SACRAMENTO POLICE DEPARTMENT News Release
		Release #11- 02 November 1, 2000 For Immediate Release
						Media Office 916-264-5124  Lt.  Steve Campas                 Staff:  La Vetta Coleman  Internet: www.sacpd.org

November 1, 2000
 
 

RELEASE DATE: Immediately

CONTACTS: Samuel L. Jackson, City Attorney 264-5346
     Robin Shakely, Special Assistant Deputy District Attorney, 874-7865

The Mayor and the Sacramento City Council, the District Attorney and the City Attorney are working together to change the way criminal prosecution of nuisance problems will be handled within the City of Sacramento commencing in February 2000.  “I am pleased that we will be joining forces with the District Attorney to make a significant improvement in the quality of life in our neighborhoods.  We have added resources to the City Attorney’s Office to provide an important new tool for cleaning up our neighborhoods,” said Council Member Steve Cohn.  The District Attorney will transfer to the City Attorney responsibility for general City code criminal prosecutions.  This will free up the District Attorney’s Misdemeanor Unit to devote more time to prosecuting other misdemeanors which also affect the quality of life in neighborhoods and the community.   “With the assistance of some of my colleagues on the Council, I have been working toward a solution of this nature for sometime now.  It’s long overdue,” said Cohn.

District Attorney Jan Scully noted, “I am pleased that the City Council and the City Attorney will be working with me to make our neighborhoods safer and more livable.  Combining our efforts in this manner will increase our effectiveness.  I applaud the City Council for devoting additional resources to this important effort.”

In lending his full support to the plan, City Manager Robert P. Thomas said,  “A few years ago, we presented to the Council a 10-year plan for improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods.  In that plan, we pledged to work toward having nuisance free neighborhoods by 2008.  This is another step toward speeding up the process for achieving that goal.”

The plan also includes the deployment of a community prosecutor to the City should the District Attorney obtain federal grant funding.  Council Member Dave Jones, who led the Council in supporting the District Attorney’s application for community prosecutor funding, said he is looking forward to the anticipated improvement in quality of life in our neighborhoods.  “Nuisance violations are of growing concern in our neighborhoods and are increasingly being brought to the Council’s attention.  We hope these changes will bring some positive relief in a reasonable period of time,” said  Jones.

Each of the four City of Sacramento Neighborhood Area Directors will be hosting a public meeting at which the City Attorney will discuss this plan and what it means for neighborhoods.  The dates, times and locations of these meetings are as follows: Area 1, 11/30/00, Clunie Clubhouse, 601 Alhambra Blvd., Auditorium, 6:30 until 8:30 pm; Area 2, 11/20/00, Pannell-Meadowview Center, 2450 Meadowview Road, 7:00 until 9:00 pm; Area 3, 11/08/00, 5200 Stockton Blvd., 6:00 until 8:30 pm; Area 4, 11/13/00, Robertson Community Center, 3525 Norwood Avenue, 7:00 until 8:30 pm.