Chris Curtice, a sheriff's deputy who finished fifth in the five-person race for Fresno County sheriff on June 6 with just under 6% of the vote, has endorsed Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims in her runoff with Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain. Minor finished first with 37.4% of the vote, followed by Mims with 28%.
The question now is who will Sheriff's Captain Jose Flores, who received 15.1% of the vote, and Sheriff's Captain Colleen Mestas, who received 13.4% of the vote, support in the runoff?
Here's part of Curtice's statement that was issued today:
"Assistant Sheriff Mims is the best choice for the department and for Fresno County voters," Curtice said.
"The campaign process, getting to know the candidates, and debating with them proved to me that Margaret has a real grasp of the issues facing the department and offers the best choice to solve problems and address the issues that face the department," Curtice said.
"It is clear to me that the department requires the experience that Assistant Sheriff Mims has to offer," Curtice added. "She has worked for over two decades in the Fresno County Sheriff's Department and has worked under three different sheriffs."
I hope that Captain Jose Flores and Captain Colleen Mestas will support Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims in the runoff for the simple fact they know she has the department's best interest at heart, wanting only to see it succeed.
After the 2 forums on KSEE 24 and KFSN 30 it was evident that the deputy sheriff candidates were all for continued education and assistance in the school or preventative programs. Asst. Sheriff Mims also has the knowledge of the personnel and capabilities of the divisions.
Supporting her in the November runoff will create a currently needed unity amongst the deputies and county residents. Flores, Mestas, and Curtice were all for her suggestion of an advisory committee to be put in place, so to communicate with the public's regarding concerns and future needs.
It would be a solid and constructive move to have these former candidates and their supporters to come together, for Assistant Sheriff Mims on November 7th.
Well I see that Mr Curtice is endorsing Mims and that's fine, Curtice doesn't have a good grasp of what's really going on at that department. You know for a guy who is in good health and stated he would have no problem coming back to work I still haven't seen him at work. Oh that's right Richard Pierce MD won't let him come back. What a joke! Curtice go to Sheriff's Personnel, get your medical retirement, and go sing me a song. I still am amazed by how Curtice stated that through the use of COPPS he cleaned up Calwa. Have any of you people driven through there lately? There are 2 and 3 shots fired calls a night and crystal meth is rampant. Oh yes and he cleaned up Friant, don't let me forget. He was assigned to work a very small area of the L51 Beat. This small area was Friant, which included the trailers east and west of Friant along with the business. You could drive this entire area in 30 minutes. This is an isolated situation where COPPS had an impact, but this is only because of a high density of population in a small area. It saddens me that candidates like Mims and former candidate Curtice are wanting to work on prevention and to enhance COPPS when the current field deputies can't handle the calls for service in a timely manner. The public doesn't know it, but the quantity and quality of public safety services in the county are in sharp decline. Not to mention that deputies are working over 500 overtime shifts a month just to maintain minimal public safety services. The administration needs to wake up and realize that the current way they are attempting to implement COPPS is not working and will not work. It seems that we are the only sheriff's department in the state who focuses so heavily on COPPS, yet we are the 4th largest county in square miles. COPPS was designed for small police departments and small cities. It won't effectively work if you can't drive your beat in a 10 hour shift without any calls for service. COPPS might work in small cities like Reedley, Madera, and Kerman. Not in the County of Fresno because COPPS is about making contact with the community and getting to know their problems, if you can't make it to the areas where these people live on a regular basis how are you supposed to identify and find out their problems. Secondly the sheriff's dept is the only sheriff's dept in the state to utilize the PTO program. It is being utilized by the sheriff's dept because it fits with COPPS, but once again how come the other 51 counties that have sheriff's depts aren't utilizing it. The answer because it is not design to effectively work in large county areas where large areas are covered and population centers are spread over these areas. OH yes I have heard Mims say what a success it is in San Diego. Once again she is comparing apples to oranges. The City of San Diego is smaller geographically than Area 2. San Diego has a high density of population in this area. Not to mention because of this high density of population they have ten times as many cops working the geographical area that is about the size of Area 2(Clovis to Chateau Fresno and American to Herndon). The bottom line is if you don't have enough deputies to fill beats even when you have 500 overtime shifts you have a serious problem. Even when beats are filled on Overtime those deputies are usually not familiar with the beat and what the concerns of the citizens are. Lastly, you can send deputies to all these meetings, but if you don't have the ability to fill or staff that beat what good is it to know what those peoples problems are. Wake up VOTERS the current Administartion is living in fantasy land thinking this COPPS stuff will work. If you can't effectively implement COPPS how is it supposed to be effective and reduce crime. Instead it is wasting a whole lot of time and tax payer money. It's time for a change VOTE for CAL MINOR, HE'S SOMEONE WHO WILL MAKE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.
