Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "us department of justice"

Sacramento gets $19.4 million from feds to rehire peace officers

2011-09-30T01:37:48Z

Sacramento city and county were awarded a total of $19.4 million in federal funding grants Wednesday – enough to put 25 police officers and 25 sheriff’s deputies back to work for the next three years.

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program is a competitive grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice that provides funding to state and local law enforcement agencies to hire, rehire, or retain police officers.

This year, 2,712 law enforcement agencies requesting more than $2 billion to fund the hiring of 8,999 officers were considered for COPS Hiring Program funding, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Selection for awards was based on an applicant agency’s overall need for federal assistance, local crime rates, current commitment to community policing and their proposed community policing plan.

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department received an award of $11,306,450 – the largest single award in the nation under the COPS program this year.

The Sacramento Police Department received $8.1 million in grant funds. It is the largest COPS grant the city has received in the three years that Sacramento has been selected for an award, and was the third highest COPS grant awarded in the nation this year.

Each grant provides funding for the salaries and benefits of officer positions for three years, with the requirement that agencies maintain the positions for one additional year at the end of the grant funding period.

The Sheriff’s Department grant will fill 25 deputy positions, department spokesman Jason Ramos said Wednesday. Those deputies will be assigned to a new youth and gang violence unit in Sacramento county.

Sheriff Scott Jones said in a press release Wednesday that his department plans to take a “comprehensive approach” to combating youth and gang violence by expanding enforcement efforts of gang unit detectives, adding a school component with school resource officers and partnering with youth-focused community organizations.

“It feels like Christmas in September,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a press release Wednesday, referring to the $8.1 million grant award to the Sacramento Police Department.

Huge budget cuts to the police department forced the city to lay off 46 sworn officers in July. The new COPS grant will allow the city to rehire 25 of those officers.

Representatives for the police department and the Sacramento Police Officers Association could not be reached for comment.

"We had to watch officers turn their badges in for the first time in our city's history,” Johnson said. “Now we have an opportunity to pin those badges back on our officers and get them back on the street."

Johnson declared the award “a big win” for Sacramento and emphasized that public safety must continue to be the top priority for the city.

Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) called the grants “wonderful news” for Sacramento residents in a statement released Thursday.

“This federal funding will strengthen our community’s law enforcement’s ability to keep us safe, and ensure that budgetary shortfalls do not eliminate these critical positions,” Matsui said.

Only 238 of the 2,712 grant requests were ultimately funded – roughly 9 percent of the total number of applications – for a total of $243,398,709 in grants, funding 1,021 officer positions nationwide.

In all, the Sacramento region – including $19.4 million for Sacramento city and county and a $2.58 million award for Placer county – was awarded the largest combined dollar amount in the nation.

Grant funds will be available to the Sacramento Police Department after the City Council formally accepts the grant at the next council meeting.

The Sheriff’s Department grant is expected to receive formal acceptance by the County Board of Supervisors in early October.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Layoffs of 35 city cops avoided

2011-06-15T05:37:18Z

Thirty-five police jobs were saved from proposed layoffs after the Sacramento Police Department received a waiver on a federal grant that funds officer positions, spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong confirmed late Tuesday night.

The number of proposed layoffs in the 2011/2012 budget for Sacramento police officers has dropped from 81 to 46.

The City Council will vote next week on proposed budget cuts that include layoffs of cops and other Police Department staffers. Council members were weighing whether to lay off 81 police officers, but the grant waiver means they will decide whether to lay off 46 officers. The council will also choose whether to lay off 68 civilian police department staffers – those proposed cuts were not affected by the federal grant waiver.

The city is facing a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

"This grant exemption is a positive in an otherwise difficult budget year,” Police Chief Rick Braziel wrote in a Tuesday night press statement. “We are thankful for the quick approval of this grant exemption, which would not have been possible without the efforts of Bernard Melekian from the Department of Justice, the support of Congresswoman Doris Matsui and the hard work of our police staff.”

Meanwhile, Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka told the City Council at a Tuesday night budget hearing that she had no update on any labor concessions from city unions. Despite the standstill, “staff continues to have an open door” to negotiations with city unions, she said.

In addition, the city could still negotiate with the unions for possible concessions after the budget is approved, Masuoka said.

While Councilman Darrell Fong, a retired police captain, has said he intends to vote for the police cuts, he announced at Tuesday’s council meeting that he would redirect his City Council salary for the 2011/2012 fiscal year to the Police Department’s budget.

The base pay for Sacramento City Council members is $60,800 annually.

