LAKEPORT — Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson said he has enjoyed his first weeks in office and that a smoother-than-anticipated transition has helped him remain focused on realizing some of his campaign goals come to fruition.
“It”s been very educational and challenging. I”m enjoying it quite a bit,” Anderson said nearly six weeks into his four-year term.
Anderson, who spent 15 years as a sheriff”s deputy in Lake County before practicing law locally for nearly 20 years, said the transition from defending to prosecuting hasn”t been difficult because he sees similarities between the law”s two sides. “You just want to do what is right and what is just,” he said.
The commitment and support of his inherited staff has helped his administration begin on a positive note. “I feel really good about it, the progress we”ve made. I”m getting a lot of help and cooperation from the staff and I have some very good staff here,” Anderson said.
Some staffing issues have arisen because of recent changes to the way local officers administer criminal subpoenas. Anderson said that for years the Lake County Sheriff”s Office has issued criminal subpoenas, a task that has now fallen onto the DA”s Office. “Unfortunately with our limited resources, it”s handicapping us very much,” he said.
While some staff members are delegated with the new subpoena-serving task, Anderson said he has spent much of his average 60-hour workweek educating himself on issues new to him, pertaining to his department.
In addition to reviewing office cases and reports, Anderson said he attends many meetings within his department, with outside agencies and with Lake County residents, the latter being an example of staying true to a campaign goal of openness in his administration.
Anderson said he has already begun implementing several of his “10 campaign promises,” a list of which he keeps framed in his office.
Maintaining an open door policy is on that list of promises and holding meetings with county residents is an example of that goal in action, Anderson said.
Anderson said he implemented another promise by introducing a sentence-bargaining program to the department. Because of the program, the department has been “clearing a lot of cases out” and “people are pleading to crimes, pleading guilty to crimes, when they normally would not,” Anderson said.
A combination of new policies, such as sentence bargaining, and readjusting old policies has helped Anderson fulfill another goal of saving taxpayer money, said Anderson, citing an example of a recently settled case involving 12 marijuana trimmers that he said saved county and state taxpayers several hundred-thousand dollars.
Four of the campaign promises are in their beginning stages, Anderson said. He is working with DA”s Office department heads to draft a Lake County District Attorney Policy and Procedure Manual. One section of that manual will formalize a second policy promise, regarding the exchange of discovery.
Anderson said he has received interest from residents who want to participate in another promise, a DA”s Office Citizens Advisory Committee, but that he hasn”t had the time to organize a first meeting.
The other work-in-progress promise could remain that way for his entire administration: getting the DA”s Office conviction rate consistently over 50 percent. “My goal is to get it over 80 and up to 90-percent conviction rate,” he said.
Anderson said there simply hasn”t been enough time to focus attention on his remaining three promises: opening another office in Clearlake, developing new diversion programs for some minor offenses (such as shoplifting) and creating a complaint procedure program that will be more responsive to the public.
Anderson said he planned on focusing on administrative issues during his first year in office while maintaining a lighter caseload “I don”t intend to try a tremendous amount of cases; it depends upon the workload here,” he said.
The DA did complete work on one high-profile case last week (the Justin Lazard lewd act case) and is currently working on another (Gerald Stanley”s death penalty case).
In the end, Anderson said the new position, with added responsibility and long workweeks, hasn”t affected the person he is in and out of the office.
“I”ve always kind of prided myself that when I was a deputy, went to an attorney and now District Attorney, I haven”t changed myself,” he said. “I am who I am.”
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