RE: "for a guy who is in good health and stated he would have no problem coming back to work I still haven't seen him at work"
Curtice has been cleared and is going back to work the first part of July.
RE: "how Curtice stated that through the use of COPPS he cleaned up Calwa"
Curtice stated he helped in the clean up of Calwa. Never said that it was a done deal. It was a lot better after the fact with that kind of character and dedication patrolling the streets. There will be a criminal element to be dealt with for some time, but I for one feel safer going through that neighborhood amongst others.
As to the other comments made; Given that the first basic group of Johnny's comments were incorrect, I don't want to have to go through and correct the rest. I'd prefer to focus on how the plans HAVE worked, making it a more constructive, positive statement.
This county is a diverse area that will take a lot of different handling in many areas. Some of the programs have only begun, and others have been utilized in the state and other areas of the country, for some time. It takes time for any one plan to show effect.
No one will go into that position of Sheriff and wave a wand fixing everything. It took a long time to get this way and with some positive, preventive programs, communication with the citizens, and an assessment of divisions redundancies, it all can change direction for the better.
Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims is the only candidate that seems to want to do just that. There is a lot of good about the Department and she's well aware of how to utilize that for the betterment of all concerned. It will be good to see how things go through the summer and more so am anxious to see the debates and forums come September and October!
Chris, shame on you. You told me that you entered this race because change is needed. I couldn't agree with you more. How could you possibly endorse Mims??
We both know that she will be status quo and NOTHING will change! We are desperate for positive change and strong leadership. Mims offers neither. Chris, you're still my brother, but shame on you for selling out.
This is from the Minor blog but everyone should read, again all facts and I would be than happy to meet anyone with the documents to prove it. PLUS, this happening everyday now and getting worse now that summer is here. Too bad Chris choose Mims. I am sure he has his reasons but he also cannot lie about the facts, please read below.
Rita, Rita. still going on from your other defeat (of your beloved candidate) lets talk some facts that the public is not aware of while you enjoyed your beverages on the 4th of July.
FACT: On 7/4/06, there were 4 DEPUTIES in the Fresno metro area (this includes Fig Garden, Sunnyside, Fraint, Malaga, Calwa, River Bluffs, Downtown Fresno). FOUR Rita covering some 1500 square miles. Normally calls for service that are holding are about 5 to 7. There were 21 calls holding at one point. Some of those call of the highest priority (P1) including a burglary in progress (your home is burglarized while your in it) a Stalker (a man was stalking an ex girlfriend and told her he was coming to kill her and he did go). It was not until the graveyard deputies were logged on that those calls were handled..hope you have a gun if you live in the county, the deputies aren't coming, they taking care of inmates and handling calls at the jail
FACT: All firework calls and shot fired calls were told to be placed on hold. In other words the deputies did not respond, so if you called 911 about someone firing off a gun next to you on the 4th, we couldn't go. Why? Because there were 4 deputies.
FACT: There were 11 inmates at the University Medical center and there were 12 Deputies at UMC. Asst. Sheriff Mims helped create and put this unit in place (SDU). She boasts that she helped reduce the overtime at the jail. FACT of the matter is she gave it to the deputies who cost more! She just shifted the overtime from one budget to the next!
