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Sonoma County District Attorney:
Efforts to Meet the Changing Needs of the County

Call to Order

President Mike launched directly into the meeting...and suggested that Ken Dansie should follow up on Father’s Day for Terry’s Mother’s Day Rotary Multi-Moment...

Bill Fisher

Rotary Moment:

Terry Galazzo (Ode to Mothers…lengthy)

President Elect Louie Capuano announced that he would be having meetings to plan his year. The first was right after this meeting today…

Ginny Pitts, having a cold, announced that Monday, May 19th is the Crab Feed Appreciation Party at her home; it starts at about 4 PM (but YOU can show up at 3). Everyone tried to stay away from Ginny’s cold (SARs?). Ginny asked for emails from those who will be present so that she can get a headcount for the caterer. We are dark for our regular meeting that day.

We will also be dark for the following Monday, for Memorial Day; two Mondays in a row.

Gail Johnson introduced visiting Rotarians. (All of the above happening in President Mike’s usual lively style prior to Gail stepping up!)

PDG Mike Merrill rose to take a bit of abuse from Lame Duck Mike. President Mike wanted to know what our club’s most recent PDG was up to these days. He does fly planes, matter of fact, he just purchased one! He talked about the fact that he doesn’t deal with “Big Planes”. He talked about efforts to get an airline into the Sonoma County Airport. President Mike thanked our PDG for doing his part. PDG Mike then stated that his lovely wife Maureen’s goal is for him not to die with money in his pocket. He also suggested that Pete Lamonica should kick in some money to the Foundation, to which President Mike pointed out that Pete and his “table mates” are covering the costs of Ginny’s Crab Feed celebration.

Paula Wrenn was called upon, with President Mike stating that he could not find much to get her on. So he congratulated her on her house purchase in Cloverdale; her birthday, anniversary, etc., $45 for all of this recognition.

Next we did guests of Rotarians, who were mostly Inner Wheel members today.

Jack Bill was called upon and President Mike stated the he (Jack) was missed last week. President Mike then asked how many people in the room went to the Kentucky Derby. Only Jack raised his hand. Jack said that he loved the Derby. His horse came in second. He had bet “Win, Place or Show”. The odds weren’t too good, according to Jack, but he had a good time. He also visited his 90-year old mother. He mentioned that he is from that geographic area. President Mike stated that if Jack would do his Craft Talk we would all know he’s from Kentucky. $25 for being the only member who regularly goes to the Derby.

Chris Rosell who coincidentally was handling the cash today, came up to the podium to give away more money.

Dennis Simpson from Piner High School received a donation from the Club for a new Grand Piano. Our donation covers about 40%, $2,000.

Ann Palmer, Teddy Sipe and Sandy Harris came to the podium for Inner Wheel. Ann talked about the history of Inner Wheel. She also spoke a bit about the activities of Inner Wheel. This donation from our club will go to the YWCA for children. Chris presented the Inner Wheel Club a check for $3,000.

Andy Skrypka, was present, representing the Ukrainian diabetes project. Andy is the wife of, Volodymyr Skrypka. She is leaving in two weeks to go to the Ukraine. Other teams will arrive while they are there. They are working through the Rotary Club of Kiev. $6,000.

Anne Abrams came to the podium for the Child Development Center. She talked about activities of the Center and the good that it does. $2,500.

Raffle:

President Mike asked our guest speaker to draw tickets for the Raffle….

940675: Held by a guest who lost…

940728: For the bottle of wine, won by our guest speaker, Steven Pasalaqua, who asked that it be auctioned off with the proceeds to go to Inner Wheel. No action on this by President Mike at this time.

Program:

Paula Wrenn rose to introduce our guest speaker, the new District Attorney, Steven Pasalaqua. Elected in March 2002. He is trying to deal with the increase in population and the resultant increase in crime. There has been a dramatic increase in gang related crime; there are over 3,500 gang members in Santa Rosa. Identity theft is another area of increased risk.

The DA’s office now has an official homicide unit. This is new to the DA’s office. Mr. Pasalaqua discussed the makeup of this unit and expertise that has been brought into it.

He has enhanced the interaction between his office and law enforcement so that there is better interaction from the earliest stages of any investigation.

Mr. Pasalaqua talked about various individuals who are working with his office. These include past judges, and active attorneys in the area. PDG Mike Merrill is one of the attorneys working with him.

The changes and accomplishments are lengthy. Mr. Pasalaqua is definitely attempting to make significant changes in the DA’s office. One of the key elements is crime prevention. Prosecutors are going into middle schools to attempt to educate the young people on the consequences of crime. So far his office has met over 4,000 students.

The budget for the DA’s office will decrease by $1.4M. This will have a serious impact on the effectiveness of the office, and will have a ripple effect on public safety. He is concerned about the effect on public safety. He discussed several crimes that have occurred in recent months. There were rather garish descriptions which dramatically drove home the risk to the society for the failure of government to properly manage itself. (The last sentence is an editorial…not stated directly by Pasalaqua but by the Bulletin Reporter).

Following this statement, Mr. Pasalaqua accepted questions from the audience.

DARK NEXT TWO WEEKS, AS NOTED ABOVE

Your Bulletin Reporter: Bob Harris		Your Editor: Jim Valinoti

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Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.

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