bear the personnel costs and we anticipate the demands for resources in this arena to grow exponentially. To address these needs in the short term, we successfully sought additional funding from Ventura County cities to hire civilian forensic examiners.

The task force has also been very effective in going after those individuals who prey on children through the Internet. In fact, there are more child pornography referrals to the task force than any other computer crime.

In addition to aggressive investigation and prosecution of these cases, we have also worked with a software security company named Computer Cop to develop a CD for parents. The software can be used to scan any computer to identify inappropriate images or communications that indicate their child may be at risk.

 

CHALLENGES

 

We face a number of significant challenges during the next fiscal year.  

  • Scarce Human Resources that make it very difficult to provide the same level of services the public has come to expect.
  • Increased Workloads and Crime
  • Changing Crime
  • Gang Violence
  • Reduction of available funding for traditional prosecution responsibilities

Staffing Reductions:

As this chart reveals, over the last five years, the District Attorney's Office has experienced an overall 16 percent decline in staff allocations. This occurred at a time when county government as a whole only experienced only a 6 percent decline in allocations. So there is no mistake, both the District Attorney's Office and the Sheriff suffered a loss of position allocations over the last five years at a rate more than two times that of county government as a whole.

 

Similarly, the next chart shows that during this period we also suffered a 15 percent decline in attorney staff and a 17 percent decline in investigator staff. When it comes to Victim Advocates and our Support Staff, we have experienced corresponding decreases of 17 percent and 12 percent respectively.

 

Workload Increase:

Conversely, last year we filed 17 percent more felonies and 4 percent more misdemeanors than five years ago. I should point out that misdemeanor filings were even higher in 2004.

 

Compared to 2004, 2005 brought a marked increase in many key prosecution areas that tend to demand more resources because a higher percentage of the cases typically go to trial:

  • 28 percent increase in sexual assault cases (166 vs. 213)
  • 35 percent increase in domestic violence cases (1,034 vs. 1,396)
  • 122 percent increase in serious felony domestic violence cases (138 vs. 306)
  • 58.5 percent increase in gang cases. (118 vs. 187)
  • 25 percent increase in Elder Abuse Cases (49 vs. 62). Since 2003 the increase is 342 percent (14 vs. 63)
  • 22 percent decline in murder filings (18 vs. 14). While the reduction is certainly encouraging, it is not cause for celebration because Ventura County reported 34 homicides in both 2004 and 2005. Instead, the figure represents a lower homicide solve rate which may be explained, in part, by the inherent difficulty of solving gang homicides.

Crime Rate Comparisons:

There are trends in our crime rate, as compared to other jurisdictions, that I believe support my request for more resources to address workload and property crime issues.

 

Ventura County has always enjoyed the enviable status as a very safe community. While we continue to be one of the safest communities in the nation, due to increases in property crime and the emergence of a new FBI metropolitan jurisdiction, Logan , Utah , we are now the second safest metropolitan jurisdiction in the western United States.

The FBI and most states measure crime by crimes reported per 100,000 residents. Typically, these rates are broken down into violent and property crime. 2004 is the most recent year for which such figures are available. This chart reveals that the crime rate of Ventura County is very low when compared to the Nation, California, or the western United States.

 

As represented by the green bar, Ventura County has a violent crime rate of 237.2. The blue bar shows that Ventura County has property crime rate of 2427.2.  Similarly, Ventura County, when compared with any other metropolitan jurisdiction in California, has a lower property and violent crime rate.

The next chart presents a positive picture for Ventura County 's violent crime rate for 2002 to 2004.  Even though our violent crime is much lower than the state and nation, from 2002 to 2004 Ventura County 's violent crime still declined 9.4 percent while the rate for California declined by 11 percent and the national rate fell by 7.2 percent.

 

Unfortunately, the property crime comparisons are not nearly so rosy, and, in my judgment, they are cause for concern. Using the same representative lines, this chart shows that between 2002 and 2004 our property crime grew by 11.4 percent while the rate for California grew by only 3.9 percent and the national rate fell by 4.2 percent.

 

There are many explanations for this increase including Proposition 36 policy, fewer law enforcement officers, fewer prosecutor and jail resources, as well as changing demographics and the economy. Certainly, I believe a significant contributing factor involves the reduced ability of collective law enforcement to focus on the theft crimes that this figure reflects. When there are too few police officers on the streets thieves don't get caught; when there are too few prosecutors in the courtroom, property crimes receive less attention because of the press of more serious violent crime; and finally, when there is no bed space in the jail, criminals remain in the community to prey upon us.

I know I have thrown a lot of numbers at you, but I wanted to place our objectives and policy item requests in the context of the latest crime and workload figures.

