American Legion hosts officer of the year awards

The first Wednesday in March was Officers of the Year Awards Night at the American Legion. The menu is always corned beef and cabbage with tiny potatoes and carrots. All the tables are decorated with green centerpieces.

District Attorney Investigator of the Year is Rhiannon Grotke, who had a hand in helping solve a cold case from 1979.

Investigators from El Dorado County developed probable cause to arrest (Harold W.) Carpenter for murder and traveled to Spokane, Wash. to assist police in the arrest.

The identity of the victim was made when a forensic pathologist from California State University, Chico, exhumed the body of the unidentified woman in 2015 and detectives placed photos of her jewelry in a newspaper, which family members identified.

DNA from the victim matched family members and she was identified as Patricia Carnahan.

DNA from the rape kit on the victim, found beaten and strangled in Tahoma in 1979, matched that of Harold Carpenter, who Washington authorities found to be a match for a 1994 rape.

Carpenter is being held without bond in Spokane and extradition proceedings are under way.

District Attorney Vern Pierson praised Grotke for her ability to interview children — either as victims or witnesses — without re-traumatizing them.

While the sheriff was away at a meeting of the state association of sheriffs, Capt. Mathew Foxworthy did a good job standing in for him, praising deputy Colby Earl as having “a fantastic reputation at the Sheriff’s Office and overwhelmingly supervisors praise deputy Earl.”

Earl is also a veteran of the U.S. Army.

Earl thanked the American Legion. “This award reflects all of us,” he said.

Cmdr. Rick Hatfield of the Placerville California Highway Patrol office presented the Officer of the Year award to CHP Officer Jarvis

Opp. Hatfield thanked the American Legion and noted that his office covers the area from El Dorado Hills to Strawberry and to the Amador County line. “A lot of people don’t want to do this job. I consider myself fortunate to be here.”

Hatfield said Opp previously served in Santa Cruz and the Central Valley.

“Everybody wants to be here. We have lost three cars in the snow.” He noted that Jarvis got hit by a car in the snow over near Georgetown. Opp, who has as been in the Placerville office more than five years, said he was honored to receive this award. “We really feel the love here.” He also thanked his wife of 17 years, Jody, and his five “beautiful kids.”

Phillip Wassner was selected as Police Officer of the Year. Unfortunately, neither he nor the police chief were in attendance.

I have contacted the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Police Department to be included next year in our awards dinner. Tribal police have a large department.

I’d like to thank all the Legion Post 119 members who showed up to support our officers of the year. And thanks to the sheriff’s Explorer Scouts who served and bussed dinners and then put away tables and chairs. Also thank you to Delores Wadsworth for taking tickets and offering such a thoughtful prayer. The Scouts also trooped the colors for our Pledge of Allegiance. What a great bunch of youth.

This year the plaques included each agency’s insignia as well as the Legion logo.

Michael Raffety is a retired editor of the Mountain Democrat and commander of American Legion Post 119.

Coupal Continued from A4 purposes of the act. Defenders of SB 1439 will argue that the removal of the exemption for agencies whose members are elected by voters is indeed consistent with the overall purposes of the act.

But how can it be “consistent” with the original Political Reform Act when that law specifically exempted elected officials from this provision?

Moreover, courts are skeptical of arguments that legislative amendments to the PRA “further its purposes.” The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association won such a lawsuit in 2019. That dispute began in 2016 when the Legislature passed, and the governor signed, Senate Bill 1107, which purported to amend a part of the PRA that expressly prohibited public funding of political campaigns.

SB 1107 attempted to reverse the ban by permitting public funding of political campaigns under certain circumstances. Because SB 1107 was so clearly contrary to the letter and spirit of the Act, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association challenged the 2016 law as an improper legislative amendment of a voter initiative. Taxpayers prevailed in both the trial court and the Court of Appeals.

In addition to the questionable legality of SB 1439, taxpayers have reason to be concerned that the law tilts the playing field by allowing some power players to continue to engage in “pay to play.”

SB 1439 is limited to situations “involving a license, permit or other entitlement for use,” applying to “business, professional, trade and land use” as well as “all contracts” and “all franchises.” By far the biggest “pay to play” problem in California involves public sector labor unions shoveling boatloads of cash to their preferred candidates.

Leaving no doubt labor organizations have special protection from this law, SB 1439 defines “license, permit or other entitlement for use” to include “all contracts,” but then specifically excludes union contracts with the phrase, “other than competitively bid, labor, or personal employment contracts.”

Finally, adding insult to injury, lawmakers made sure to exempt themselves from the provisions of SB 1439, defining “agency” to “not include the courts or any agency in the judicial branch of government, the Legislature, the Board of Equalization, or constitutional officers.”

Examples of California politicians protecting those who protect them are too many to list. Regrettably SB 1439 is just the latest example.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Letters

Continued from A4 acorns. Look on the ground where a tree nicknamed “Canyon Live oak” might live — on Forni Road between Main Street and Excalibar Road, its feet dug into the bank on the uphill side or where Route 193 leaves Route 49 opposite the Cottonwood Apartments for the only close-by parking.

Crime Log

The following was taken from El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office records: feb. 26

12:42 a.m. Battery was reported on Red Hawk Parkway in Placerville.

1:20 a.m. Deputies booked into jail a 37-year-old man who had a felony warrant on Coach Lane in Placerville. He was listed in custody in lieu of $20,000 bail.

10 a.m. Deputies booked into jail a 55-year-old man suspected of a felony parole violation on Highway 50 at Red hawk Parkway in Placerville. He was listed in custody.

10:51 a.m. Battery was reported at an apartment complex on Market Court in Shingle Springs.

5:05 p.m. Deputies booked into jail a 29-year-old man suspected of a felony probation violation on La Paz Road in Placerville. He was listed in custody.

5:40 p.m. Assault with a deadly weapon was reported on Debbie Lane in Placerville. feb. 27

12:46 a.m. Deputies booked into jail a 48-year-old woman suspected of driving on a suspended license due to a DUI on Red Hawk Parkway in Placerville. She was listed in custody in lieu of $25,000 bail.

12:39 p.m. Battery was reported on Highland Hills Drive in El Dorado Hills.

12:46 p.m. Deputies booked into jail a 42-year-old man suspected of felony probation violation on Faith Lane in Placerville. He was listed in custody. 1:41 p.m. Vandalism was reported on

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