FACT: There were 5 jail battery calls at our jail. The deputy that covers Malaga, Calwa, Sunnyside all the way to Belmont and Academy was unavailable. Capt Jones (Mims' sidekick and cronie) helped create this problem as well. FACT is the deputies have taken over 800 calls at the jail in the last year for fights and illegal alcohol (pruno) and only 11 have been filed and prosecuted. All because Capt. Jones wants to hold inmates accountable. Uh excuse me...isn't that the correctional officers job who already do a great job? The county wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars by duplicating its efforts and deputies write a report and correctional officers write a report about the same thing! AND the deputies can't even see those reports because they're in a different computer program!
FACT: No one from the administration cares, so the public needs to start asking questions about why this happening and why Asst. Sheriffs Hollis and Mim's are allowing this?
Those of you who live in those comminutes I encourage you to call the area two substation at 559-292-1132 and ask Lt Hernandez why he allowed the administration to let you down on the 4th.
These are not made up, these are facts and you as the community have a right to know what is going with your tax dollars. Rita all I gotta say is call that substation, please and come on a ride along and see what the real working people of the department are doing and ask them how they feel, I challenge you to do that. Maybe then you'll realize why the deputies are endorsing Mr. Minor. They want change, they want an administration that cares and why now more than ever we need to revamp our entire second floor. Frank.
P.S. This only covers area 2, there are 3 other areas that were also depleted of their deputies because they too were guarding inmates, that's another story, which will be posted here, and those facts as well.
Well hello all some more news from the political arena. This week Sheriff Pierce adopted Cal Minor's plan! At the Fresno County Board of Supervisors meetings this week Pierce had a hard time with several of the board of supervisors and it got kinda nasty. At the end Pierce proposed changes that were straight from Cal Minors campaign flyers and from the first meeting Cal had the Fresno Deputy Sheriff's Association. Read today's Fresno Bee section. Plus you can also watch the board of supervisors meetings on the public channel.
FACTS: Pierce is pulling the deputies from the jail and the hospital and redeploying them to patrol. (that's about 30 deputies) WOW! They finally listened (the 2nd floor) they will hire correction officers at half the Deputies rate to watch inmates again. They are going to put these deputies on the street to respond to your calls and beef up certain detective units in bad need of more bodies (property detectives, identity theft detectives, ag crimes detectives)
FACT: Pierce is pulling the cops from schools program for the meantime until he can fill it or have a CSO fill it. A lot of bad rumors came from this, let me clear them up. Mainly for you Rita, pay attention. A Deputy and CSO (community service officer) dress the same except form the gun and other law enforcement equipment on their belts. A Deputy and CSO get the same training when it comes to teaching schools and ESSP programs. Okay here is where it is different..... A Deputy comes to your house when you call 911, a Deputy, goes into your house when there someone standing over you trying to kill you, a Deputy does his job when he is on the street not in a class behind the desk. The CSO can do the same thing and the kids will not know, period.
FACT: After Cal came up with a plan to combat metal thefts and how they are affecting the farmers and the Ag community; the department came up with its own version of Cal's idea, " Operation Heavy Metal." They adopted his strategy, his ideas, his philosophy of making sure everyone is held accountable (including our own 2nd floor) and most of all the department finally did some thing! After Cal came up with these ideas of course.
Why these changes folks? Because Both Cal Minor and the Deputies have been educating the public about how bad been things are working for the FSO. The FSO administration is finally realizing that the Deputies were right. They have heard the Deputies complaining about the LOW LOW moral problems, the millions of dollars it costs the citizens..YOU...to pay the Deputies to guard inmates and most of all that events like the above 4th of July fiasco means you do not get a deputy at your house because there are none of them available!
A lot of these changes are going to take time top make the changes but looks like they are going to happen. Just remember it is was CAL MINOR who came up with the ideas, he came to the real working people and asked them for their input and together they came up with Cal's plan that now the administration has adopted. I also know for a FACT that some members of the 2nd floor (the administration) called and thanked Cal Minor for his ideas because that's where they came up with these changes.