 

STRATEGIES AND OBJECTIVES

 

Notwithstanding immense budget challenges, since 2002 we have ended every fiscal year with a fund balance while still maintaining high standards for criminal prosecution. This was not just the result of good fiscal management or our successful pursuit of alternative funding sources. In a much larger sense, it was because everyone in the office pulled together, made sacrifices and worked hard to achieve justice and protect our community.

 

However, there is a limit to the capacity of even extraordinary people to continue at this pace indefinitely. In particular, members of both our combined misdemeanor/felony and domestic violence units cannot continue carrying huge caseloads. Unless things improve, at a minimum two things will occur: crime will increase and we will not be able to retain some of our most promising young prosecutors, who out of frustration and fatigue, will leave to pursue more rewarding and less demanding work elsewhere.

 

Simply stated, we need your help in approving the very modest policy items that are before you today. I also want you to understand that these requests will enable us to deal with these challenges in the most cost effective way.

 

Here are some of the more important objectives we have for next year:

  • Vigilant response to the changing face of crime
  • Reduction of gang crime
  • Use of DNA technology to solve old homicide cases
  • Cost effective relocation of Safe Harbor in Ventura
  • Pursuit of other funding sources

 

I have already spoken about all but the first objective, and as you will note, our policy items focus principally on that first objective and the workload and property crime issues I described earlier.

 

Elder Abuse Investigator Request :

I am requesting an additional investigator allocation to address the growing impact of elder abuse.

 

Supervisor Parks put together a terrific program on elder abuse last year and the demographics of Ventura County was a prominent topic during this program. As these figures show, we have a very large and growing senior population. Because of their trusting nature and the fact that so much personal wealth is concentrated in people 65 and older, they are disproportionately victimized - particularly when it comes to property crimes. Property crimes against seniors run the gamut and investigating the transactions that often accompany such crimes requires painstaking attention to detail.

 

In the District Attorney's Office, we have seen this first hand for nearly a year. We have had one investigator working virtually full time piecing together the complex public guardian case. Beyond such high profile cases, we are routinely receiving investigative referrals from professionals and other agencies involving elder abuse. The investigator must also review mandated reports prepared by Adult Protective Services. Many of the reports generate additional investigation.

 

As I noted earlier, in just a two-year period our workload is up more than 300 percent.

 

We are also developing an Elder Abuse Rapid Response Team to ensure prompt response to reports of elder abuse crimes. The investigator would play a major role in this multidisciplinary effort to ensure these cases are quickly assessed. The addition of this investigator will directly impact our ability to promptly investigate property crimes against seniors.

 

Attorney Request for Identity Theft and Family Leave:

I am requesting two attorney positions to deal with both identity theft, increased workload and the impact of family leaves.

 

Every day, every major media outlet warns us with graphic examples about identity theft and its impact. No one in the popular media, the field of finance, or law enforcement can doubt that identity theft is "the crime" of the new millennium.

 

Countywide we are averaging more than 700 identity theft crime reports per year. If each of these reports were included in the FBI property crime figures, it would represent nearly 4 percent of the all property crimes for Ventura County .

 

The overwhelming majority of identity theft cases are never solved, but since 2003, we have prosecuted an average of 130 identity theft cases each year. Approximately 85 percent of these cases were felonies. These cases are not easy. They involve extensive records and documents and consume significantly more attorney time than average felony cases like assaults and robberies. If approved, one of the two requested attorneys would be assigned full time to prosecute identity theft cases and work directly with law enforcement to enhance our ability to address this insidious crime.

The second requested attorney position is necessary to provide a full-time, long-term backfill for attorneys on family leave. As an office, we have always prided ourselves on being family friendly. We have a job share that has been in place for years, we have approved several requests for part-time employment, and have always encouraged employees to take the full amount of authorized family leave for the birth of a child.

 

We think doing so is good for the employee, his or her family - and it's just the right thing to do. But it does have an impact on resources. During each of the last three years, approved family medical leave requests averaged 342.4 lost attorney workdays or the equivalent of 1.3 years of attorney work. Also, as you know, there is a cost savings when someone is on family leave that helps offset some of the cost for this position.

Paralegal Requests:

Finally, I am requesting four paralegal positions to directly address the workload issues I have discussed at length. Two years ago, as a stopgap measure, we started using paralegals to complete workup on routine misdemeanor cases as a means of reducing attorney caseloads.

While the safest plan would utilize attorneys for all case-related workup, so far, using paralegals has proven effective in allowing attorneys to focus their time and energy on cases that have more issues, need more attention, and are likely to involve significant courtroom hearings.

This practice has also proven to be cost effective because the salary and benefits cost of a top step paralegal is 58 percent less than that of a top step attorney III. So, being mindful of your CEO's desire to build reserves, we are requesting four paralegals as a continued stopgap effort to address workload issues. I cannot overemphasize the need for these positions.

CONCLUSION

For all these reasons, I am respectfully requesting your approval of our requested policy items. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.