Joe Cortez: A Vision for a New Era of Public Safety Accountability

by Joe Cortez, Candidate for San Luis Obispo County Sheriff

Despite the continuing bad news about the economy and the challenges facing the sheriff's department I am extremely excited about the opportunity to serve as your sheriff. Why Because I have a proven track record of success during my 15 years as a chief of police of creating high performing organizations and turning around agencies suffering from a lack of public trust, poor morale, and rifts between management and line employees. I know I can get the job done and bring positive change quickly and decisively.

I believe the sheriff is the people's law enforcement representative. It is my intention to be visible and accessible in our communities, and most importantly, accountable to you. I also know the problems concerning the folks in Nipomo are much different than the needs of other communities such as Los Osos and Templeton. I want to provide a customized policing plan for each community based upon their stated needs. I will have community interest groups in place throughout the county so my staff and I can hear your concerns first hand and work with you for lasting change.

I am committed to putting you first and making sure we provide sufficient staffing in our patrol division to ensure we can get a deputy to you in a timely manner in your time of need during an emergency.

As your sheriff I will be dedicated to providing leadership that is trustworthy, respectful, ethical, unbiased and in-touch with these recessionary times. Beginning with the sheriff, all members of the organization will be held accountable to serve with honesty, integrity, respect, and professionalism.

I will run smart, tight budgets and ensure we live within our means. Just as I brought each one of the annual budgets I managed as a police chief in under budget, I pledge to do the same as your sheriff. I have a proven 15-year track record of success in finishing the year under budget, and returning over $1 million back to the cities' general funds as well. I will always be mindful of my role to be a good steward of the taxpayers' money.

Please join me in creating a new era of accountability and trust. Go to my website for more information about my platform and vision.

Chief Joe Cortez is a 30-year law enforcement veteran who has risen to the top ranks and served 15 years as a chief of police.

In 2007 Chief Cortez led the Pismo Beach Police Department to achievement of the prestigious national law enforcement accreditation. In doing so, Pismo Beach became just the 5th municipal police department in the state, and only department in our county, to earn such distinguished recognition.

Joe and his wife Kathy are both Viet Nam-era veterans and own a retail store in Pismo Beach. They have two sons, who have also followed their father's footsteps into law enforcement.

Mark Adams: Reducing Cost and Waste, Not Personnel

By Deputy Mark Adams, Candidate for SLO Sheriff

I have been a member of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department for 22 years and a citizen of this county since 1964. As a Deputy Sheriff, I have worked in Investigations, Civil and Patrol Division. This has given me a unique perspective on many of the issues the Sheriff’s Department faces today. With the current financial crisis, it is important the Sheriff’s Department budget be reviewed line-by-line in order to spot waste and develop new cost saving programs. This can only be done with the input of Sheriff’s Department personal and you, the citizen. Reducing waste and cost instead of cutting personal is the answer and allows us to continue our programs that benefit you, the citizen.

As a Patrol Deputy in the North County, I assist citizens with solving problems both personal and within their neighborhood on a daily basis. Having worked the Coast, South and North Substations I know each area has its own unique personality and problems. The priority to solve these problems will be based on input from the citizens and deputies of each area. As your Sheriff, my Command Staff and I will continue to meet with community leaders and the citizens to forge programs to solve current problems and identify others that may occur in the future.

Here are some of my goals:

1. Separate the training budget from the general fund. This will be a “regenerating fund”. Within one year, we will no longer require funding for training from the County.
2. Replace the majority of our jail transportation vans with vans that run off LNG. A gallon of gas cost approximately $3.05. A gallon of LGN cost approximately $1.86.
3. Explore and implement a paperless system within the areas of operation in the Sheriff’s Department that would be beneficial and practical.
4. Explore and implement the use of solar power throughout the Sheriff’s Department. Our annual electricity bill is approximately $439,000.00.
5. Add an online reporting form on the Sheriff’s Department website. This would allow citizens to report non-criminal matters and certain misdemeanor crimes allowing deputies to remain on proactive patrol.
6. Expand the use of our Explorer program allowing our Explorers to handled non-criminal matters. This frees up Deputies to remain on patrol. It also provides the Explorer an opportunity to use and hone skills they will need in their Law Enforcement career.
7. Begin planning for a new Property Building and adding an additional officer. The current Property Office is too small for our Sheriff’s Department. In 2008, the property office handled 149,000 pieces of property. It destroyed 72,767. In 2009, it handled 106,000 pieces of property. The exact total number of pieces of property being held is unknown; it is estimated between 300,000 to 600,000 per the Property Officers.
8. Issue concealed weapons permits to citizens of this county who request and meet the requirements.

