Men’s Club: May 2018 News

Compliments to Jack Christiansen, who oversees six great teams that cook and serve fantastic breakfasts at 8:00 a.m. on our Tuesday meeting days.
At our most recent meeting, Bob Borland reminded us that we thought growing old would take longer. He then updated us on the Men’s Club Scholarship Program – 15 outstanding candidates—and on the August 9 Delmar racetrack trip.
Through the good offices of (and a brilliant plea bargain by) Rick Erkeneff, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackaukas came to speak at our April 3 meeting. Elected and re-elected four times, Rackaukas leads a staff of 820, including 260 attorneys and 175 investigators.
With a mission of criminal and civil enforcement of state law, including consumer protection and opioid litigation, they process 60,000 criminal cases per year, including 10,000 felonies, and achieve a greater than 70% conviction rate. This high conviction rate demonstrates prosecuting cases they expect to win with a burden of proof of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It depends on completing good investigative/police work making cases ready for trial.
A high priority of the DA’s office is to reduce the influence and activities of gangs by using teams that stay with a case from beginning to conviction. The four prongs of the gang attack have been prosecution of gang violence, gathering gang intelligence, obtaining gang injunctions, and GRIP—gang intervention reduction partnership with schools. Providing a role model function has helped reduce the number of gangs by more than half.
Rackaukas reminded us that crime hits us in all shapes and varieties. For example, a current scam involves last minute changes to wire transfer instructions with mortgage financings transferring your funds to the crook’s account. Other items being watched are sober living homes, which he feels need more regulation, and crime related to drug addiction and the homeless problem.
On April 17, another of our informative meetings brought Councilwoman Debra Lewis, former mayor of Dana Point, and a retired attorney, to speak on the nuts and bolts of districts and at-large elections. Briefly, the California Voting Rights Act, enacted in 2001, allows special interest attorneys to challenge any governmental body with at-large elections, asserting that Dana Point has racially polarized elections, depriving minorities of fair representation. Although CVRA grants 45- and 90-day safe harbor periods, City Hall cut short the initial 45-day period by 30 days, causing the current rush Dana Point faces to fight or concede.
Currently we have “at-large” districts with a mayor elected from them by a majority of the City Council members.
The options under consideration are do nothing, elect five council members by five districts, or elect a mayor atlarge and four members by district.
The problem then becomes district boundaries. Most of the proposed boundaries split Niguel Shores (and Monarch Beach) into multiple districts. Proposed districts are evaluated based upon 2010 census reports and must have approximately equal population, be nondiscriminatory on race, keep communities who share interests together, be contiguous and compact and follow boundaries like rivers and roads. The districting decisions will be made by a majority of City Council (3 votes) before May 21, 2018.
The discussion among most members who have thought about it finds that Niguel Shores and Monarch Beach are common interest communities that should be kept together.
■ STAY INFORMED
■ GET INVOLVED, and
■ VOICE YOUR OPINION.
On the Men’s Club agenda for May 1 is a presentation by David Hosmer, an attorney mediator. May 15 is our Mother’s Day appreciation breakfast. We invite all ladies with connection to the Men’s Club, past or present, to attend this special event. Author Alan Hess will speak on Orange County landmark preservation.
—Robert Saint-Aubin