Assistant DA Owen wins case for (most) budget adjustments
EL CENTRO — Imperial County Assistant District Attorney Deborah Owen took the Board of Supervisors to task Tuesday during a passionate augmentation appeal on her department’s budget.
She believes the initial denial not to recommend some of the budget requests were retaliatory in nature due to the DA’s office threatening to strike earlier this year.
She requested transferring five private investigators to the general fund, for which the High Intensity Drug Enforcement Agency would pick up 73 percent of the cost. The cost to the county for all five investigators would be $140,000.
“You are making choices,” Owen said in describing how many drugs and traffickers the Imperial County Narcotic Task Force has taken off the streets, including enough fentanyl to kill a million people.
“Right now, you would have to be living under a rock to not know the dangers of fentanyl,” she said. “If this is not funded, this goes away.”
She also wanted the board to reverse the recommendation not to fund promotions for the DA staff.
She said when an employee comes to work, that person signs up for the job, but when she hears some departments are given the OK to grant promotions to others but not theirs, it is arbitrary and a personal choice, she said, before reading them the definition of arbitrary.
She said the DA’s office does not give out promotions automatically, as those have to be earned, and she was surprised when her office was told no discretionary funding was available for the promotions.
“I feel like I am living in a Charles Dickens’ novel,” Owen said. “The only reasonable conclusion I have is it is retaliatory.”
She pointed out that the agreement that ended the department from striking included the elimination of a deputy district attorney and a law clerk in return for the addition of a level 5 assistant district attorney.
“That ($197,000) is enough to fund all of the under hires,” she said. “There is money there, but now you deny all the promotions for every district attorney.
“We trusted you when DA Gilbert Otero stood with you in this room,” she added. “He would have never given something up if he knew you were not going to stand by your word.”
She told the supervisors they should have lived up to their promise when they agreed to work with the DA and to find and fund the level 5 assistant district attorney.
Chairman Ryan Kelley disagreed with the accusation, and said he does not want anyone to think the board changed its position on honoring the agreement.
“It feels like you are taking it personally,” Owen said. “I know you think the people in our office are outspoken and feel comfortable talking to you.”
Last year, she said, the DA’s office had $844,000 in salary savings, which was more than $900,000 under budget.
Even with a reduced staff and salary savings being a reality, she said the staff gets the work done.
“Shouldn’t the savings be at our discretion and not yours?” she asked.
After meeting with the county administration late last week, the DA’s office realized $73,984 could be added in for workman’s compensation.
Kelley mentioned that when meeting with Otero earlier this year during the budget impasse on the level 5 assistant district attorney, the board was told by the DA he had only three employees available for this position.
Six months later, Kelley said, the DA’s office want to add another six, though Owen said six are eligible and three assistant DAs are leaving the office by the middle of next month.
“I know this board does not like to be questioned and especially questioned by me,” she said. “In this room you made promises and left it up to the DA, who is elected.”
Supervisor Ray Castillo said he would go against the administration’s recommendations because the promotions are merited. Supervisor Mike Kelley agreed, saying when he was a chief probation officer, he promoted under hires.
The supervisors voted to reverse the recommendations of the administration except the transfer of five DA investigators from special revenue to the general fund.