For more information on my goals and my bio, please visit my website.

Ian Parkinson: Priorities for SLO Sheriff

by Ian Parkinson, Candidate for SLO Sheriff

As the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff I plan to develop trust and fiscal responsibility within the department. My vision for the department has been shaped by my extensive work in the community as well as my career in local law enforcement. As your Sheriff I will provide a fresh perspective that includes transparency in the department, increased use of technology and volunteerism. I will work with the community and other law enforcement agencies to assure that San Luis Obispo County is safe from gangs, drugs, alcohol, violence, and crime, as well as implement thoughtful environmental stewardship.

As Sheriff my top priorities will be:

Improve Department Transparency and Impartiality

The people of San Luis Obispo County have the right to fair, impartial and professional treatment from the Sheriff’s Department. As Sheriff I will appoint a professional standards supervisor to audit all areas of the department’s operation, which will provide transparency and accountability.

Fiscal Responsibility

As Sheriff I will use taxpayers’ money cost-effectively by locating new grant opportunities, finding creative ways of improving services, making use of technology to become more efficient, and working with other agencies in the County to form partnerships, reduce redundancy and ultimately improve service.

Reduce Violence

We must obtain additional funding for the Gang Task Force through available state and federal law enforcement grants and programs. As Sheriff I will call upon all local law enforcement agencies, including police departments, probation, parole and corrections, in order to combat the problem together.

Improve Our Children's Welfare

As Sheriff I will restore Meagan's Law investigators furloughed due to state budget cuts, maintain the Department’s excellent record of tracking and identifying the location of registered sex offenders in the County, and the prevention of repeat crimes by these offenders. I will also continue to partner with Alcoholic Beverage Control to reduce availability of alcohol to minors and to make minors aware of the negative effects of alcohol through increased education.

Promote Volunteerism

As Sheriff I will continue to support the outstanding work of the Sheriff's Advisory Board, Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team, Senior Active Volunteer Program, Sheriff’s Posse, and Aero Squadron, while encouraging others to join in keeping the County safe and prosperous.

Ian Parkinson has served as a law enforcement officer in San Luis Obispo County for over twenty-five years. He has steadily risen through the ranks working virtually every assignment available, including major crime investigator, training officer, traffic officer, lead defensive tactics instructor, narcotics investigator, Field Supervisor, Administrative Sergeant and has served as a Captain since 2005.

Ian is also an associate faculty member at Allan Hancock College where he has taught traffic accident investigation and currently teaches leadership development for active duty police officers.

Ian has been married to his wife Amy for 22 years. They have two children, Alec (18) and Cole (15).

Ian's candidacy website can be found here.

Business, Policy and Reform Impacted by Scott Brown Victory

by Ralph Weber, CLU, REBC

Paso Robles, California – January 22, 2010. While stocks prices slipped Wednesday for many healthcare companies, one new business has a bright outlook. MediBid – The Marketplace for Medicine – believes that Brown’s victory in Massachusetts reflects an underlying demand to let free-market principles drive the change in healthcare. In a statement on his website, newly elected United States Senator Scott Philip Brown wrote, “I support strengthening the existing private market system with policies that will drive down costs…”

“When the state of Massachusetts elected Republican Scott Brown to the United States Senate, it sent a message that, political leanings aside, the people don’t want a government-run healthcare plan that was put together behind closed doors,” said Ralph Weber, MediBid founder and CEO.

“What otherwise would have been partisan politics turned into a referendum for change,” continued Weber. “Not the ‘change’ that politicians bandy about, but real solutions that result in a healthcare system that works.”