“I’m hopeful as we continue between now and next week to keep having discussions and hope to get to a better place,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said at the meeting.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Senior Legal Hotline reopens phonelines statewide

2011-04-08T22:44:00Z

Mickey Rooney recently brought media attention to the issue of elder abuse in his testimony to Congress on March 2, and it’s an issue the Sacramento-based Senior Legal Hotline (SLH) can now offer help with across the state. Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women, the SLH is able to reopen its phone lines statewide in regards to issues involving domestic violence.

David Mandel has been with the SLH for more than 16 years and highlighted the problems seen with the loss of funding. The organization is continually searching various databases looking for any possible donors and grants, but has had little success. Mandel said there is currently nothing available.

At its peak about five or six years ago, the SLH was getting about $250,000, mainly from the federal and state governments. It was serving more than 10,000 cases per year during that time, but with major budget cuts, that funding is completely gone.

The total caseload has decreased to 3,581, with 2,041 cases belonging to Sacramento County seniors.

“If we had a stable $500,000 from the federal or state governments, or even a combination, we could really serve any California senior who wanted to call.”

Despite the losses in funding, the SLH continues to do what it can to help senior citizens, especially in Sacramento County, where the program is allowed more services because it originated here and continues its work from here.

Mandel said that in Sacramento, the hotline continues to aspire to not limit the types of cases it takes on. But with limited funding and the growing complicated nature of cases, the number of people the staff is able to help has been greatly reduced.

Douglas Myers, 64, who lives in Rancho Cordova, was having trouble tracking down his pension from a company he worked for that went out of business. He found an SLH flier at the Cordova Senior Center and called to see if they could help recover his pension. They were able to locate it for him and he can now collect on it for the rest of his life.

Another elderly woman said she felt like she was being taken advantage of by a company who she called to inspect her heating system.

Sacramento resident Grace Coan, 86, said she couldn’t figure out why the heater in her home wasn’t working.

“I wasn’t getting enough heat in my home and called a company to come in to see why,” Coan said. “When the first person came over, they just said, ‘You’re just not getting enough heat. It doesn’t work.’ ”

The proposed solution was to install a new gas heating system, which would cost her $9,000. However, after speaking with a neighbor, she found out the problem centered around replacing a battery in the thermostat and turning on the water heater.

The neighbor then helped Coan contact Mandel at SLH, who was able to cancel the contract within the three-day statutory limit, avoiding the unnecessary $9,000 heater. He also was able to get Coan reimbursed for the initial inspection fee, since the company provided no explanation in regard to why it chose not to inform Coan about the thermostat and water heater.

Mandel mentioned that he was able to meet Mickey Rooney last week on March 31, 2011 in San Francisco during a lunch meeting for the Elder Financial Protection Network Organization. Rooney was there speaking about and raising awareness of the plight of the elderly. Mandel said he thought it was great that there is now a media spotlight on the issue and added that he hoped it would really get people thinking.

“If Mickey Rooney can be abused, imagine the thousands of people who we never hear about who are taken advantage of by their family, caregivers, businesses and even strangers,” Mandel said. “Even if you have money and are famous, you can fall victim to such abuse. Now imagine if you don’t. Who can you turn to?”

While, the SLH cannot represent callers in court cases, it does provide certain mediation services, as it did with Elizabeth “Betty” Burt, 83, a resident of Elk Grove and client of the SLH for more than 12 years. The Area 4 Agency on Aging was how she heard about SLH’s services.

Burt said that the SLH has been a resource for a number of problems, including car accidents and issues relating to her mortgage.

Sherri Newman, a staff attorney and coordinator of the organization’s Domestic Violence Project, said that the SLH tries to offer a holistic approach when helping seniors.

“For example, if the person, as a result of the domestic violence, loses their job, we are able to offer advice and counsel over the phone about their legal rights in the given situation,” Newman said.

The SLH was formed in 1991, when the Area 4 Agency on Aging recognized how effective a legal company in Sacramento was at specifying representation for local seniors. Because there was available funding at the time, the agency created the Senior Legal Hotline (SLH) to be a program of Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC).

At the moment, the grants are helping the SLH stay afloat, but the company is looking to lay off almost half the current staff. Furthermore, Mandel noted that the grants they currently receive are very specific and, consequently, there is a lack of flexibility in services. He said that as a result, they spend most of their time turning people away because don’t qualify for the specifics.

With funds low and the specific and complicated nature of their cases, the organization is always looking for trained attorneys or paralegals willing to make a significant ongoing commitment. If you are interested in extending a hand, check the website for volunteer and donation information.

Sacramento Senior Legal Hotline is located at 444 N. Third St., Suite 312. They can also be reached at (800) 222-1753 or online at www.seniorlegalhotline.org.