League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA June 8, 2010 Election
	Dolores A. Carr Answers Questions Candidate for District Attorney; County of Santa Clara

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What experience and training would you bring to this office?

My career has spanned over 30 years in the criminal justice system as a career prosecutor, a supervising Judge of our Superior Court, and a lawyer in private practice.

As your District Attorney, I lead 488 employees and manage an $85 million budget. In addition to prosecuting over 45,000 cases a year--from gang violence to white-collar crime--the District Attorney's Office operates a state-of-the-art Crime Lab, creates and implements community outreach and other initiatives focused on preventing crime, and cooperates with other parties in the criminal justice system to ensure that laws are enforced vigorously but with respect for the rights of victims and defendants alike.

Many voters do not know that a District Attorney in a large county such as ours does not personally try cases to juries. There are 163 line prosecutors working in the District Attorney's Office who are responsible for bringing cases to court. The District Attorney is the top manager responsible for ensuring that prosecutors, paralegals, investigators, crime lab examiners, and clerical staff do their jobs effectively and ethically.

Thus, your District Attorney must be both a seasoned prosecutor and a skilled senior manager. During my 15 years as a career prosecutor in our District Attorney's Office, I led the elite Sexual Assault Unit. I was also the first Deputy District Attorney in California to specialize in prosecuting sex offenders who fail to register with local authorities. As a judge on our Superior Court, and then a Supervising Judge, I handled thousands of criminal and civil cases.

I also have substantial experience and a track record in managing government agencies and employees. For example, as the leader of the Government Attorneys Association for five years during my tenure as a career prosecutor, I learned key skills required for effective labor relations with a unionized workforce. This is a critical skill for the District Attorney because most of our employees are represented by government worker unions.

As the Supervising Judge for the Family Division, I created and managed budgets, led a team of judges and court staff, and created initiatives to help our community. One of those initiatives won an award for increasing access to justice for families.

Perhaps most important has been my experience as your District Attorney over the last three years, at a time when government budgets have been slashed. I requested the first management audit in the history of the District Attorney's Office to improve efficiency and accountability. I am proud to have been able to cut costs in these tough economic times without having to lay off any prosecutors.

The skills required to serve effectively as your District Attorney cannot be learned overnight. Preparing for the job requires decades of effort and service within the criminal justice community in a variety of senior leadership positions.

My experience and training are recognized by a wide range of senior law enforcement leaders and elected officials who endorse me, including Sheriff Laurie Smith, Santa Clara Police Chief Steve Lodge, former San Jose Police Chiefs Bill Lansdowne and Joe McNamara, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, and County Supervisors Don Gage, George Shirakawa, and David Cortese. Please see my website for a complete list of endorsements.

2. What changes do you think need to be made in the way this office operates?

I intend to continue the transformation of the Office I promised when I gave up my seat on the Superior Court bench to run for District Attorney in 2006.

Part of my platform was a promise to take a fresh look at office operations. I obtained the first-ever outside management audit of the office, which provided valuable insight into where to focus our efforts. I have had to cut $7.2 million from my budget since taking office, and currently face another $3 million reduction. It has been critical to focus on becoming more effective and efficient as we confront the worst recession in decades. I am proud to have achieved our budget goals without anyone losing their job.

I also invested in our people with the first ever organizational development and training for our top supervisors and executive managers. We focused on establishing clearer expectations and standards throughout the office, resulting in greater accountability from top to bottom. These achievements have been a key part of keeping my promise to require prosecutors to provide timely discovery, focus on justice and not simply convictions, and to understand the need to effectively and efficiently resolve cases effectively and efficiently.

3. Within the budget limitations, how would you prioritize the responsibilities of your office?

The key phrase is "within the budget limitations." With our dwindling county budget, our goal must be to maintain our level of service to the public within ever tighter fiscal restraints. You should therefore regard bold promises to create new units and programs with healthy skepticism--there is little or no money available to pay for them. Tough decisions on spending are not popular, but they are necessary to keep our community safe.

Indeed, because the most important job of the District Attorney is to preserve and strengthen public safety, fighting gang violence will remain my top priority. We will continue to rely on a combination of aggressive prosecution and prevention programs. I introduced the Parent Project to our County; this award winning program assists parents of at-risk teens in developing parenting skills to steer their children from joining gangs. I am also a very active member of the San Jose Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force. This is one reason why San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer support my candidacy.

We will also continue to concentrate on reducing white-collar crime. We will maintain our crackdown on mortgage fraud, which has resulted in record prison sentences for those who prey on the unsophisticated, including our seniors. My office sponsored the tougher mortgage fraud law enacted by the Legislature last year, and we will continue to pursue legislative reform in this area. Our newest effort, sending warning letters about foreclosure scam artists to families who have received notices of default, is an important innovation which we expect will further reduce mortgage fraud in our community.

Consumer and environmental protection remain a major focus for this office; I increased the staffing of those units during my first term. As part of that effort, we will continue to strengthen our partnership with the Attorney General and other counties to pursue con artists and polluters.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 22, 2010 21:18
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