Tentative Ruling In Taxpayers' Favor!

On February 9, 2009, the Superior Court issued a tentative ruling that the City's use of Measure Y funds to recruit and hire non-Measure Y officers was not legal, and that the City would have to refund Measure Y. The Court also ruled that the City had failed to conduct the mandatory audits.

A full hearing was held on February 11, 2009. Judge Frank Roesch did not seem inclined to change his tentative ruling on the main issues. In addition, he seemed to indicate that he was inclined to interpret the language of Measure Y to mean that the City could not spend Measure Y money for any training at all, not even academy training for Measure Y officers, because the measure only contemplated training for "community policing techniques." I argued that the Court should at least grant declaratory relief on the remaining issues, including the City's practice of assigning MY officers to duties outside of their beats, requiring the hiring of 63 MY officers, and staffing at 802 officers. The Court took the matter under submission. A final ruling is expected in the near future.