Reformers talk about allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines, MediBid allows Americans to buy medical care across state lines. When you allow doctors to set their own rates rather than a third party, you get a more competitive environment.

“The truth is that most American problems are cured by the people, not the government,” says Ralph Weber, MediBid founder and CEO. “Heavy bureaucracy interferes with the practice of medicine. This is bad for patients, doctors and the American economy.”

A privately held Delaware corporation, MediBid sees a tremendous opportunity from increased focus on the free-market principles it supports.

“The people want choice, transparency, privacy and quality in healthcare,” said Weber. “These values are the foundation of MediBid.”

“MediBid was designed to create an environment where free-market principles could work uninhibited by politics,” continued Weber. “MediBid provides free access to medical care with transparency in cost. The result: healthcare the way it was meant to be.”

Launched on January 1, 2010, the company has already seen a flurry of activity from patients seeking bids from medical practitioners from finding a new family physician to knee replacement surgery.

About Ralph Weber

Ralph Weber is a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, and Registered Employee Benefits Consultant who has contributed health reform policy for politicians including Rudy Giuliani and Mike Villines. Mr. Weber has designed health plans and insurance products both in Canada and the United States and owns a TPA (Third Party Administrator) that administers self-funded health plans in the US and Canada.

Born in Canada, Mr. Weber also lived in Germany, Thailand and Nepal. He immigrated to the United States in 2005 because he was no longer willing to allow his family members to be victimized by the Canadian socialized health care system.

Mr. Weber has given dozens of radio and television interviews about healthcare reform. He has participated in three forums at the California Republican party, one of them with Presidential hopeful, Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Weber was a featured presenter at the Million Dollar Round Table on Critical Insurance and has had 15 articles published on health reform, critical illness insurance, and Medicare administrative costs. Having analyzed relative profitability of various third party payers, Mr. Weber has helped many physicians to adapt their practices to become “free market clinics.”

About MediBid

MediBid.com is an interactive marketplace that empowers cash paying patients to seek medical care from doctors, hospitals, and facilities locally and around the world. MediBid's founders share an unrelenting drive to change the status quo in the field of healthcare financing. Patients who use MediBid's uncompromisingly unique, highly secure, needs-matching technology can acquire the best cost-to-value services anywhere.

Keeping SLO Gang-Free

by Commander Ben Hall

I am a 35-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, starting as a correctional officer in 1975, moving on to become a Deputy, Sergeant, Assistant Jail Commander, Civil Commander, and currently Patrol Commander. I have run the South County Substation in Oceano, and the Coast Substation. I’ve supervised the county jail complex and the courthouse security detail, and headed up the department headquarters, which includes dispatch, crime prevention, detectives, special problems unit, and the DARE program in our schools. I’ve done it all and seen it all, so to speak.

Over the years, I have worked to resolve prison overcrowding issues, navigated essential reforms of the Department’s relationship with the court system and the District Attorney’s Family Support Division, improved court security, developed new training policies and procedures, and worked with community leaders and officials at the local and state level to address crime issues in many of our neighborhoods.

70% of all our crimes are drug or alcohol-related and we can see just two hours north of us how a city (Salinas) has been turned into a virtual war zone by criminal street gangs. How many of us want to wait to see a crisis like that develop in our county?

The gang issue is a complex one. Much of it is related to drugs and drug money, meaning the issue of illegal narcotics is closely associated with stopping the growth of gangs. I am convinced if we can shrink the demand for drugs (especially starting in the schools), the supply will diminish as well. This will help reduce gang activity in and of itself. If this means random drug testing of our high school students and athletes, then we need to do it. Testing has proved to reduce drug usage in other areas.

If we need to make use of gang injunctions to stop gang members from gathering and associating, then we need to do it. Such injunctions have been successful in other areas. And, we can’t forget that it all starts at home. We have to build stronger families with more involved parents, stricter parental supervision, and, especially for our Latino families, build an economy that raises their standard of living so that they have more time to spend with their children and so that their children see hope and a future in studying hard, working hard, and staying away from gangs which often serve as a substitute family for these economically-deprived kids.

For more information about my candidacy for Sheriff, please visit my website here.