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RIBCO
Articles of Interest
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2006-07-13
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Prison Watchdog Talks Tough on Governor, Guard's Union |
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Senator says Hagar 'has more guts than any public official in California'
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Demanding sworn testimony in open court is the only way to cut through lies from the governor's office and the prison guards' union, a prison-reform watchdog said Wednesday.
John Hagar, the special master appointed by a federal judge to clean up California's prison management, spoke scathingly of both entities during a three-hour hearing at the federal courthouse.
Inappropriate coziness between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and at least two of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top aides — cabinet secretary Fred Aguiar and chief of staff Susan Kennedy, both appointed in December — has undermined years of reform efforts, he contends.
Hagar said Aguiar has lied to him about the resignations of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation secretaries Roderick Hickman and Jeanne Woodford in February and April, respectively. Both resigned due to their disgust over the CCPOA's resurgent influence, Hagar said, including the union thwarting the governor's appointment of a key contract negotiator.
This simply isn't so, the CCPOA and the governor's office replied Wednesday.
Schwarzenegger Legal Affairs Secretary Andrea Lynn Hoch said Aguiar's and Kennedy's hirings and the governor's "inclusive style" of consulting the CCPOA don't diminish his commitment to reform, but rather are efforts "to find common ground in order to achieve his goals and vision."
Nobody has lied, Hoch contended, and absent any hard evidence of a retreat from reform, there's no need for the evidentiary hearing Hagar wants Henderson to order. CCPOA attorney Gregg Adam, however, said the union is eager to publicly refute Hagar's claims.
"We would welcome truthful testimony," Adam said. "We have nothing to hide in this process... You've got to get both sides of the story, that's the bottom line."
Hagar in June issued a 39-page draft report blasting the governor's office and the union; his final report to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, updated with recently filed briefs and input from Wednesday's hearing, will include his request for a hearing at which he can compel testimony under oath.
If that hearing leads him to conclude reform truly has been derailed, he'll then ask Henderson to take broader control of CDCR.
Henderson's 1995 appointment of Hagar stemmed from a lawsuit over Pelican Bay State Prison guards' abusive behavior, avoidance of discipline and code of silence. As it became clear that Pelican Bay's problems owed to the prisons' central management, Hagar's mandate widened to the whole CDCR.
Hagar said Wednesday that even if current acting CDCR Secretary James Tilton in time proves to be wholly dedicated to reform, Hickman's and Woodford's abrupt departures are cause for concern now.
"People have quit because they felt their ethics were being compromised," he said, adding it's "hard for me to believe" the CCPOA hasn't wielded undue influence via Aguiar and Kennedy.
Hagar said the CCPOA thwarted the appointment of Tim Virga — a former CCPOA chapter president now working for the state Department of Personnel Administration — as CDCR's assistant secretary for labor relations. Further, he believes this is why Woodford quit, and he said it was "flat-out false" for Aguiar to tell him she quit for family reasons.
Hoch contended "no one has veto power over the appointment process" — the call on Virga was the governor's, not the CCPOA's.
Hagar also said he believes Aguiar "perjured himself" in describing conversations between himself and Hickman before the latter's resignation.
Hickman was in the audience Wednesday. During a recess, he told reporters he quit after the "clearly transparent" process he had set up for dealing with the CCPOA seemed to be slipping away. With two years on the job providing him enough perspective to predict the future, he realized "it was going to become more and more tenuous for me to proceed," he said. "People had begun to be influenced by the political process."
Asked later about his conversation with Aguiar, Hickman said he'll say nothing until Hagar has him testify under oath.
Hagar also said CCPOA officials have reinforced the code of silence among prison guards; failed to properly report vacation time to CDCR; and worked to intimidate CDCR officials and others who stand in their way.
"It seems to be part of the way you do business that if you keep lying about something, you believe it's going to become true," he said. "You're protecting your members to such a degree that it's hard to get the work done... To some extent, I believe the crisis on California prisons is on your shoulders."
After the hearing, CCPOA governmental affairs chief Lance Corcoran denied Hagar's accusations, and derided his "stove-top hats and pencil-thin mustaches" imagery of back-room bargaining with the governor's office. "It's so simplistic that it's laughable."
State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who through the Senate Select Committee on Government Oversight launched hearings into the CDCR and CCPOA, was in the audience Wednesday and said Hagar "has more guts than any public official in California. This hearing could never have taken place in the state Legislature because there's so much politics involved."
Also observing the hearing was Robert Sillen, the receiver Henderson appointed in a separate lawsuit to oversee reform of the prison health-care system. Though the cases are separate, Hagar also now serves as Sillen's chief of staff.
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